U.S.-JAPAN JOINT STATEMENT ON ASIA-PACIFIC FUTURE

FROM:  THE WHITE HOUSE 

U.S.-Japan Joint Statement: The United States and Japan: Shaping the Future of the Asia-Pacific and Beyond

The relationship between the United States of America and Japan is founded on mutual trust, a common vision for a rules-based international order, a shared commitment to upholding democratic values and promoting open markets, and deep cultural and people-to-people ties. The U.S.-Japan Alliance is the cornerstone for regional peace and security as well as a platform for global cooperation.  The U.S. rebalance to the Asia-Pacific and Japan’s policy of “Proactive Contribution to Peace” based on the principle of international cooperation both contribute to the Alliance playing a leading role in ensuring a peaceful and prosperous Asia-Pacific.  

Close U.S.-Japan cooperation is essential in managing and responding to long-standing and emerging threats and challenges in Asia and around the world.  Recent events underscore the importance of coordinated action to uphold regional and global rules and norms.  At the March 25 Trilateral Summit in The Hague, the leaders of the United States, Japan, and the Republic of Korea urged North Korea to take concrete actions to meet its international obligations on nuclear and missile issues and to address, without delay, humanitarian concerns, including the abductions issue.  In concert with our G-7 partners, the United States and Japan have condemned Russia over its illegal attempt to annex Crimea and are consulting closely on further measures against Russia over its deplorable conduct, while strongly urging Russia to deescalate tensions in Ukraine.  Together, we are taking concrete steps to support Ukraine’s sovereignty, territorial integrity, and economic stability.  The United States and Japan are working collaboratively to resolve the Iranian nuclear issue, support Middle East peace efforts, contribute to Afghan reconstruction, and improve the situation in Syria, including through the disposal of its chemical stockpiles.  The United States and Japan recognize that China can play an important role in addressing all of these challenges, and both countries reaffirm their interest in building a productive and constructive relationship with China. 

The United States and Japan, as maritime nations with global trade networks that depend on open seas, underscore the importance of maintaining a maritime order based upon respect for international law, including the freedom of navigation and overflight.  The United States and Japan share strong concern over recent actions that have raised tensions in the East China Sea and South China Sea, such as the uncoordinated declaration of an Air Defense Identification Zone in the East China Sea.  Our two countries oppose any attempt to assert territorial or maritime claims through the use of intimidation, coercion or force.  The United States and Japan urge the establishment of confidence-building measures among governments and militaries in the region to address these tensions.  In the South China Sea, we call on countries concerned to clarify the basis of their maritime claims in accordance with international law.  We support efforts for the early establishment of an effective Code of Conduct as a way to reduce the risk of an unintended incident.  The United States and Japan fully support the use of diplomatic and legal means, including international arbitration, to settle maritime disputes in the South China Sea. 

Given the common security challenges our two countries face, the United States and Japan are strengthening and modernizing our security alliance as directed by the Security Consultative Committee, including through the revision of the Guidelines for U.S.-Japan Defense Cooperation.  The United States has deployed its most advanced military assets to Japan and provides all necessary capabilities to meet its commitments under the U.S.-Japan Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security.  These commitments extend to all the territories under the administration of Japan, including the Senkaku Islands.  In that context, the United States opposes any unilateral action that seeks to undermine Japan’s administration of the Senkaku Islands. The United States appreciates Japan’s establishment of a National Security Council and creation of a legal framework for information security that will facilitate enhanced policy and intelligence coordination between the two countries.  The United States welcomes and supports Japan’s consideration of the matter of exercising the right of collective self-defense.  The United States and Japan reaffirmed the importance of the U.S. extended deterrence to maintain regional security.  The United States and Japan are also making sustained progress towards realizing a geographically distributed, operationally resilient and politically sustainable U.S. force posture in the Asia Pacific, including the development of Guam as a strategic hub.  The early relocation of Futenma Marine Corps Air Station to Camp Schwab and consolidation of bases in Okinawa will ensure a long-term sustainable presence for U.S. forces.  In this context, we reaffirm our commitment to reducing the impact of U.S. forces on Okinawa. 

The United States and Japan also coordinate closely in multilateral financial and economic fora to advance trade liberalization and promote economic growth.  Our joint efforts are grounded in support for an international economic system that is free, open, and transparent, and embraces innovation.  In order to further enhance economic growth, expand regional trade and investment, and strengthen the rules-based trading system, the United States and Japan are committed to taking the bold steps necessary to complete a high-standard, ambitious, comprehensive  Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement.  Today, we have identified a path forward on important bilateral TPP issues. This marks a key milestone in the TPP negotiations and will inject fresh momentum into the broader talks. We now call upon all TPP partners to move as soon as possible to take the necessary steps to conclude the agreement.  Even with this step forward, there is still much work to be done to conclude TPP.

We also support Japan’s Chairmanship in the OECD Ministerial Council Meeting on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of its accession to the OECD and support China’s hosting of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum and Australia’s hosting of the G20 this year.  We are working together in the APEC and the G20 on the promotion of the role of women, which is an important domestic and foreign policy priority for both countries.  Through the Equal Futures Partnership and upcoming events such as the White House Summit on Working Families and Japan’s international symposium on women’s empowerment, the two countries are committed to ensuring women’s full participation in society.  Furthermore, the United States and Japan continue to be world leaders in high-technology, where our collaboration is expanding the frontiers of robotics, space, and medical science. 

The United States and Japan view energy security as vital to prosperity and stability.  Both sides welcomed the prospect of U.S. LNG exports in the future since additional global supplies will benefit Japan and other strategic partners.  The United States welcomed Japan’s new Strategic Energy Plan, which includes global, peaceful and safe use of nuclear energy and acceleration of the introduction of renewable energy.  Both countries are working together to promote the development of clean energy, including by facilitating business cooperation and deepening civil nuclear cooperation.  These steps are part of a broader effort to address the urgent challenge of global climate change.  Both countries plan to put forward robust post-2020 nationally determined contributions, building on decisions taken at the 19^th Conference of the Parties (COP-19) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), in order to promote the adoption of a protocol, another legal instrument, or an agreed outcome with legal force under the UNFCCC applicable to all Parties at COP-21 in Paris in December 2015.  We will continue to work with other countries on complementary initiatives to encourage reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. 

The United States and Japan are committed to promoting peace, stability, and economic growth throughout the world, including in Africa.  Through our recently launched senior-level U.S.-Japan Development Dialogue, we are expanding our development cooperation in these areas.  Furthermore, the United States and Japan are continuing bilateral policy coordination to address other global challenges and promote our common agenda, such as women’s empowerment, human security, humanitarian assistance, disaster risk reduction, the post-2015 development agenda, global health, climate change, counter-terrorism and transnational organized crime, cyber policy, the goal of a world without nuclear weapons, nuclear security, and cooperation at the United Nations, including in peacekeeping.  The United States looks forward to a reformed UN Security Council that includes Japan as a permanent member.  Our two countries are continuing to cooperate in the field of disaster risk management based on the experience of the Great East Japan Earthquake. 

The United States and Japan renew our commitment to deepening diplomatic, economic, and security cooperation with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), recognizing the importance of ASEAN unity and centrality to regional security and prosperity.  We are coordinating closely to support ASEAN and its affiliated fora as its members seek to build a regional economic community and address trans-border challenges, including cybersecurity and cybercrime.  In this context, the two countries view the East Asia Summit as the premier political and security forum in the region.  We support the Asian Development Bank work to address the region’s infrastructure and connectivity needs.  The United States and Japan are collaborating to assist Southeast Asian littoral states in building maritime domain awareness and other capacities for maritime safety and security so that they can better enforce law, combat illicit trafficking and weapons proliferation, and protect marine resources.  The robust U.S. and Japanese civilian and military response to Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines demonstrated our ability to collectively assist the region in disaster relief and risk reduction. 

To achieve our shared objectives of promoting peace and economic prosperity in the Asia-Pacific and around the globe, the United States and Japan are strengthening trilateral cooperation with like-minded partners, including the Republic of Korea, Australia, and India. 

The United States and Japan reaffirm our long-standing and indispensable partnership in shaping the future of the Asia-Pacific and beyond through close cooperation and collaboration.

ANNEX:  Leaders Statement on U.S.-Japan Bilateral Exchanges

# # #

  ANNEX:  Leaders Statement on U.S.-Japan Bilateral Exchanges

 Broad people-to-people exchange between Japan and the United States has been a key pillar of our Alliance since its inception.  Close ties and shared values between the people of the United States and the people of Japan form the foundation of the global partnership between our nations.

To ensure the future strength of the U.S.-Japan relationship, the two governments share the goal, established by the U.S.-Japan Conference on Cultural and Educational Interchange (CULCON), of doubling two-way student exchange by the year 2020.

Recognizing that people-to-people exchange is an irreplaceable investment in the future of the Alliance, President Obama and Prime Minister Abe announced their intent to create a new bilateral exchange program that would enable Japanese youth to visit the United States, enhance their English language abilities, and develop professional skills through internship opportunities.  The leaders also intend to explore internship opportunities for U.S. youth in Japan.  

Furthermore, Japan is going to send 6,000 Japanese students to the United States in fiscal year 2014 through student exchange support programs, including public-private partnerships such as the TOBITATE! Young Ambassador Program, further contributing to reaching our shared goal established by CULCON.  Japan and the United States also plan to explore new avenues for exchange, including support for Japanese researchers and programs linking the next generation of Japanese and U.S. leaders and friends. 

The Japanese government’s program inviting Japanese-American leaders to Japan has promoted broad understanding and support for the U.S.-Japan Alliance.  Building on this successful effort, Japan intends to broaden the scope of this initiative in fiscal year 2014 to further deepen mutual understanding. 

The Japanese government’s ongoing KAKEHASHI Project, under which a total of 4,600 young Japanese and U.S. citizens are expected to visit each other’s countries in exchange programs, has made a significant contribution to fostering mutual understanding.  In addition, following the March 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake, the U.S. government and the U.S.-Japan Council launched the TOMODACHI Initiative, a path-breaking public-private partnership that engages the private sector in promoting U.S.-Japan youth exchange.  To date, with the support of over eighty U.S. and Japanese companies, organizations, and individuals, more than 2,300 Japanese and U.S. youth have participated in TOMODACHI exchange programs. 

These initiatives build on established programs, such as the binational Fulbright Program, which has benefited nearly 10,000 Japanese and U.S. students and scholars over more than 60 years; the Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) Program; the Student Exchange Support Program and the Japanese Government Scholarship provided by the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology; the National Science Foundation’s Summer Institutes in Japan, funded in cooperation with the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science; the Japan-U.S. Training Exchange Program for English Language Teachers (JUSTE); and the Mansfield Fellowship Program.  These programs have for years expanded and strengthened people-to-people connections between our countries. 

These government programs are complemented by the many non-governmental programs linking the people of our two countries, such as the Japan-America Societies, the U.S.-Japan Council, and the more than 400 sister-city and sister-state and prefecture relationships between Japan and the United States.  Such programs are indispensable, as are the dozens of academic associations, university linkages, and privately-funded exchanges, for example the Crown Prince Akihito Scholarship; the United States-Japan Bridging Foundation Scholarships, the Grew Bancroft Scholarship; and the Japan-America Student Conference, which celebrates its 80^th anniversary this year.  Japan and the United States aim to further encourage new and expanded non-governmental dialogues to bring together opinion leaders from both nations. 

Symbolizing the grassroots friendship uniting our nations, the U.S. government and a range of private sector partners have created the Friendship Blossoms Initiative, which is currently planting 3,000 American dogwood trees throughout Japan on behalf of the people of the United States, to reciprocate the City of Tokyo’s gift of 3,000 flowering cherry trees to Washington, DC in 1912.  The 1912 gift from Japan is celebrated each year during the National Cherry Blossom Festival, an iconic spring event in Washington, D.C. 

The President and Prime Minister welcomed the invigoration of exchanges between the U.S. Congress and the Diet of Japan, praising the work of the U.S.-Japan Caucus and the Congressional Study Group on Japan in the United States Congress, the Japan-U.S. Parliamentary Friendship League in the Diet of Japan, as well as the U.S.-Japan Legislative Exchange Program and the Japan-U.S. Senate Inter-parliamentary Conference.  Nearly 200 Diet Members visited the United States in fiscal year 2013, and the number of Members of Congress visiting Japan in 2013 more than doubled over the previous year and continues to increase in 2014. 

Finally, the United States and Japan note that millions of Japanese and U.S. citizens visit each other’s country every year to visit family and friends, enjoy tourist sites and cultural experiences, and conduct the business transactions that underpin the tight economic relationship between two of the world’s largest economies.  To facilitate this travel, the United States and Japan plan to expedite work to establish a reciprocal arrangement, including through Japan’s participation in the U.S. Global Entry program, to streamline border formalities for trusted travelers from both our countries, and to make travel between the United States and Japan easier, faster and more secure. 

SECRETARY OF STATE KERRY MEETS WITH MISSION STAFF IN AFGHANISTAN

FROM:  U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT 
Meeting With Mission Afghanistan Staff
Remarks
John Kerry
Secretary of State
Kabul, Afghanistan
October 12, 2013

AMBASSADOR CUNNINGHAM: I apologize for keeping you waiting. It’s been a very long and eventful day, and it’s not over yet for us, but it’s been very successful so far. And Secretary Kerry, I really want to thank you on behalf of all of us here, not just for coming to see us again, but for leading such a productive period here in our discussions with the Afghans.

I’m not going to introduce the Secretary, except to say that – how proud we are to welcome him here, and to say what a pleasure it is to have him come and meet with all of you. And what I can promise you is an extremely grueling day, but he very much wanted to do this.

So without further ado, Mr. Secretary.

SECRETARY KERRY: Thank you, sir. (Applause.) Thank you. Thank you very much. Well, hello, Embassy Kabul. Nice to be here. Great to be here, great to be here. In fact, I am having such a good time, I just decided to stay all – (laughter) – why would I ever want to leave? (Laughter.) We’ve had a terrific day, a very long – very, very long day; long night last night too. And it’s going to be a little bit longer even this evening. We’re going to go back to the palace and enjoy a dinner, again, with the President and his crew, but more importantly, we’re going to try to see if we can make a little more progress, which is what we’ve been doing all day long.

So I am very, very blessed to be part of an extraordinary team out here. First of all, Jim Cunningham and Leslie, I got to know them a little bit when they were in Israel. My wife Teresa and I went out, we had dinner with them there, and now I’m having dinner with them here. So we just dine all around the world, folks, wherever he is. (Laughter.)

But Jim, thank you for your outstanding leadership out here, and likewise Mike McKinley and the gang, and Fatima, and all of you who are part of an extraordinary team out here. About a thousand or 1,100 strong I guess, and almost a thousand local folks working with us. How many are there? A bunch – any locals here, raising your hands? Raise – we want to say a special thank you to you, all of you who are so important. Thank you very, very much. (Applause.)

We really couldn’t possibly do what we try to do without your help, and so we’re extraordinarily grateful. And I know it’s not easy. So we thank you for the extra commitment, in a sense, that it takes to go through the barricades, walk through the process, come in here, be affiliated with this great endeavor. It’s courageous and it’s significant. So we say thank you to you from everybody in America.

Likewise to all of you who are a part of that 1,100 Americans who are stationed out here. This is one of those posts, obviously, that will be with you for a lifetime. And for some of you, it probably feels like it has been a lifetime. (Laughter.) And for a few of you, this is not your first tour here, and we recognize that.

What is happening here is one of the great challenges on the planet today that really represents part of the complexity of the world that we’re dealing with and of the new foreign policy that not just we face, but every country that is engaged with the world faces. I just came from several days in the Far East. I was at the APEC conference and the ASEAN conference and East Asia Conference. And I can’t tell you how amazing it is to sort of sit around an ASEAN table, for instance, and sitting to my right is – or left – the Prime Minister of Myanmar, and on another side the Prime Minister of Vietnam, and Prime Minister of Laos, and you run the list. Improbable as that picture might have been quite a few years ago, that’s the new norm. And they’re all talking about global engagement. And in many of these meetings, they’re all talking in English. That really struck me.

When we sat around – the leaders, because I represented President Obama at the summit in APEC – with a few exceptions, people chose to speak their native language, but even those who could have, didn’t. They chose to speak English. And leader after leader was speaking in what is sort of the new international language of diplomacy and of business, of culture, of a lot of other things.

But what struck me that I think is important to your mission here and what you’re engaged in is the fact that they were, all of them, talking about stability and peace and trade and development, and the needs to meet the demands of their people, and how they see a new connectedness that is creating a new accountability in public life. There’s a new cop on the beat. It’s called the social network, the internet. Literally, a leader – I guess half a leader anyway – China – was viewed – a picture, and they saw this white spot on his arm in the picture where sort of a watch had been, and clickety-click, people said, “Well, that’s very strange.” And they went back and looked at other pictures, and they saw him with a bunch of different watches over a successive period of time. He’s a guy who couldn’t possibly have earned each of those watches. And lo and behold, they uncovered corruption.

That’s the kind of internet connection that we face today. You can’t beat up people in the streets without people seeing it all over the world. And that new connectedness is going to change everything – foreign policy, politics, all of the things we’re engaged in. You know that and you feel it.

Here in Afghanistan, you’re on the cutting edge of everything. You’ve been part of taking the country, which not so long ago had very few girls in school, and not that many boys, and now it has 8 million children in school, 40 percent of whom are girls. A country where you had about 9 percent or something who had access to health care; now it’s 60 percent have access to health care. A country where the life expectancy has grown by 20 years in the past 10 years, where you have an extraordinary amount of opportunity that didn’t exist previously. It’s mind-boggling what has gone on. And you are at the heart and center of how that has been able to happen.

Now we’re on the cusp of something new, and what the Ambassador and General Dunford and I and others have been negotiating over the course of the last day and a half is to guarantee that we can define that something new in the most confident terms possible, so that we know that your work here is going to be possible in an environment that can get safer, in a place where Afghans have confidence there’ll be a partnership with the United States and the rest of the international community that have been here, where we understand the rules of the road, and we’re giving our work the best opportunity to flourish into an Afghanistan that’s independent, that’s proud, that has respect, and that has the ability to have a fighting chance to define its own future for itself.

I think that because of that, if this thing can come together, this will put the Taliban on their heels, this will send a message to the community of nations that Afghans’ future is being defined in a way that is achievable, and all of your work will have a greater meaning than it does anyway.

So I just want to say thank you to you. This is on the cutting edge of diplomacy, right here. This is the toughest – one of the toughest places you could be anywhere in the world today. So I thank you profoundly. I want to have a chance to say hello a little bit and move around. But I cannot thank you enough for being part of this really extraordinary team. And obviously, it’s not without its risks. Last time I was here, a young woman, and you know her – Anne Smeddinghoff. Some of you knew her personally. Some have rotated out. She was my control officer during that visit and she died about a week later, trying to deliver books to help people be able to read. In Herat, we just lost local folks. No difference; all the same commitment, all the same action. And there have been a lot of others over the course of time who have put their lives at risk out here in order to make things better.

So this is the proudest tradition in the world, what you are engaged in. You can get up every morning and feel like your work is the most rewarding in the world, because you are touching those kids who are in school, those women who have businesses, the health care – all of those things that are happening, you’re a part of that. It doesn’t get better than that.

So on behalf of President Obama, the American people, thanks for putting up with the hardship of a yearlong out here, and those on second tour, for second-touring it. And we will welcome – and I promise you that those of us in Washington, when the government opens up again, we’ll get you all the money in the world, get you paid. (Laughter.) We’ll keep fighting. Don’t despair. Hope you ordered your turkeys. Have a great Thanksgiving and God bless you all. Thank you. (Applause.)

SECRETARY OF STATE KERRY VISIT TO KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA

FROM:  U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT 
Press Availability in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Press Availability
John Kerry
Secretary of State
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
October 10, 2013


SECRETARY KERRY: Well, I know that President Obama was very disappointed to cancel his visit, especially given his personal connection and commitment to the region. But I also know that he believes very deeply in the importance of the relationship between the United States and Malaysia and also in the potential for a relationship in the years to come.

Today, our two nations are really working together in more areas than ever before, in economics, in climate, in connectivity, law enforcement, counterterrorism, counter-proliferation, maritime security, science, education – you name it, and we are doing it and doing it together. We’re very grateful for Malaysia’s leadership on every single one of these issues.

I had the occasion at a couple of the dinners in the last few days and at the ASEAN meeting as well as the APEC and similarly at the East Asia Summit to have long and good conversations with the Prime Minister, Prime Minister Najib. And I’m grateful for the discussions that we had, as well as with the Foreign Minister. And having just left Brunei and the first-ever summit that has taken place between the U.S. and ASEAN, I want to thank Malaysia for its leadership through every single one of those meetings on all of the topics of importance to us. So we’re very much looking forward to Malaysia’s chair of ASEAN, which will take place a year hence in 2015.

I’m also proud to say that the ties between our people are clearly getting stronger. Thanks to the close coordination between President Obama and Prime Minister Najib, today American Fulbright English teaching assistants are connecting to Malaysian students all over the country in Kuala Lumpur all the way to Kuantan. And I know firsthand the importance of that program, because I was lucky to have my daughter take part as a Fulbrighter, and I know how profound the impact of that program can be. In fact, all of those exchanges make a difference, and that’s why we’re deeply committed to them here in the region.

These critical connections are also behind our commitment in expanding our people-to-people initiatives like the Global Entrepreneurial Summit, which I will have the privilege of addressing tomorrow. I think it speaks to Malaysia’s important role in driving regional prosperity that it is holding and hosting the fourth global summit right here in Kuala Lumpur. And tomorrow, when I speak to them, I’m going to have a chance to talk to young people from around the world who are here in order to find ways to pursue their dreams and make their communities stronger and better.

On behalf of President Obama, the United States is really proud to be part of that effort. But we’re convinced that we can do even more to help young leaders be able to achieve their goals. In order for their success – excuse me – and the success of other entrepreneurs, both in the United States and Malaysia, to be as far reaching as possible, it’s imperative that we support open trade and open investment wherever we can.

Today, the United States and Malaysia have a very strong economic relationship. We are Malaysia’s fourth-largest trading partner and we are the largest foreign investor in Malaysian industries. But we believe we can do more. And the Trans-Pacific Partnership, we think is the instrument to help get us there. Prime Minister Najib and I had a very productive meeting with the TPP leaders in Bali earlier this week. And I really look forward to working with our partners in Malaysia in order to finalize that agreement by the end of the year.

We recognize there are always hurdles in each country, but as U.S. Trade Representative Ambassador Froman has said, we are prepared to be both flexible and creative in order to help countries be able to meet both the timing and the goals.

So on behalf of President Obama, I want to thank Malaysia for its very committed partnership. I want to thank them for their friendship. And I look forward to continuing what has already been a very productive trip to the region with a dynamic set of meetings tomorrow morning. With that, I’m happy to take a couple questions.

MS. PSAKI: Anne.

QUESTION: Thank you, Mr. Secretary. On Egypt, having taken this step on aid, what leverage does the United States still have to encourage the result you want there, a transition to – a return to civilian rule, given that neither the previous elected government nor the current interim military government seem to listen to you so far? What hope do you have that the result will be different?

SECRETARY KERRY: Well, I disagree with the premise of that. We’ve had a series of constant conversations regarding the roadmap, the road forward for Egypt. And we will continue to have those conversations. And I think the interim government understands very well our commitment to the success of this government, which we want to see achieve. And by no means is this a withdrawal from our relationship or severing of our serious commitment to helping the government meet those goals.

Obviously, we want to make sure that the roadmap results in a constitution that recognizes universal human rights, that respects minorities, that brings people to the table in an inclusive way, and we’re convinced that – and ultimately results in free and fair elections. In our conversations with the Egyptians, they insist to us that that is exactly the roadmap that they are on, that that is what they intend to achieve. And what we’re doing is holding back a certain element of the aid which we don’t believe is relevant to the immediate needs of this government in terms of the roadmap or in terms of their security.

Now with respect to security, with respect to the Sinai, with respect to the peace process, and with respect to the security needs of the region, we are continuing to provide assistance because it’s in our interest as well as theirs and our friends in the region to do so. In addition, we’re going to continue to provide spare and replacement parts and related services for some of the programs that we think are important to continuing military education and training, because that’s important to our interests. And they are grateful and, I think, understand that.

In addition, we’re going to continue to support areas that directly benefit the Egyptian people – education, private sector development. We will be engaged in that. And we will continue to make certain that the roadmap remains a primary goal for the interim government, because I believe they do want to continue the relationship in a positive way with the United States. Now, we will not be providing direct cash assistance to the budget of the government at this moment in time, and we’re reserving delivery with respect to any key large systems like the Apache or M1A1 tanks and a few things like that.

So I think that on the contrary, we’re going to continue. We want this government to succeed, but we want it also to be the kind of government that Americans will feel comfortable supporting and being engaged in.

QUESTION: How long do you think that suspension will last? And also, could I just ask you very quickly to comment on the kidnapping of the Libyan Prime Minister Ali Zeidan?

SECRETARY KERRY: Sure. I think this recalibration of assistance is really geared to try to leverage the outcomes that citizens in American care about enormously, that Egyptians care about equally – more importantly, that the Egyptian people want for their country. And so as we see this roadmap evolve and actually be met, which the Egyptian Government has said, we expect the renewal of certain of those systems as it is deemed by the President of the United States to be relevant to that particular moment and to the relationship. So this will be on a basis of performance, and it’ll be on the basis of what evolves over the course of the roadmap in the next months.

With respect to Libya, I spoke this afternoon with Ambassador Deborah Jones and we’ve been, obviously, in touch with Washington regarding this. It is clearly a situation that is still evolving. The Libyan Prime Minister, to our understanding, has been released. It is our understanding that there has been no statement yet issued as to the who, what, why, and how. And so we’re staying in very close touch, obviously. Our embassy personnel are secure. We’re confident about our abilities to keep them in that security. But as the situation evolves over the next hours and days, we will obviously share more with you. But it is an evolving situation.

One of the things that it really underscores is something that we’ve been really focused on in these last months, which is building capacity in Libya. And we’ve had a number of meetings and discussions about this over the course of the last months. It’s something we and others, our friends and allies involved in Libya – the French, the British, Italians, and others – are all unified in trying to address. And we have hopes that we can continue to do that probably with greater speed and with greater success, but that is a very major focus that this really underscores the events of the last 24 hours.

MODERATOR: Indira.

QUESTION: Thank you, Secretary Kerry. Is this on? South Africa and Brazil both had nuclear weapons programs, and today they’re both enriching uranium. Iran has said that its right to peaceful enrichment is non-negotiable in the upcoming talks. Can you assure Iran’s new government, which says it wants a deal within a year but is facing strong opposition from domestic hardliners at home, that it too will be allowed to enrich like South Africa and Brazil once it comes clean on all illicit activities?

SECRETARY KERRY: Well, obviously the question of enrichment is at the center of the negotiations themselves, and I’m not about to negotiate here in Kuala Lumpur today in answer to your question. But we have made it clear to Iran that they can have a peaceful nuclear program as they meet the requirements of the international community as expressed in the additional protocols and in the resolutions that have been passed by the UN Security Council.

Now, there is a negotiation coming up in the next few days. We’ve had private discussions; I’ve personally had private discussion with the Foreign Minister, and I think it’s best to keep those discussions private and personal at this point in time. But Iran knows what it needs to do in order to be able to have a peaceful program, and we’re prepared to negotiate a resolution and believe, as President Obama has said many times, that a negotiated, peaceful resolution is by far his preference. So we will negotiate, but we’re not going to negotiate publicly in the next days.

MODERATOR: Thanks, everyone.

SECRETARY KERRY: Thank you all. Have a good evening. Thanks.

SECRETARY OF STATE KERRY'S MEETING WITH MISSION STAFF IN INDONESIA

FROM:  U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT 
Secretary Kerry Meets With Mission Indonesia Staff
Remarks
John Kerry
Secretary of State
Grand Hyatt Bali
Bali, Indonesia
October 8, 2013

SECRETARY KERRY: Hello.

MS. BAUER: Welcome.

SECRETARY KERRY: Hi, Kristen. How are you? Nice to see you.

MS. BAUER: Hi, I’m well. Well, let me welcome everyone.

SECRETARY KERRY: Like an interview here. “How are you?” “I’m fine.” Right. (Laughter.)

MS. BAUER: As many of you know, I’m from Boston, Massachusetts, so it gives me special pleasure to introduce to you the man who represented my state for 28 years in the U.S. Senate. He’s of course our Secretary of State and has led us through this very successful APEC. Please join me in welcoming Secretary Kerry.

SECRETARY KERRY: Thank you, Kristen. Thank you very, very much. (Applause.) I’m too far away here. I don’t want to come – I can’t even see you with these bright lights. Am I screwing up? Is this all right? It’s okay, you can do that? Now I feel closer, and this is like I’m talking to people. How are you?

AUDIENCE: Good.

SECRETARY KERRY: That’s fantastic. Isn’t it great that she’s from Boston, Massachusetts? (Laughter.) Yeah, I know. That’s not loud enough – yes, it’s great! I want to hear. (Cheers.) Anyway, I want you to know – she doesn’t know this, but she had the job that my father had at the Embassy in Oslo, Norway.

MS. BAUER: Oh, no, I didn’t know that.

SECRETARY KERRY: See? She was the political counselor there, political and economic affairs. And years ago, when I was in my teens, my dad was stationed as a Foreign Service Officer in Norway for a while, which we loved, and I’m sure you did too. Wasn’t it great? Yeah, it was fabulous.

Anyway, I am really happy to be here. And this also deserves applause - she just got promoted to Minister-Counselor, so that’s fabulous. (Applause.) Really excellent. And she’s doing a fabulous job as our charge, and shortly, Ambassador Bob Blake will be here as we get Washington doing what Washington is supposed to do, which is send people out to work and pay them, right, when they do it. It’s not a bad idea. By the way, did you all order your turkeys, those of you who – (laughter) – I know this is – you got your order in, didn’t you? I'm sorry, but I know you've been here working really hard. Thank you.

I guess it’s hard coming to Bali. Was it? (Laughter.) Whoa. Who’s laughing about that one? I know what goes into this. It’s really a tremendous amount of work, a conference like this. Thank you for making it really easy. Everything just worked so well. This is really one of the best international meetings I’ve been to, and I heard a lot of the other leaders saying how organized they thought it was and how effective. So we’re really grateful to all of you. Thank you very, very much, Embassy Jakarta, for doing so much for us here.


And thank you for – I know it was really hard when you were chosen to come to Bali for a few days, and you groaned and said, “I don’t want to,” right? No. You’re all happy, and I know it’s great. Did you get any time off? Anybody get to the beach? None at all? (Laughter.) We worked – all right.

PARTICIPANT: (Off-mike.)

SECRETARY KERRY: I beg your pardon.

PARTICIPANT: To breathe for a little bit.

SECRETARY KERRY: To breathe only a little bit. Well, thank you very, very much. I mean that. This is a special place. It’s pretty incredible to come out here. As I said the other day when I gave a speech that I worked very hard in 2004 to replace a president of the United States, but this is not what I had in mind coming here. (Laughter.) And I know President Obama very, very much regrets not being able to be here, but for all the obvious reasons, he’s back home and focused on the debt crisis and on the question of the government shutdown as he ought to be.

And I apologize to all of you. I am sorry for all the disruption, I’m sorry for the questions that it raises and that you have to answer about what’s going on in our government and at home, and I am particularly sorry that many of you are facing difficulties in terms of pay and what is going to happen over these next months and big question marks. So my apologies to you for what is not being decided and what is not happening that should be.

Obviously it was on the minds of many of the leaders that I met with and talked to, but I am convinced and I do believe that when we get beyond this, the presence of the United States in this region will be as strong as ever, that we will continue to do the rebalance to Asia. We are focused on this; we worked at length today on the TPP. We had a very strong meeting with very good results, and I promise all of you that your hard work and your devotion and commitment to this effort will pay off in the long run. So thank you very, very much for what you’re doing.

On another level, it is amazing to be in a country where so many young kids run around wearing a t-shirt with the President of the United States on it. It’s pretty amazing, and to have a president who can speak some local dialect and who has the kind of connection that he has here, you can just feel it in my conversations with the President that there’s a pride, and there’s a real sense of connection to the United States of America. And our relationship with Indonesia today because of the work that all of you do, because of the relationship with the President, because of the work that Indonesia has done with the United States in terms of environment, economy, our relationship, our security interests, military-to-military, all of these things are working really, frankly, better than they ever have. I’d say the relationship with Indonesia is as strong as it’s ever been and growing stronger.

So I thank every single one of you for being here. I think we have about 276 Americans assigned to the Embassy in Jakarta and about 1,400 or so local staff. All the local staff, raise your hands, please, those of you who are local. Thank you profoundly from all of us. (Applause.) We’re very, very grateful to you. Thank you very, very much.

So I want you to continue to be the optimists that brought you to this kind of mission in the first place. You’re all people who believe in making a difference. You believe in helping countries to come together, people to come together, bridge the gaps, create stability, build a future for all of us not just as Americans, but as global citizens, and I thank you very, very much for caring about that and being part of this great adventure. I look forward to saying hello to all of you now personally. Thank you very, very much. Look forward to it. (Applause.)

SECRETARY OF STATE KERRY'S REMARKS AT APEC CEO SUMMIT

FROM:  U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT 
Remarks at the APEC CEO Summit
Remarks
John Kerry
Secretary of State
Bali International Convention Center
Bali, Indonesia
October 7, 2013

Thank you, Wishnu, very, very much. It’s a great pleasure for me to be here, and an honor to be able to address you. And on behalf of President Obama, I want to thank our hosts in Indonesia for an absolutely, extraordinary generous hospitality, and I particularly – I think you will join me in feeling that they have been remarkable in their leadership in the course of this summit. So I thank them.

Let me echo the regret President Obama expressed personally to President Yudhoyono that he could not be here this week. I know he really was looking forward, genuinely to being here. I want you all to know that in 2004, obviously, I worked very, very hard to replace a president – this is not what I had in mind. (Laughter.)

But I also want to make it very clear to everybody: No one should mistake what is happening in Washington as anything more than a moment of politics. We’ve all seen it before; we’ll probably see it again, but I guarantee you we will move beyond this and we will move beyond it with strength and determination.

One of the things that encourages me enormously is the recent news that the United States of America is now the world’s largest energy – oil and gas – supplier, and we are renewing manufacturing. Our innovation is strong, our debt is coming down, our deficit is coming down, and I am absolutely confident that the innovation and strength that has characterized our economy for some period of time will continue well beyond this moment being considerably forgotten by all of you.

I want to emphasize that there is nothing that will shake the commitment of the United States to the rebalance to Asia that President Obama is leading. And I think it’s fair to say to all of you that we are very, very proud to be a Pacific nation. We are inextricably linked to this region by ties of geography, of history, culture, economics, and frankly the blood and the treasure that we expended to help lay the framework for the architecture on which prosperity is now being built.

The Asia Pacific region, which we are all a part of, is by far the largest, the fastest-growing, and the most dynamic economic region in the world. But in the 21st century, happily, our lives are defined not just by the work of troops or of diplomats, but increasingly by the efforts of entrepreneurs and executives, of the private sector – those of you and the businesses you build, and the workers that you employ, the places that you invest, the partnerships that you forge, and the students who represent the future of this multinational, multicultural, and multigenerational relationship that is being built in the dawn of the 21st century.

This is an exciting time. It’s an extraordinary time of transformation and change. And I know that every one of you come here with a sense of excitement and a sense of the possibilities that come with that. Quite simply, how this region grows, and how we engage the 2.7 billion customers who live here, that will shape the future of the world’s economy.

And the numbers tell a very important part of this story: More than half of global GDP is represented by this region. Half of global trade happens in this region. When you list the United States top 10 trading partners, half are APEC economies. We send more than half of our exports to this region. And over the next five years, nearly half of all the economic growth that will happen outside of the United States will happen in the Asia Pacific region. So if you put it all together, it is obvious why all of us, the private sector and the public sector, have a stake in the choices that we will make in the days ahead. But make no mistake, they are choices, and they will require the private sector and the public sector to work together like never before, in order to make the right choices.

As you know, when President Obama took office, the top priority had been creating new jobs and security for America’s middle class. And he also knows that can’t happen, and it won’t happen – and to the degree it’s happened, it hasn’t happened without your participation. What you sell, what you buy, where you invest – these are all major parts of the equation. And that’s why President Obama has worked hard to grow our exports by more than 50 percent since taking office, and two-way trade between the United States and other APEC economies has grown by nearly the same amount during the same period. Today, both American exports and American trade with APEC stands at record levels.

And when I became Secretary of State, I reminded my colleagues in the Senate during my confirmation hearing that foreign policy today is more than ever economic policy. National security is not just about the threats that we face – and we’re all familiar with those threats – but it’s about what we can do to prevent the seeds of tomorrow’s threats from being planted today. In a world where vast populations of young people are exploding on the scene with aspirations and demands, all interconnected by the social media, at that time anarchy and terror are sometimes offered as alternatives to the fulfillment of those jobs and opportunity, to the fulfillment of good governance.

And so we have a special challenge, all of us together – nobody’s exempt. There’s no business sector over here and government over here. It’s joined together, and it’s critical that we act together and work together. The consequences of failing to do so are staring at all of us – in Syria, Egypt, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and other parts of the world where young people – young people – remember what happened in Tunisia was a reflection of the aspirations of a fruit vendor who rebelled against corruption simply because he wanted to be able to live his life and sell his goods. What happened in Tahrir Square was without any religious overtones or connotations. It was again young people texting each other, using smart phones, talking about the possibilities of the future. And so it was in Syria, too, where young people wanted a voice in the future, and were met instead with violence.

So I would say to you that with all of their potential, it screams for the chance to fulfill their basic aspirations, and that is what we have to think about, even as we make bottom-line economic choices.

So it is clear: We have a stake in each other’s success. And that’s one of the reasons why multilateral fora like APEC and ASEAN are, frankly, so important in this modern context. And it’s why we are working to complete the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations by the end of this year. TPP, which is so critical – and to emphasize how critical it is, President Obama has sent our Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker, who is here sitting in the front, and our U.S. Trade Representative Ambassador Mike Froman sitting over here – because we understand how critical this is.

At its core, TPP is about generating growth for our economies and jobs for our people by unleashing a wave of investment and entrepreneurship all across the Asia Pacific. And at a time when we, all of us, seek strong and sustainable growth, TPP is creating a race to the top not to the bottom. It’s reaching for the highest standards of any trade agreement in history. And I will tell you that is good for businesses, it’s good for workers, it’s good for economics, it’s good for stability, it’s good for relationships between countries.

It’s important to remember that all the impressive statistics that we cite about this region and all the exciting projections about our shared future, they’re not just an accident. APEC economies are thriving because over the last 25 years, countries of the region lowered barriers on trade and investment, and that has accelerated growth as much as any other single thing.

APEC has played a critical role in that success by helping governments to align their standards and their practices, by lowering the barriers for women to be full participants, and by making it easier for businesses to reach across borders and find new markets. But the truth is, that is not enough. That alone will not produce success. In this constantly changing marketplace, governments have a huge responsibility to become even more agile, more responsible, and even more responsive to people and to the demands of the business community.

And that means we need to listen carefully to all of you who are on the front lines making the investments, making the decisions, and doing the business of creating businesses and jobs. I want to emphasize, we in governance need you, the leaders of commerce, we need your creativity as the drivers of gatherings like APEC and like the CEO Leaders Summit. And we need you to keep pushing governments forward and urging them to adapt.

Just last night I had the privilege of having dinner with a group of the CEOs, as many of you all did, and I listened to some of them express frustration with policy makers who accept, in principle, certain notions about how we should do business, but in practice often revert to other choices, including protectionism.

Protectionism, my friends, is not a problem because it shuts someone out of the market – though that is a problem. Protectionism is a problem because it stifles opportunity, because it narrows the market, because it crushes the energy of the marketplace, where new solutions are created through that energy. And history has proven again and again, a freer market creates more opportunity, more growth, more dynamism, more innovation, and no one knows that better, I think, than the CEOs who are gathered here.

But I also want to emphasize something. You’ve heard many speakers this week celebrate the economic vitality of this region, and well they should. But I hope it’s not a secret to say to you that there is nothing automatic that says that that will be the future. Nothing automatic. The prosperity that you share today and we are witnessing today did not arrive by accident, and neither is its continuance inevitable. You know as well as anyone that capital looking for a place to invest will seek either the fastest or the safest or a combination of the two, for the return on investment, regardless of geography, regardless of nationality. Capital wants certainty in the political process, and the battle for the future is a battle about competitiveness. And part of what makes a region competitive for investors, is obviously the consistent, predictable business climate that is conducive to success.

There is no question that the most successful markets of the next 25 years will be determined in large measure by how well they demonstrate openness, transparency, inclusivity, and accountability. Now I’m not talking just about high-minded principles. I’m talking about pragmatic choices that will define this region and other regions around the world. I’m talking about a path to long term, shared prosperity.

In your businesses, you all know that connectivity and innovation are the key to success. And you know the kind of environment that you need for innovation to be able to thrive. In the United States, I’m proud to say to you – not arrogantly, but just as a matter, I think, of a reality that the key to our productivity over the last 50 years has been the freedom of this innovation. The entrepreneurial spirit that allows somebody in America to take a risk and take a chance and to find a Google or an Apple or any other number of great businesses historically. That really is what has defined America, and it’s the centerpiece of our continued growth and success, even today. The gas that we are currently using from shale is the result of new technology, of pushing that curve.

And our world-changing businesses and our world-class universities – schools like the one that drew Wishnu across the Pacific to study in Los Angeles – these are a critical component of our economic foundation. It has been proven again and again that the next innovation in technology or the next great stride in medicine is most likely to be created in countries where citizens are free to share ideas, move capital around, free to try new things, free to fail, and where the laws are clear and equitable and where you know that the profits that flow from your ideas will be protected.

In order for businesses to fully unlock the promise of the great Asia Pacific market, or to realize the potential of a booming middle class a billion people strong, we need updated rules that protect not just the basic decisions about moving goods and services, but also protect the spirit of innovation on which the economies of the future are already being built.

We need modern rules for a changing road, rules that keep pace with the speed of today’s markets. We need norms that protect us from competitive disadvantages. We need a level playing field, predictability, transparency – so that when you invest and do business, you can have a reasonable expectation of the risks and rewards in front of you. And that is one of the promises of the TPP. And as I mentioned, it is about breaking down barriers and raising the bar, the standards, in a way that protects everybody and works for everybody.

You’ve all heard American officials talk about the importance of intellectual property. But the truth is that every economy that wants to be an innovation economy needs to defend their innovators. It’s not just Americans; every entrepreneur and business in the Asia Pacific needs to know that they can reap the benefits when they develop the next big thing. Economies that can make that guarantee are inevitably going to be stronger. And those that can’t make that guarantee, if your ideas are at risk of being stolen and your innovations can be ripped off, you will never reach the full potential of that country or economy.

As you know, the Asia Pacific region is increasingly reliant on complex supply chains. Think of an iPad that is designed in California, with its parts made in Taiwan, assembled in China, shipped through Singapore, loaded with apps from Korea, and sold in Jakarta. (Laughter.) All of the businesses and investors along the way – (applause) – that must be the crowd from Jakarta. (Laughter.) But all of the businesses and investors along the way clearly need the consistency and the certainty of transparent policies and predictable regulations. And I want to recognize the cutting-edge work of APEC, which is leading on supply-chain connectivity, all the while ensuring that the rules are made with input from the public and the stakeholders like you.

And that’s why I want to pay tribute to the synergy – I really felt it last night at dinner with the group that I had dinner with. There’s a great synergy here. And I think that it would be very valuable, frankly – one of the greatest assets of this gathering is the interaction between those of us who are privileged to be leaders in our countries, and those of you who lead in the business world.

On behalf of President Obama, I would urge APEC to find more ways to increase the interaction between the leaders here and the private sector, because I think that, in the end, will result in better policy faster. Beneath the surface of the success that we celebrate though, there is also an undercurrent of concern. And I would be remiss if I didn’t say something about it.

When we talk about rules, predictability, and the sanctity of contracts, we cannot forget that corruption corrodes our markets by raising the cost of doing business, it brews uncertainty, it creates inefficiency, it undermines good governance, and it frightens away capital. Put simply, it slows down growth. It doesn’t speed it up. It doesn’t expand growth, and it certainly doesn’t meet the standards of a world that is increasingly looking for more transparency and accountability. It creates a fragile system instead of a strong one.

President Obama and I commend APEC for its close work with the private sector to develop ethics for businesses large and small. And we also commend APEC’s recent work to shine a light on money laundering and illegal trade, including wildlife trafficking. Our economies – simple, bottom-line – our economies will not reach their full potential and we will not meet the demand of all those young people looking to us for good choices, for the future. We will not do that unless we eliminate criminal enterprises that undermine the legitimacy of what we are all trying to achieve, and the rules by which we are all trying to work.

APEC can advance its efforts by continuing to build capacity among customs officials, connecting law enforcement agencies, and reducing demand. And these days, if the governments don’t step up to tackle their responsibility, guess what? Citizens will. Because with the global use of social media, everybody in the world has an instant communications tool, everybody has a camera, and increasingly where I’ve seen people hold people accountable. Pictures, videos, stories that anyone with a video can share with millions of people in milliseconds will actually help to create accountability. There is a new cop on the beat.

Finally, I want to say one last word about another value that we need to defend. And it is one that, like the others that I mentioned, will actually benefit businesses and economies, and it’s one we can only address multilaterally, and some of you may think it’s strange that the Secretary of State of the United States picks this issue to say something about here at this APEC conference, but I think it is a moral responsibility, as well as a practical business one, and that is the urgency with which we must all come together to deal with the issue of climate change.

I know that when people talk about climate change, eyes still glaze over. And against all evidence, there are still some people who wonder if it’s real – and many wonder what they can actually do about it. Well, the fact is that the absence of a concerted global commitment to address this is inviting catastrophe. And for everybody’s business, it is inviting uncertainty.

For insurance companies, it is inviting insolvency. The recent United Nations report, with its nearly unanimous conclusion that human beings are to blame for what is happening, warns us of the consequences and makes clear our responsibility. As the world’s biggest consumers of energy and the biggest emitters of greenhouse gases, Pacific nations, including my own – we’re number two in the world – Pacific nations including my own have an enormous responsibility to lead a transformation that can not only save lives, but create millions of jobs.

I will just tell you, after 29 years of following this, that the extreme weather around the world – the flooding, the fires, the drought, the intense storms – are nothing compared to what will come if we don’t act. The reduction in some of our fisheries, the melt of ice, the rise of sea level, the Pacific islands that are threatened, all of this will present us with refugees such as we have never seen before, and with food shortages that may boggle the mind.

What’s astounding to me is this: Staring us in the face is an economic revolution that can solve all of this. There is a $6 trillion market out there for energy, with six billion to nine billion additional users over the next 20-40 years, and that is the marketplace of all time. The market that created the great wealth of the 1990s was a technology boom. It was a $1 trillion market, with one billion users. Compare that to the six trillion and six to nine billion users.

Energy is the solution to climate change. And the energy market is staring us in the face with an enormous amount of opportunity, and despite the amount of gas that is becoming available, we still have a responsibility, particularly those 20 major emitter nations, to deal with this issue. I think APEC understands that doing nothing is not an option, and that’s why it’s been a leader in increasing energy efficiency and reducing inefficient and market-distorting fossil fuel subsidies, and we need to continue to move in that direction. But this is a visible and tangible change in this part of the world, and tomorrow I look forward to meeting with President Yudhoyono and representatives of the Pacific Island countries and APEC leaders to talk about how we can ensure a more sustainable economic development program around us.

Yesterday, I had the chance to visit Benoa Port, where America is engaged in a public-private partnership with some fishermen here in Indonesia. And we’re engaged with universities – UCLA and three universities out here trying to build a sustainable fishery and sustainable future. These are fishermen who work for a Tampa Bay, Florida company. Fish are shipped from here every day, and it goes to Outback restaurants in America, to Walmart, and to Whole Foods. This is the world we’re living in today. But if there’s too much money chasing too few fish, and we don’t have sustainable practices, then we will obviously inherit crises beyond recognition. Sixty million people in Indonesia depend on fishing and on marine resources for their livelihood. And 60 million Indonesians get most of their protein from the sea.

So these are examples of the ways in which APEC and all of us can come together. This is the new norm. This is the future. This is the way the world is going to have to work in order to deal with these problems, but to grab the opportunities that are staring us in the face. In bringing together businesses and governments, NGOs, students, and all citizens to address these issues, APEC does the seemingly impossible: it makes one of the largest regions in the world smaller and more connected. And because APEC gives economies such an effective forum to talk about and tackle these challenges, and thanks in large part to the business leaders like you, tomorrow we will be able to innovate more imaginatively, think more freely, grow more equitably, consume more sustainably, partner more broadly, and create greater opportunities for this generation and the next. And by doing that, we will live up to our responsibilities. Thank you very, very much. (Applause.)

SECRETARY OF STATE KERRY MAKES REMARKS WITH INDONESIAN FOREIGN MINISTER NATALEGAWA

FROM: U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT

Remarks With Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa Before Their Meeting
Remarks
John Kerry
Secretary of State
Treaty Room
Washington, DC
May 16, 2013

SECRETARY KERRY: Good afternoon, everybody. I am delighted to be here with Foreign Minister Natalegawa from Indonesia. And there are a number of reasons why my opportunity to meet with the Foreign Minister is important.

First of all, we are representing the second and third largest democracies in the world. And that is an important reason for us to work on a number of different things, but to be committed as partners. We also do a great deal with respect to counter-narcotics, protection of the environment, trade issues, disaster relief, and maritime security. And all of these things are extremely important to our relationship.

In addition to that, Indonesia will be chairing the APEC conference this year, and I’m particularly looking forward to being part of that conference, going out there. We will have, I think, a very exciting agenda that the Foreign Minister and Indonesia have settled on regarding connectivity, increasing connectivity, globalization of trade, working on a number of the environment and other challenges in law enforcement and maritime security. So we have a big agenda.

And in the end, we are particularly interested in furthering this relationship as much as we can because Indonesia plays such a critical role in the balance of interests in that region, and because we’ve been rebalancing ourselves towards Asia. And so this relationship becomes even more important. So I’m very grateful that the Minister is here to spend some time talking through our issues. Welcome.

FOREIGN MINISTER NATALEGAWA: Thank you very much, Secretary. Likewise, I am delighted to be back in Washington. And thank you for making it possible for the two of us to meet. I echo the points that you have said. Our relations – our two countries’ relations are strong; they’re solid. We enjoy what we call comprehensive partnership; it’s a broad subject matter on which we cooperate, and this truly is in a sense a partnership among friends, mutually beneficial, and of a mutual – a great deal of mutual interest. I wish through our discussion this afternoon not only to strengthen that bilateral relations, but to further project closer cooperation on many regional and global issues as well.

SECRETARY KERRY: Look forward to it.

FOREIGN MINISTER NATALEGAWA: Thank you very much.

SECRETARY KERRY: Thank you. Welcome.

U.S.-SINGAPORE RELATIONS

Singapore Map Credit:  CIA World Factbook.

FROM: U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT

United Sattes-Singapore RelationsFact Sheet
Office of the Spokesperson
Washington, DC
November 17, 2012

Singapore is a close strategic partner of the United States across a range of developmental, economic, people-to-people and security issues. We maintain this close relationship in regional multilateral fora such as the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), and the East Asia Summit (EAS) to support regional integration, prosperity, and security. We are building on the strong foundation of our bilateral Free Trade Agreement in negotiating a successful outcome for the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations.

Bilateral trade in 2011 exceeded $50 billion, making Singapore the United States’ 15th largest trading partner and 11th largest export market. Cumulative U.S. investment in Singapore is over $116 billion while Singapore has $22 billion of foreign direct investment in the United States. Approximately 1,500 American companies use Singapore as a regional base for Asian operations, contributing to job creation and economic development in Singapore and the United States.

Our people-to-people relationships are also strong with 25,000 U.S. citizens residing in Singapore and a similar number of Singaporeans in the United States. A broad range of State Department exchange programs are building academic, professional, and cultural ties between our citizens. In addition, formal educational links are growing, as numerous U.S. universities establish satellite campuses in Singapore.

The United States-Singapore Strategic Partnership Dialogue, announced in 2012, introduced new mechanisms to further strengthen our cooperation to support regional development. Our multifaceted cooperation includes the Third Country Training Program (TCTP), a joint technical assistance program for developing countries in the region, including in the Lower Mekong area. The first projects under this program have focused on training officials in the Lower Mekong region in the areas of environment, health, urban planning, and disaster management.

The United States and Singapore enjoy a close security relationship. Bilateral defense cooperation has deepened since the signing of the Strategic Framework Agreement in 2005, and both militaries interact regularly through joint exercises, operations, training and technological collaboration. Starting in 2013, Singapore will host the first of up to four United States’ Littoral Combat Ships (LCS) on a rotational basis. The LCS will strengthen U.S. engagement in the region, through port calls and interaction with regional navies.

Singapore Locator Map Credit:  CIA World Factbook.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION FROM CIA WORLD FACTBOOKSingapore was founded as a British trading colony in 1819. It joined the Malaysian Federation in 1963 but separated two years later and became independent. Singapore subsequently became one of the world's most prosperous countries with strong international trading links (its port is one of the world's busiest in terms of tonnage handled) and with per capita GDP equal to that of the leading nations of Western Europe.

SPECIAL BRIEFING: U.S.-CHINA MEETING

U.S.-China Joint Exercise. Credit: U.S. Navy. 

FROM: U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT

Background Briefing: Readout of the Secretary's Meeting With Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi

Special Briefing
Office of the Spokesperson
Waldorf Astoria Hotel
New York City
September 27, 2012
 
SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: So briefly, on background, Senior State, the Secretary had a very full meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Yang this morning. They began the meeting talking about the Chinese-Japanese tensions over the Senkakus. The Secretary, as she has been urging for a number of months, including when she was in China in the summer and when she was at APEC and had a chance to see Prime Minister Noda, again urged that cooler heads prevail, that Japan and China engage in dialogue to calm the waters, that we believe that Japan and China have the resources, have the restraint, have the ability to work on this directly and take tensions down. And that is our message to both sides.

They then talked about South China Sea issues. As you may know, this is an area where, after intense diplomatic focus by all the players, including, notably, the Foreign Minister of Indonesia who was in Washington not too long ago, we now have restarted informal meetings between senior officials of China and ASEAN. They had a meeting in Phnom Penh two weeks ago. We expect these meetings are going to continue in the lead-up to the East Asia Summit in November. This is precisely what the Secretary had been advocating, what we had been advocating – that they restart a dialogue. And so the Secretary commended China for that. I think she’ll make the same point when she sees the ASEAN foreign ministers later today.

They compared notes on the situation in the DPRK briefly. They also talked about Iran in preparation for the P-5+1 minus Iran meeting this afternoon, and about the two-track strategy of diplomacy and pressure. The Secretary, as she always does, raised human rights concerns – notably in this particular meeting, concerns about Tibet and increasing pace of immolations. They talked about bilateral economic relations and the global financial situation. The Secretary again urged that the – some of the cases of concerns, including FedEx, be dealt with on the Chinese side.

And of course, they talked about Syria. The Secretary debriefed the Foreign Minister on her meeting with Special Envoy Brahimi, and she made the same point to him, to Foreign Minister Yang, that she has made this week to Foreign Minister Lavrov and that she’s made when she was in Vladivostok to Russian leaders, that we still see value in the Geneva document that the Security Council members agreed on, and working from that, drawing on elements of it. But if we go in that direction in terms of the Security Council, there have to be real consequences for noncompliance with it, consequences for both sides. So that was the meeting with Foreign Minister Yang.

Okay.

QUESTION: On Syria, do you have any sense for – first, when did she meet Lavrov here? And do you have any sense that there’s any Security Council movement possible in this week or in coming --

SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: I think where we are on Syria, as she said, I think, herself, is that – or maybe we said it here after one of our earlier sessions in debriefing the Brahimi meeting – is that we expect that Envoy Brahimi’s going to do another round of consultation and then he’s going to come back to the Security Council with his own ideas. So I don’t think that we will see any formal action unless and until he comes forward with something. But it was in the context of informing his thinking that she wanted him to know, she wants the Russians to know, she wants the Chinese to know that we still think there’s some value in that Geneva document, but only if it’s got real consequences for noncompliance.

QUESTION: She didn’t sense any movement on their part, neither the Chinese or Russians?

SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: I think everybody’s waiting to see what Brahimi comes forward with.

U.S.-MEXICO RELATIONS

Map Credit:  Wikimedia.
FROM:  U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT
U.S. Relations With Mexico
Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs
Fact Sheet
June 25, 2012
U.S. relations with Mexico are important and complex. The two countries share a 2,000-mile border, and relations between the two have a direct impact on the lives and livelihoods of millions of Americans--whether the issue is trade and economic reform, homeland security, drug control, migration, or the environment. The U.S. and Mexico, along with Canada, are partners in the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and enjoy a broad and expanding trade relationship. Through the North American Leaders’ Summits, the United States, Canada, and Mexico cooperate to improve North American competitiveness, ensure the safety of their citizens, and promote clean energy and a healthy environment. The three nations also cooperate on hemispheric and global challenges, such as managing transborder infectious diseases and seeking greater integration to respond to challenges of transnational organized crime.

U.S. relations with Mexico are important and complex. U.S. relations with Mexico have a direct impact on the lives and livelihoods of millions of Americans – whether the issue is trade and economic reform, homeland security drug control, migration, or the environment. The scope of U.S.-Mexican relations is broad and goes beyond diplomatic and official contacts. It entails extensive commercial, cultural, and educational ties, with over 1.25 billion dollars worth of two-way trade and roughly one million legal border crossings each day. In addition, a million American citizens live in Mexico and approximately 10 million Americans visit Mexico every year. More than 18,000 companies with U.S. investment have operations in Mexico, and U.S. companies have invested $145 billion in Mexico since 2000.

Cooperation between the United States and Mexico along the 2,000-mile common border includes state and local problem-solving mechanisms; transportation planning; and institutions to address resource, environment and health issues. Presidents Obama and Calderon created a high level Executive Steering Committee for 21st Century Border Management in 2010 to spur advancements in creating a modern, secure, and efficient border. The multi-agency U.S.-Mexico Binational Group on Bridges and Border Crossings meets twice yearly to improve the efficiency of existing crossings and coordinate planning for new ones. The ten U.S. and Mexican border states are active participants in these meetings. Chaired by U.S. and Mexican consuls, Border Liaison Mechanisms operate in "sister city" pairs and have proven to be an effective means of dealing with a variety of local issues including border infrastructure, accidental violation of sovereignty by law enforcement officials, charges of mistreatment of foreign nationals, and cooperation in public health matters.

The United States and Mexico have a long history of cooperation on environmental and natural resource issues, particularly in the border area, where there are serious environmental problems caused by rapid population growth, urbanization, and industrialization. Cooperative activities between the U.S. and Mexico take place under a number of arrangements such as the International Boundary and Water Commission; the La Paz Agreement, the U.S.-Mexico Border 2012/2020 Program; the North American Development Bank and the Border Environment Cooperation Commission; the North American Commission for Environmental Cooperation; the Border Health Commission; and a variety of other agreements that address border health, wildlife and migratory birds, national parks, forests, and marine and atmospheric resources. The International Boundary and Water Commission, United States and Mexico, is an international organization responsible for managing a wide variety of water resource and boundary preservation issues.

The two countries also have cooperated on telecommunications services in the border area for more than 50 years. There are 39 bilateral agreements that govern shared use of the radio spectrum. When the United States completed the transition to digital television in 2009, a high percentage of Mexican border cities did the same, well ahead of Mexico’s deadline to complete the transition by 2021. Recent border agreements also cover mobile broadband services, including smartphones, and similar devices. The High Level Consultative Commission on Telecommunications continues to serve as the primary bilateral arena for both governments to promote growth in the sector and to ensure compatible services in the border area. The United States and Mexico have also signed an agreement to improve cross-border public security communications in the border area.

U.S. Cooperation with Mexico
The Merida Initiative is an unprecedented partnership between the United States and Mexico to fight organized crime and associated violence while furthering respect for human rights and the rule of law. Since 2010, our Merida Initiative cooperation has been organized under four strategic pillars. The first pillar aims to disrupt the capacity of organized crime to operate by capturing criminal groups and their leaders and reducing their revenues through better investigations, successful prosecutions, and shipment interdictions. The initiative’s second pillar focuses on enhancing the capacity of Mexico’s government and institutions to sustain the rule of law. The Merida Initiative’s third pillar aims to improve border management to facilitate legitimate trade and movement of people while thwarting the flow of drugs, arms, and cash. Finally, the fourth pillar seeks to build strong and resilient communities.

U.S. cooperation with Mexico under the Merida Initiative directly supports programs to help Mexico train its police forces in modern investigative techniques, promote a culture of lawfulness, and implement key justice reforms. Merida Initiative assistance also supports Mexico's efforts to reform its judicial sector and professionalize its police forces reflect its commitment to promote the rule of law and build strong law enforcement institutions to counter the threat posed by organized crime. The U.S. Congress has appropriated $1.9 billion for the Merida Initiative since it began.

U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) programs support Mexican efforts to address key challenges to improving citizen security and well-being, with program approaches specifically geared to the U.S.-Mexico relationship. Programs under the Merida Initiative develop and test models to mitigate the community-level impact of crime and violence, and support Mexico’s implementation of criminal justice constitutional reforms that protect citizens’ rights. Additional USAID programs support Mexico’s commitment to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and to enhancing economic competitiveness to improve citizens’ lives.

Bilateral Economic Relations
Mexico is the United States’ second-largest export market (after Canada) and third-largest trading partner (after Canada and China). Mexico's exports rely heavily on supplying the U.S. market, but the country has also sought to diversify its export destinations. Nearly 80 percent of Mexico’s exports in 2011 went to the United States. In 2011, Mexico was the second-largest supplier of oil to the United States. Top U.S. exports to Mexico include mechanical machinery, electronic equipment, motor vehicle parts, mineral fuels and oils, and plastics. Trade matters are generally settled through direct negotiations between the two countries or addressed via World Trade Organization or NAFTA formal dispute settlement procedures.

Mexican investment in the United States has grown by over 35 percent the past five years. It is the seventh fastest growing investor country in the United States.

Mexico is a major recipient of remittances, sent mostly from Mexicans in the United States. Remittances are a major source of foreign currency, totaling over $22.73 billion in 2011. Most remittances are used for immediate consumption -- food, housing, health care, education -- but some collective remittances, sent from Mexican migrants in the U.S. to their community of origin, are used for shared projects and infrastructure improvements under Mexico’s 3 for 1 program that matches contributions with federal, state and local funds.

Mexico is making progress in its intellectual property rights enforcement efforts, although piracy and counterfeiting rates remain high. Mexico appeared on the Watch List in the 2012 Special 301 report. The U.S. continues to work with the Mexican Government to implement its commitment to improving intellectual property protection.

Mexico's Membership in International Organizations
Mexico is a strong supporter of the United Nations (UN) and Organization of American States (OAS) systems, and hosted the G-20 Leaders’ Summit in June 2012. Mexico and the United States belong to a number of the same international organizations, including the UN, OAS, Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum, G-20, Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank (WB), and World Trade Organization (WTO). In January 2012, Mexico became a member of the Wassenaar Arrangement, a multilateral export control regime for conventional arms and dual-use goods.

U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT ON COMBATING INTERNATIONAL CORRUPTION

Photo:  Justice And Humanity.  Credit:  Wikimedia.
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
Combating Corruption and Bribery in APEC: Promoting Open Governance and Transparency Vital to Regional Economic Growth and Foreign Direct Investment
Remarks David M. Luna
Director for Anticrime Programs , Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs ABAC-ACT Public-Private Partnership and Dialogue: Anti-Corruption and Illicit Trade
Kazan, Russia
May 28, 2012
Good morning.
As a co-chair of this Dialogue, I would like to thank ACT Chair Timur Eyvazov and the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC) for their leadership in APEC 2012 and our continued dialogue on combating corruption and illicit trade across the Asia Pacific region. Working together via effective public-private partnerships, we can help meet the governance and security challenges that threaten the prosperity of our economies, and the health and safety of our people.

The strong partnership between ABAC and the Anti-Corruption and Transparency (ACT) Experts’ Working Group promises to ensure progress against corruption and foreign bribery in 2012. We also applaud the Russian Federation for organizing the APEC-OECD workshop on combating bribery, held yesterday in Kazan. With the commitment of our APEC leaders, we have made transparency and anti-corruption efforts a cornerstone of the overall APEC agenda and a linchpin for improving societies and expanding markets across our economies. We also take note of the commitment by President Vladimir Putin during his inaugural address earlier this month to make anti-corruption a top priority in Russia, recognizing its role in attracting foreign direct investment (FDI) and promoting economic growth.

We can appreciate why business leaders have made fighting corruption and bribery a priority in their investment portfolios overseas. The impact of corruption on GDP growth and FDI in both advanced and developing economies is well-documented. Corruption stifles entrepreneurship and international investment as businesses are less inclined to invest in markets where corruption is rampant and kleptocrats abuse their positions for self-enrichment. Capital and FDI are timid, and savvy investors flee business climates where the playing field is uneven and the rule of law is unreliable.

As the ACT-ABAC illicit trade dialogue has established in recent years, corruption also opens the floodgates for cross-border illicit trade flows, which raise the costs of doing business and divert legitimate revenues into the coffers of transnational illicit networks. According to a 2011 World Economic Forum Report on Global Risks, “illicit trade is estimated to represent between 7 and 10 percent of the global economy – in some countries, illicit trade is the major source of income.”

The criminal entrepreneurs and illicit networks that smuggle tens of billions of dollars of illegal goods across borders each year – drugs, arms, humans, natural resources and endangered wildlife, counterfeit medicines, and pirated software, as well as embezzled public funds – not only sow insecurity and instability across the APEC region, but also cost APEC economies jobs and vital tax revenue, endangering the welfare and safety of our families and communities.

A supply chain is only as strong as its weakest link, and the proliferation of corrupt actors and criminal entrepreneurs forges new points of entry for all sorts of illicit trade, corroding the integrity of legitimate supply chains and harming the economic interests of our businesses and markets. The proliferation of counterfeit goods, for example, tarnishes brand reputations and reduces returns on innovation and investment.

Illicit trade creates unfair, unregulated competition for legitimate businesses across APEC economies. We must continue to dismantle illicit trade networks at every opportunity and prosecute criminal entrepreneurs and their facilitators who arbitrage weak and corrupt law enforcement systems and exploit internal border controls for illicit gain.

The ACT 5-year medium-term plan also rightly places a priority on promoting green and sustainable growth and encourages the ACT to work across APEC subfora to work through the governance challenges associated with protecting our environment and natural resources.

Environmental crimes such as the illegal timber trade and wildlife trafficking impose significant negative externalities on local ecosystems; distort markets; reduce revenues from eco-tourism and taxes; destroy the livelihoods of communities that rely on our precious biodiversity; and discourage companies from paying for licenses and making other responsible investments that promote transparency and accountability. A recent World Bank study found that illegal logging in areas such as those found in Southeast Asia reaps profits of USD 10-15 billion annually, while the probability that illegal loggers will be punished is less than 0.08 percent.

Beyond the threat posed to economic development, the illicit profits generated by “marriages of convenience” among different criminal actors and networks engaged in every type of illicit activity—from drug trafficking to counterfeit production to illegal logging and associated trade—could finance criminal and terror campaigns that endanger not only our markets but our collective security.

APEC, in concert and cooperation with other partners, is taking these threats seriously and is committed to combating corruption and dismantling crime-terror pipelines across the Asia Pacific region, especially where illicit activities and risks within the illegal economy threaten to harm licit commerce.

We cannot realize these objectives without the active and continued engagement of the private sector at every link in the global supply chain. Again, we welcome the opportunity that this ABAC-ACT dialogue provides to bring together senior government and business leaders to tackle corruption and illicit trade.

Collective action—on the part of governments, the private sector, and civil society—is essential to secure greater accountability, competitiveness, and supply chain integrity. As reflected in our ACT work plan, we must employ the full range of tools in our toolbox—ranging from tools to prevent corruption and enhance market integrity to tools to more effectively investigate and prosecute corruption and combat money laundering and illicit trade.

In closing, we must capitalize on our momentum here this week and in the coming months, including at the July 10-11 Phuket APEC Workshop on Combating Corruption and Illicit Trade: Tracking Cross-Border Financial Flows, International Asset Recovery, and Anti-Money Laundering Efforts. Other efforts in Chile, China, Malaysia, Peru and the Philippines will also strengthen our APEC regional efforts. We hope that our ABAC-ACT anticorruption and illicit trade dialogue here this week in Kazan is also recognized by leaders in both public and private sectors at the 2012 APEC Summit in Vladivostok this September.

We also hope that APEC, ACT, and ABAC can work with other partners such as the OECD and World Economic Forum (WEF) in advancing a global dialogue to combat corruption and illicit trade.

Russia’s active leadership in APEC and its participation in the OECD Working Group on Bribery will ensure that combating corruption, foreign bribery, and illicit trade will remain at the top of the list of priorities for APEC economies in 2012 and beyond. We also appreciate Indonesia’s active leadership and applaud their efforts to build on the ACT’s work in 2013.

The United States looks forward to further advancing APEC’s leadership in the coming years to work with other international partners to combat illicit trade; attack the financial underpinnings of transnational criminal organizations; strip criminal entrepreneurs and corrupt officials of their illicit wealth; and sever their access to the global financial system.

Finally, we also hope that the ACT continues to advance the work of last year's APEC High-Level Policy Dialogue on Open Governance and Economic Growth on ways that economies can work to enhance public trust by combating corruption and by committing to transparent, fair, and accountable governance, especially in a manner that empowers communities to monitor and voice their perspectives on government policies and the use of resources.

Through collective action, we will succeed in exposing criminal activities hidden behind legitimate fronts; protecting the integrity of our markets and financial system; promoting open governance that nurtures economic growth; and safeguarding the security of our citizens.
Thank you.