Sense of Congress on defense alliance and partnership with South Korea

It is the sense of Congress that the Secretary of Defense should continue efforts that strengthen United States defense alliances and partnerships in the Indo-Pacific region so as to further the comparative advantage of the United States in strategic competition with the People’s Republic of China, including by— (1) reinforcing the United States alliance with South Korea; (2) maintaining the presence of approximately 28,500 members of the United States Armed Forces deployed to South Korea; (3) enhancing mutual defense base cooperation; and (4) affirming the United States extended deterrence commitment using the full range of United States defense capabilities, consistent with the Mutual Defense Treaty Between the United States and the Republic of Korea, signed at Washington, October 1, 1953, in support of the shared objective of a peaceful and stable Korean Peninsula.