FROM: U.S. JUSTICE DEPARTMENT
Attorney General Holder Delivers Remarks on My Brother's Keeper at the Center for American Progress
Washington, DCUnited States ~ Wednesday, March 18, 2015
Remarks as prepared for delivery
Thank you, Neera [Tanden], for that kind introduction. It’s a pleasure to be here with you today, and a privilege to join so many passionate citizens, committed public servants and dedicated advocates as we mark the one-year anniversary of the president’s groundbreaking My Brother’s Keeper initiative. There is no place I would rather be in my closing days as Attorney General than with all of you. Or, at least, these should be my closing days. Given the Senate’s delays in scheduling Loretta Lynch’s nomination for a vote, it’s almost as if the Republicans in Congress have discovered a new fondness for me. Where was all this affection the last six years?
But seriously, it’s fitting that one of my final events as Attorney General will be about My Brother’s Keeper because it speaks to issues that have been at the forefront of my work and at the center of my thoughts throughout my professional career.
During my time as a judge on the Superior Court in Washington, D.C., I saw how people who were convicted of crimes too often had been previously trapped in a cycle of poverty, familial instability, juvenile criminality and adult incarceration. I observed how this cycle could weaken communities, tear already weak family structures apart and ultimately destroy individual lives. And day after day, I watched lines of young people—most often young men of color—stream through my courtroom. I began to recognize their faces, and to recall their too-common and recurring stories, because too many of the people I sentenced served their time, were released from prison, and sooner or later returned to the same behavior that had led them to my courtroom in the first place.
Many of these individuals were not fundamentally different from me, or from the people I grew up with in East Elmhurst, in Queens, New York City—friends, classmates, neighbors and peers—some of whom didn’t catch the same breaks, made mistakes or poor choices, and got involved in the criminal justice system with no real ability to reclaim their lives or recast their futures. So when I returned to the Department of Justice, I insisted on doing my part to make our criminal justice system more efficient, more effective and more fair—as U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, as Deputy Attorney General and, for the last six years, as Attorney General of the United States.
During my tenure in the Obama Administration, particularly through the Smart on Crime initiative, we have worked to reform our criminal justice system at every level. Our primary responsibility—which we have never lost sight of—is public safety and individual accountability. But we have reduced our reliance on draconian mandatory minimum sentencing, increased our use of rehabilitation programs like drug courts and veterans courts, and expanded assistance for formerly incarcerated individuals as they re-enter society.
These are important improvements, and all available results demonstrate that our approach has been extremely effective. But in addition to modifying the way we charge, sentence and release men and women who are involved in crimes, we also have a vital role to play in preventing people from coming into contact with the criminal justice system in the first place. That means ending the school-to-prison pipeline that sends too many children on a well-worn path from the schoolhouse to the jailhouse. It means employing a developmentally-informed approach to prevent violence against children and to alleviate the devastating harm that comes from abuse. And it means addressing persistent opportunity gaps faced by boys and young men of color through initiatives like My Brother’s Keeper and ensuring that all our young people can reach their full potential.
The fundamental idea behind this initiative is that every child in America should have the opportunity to grow, to succeed, and to contribute to their community and their country. Because it is clear that, despite our best efforts, some children still face significant opportunity gaps that put them at a disadvantage—that make them less likely to graduate from high school; less likely to get a well-paying job; and less likely to join the middle class. It makes them more likely to slip below the poverty line, or to stay there; more likely to suffer violence and abuse; and more likely to become involved in the criminal justice system.
The My Brother’s Keeper initiative is designed to support the progress of these individuals—with mentorships, with support networks and with public-private partnerships that help our young people develop the skills they need to find a good job, to go to college, to raise a family and to succeed. Most importantly, on a fundamental level, My Brother’s Keeper sends a message that these young people matter to us. They matter to their country. They matter to their president. And they matter to me—an Attorney General who is so much like them. We as a nation will never give up on them—and we must refuse to let them give up on themselves.
Over the last year, we have made significant progress. We have joined with cities and towns, businesses, and foundations that are taking steps to connect young people to the resources they need to get a good education, to improve their lives and to work their way into the middle class. We have launched the My Brother’s Keeper Community Challenge—an important call for communities to implement long-term strategies for improving the life outcomes of all young people. And we have established the National Initiative for Building Community Trust and Justice—a nationwide program designed to enhance procedural justice, reduce implicit bias and support racial reconciliation.
Just last week, I was proud to announce six cities selected to serve as pilot sites under this initiative—to develop programs that will work to dispel the mistrust that plagues too many neighborhoods, and to create innovative new efforts that will help build and maintain the bonds between law enforcement officers and the communities they serve, wherever those bonds have been broken. Those six cities—Birmingham, Alabama; Stockton, California; Gary, Indiana; Minneapolis, Minnesota; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; and Fort Worth, Texas—will stand on the front lines of this effort. And by helping to develop programs that serve their own diverse experiences, these cities will provide trailblazing insight and essential information for our ongoing efforts to confront pressing, similar issues in other communities across the country.
As you know, these are not abstract concepts—they are vital steps that we must take to improve our communities, to strengthen our public safety programs and to save lives. Recently, we’ve received painful reminders about the importance of initiatives like this one. We’ve endured sudden, rancorous challenges to the idea that we are one united people. And we’ve seen how quickly and how easily a split-second local incident can give way to enduring national strife and tragedy—to parents who are left without their children; to young people forever deprived of a role model; to brave officers killed while serving their communities; and to citizens across the country who fear walking their neighborhoods and cops who fear patrolling their beats.
That is a reality that is incompatible with the spirit of this country—a country founded on the notion of brotherhood; of shared vision and common effort. A country that views “we the people” as a declaration of the inextricable links that connect us to one another. As then-State Senator Obama said in a convention hall in Boston just over a decade ago, “it is that fundamental belief—I am my brother’s keeper, I am my sister’s keeper—that makes this country work.”
Now, our society has not always lived up to that promise. America has been sorely tested—by long-ago injustices that nearly split our Union, and by systemic biases that still fester in too many institutions today. But over nearly 250 years of debate, of argument and of slow and deliberate progress, there can be no doubt that we have moved closer to our highest ideals; that we have advanced toward a brighter horizon; and that we have bent the arc of the moral universe—haltingly, but with great determination and clarity of purpose—toward justice.
From revolution to emancipation; from the suffragists to the Freedom Riders; from Selma to Stonewall, countless men, women and children of strong character and enduring faith have pulled this country forward, toward a new day when all Americans can succeed no matter who they are, no matter what they look like, no matter where they’re from, and no matter whom they love—whether they are rich or poor, young or old, gay or straight, famous or unknown. Whether they are an individual born with all the advantages this country has to offer, or a young man of color faced with difficult choices and an uncertain future. We’re not there yet. But today—right now—it is up to all of us to take up that challenge, to continue that effort and to resume the march that so many have sacrificed so much to advance.
I know that this work will not always be simple. Longstanding inequities will not be easily corrected, historic divides will not be healed overnight, and leaders in government, no matter how committed, cannot do this work alone. That is why the private partnerships being forged in response to My Brother’s Keeper are so crucial, and why I have been proud to work with—and in some cases, to help establish—extraordinary nonprofit organizations that extend a hand to at-risk youth across the country—organizations like the See Forever Foundation, Safe Shores, and The Alliance for Concerned Men.
In conversations with public safety officers, community and business leaders, activists, and young people across the country—in Atlanta, Cleveland, Memphis, Chicago, Philadelphia, Oakland, and San Francisco—I have found broad agreement that we can work together to create safer, more prosperous communities. I have encountered an overriding desire to collaborate toward that end. And I have been struck not by our divisions, but by our common interest in creating the more just society that all Americans deserve.
As I look around this room today—at the dedicated citizens who have a hand in this country’s direction and the young people who will guide it for years to come—I cannot help being optimistic. I cannot help anticipating that brighter day. And I cannot help feeling confident about all that we will achieve together.
In the coming days, my tenure as Attorney General of the United States will come to an end. But whenever I do depart the Obama Administration, I will never leave this work. I will never abandon this mission. And I will never relinquish this effort to help build the more equal country—and the more just society—that all Americans deserve. I look forward to continuing to work with all of you as we seek to make our Union more perfect.
Showing posts with label CENTER FOR AMERICAN PROGRESS. Show all posts
Showing posts with label CENTER FOR AMERICAN PROGRESS. Show all posts
Wednesday, March 18, 2015
Tuesday, July 29, 2014
SECRETARY KERRY'S REMARKS AT CENTER FOR AMERICAN PROGRESS' INDIA: 2020 PROGRAM
FROM: U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT
Remarks at the Center for American Progress' India: 2020 Program
Remarks
John Kerry
Secretary of State
Center for American Progress
Washington, DC
July 28, 2014
Neera, thank you very, very much. Thank you for confirming to me your mother’s fealty. (Laughter.) I’m deeply appreciative for her support through the years and I’m sorry we lost you when you were 18, but I’m glad you wound up here, as is everybody else. We’re delighted that you’re here.
It’s a privilege for me to be back at the Center for American Progress, and I am very, very apologetic for the delay. I know I’ve kept you all from your appointed rounds and I apologize for that. It’s good to get the telephone unglued for a few minutes here. Obviously, we are still working hard at trying to deal with the issue of the crisis in the Middle East. I spoke to it a little earlier today, so I’m not going to repeat what I said, except to say to all of you that we want to be able to find a way to get to a table to discuss the underlying issues which are real and impactful on everybody and on the region. And we hope to be able to find the magic formula by which the violence could cease for a long enough period of time to try to find that sustainable ceasefire which could allow you to move on from there. The region has known violence for far too long. Too many innocent people caught in the crossfire, too many lives ruptured, and so it is imperative for all of us in positions of responsibility to do everything we can to try to find a diplomatic way, a peaceful way forward if possible.
It is a privilege for me to be back here at the Center for American Progress. Ambassador Sandhu, thank you for being here representing the Embassy, the DCM here, all of our ex-ambassadors and ex-assistant secretaries of Defense and otherwise – greatly appreciative for their supports and efforts to advance the very crucial relationship between the United States and India. And at a time when so many people are – you know, back in history when they were looking for a lot of simple slogans and silver bullets to cure an immediate problem, which was pretty basic, that the Democratic Party was out of the White House and sidelined in the minority in both the House and the Senate – that’s when a guy named John Podesta stood up and was determined to get past the day-to-day ups and downs of the Washington echo chamber, and helped to shape a principled and progressive policy agenda for governing.
John knew then what he practices now in the White House for President Obama: Good policy is good politics. So – excuse me, let me get rid of my flight here – good policy really does make good politics. I always found that and I’ve always tried to practice that. Under Neera Tanden’s leadership for the last couple years, CAP has continued to prove that good ideas are still the most important currency in our political debate. And that is a principle that has also guided CAP’s work on foreign policy, especially in convening Track II, the first intensive climate change dialogue between the United States and India.
India 2020 builds on that success by showing how the United States and India together can tackle global challenges, from security in the Asia Pacific to providing clean energy to delivering more inclusive growth. And Vikram Singh and Rich Verma are going to help lead us together on that, bringing some of the best minds together in terms of policy and politics, and I thank you very, very much for your contribution. Rich and Vikram, thank you for what you’re undertaking. It is really a dialogue about what is in most people’s currency but not always yet fully blossomed, one of the most important relationships internationally.
Now I just got back, as I think you all know, from a pretty intensive trip to Egypt, Israel, the West Bank, and to Europe, working to try to find an end to the violence that has threatened our ally Israel, and which has also cost hundreds of innocent lives in Gaza and elsewhere. The fact is that we were able to produce at least the beginnings of a ceasefire process, a 12-hour ceasefire, then confusion over 4 hours and 12 hours. But the bottom line is the concept of that, I think, is still appreciated by all, and the key now is to find the road, not the question of what.
Now there are some in America who question America’s efforts actually not just in America. There’s some people who ask this elsewhere. But particularly here, they question about our efforts to bring peace to various conflicts around the world. I think they ought to ask: What’s the alternative? Make no mistake, when the people of Israel are rushing to bomb shelters, when innocent Israeli and Palestinian teenagers are abducted and murdered, when hundreds of innocent civilians have lost their lives, I will and we will make no apologies for our engagement.
Ungoverned spaces threaten us all. Instability threatens us all. And upholding the rule of law and humanitarian standards are not only national security imperatives; they are the right thing to do. This is who we are and this is what we do. And frankly, I think it is what we do with greater gusto, with greater grounding, if you will, in international rule of law and structure, than almost – almost any other country.
But I want to be very clear about something, and that’s why I’m here today: Even as we focus on crises and flashpoints that dominate the daily headlines and govern the cable talk shows and so forth, even as that happens and they demand our leadership, we will always act with long-term strategic imperatives foremost in our mind, and that’s why we’re here today. You can go to any capital in the world and you can find different nuanced and self-assured perspectives about American foreign policy. But if you were lucky enough to have the top hundred foreign policy thinkers sit in a room together and you asked them to name the most important relationships for which the United States, with that relationship, will most affect the direction of the 21st century, I can guarantee you this: Every single one of them would rank the U.S.-India relationship right up there in the top tier.
So I want to emphasize the key relationship for the United States – one of the key relationships for the United States in that context is the deepening relationship with India, and particularly trying to deepen our ties with India in terms of our strategic imperatives, both of us. It doesn’t matter just to us or to India; it actually matters to the world. And that’s why, in my first months as Secretary of State, I went to India. And it’s no coincidence that at the time, I – that in Prime Minister Modi’s first 100 days in his government, I’m now returning to Delhi for two days of Strategic Dialogue and discussion. And it was no accident that in the intervening time, we’ve had many discussions and meetings and the prime minister – former Prime Minister Singh, came here to the White House during that period of time.
But then, of course, they had an election. And as everybody knows, from certain number of months during an election, things tend to be put on hold. Now is the time to renew that dialogue with a new government, with a new set of opportunities, new possibilities. This is a potentially transformative moment in our partnership with India, and we’re determined to deliver on the strategic and historic opportunities that we can create together.
In a globalized world, we recognize that yes, India’s going to have many different partners. That’s the nature of the world we’re in today. But we believe there are unique opportunities for just United States and India, and that the dynamism and the entrepreneurial spirit of Mumbai and Bangalore, of Silicon Valley and of Boston – that is precisely what is required in order to solve some of the world’s greatest challenges.
President Obama is absolutely right to call this a defining partnership for the 21st century. India’s new government has won an historic mandate to deliver change and reform. And together, we have a singular opportunity to help India to be able to meet that challenge – to boost two-way trade, to drive South Asia’s connectivity, to develop cleaner energy, to deepen our security partnership in the Asia Pacific and beyond. The United States and India can and should be indispensable partners for the 21st century, and that is, I assure you, the way we approach the Modi government and the way we view this particular time. This week, Secretary Pritzker and I will be emphasizing those opportunities as we meet leaders of India’s new government.
Now we face, as we all know – and Neera talked about it, and it is true – this is a particularly challenging moment. Forces that were pent up for years in the Cold War tampened down by dictatorship and absence of freedom to speak have suddenly been released everywhere, and everywhere everybody is in touch with everybody all the time. It changes the face of politics profoundly everywhere. People have more information, more ability to organize, more ability to talk to each other. So we do face a host of critical challenges together and we face a world in which more young people more rapidly are demanding more from their governments with too many places where there’s too little response. And that is a challenge for all governance, none more so than what we do to link our economies, India and the United States, in order to further our shared prosperity agenda.
What we do to strengthen global security and a rules-based international system, how we turn the challenges of climate change into an opportunity for greater cooperation and economic growth – these are the big challenges. These are opportunities for us. Our countries have had a decades-long relationship, and I can personally remember the lingering sense of suspicion and distrust when I first went to India at the end of the Cold War. I traveled to Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore with executives from companies like Raytheon and Nextel, companies that are doing booming business in India today. I remember talking to then-Finance Minister Singh about the reforms that were needed and the opening up of the economy and the ability to be able to attract capital and have rules that made sense to everybody that we all understood. I remember that back then, and I felt then the possibility of the enormous potential of a closer, stronger partnership.
And now, it’s not hard to see how in this moment, we can actually deliver on that partnership’s full promise. The new Indian Government’s plan, “Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas”, together with all, development for all – that’s a concept, a vision that we want to support. We believe it’s a great vision, and our private sector is eager to be a catalyst in India’s economic revitalization. American companies lead in exactly the key sectors where India wants to grow: in high-end manufacturing, in infrastructure, in healthcare, information technology, all of them vital to sort of leapfrogging stages of development so you can provide more faster to more people
India also wants to build a more competitive workforce, and already 100,000 Indians study each year in American universities. But America’s community colleges actually set a remarkable standard for 21st century skills training. We should be expanding our educational ties across the board, increasing opportunities for young people in both of our nations. I know Prime Minister Modi drew from that energy of India’s youth during his campaign. He repeatedly pointed out that while India’s one of the world’s oldest civilizations, it has the world’s youngest population. Prime Minister Modi has said that young people have a natural instinct to rise like a flame. And he has spoken about India’s duty to nurture that instinct, and we believe, frankly, that’s a duty for both of our nations.
And that means strengthening the exchange in technical education, in vocational programs for high-skilled trades, and especially in areas where we can build on the entrepreneurial and innovative spirit of both of our nations. And we all know about the extraordinary work ethic that people in India have and the capacity to be able to do this and seize this opportunity. One of the marked contrasts of this moment is this juxtaposition to parts of the world where young people demanded a participation in this world they see around them, and rose up against leadership that had stultified over the course of years, decades even – Tunisia, Egypt, Syria. They all began without one flake of religious extremism involved in the revolutions that brought change. It was all about young people gathering and forcing the notion that they wanted something more to life. They wanted opportunity, education, respect, dignity, jobs, a future.
So this possibility I’ve just defined between India and the United States, which fits very neatly into Prime Minister Modi’s vision that he expressed in a campaign which was ratified overwhelmingly by the people of his country is exactly the vision that we need to embrace now, and that’s why this opportunity is actually so ripe. This area of cooperation is particularly exciting, I think, and I’m particularly confident about these opportunities, because only countries that reward creativity the way the United States and India do could have possibly launched Hollywood and Bollywood. (Laughter.) Only countries that celebrate the entrepreneur the way we do could have launched Silicon Valley and Bangalore as global epicenters for innovation.
Innovation and entrepreneurship are in both of our DNA, and they not only make us natural partners; they give us natural advantages in a world that demands adaptability and resilience. The United States and India cannot afford to just sort of sit back and rest on these currently existing advantages. We have to build on them and we have to build on them by investing more in one another. Now unlike some other nations, the United States cannot direct a private corporation to go invest in a particular country. President Obama can’t order businesses to build factories in Kolkata or Chennai. It just doesn’t happen.
But we do know this from several hundred years of experience: If India’s government delivers on its plans to support greater space for private initiative, if it creates greater openness for capital flows, if it limits subsidies that stifle competition, if it provides strong intellectual property rights, believe me, even more American companies will come to India. They may even race to India. And with a clear and ambitious agenda, we can absolutely help create those conditions.
So as we work with our trading partners around the world to advance trade and investment liberalization, India has a decision to make about where it fits in the global trading system. India’s willingness to support a rules-based trading order and fulfill its obligations will help to welcome greater investment from the United States and from elsewhere around the world. The greater transparency and accountability that Prime Minister Modi put in place during his time as chief minister tells us he has already provided a model of how raising standards can actually increase economic growth.
Now I believe the United States and India should continue to reach for the ambitious target that Vice President Biden laid out last summer in India, to push from 100 billion to 500 billion a year in trade. And whatever impediments we may face along the way, we need to always be mindful of the opportunities and the bigger picture around this. So it’s in our – excuse me. It is completely in our mutual interest to address those obstacles that kind of raise their head here and there as you go along the way and to remember that a lot bigger opportunities will come from more robust ties, so we need to keep our eye on the prize out there and not get dragged down by one small or lesser particular aspect of a restraint. The bigger picture has to guide us and the end game has to guide us.
If you have any doubts, just look at the opportunities that Ford is creating right now in India. They’re doubling production from plants in Gujarat and Chennai. They’re investing 1 billion to make India a global hub for exports. Take a look at the jobs that TATA is creating for Americans by expanding auto design and sales in the United States, adding to its 24,000 employees already in this country. Already, Indian investment creates close to 100,000 jobs right here at home.
And we also convinced – we are convinced that just as the United States and India can do more to create shared prosperity, so can India and its neighbors. Simply from the size of South Asia’s market – 1.6 billion consumers – and from India’s geography, sitting at the center of this dynamic Asian continent, the opportunities are leaping out at us. They’re just enormous. And just to underscore how untapped this potential is, consider this: South Asia is the least integrated economic region in the world. Fastest growing region in the world, Southeast Asia.
By strengthening trade links with Bangladesh, by building on the political opening in Burma, by increasing trade with the Asia Pacific and Southeast Asia, India can be at the heart of a more connected, prosperous region. So we are deeply committed to helping India grab ahold of these opportunities.
That’s why the United States is supporting an Indo-Pacific Economic Corridor to connect South Asia to Southeast Asia. That’s why we’re focused on investing in regional infrastructures and in the creation of a regional energy market. And that’s why we’re supporting new trade routes linking Central and South Asia with the New Silk Road Initiative. I mean this is – the possibilities here are gigantic.
Now clearly, Prime Minister Modi understands the opportunities that regional connectivity provides for India and for a more stable, prosperous region. And by inviting leaders from around the region to his swearing-in, and by bringing them together to speak about connecting their economies as one of his first orders of business, he is eager for India to play a leading role. And guess what? So are we.
Nowhere is that leadership more critical than in improving cross-border trade and relations between India and Pakistan. Prime Minister Modi took the important first step of inviting Nawaz Sharif to his inauguration. Both men are business-minded leaders who want to create opportunity for their people. I talked to Nawaz Sharif after his visit there. He was very encouraged, thought it was positive, possibilities he understood. So improved trade is a win-win for both countries and both peoples. And I know that there are plans for the commerce secretaries and foreign secretaries to meet in the coming weeks in order to build on that. I commit to you that the United States will do everything we can to encourage India and Pakistan to work together and improve the prospects for both prosperity and stability in the region.
Now India has already shown a deep commitment to regional stability with the generous investments in Afghanistan. At this critical moment of transition and in the coming months, support from all across the international community will be vitally important. In the coming days, I will continue to work closely with President Karzai, with the candidates, with the United Nations in order to provide Afghanistan with support during the transition. And we look forward to working also with India on this, and we look forward to India engaging with its neighbors so that Afghanistan’s connections to the region and the world are defined by the opportunity that they can create together.
Far beyond Afghanistan, India is assuming greater responsibilities for regional and global security. As India plays an increasingly global role, its interests are served by forging strong partnerships on a broad range of issues. Among South Asian nations and within international organizations, India should be a global leader. That’s why President Obama voiced his clear support for a reformed UN Security Council that includes India as a permanent member.
For several years, India has been a major partner in the fight against piracy in the Strait of Malacca and off the Horn of Africa. Even as we speak, India and the United States are participating in RIMPAC and Malabar joint naval exercises. Secretary Hagel will explore broadening our deepening – the deepening possibilities of our relationship with India when he travels there in early August.
Counterterrorism is also a challenge to both of our nations. The United States and India are continuing a very close partnership in that regard we began after the horrific Mumbai attacks, and then we began to train first responders in order to help protect our citizens. And President Obama was critical clear – crystal clear about the stakes for our counterterrorism partnership in his West Point speech in May. And our two nations have already provided one model of how these partnerships can work. Our collaboration on counterterrorism and real-time information sharing has helped us confront common threats and bring terrorists to justice.
But there is obviously room for us to be able to do more. When terrorist attacks took 400 Indian lives in 2013 alone, we know that the threat of terrorism remains too real and far too high for India’s people. Confronting terrorism requires our continued partnership and it requires continued vigilance. And it also means leading with our values. India and the United States are two nations that have worked hard to overcome our own divisions so that today we draw strength from pluralism and diversity. We’ve got to provide that example as we work to provide opportunity beyond our borders, addressing the conditions that allow extremists to thrive in the first place.
I won’t tell you where, but I’ll tell you I was with a foreign minister of a country in Africa recently, and we had dinner and we talked kind of candidly and openly as you can in that situation. And he said to me – I asked him about their Muslim population and what was happening. And he said, “Well, X percentage of our population is Muslim, and we’re very worried, because the bad guys have a strategy. They grab these young minds when they’re 13, 14, 15, 16. They pay them originally, and then when they get the minds, they don’t pay them anymore, they don’t have to. Then they send them out to recruit or conduct a mission. And they subvert the state. They have a strategy. Do we?”
It’s a prime question for all of us, and in so many parts of the world where 60 percent of the population is under the age of 30, 50 percent under the age of 21, 40 percent under the age of 18 and more in some places – if these people don’t find jobs and they don’t get an education and they don’t have opportunity and dignity and respect and a voice, then you know who’s going to grab them and say, out of frustration, “There’s a better way.” That’s part of our challenge and responsibility as great global powers, and that’s part of how we tame the most dangerous impulses of a more interconnected world.
One challenge that drives home just how interconnected and interdependent we are on this planet is this challenge of a lifetime called climate change. For millions of Indians, extreme weather and resource shortages are not future threats; they are here now. They’re endangering their health and prosperity and security every single day.
In India’s largest rice-producing region, West Bengal, the Monsoon rains have been 50 percent lower than average this year. This comes after the monsoons all but failed last year in several Indian states, helping to cause one of the worst droughts in a generation, affecting 120 million Indians.
In parts of northern India, armed bandits have imposed what amounts to a water tax, demanding 35 buckets a day. So believe me, it is not hard to measure the ways in which climate change every single day is already a catalyst for instability. I can show you places in the world where tribes fight over a well and people are dying because of the absence of water.
And while parts of India suffer from a once-in-a-generation drought, others suffer from – guess what – historic rains. When I arrived in India last summer, Uttarakhand was grappling with historic floods that killed more than 5,000 people.
So climate volatility is clearly taking a toll on India’s population. And so is pollution. Of the 10 cities in the world with the worst air quality, six are in India. Each year in India, the effects of air pollution cause nearly 1.5 million deaths.
So we know what the down sides are, but happily, guess what, we also know what the solutions are. And forging these solutions is a huge economic opportunity for both of us. The solution comes from areas where we already do things very well, where we’ve already made great progress, where innovation, smarter energy policy, and clean energy technology are already defining the future.
Let me just share with everybody – I reinforce this again and again whenever I get a chance. The solution to climate change is energy policy. It’s not some magical, unreachable, untouchable thing out there. It’s not pie in the sky. It’s energy policy. And where we put good energy policy in place, we reduce emissions and we begin to contribute to the solution. It’s a huge market, my friends.
I also remind people that the market that created the great wealth of the United States of America during the 1990s, which made Americans individually and otherwise richer than they’d ever been in American history – at the top end it made people richer than they did in the 1920s when we didn’t have an income tax, and every single quintile of American income earners saw their income go up in the 1990s. You know what that was? A $1 trillion market with one billion users. It was the high-tech computer, personal computer, et cetera market.
Today’s energy market is a – today’s energy market is a $6 trillion market now, with four to five billion users, growing to nine billion users over the course of the next 30 years, by 2050. Just think about that. It’s an opportunity for huge numbers of jobs, for transformation in the provision of our power, transformation in health, get rid – lowering the pollution, moving into the new energy sources, providing safety and security in energy so we don’t have instability. And I could run on in the possibilities, not the least of which our global responsibility to stand up for and leave a cleaner, better, more sustainable Earth to our children and our grandchildren. It’s a way of living up to our responsibility as stewards of the planet, which, by the way, is directed to us in every major scripture of every major religion.
Now, both of our nations pride ourselves on science and innovation. So the bottom line is this is up to us. It’s up to us to deliver. I know Prime Minister Modi understands the urgency. He’s called for a Saffron Revolution, because “the saffron color represents energy.” And he said that “this revolution should focus on renewable energy sources such as solar energy, to meet India’s growing energy demand.” He is absolutely right, and together I believe that we can at last begin a new constructive chapter in the United States-India climate change relationship.
The United States has an immediate ability to make a difference here, and we need to eliminate the barriers that keep the best technology out of the Indian market. And the United States can help India find and develop new sources of energy through renewable technologies and greater export capacity for liquefied natural gas.
Already, we’ve brought together more than 1 billion in financing for renewable energy projects. And with this funding, we helped to bring India’s first 1,000 megawatts of solar power online. But we need to build on the U.S. India Civil Nuclear Agreement, so that American companies can start building and can start providing clean power to millions in India. And we need to build on the $125 million investment that we’ve made in a Joint Clean Energy Research and Development Center.
Prime Minister Modi has also made a commitment to electrify every home in India by 2019. With fewer limits on foreign technology and investment in India’s green energy sector, we can help make clean power more cost-effective and more accessible at the same time. We can provide 400 million Indians with power without creating emissions that dirty the air and endanger public health. And by working together to help an entire generation of Indians leapfrog over fossil fuels, we can actually set an example to the world.
So I readily acknowledge that today’s climate challenges did not start with India. And we know that the United States is the second-largest emitter of carbon in the world – the first now being China, who have overtaken us. But we also know that we can’t solve these problems alone – no one. They require partnership. And our partnership requires our leadership. By acting right now to reduce emissions, just as President Obama has done here in the United States, by investing in innovation, and by working together in the UN climate negotiations, we could prevent the most devastating consequences of climate change and meet this generational challenge.
Lastly, in this century, one that will continue to be defined by competing models of government, India and the United States have a common responsibility – we already have it; we share it – to prove that democracies can deliver for their citizens. Our two nations believe that when every citizen, no matter their background, no matter their beliefs, can make their full contribution. That is when we are strongest and that’s when we’re most secure.
So we are two confident nations, connected by core values, optimistic nations, never losing sight of how much more we can and must achieve. From women’s rights to minority rights, there is room to go further with our work together. And we also have to speak with a common voice against the violence against women in any shape or form that is a violation against our deepest values.
The United States and India are two nations that began both of their founding documents with exactly the same three words: “We the people.” By deepening our partnership, we can work together to deliver opportunity to all of our people and become stronger nations.
President Roosevelt, of course, described America as having a “rendezvous with destiny.” India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru spoke about India’s “tryst with destiny.” This can be a moment where our destinies actually do converge. And if we harness our capacity of our two nations, if we deepen our partnership, if we make smart choices, if we seize these opportunities, the United States and India can create a more prosperous and secure future for the world and for one another.
That is why I leave for Delhi tomorrow night, and that is why the President will welcome Prime Minister Modi to Washington in September. Because this is the moment to transform our strategic relationship into an historic partnership that honors our place as great powers and great democracies. We intend to leave not an instant behind us. We are going to get to work now. Thank you. (Applause.)
It’s a privilege for me to be back at the Center for American Progress, and I am very, very apologetic for the delay. I know I’ve kept you all from your appointed rounds and I apologize for that. It’s good to get the telephone unglued for a few minutes here. Obviously, we are still working hard at trying to deal with the issue of the crisis in the Middle East. I spoke to it a little earlier today, so I’m not going to repeat what I said, except to say to all of you that we want to be able to find a way to get to a table to discuss the underlying issues which are real and impactful on everybody and on the region. And we hope to be able to find the magic formula by which the violence could cease for a long enough period of time to try to find that sustainable ceasefire which could allow you to move on from there. The region has known violence for far too long. Too many innocent people caught in the crossfire, too many lives ruptured, and so it is imperative for all of us in positions of responsibility to do everything we can to try to find a diplomatic way, a peaceful way forward if possible.
It is a privilege for me to be back here at the Center for American Progress. Ambassador Sandhu, thank you for being here representing the Embassy, the DCM here, all of our ex-ambassadors and ex-assistant secretaries of Defense and otherwise – greatly appreciative for their supports and efforts to advance the very crucial relationship between the United States and India. And at a time when so many people are – you know, back in history when they were looking for a lot of simple slogans and silver bullets to cure an immediate problem, which was pretty basic, that the Democratic Party was out of the White House and sidelined in the minority in both the House and the Senate – that’s when a guy named John Podesta stood up and was determined to get past the day-to-day ups and downs of the Washington echo chamber, and helped to shape a principled and progressive policy agenda for governing.
John knew then what he practices now in the White House for President Obama: Good policy is good politics. So – excuse me, let me get rid of my flight here – good policy really does make good politics. I always found that and I’ve always tried to practice that. Under Neera Tanden’s leadership for the last couple years, CAP has continued to prove that good ideas are still the most important currency in our political debate. And that is a principle that has also guided CAP’s work on foreign policy, especially in convening Track II, the first intensive climate change dialogue between the United States and India.
India 2020 builds on that success by showing how the United States and India together can tackle global challenges, from security in the Asia Pacific to providing clean energy to delivering more inclusive growth. And Vikram Singh and Rich Verma are going to help lead us together on that, bringing some of the best minds together in terms of policy and politics, and I thank you very, very much for your contribution. Rich and Vikram, thank you for what you’re undertaking. It is really a dialogue about what is in most people’s currency but not always yet fully blossomed, one of the most important relationships internationally.
Now I just got back, as I think you all know, from a pretty intensive trip to Egypt, Israel, the West Bank, and to Europe, working to try to find an end to the violence that has threatened our ally Israel, and which has also cost hundreds of innocent lives in Gaza and elsewhere. The fact is that we were able to produce at least the beginnings of a ceasefire process, a 12-hour ceasefire, then confusion over 4 hours and 12 hours. But the bottom line is the concept of that, I think, is still appreciated by all, and the key now is to find the road, not the question of what.
Now there are some in America who question America’s efforts actually not just in America. There’s some people who ask this elsewhere. But particularly here, they question about our efforts to bring peace to various conflicts around the world. I think they ought to ask: What’s the alternative? Make no mistake, when the people of Israel are rushing to bomb shelters, when innocent Israeli and Palestinian teenagers are abducted and murdered, when hundreds of innocent civilians have lost their lives, I will and we will make no apologies for our engagement.
Ungoverned spaces threaten us all. Instability threatens us all. And upholding the rule of law and humanitarian standards are not only national security imperatives; they are the right thing to do. This is who we are and this is what we do. And frankly, I think it is what we do with greater gusto, with greater grounding, if you will, in international rule of law and structure, than almost – almost any other country.
But I want to be very clear about something, and that’s why I’m here today: Even as we focus on crises and flashpoints that dominate the daily headlines and govern the cable talk shows and so forth, even as that happens and they demand our leadership, we will always act with long-term strategic imperatives foremost in our mind, and that’s why we’re here today. You can go to any capital in the world and you can find different nuanced and self-assured perspectives about American foreign policy. But if you were lucky enough to have the top hundred foreign policy thinkers sit in a room together and you asked them to name the most important relationships for which the United States, with that relationship, will most affect the direction of the 21st century, I can guarantee you this: Every single one of them would rank the U.S.-India relationship right up there in the top tier.
So I want to emphasize the key relationship for the United States – one of the key relationships for the United States in that context is the deepening relationship with India, and particularly trying to deepen our ties with India in terms of our strategic imperatives, both of us. It doesn’t matter just to us or to India; it actually matters to the world. And that’s why, in my first months as Secretary of State, I went to India. And it’s no coincidence that at the time, I – that in Prime Minister Modi’s first 100 days in his government, I’m now returning to Delhi for two days of Strategic Dialogue and discussion. And it was no accident that in the intervening time, we’ve had many discussions and meetings and the prime minister – former Prime Minister Singh, came here to the White House during that period of time.
But then, of course, they had an election. And as everybody knows, from certain number of months during an election, things tend to be put on hold. Now is the time to renew that dialogue with a new government, with a new set of opportunities, new possibilities. This is a potentially transformative moment in our partnership with India, and we’re determined to deliver on the strategic and historic opportunities that we can create together.
In a globalized world, we recognize that yes, India’s going to have many different partners. That’s the nature of the world we’re in today. But we believe there are unique opportunities for just United States and India, and that the dynamism and the entrepreneurial spirit of Mumbai and Bangalore, of Silicon Valley and of Boston – that is precisely what is required in order to solve some of the world’s greatest challenges.
President Obama is absolutely right to call this a defining partnership for the 21st century. India’s new government has won an historic mandate to deliver change and reform. And together, we have a singular opportunity to help India to be able to meet that challenge – to boost two-way trade, to drive South Asia’s connectivity, to develop cleaner energy, to deepen our security partnership in the Asia Pacific and beyond. The United States and India can and should be indispensable partners for the 21st century, and that is, I assure you, the way we approach the Modi government and the way we view this particular time. This week, Secretary Pritzker and I will be emphasizing those opportunities as we meet leaders of India’s new government.
Now we face, as we all know – and Neera talked about it, and it is true – this is a particularly challenging moment. Forces that were pent up for years in the Cold War tampened down by dictatorship and absence of freedom to speak have suddenly been released everywhere, and everywhere everybody is in touch with everybody all the time. It changes the face of politics profoundly everywhere. People have more information, more ability to organize, more ability to talk to each other. So we do face a host of critical challenges together and we face a world in which more young people more rapidly are demanding more from their governments with too many places where there’s too little response. And that is a challenge for all governance, none more so than what we do to link our economies, India and the United States, in order to further our shared prosperity agenda.
What we do to strengthen global security and a rules-based international system, how we turn the challenges of climate change into an opportunity for greater cooperation and economic growth – these are the big challenges. These are opportunities for us. Our countries have had a decades-long relationship, and I can personally remember the lingering sense of suspicion and distrust when I first went to India at the end of the Cold War. I traveled to Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore with executives from companies like Raytheon and Nextel, companies that are doing booming business in India today. I remember talking to then-Finance Minister Singh about the reforms that were needed and the opening up of the economy and the ability to be able to attract capital and have rules that made sense to everybody that we all understood. I remember that back then, and I felt then the possibility of the enormous potential of a closer, stronger partnership.
And now, it’s not hard to see how in this moment, we can actually deliver on that partnership’s full promise. The new Indian Government’s plan, “Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas”, together with all, development for all – that’s a concept, a vision that we want to support. We believe it’s a great vision, and our private sector is eager to be a catalyst in India’s economic revitalization. American companies lead in exactly the key sectors where India wants to grow: in high-end manufacturing, in infrastructure, in healthcare, information technology, all of them vital to sort of leapfrogging stages of development so you can provide more faster to more people
India also wants to build a more competitive workforce, and already 100,000 Indians study each year in American universities. But America’s community colleges actually set a remarkable standard for 21st century skills training. We should be expanding our educational ties across the board, increasing opportunities for young people in both of our nations. I know Prime Minister Modi drew from that energy of India’s youth during his campaign. He repeatedly pointed out that while India’s one of the world’s oldest civilizations, it has the world’s youngest population. Prime Minister Modi has said that young people have a natural instinct to rise like a flame. And he has spoken about India’s duty to nurture that instinct, and we believe, frankly, that’s a duty for both of our nations.
And that means strengthening the exchange in technical education, in vocational programs for high-skilled trades, and especially in areas where we can build on the entrepreneurial and innovative spirit of both of our nations. And we all know about the extraordinary work ethic that people in India have and the capacity to be able to do this and seize this opportunity. One of the marked contrasts of this moment is this juxtaposition to parts of the world where young people demanded a participation in this world they see around them, and rose up against leadership that had stultified over the course of years, decades even – Tunisia, Egypt, Syria. They all began without one flake of religious extremism involved in the revolutions that brought change. It was all about young people gathering and forcing the notion that they wanted something more to life. They wanted opportunity, education, respect, dignity, jobs, a future.
So this possibility I’ve just defined between India and the United States, which fits very neatly into Prime Minister Modi’s vision that he expressed in a campaign which was ratified overwhelmingly by the people of his country is exactly the vision that we need to embrace now, and that’s why this opportunity is actually so ripe. This area of cooperation is particularly exciting, I think, and I’m particularly confident about these opportunities, because only countries that reward creativity the way the United States and India do could have possibly launched Hollywood and Bollywood. (Laughter.) Only countries that celebrate the entrepreneur the way we do could have launched Silicon Valley and Bangalore as global epicenters for innovation.
Innovation and entrepreneurship are in both of our DNA, and they not only make us natural partners; they give us natural advantages in a world that demands adaptability and resilience. The United States and India cannot afford to just sort of sit back and rest on these currently existing advantages. We have to build on them and we have to build on them by investing more in one another. Now unlike some other nations, the United States cannot direct a private corporation to go invest in a particular country. President Obama can’t order businesses to build factories in Kolkata or Chennai. It just doesn’t happen.
But we do know this from several hundred years of experience: If India’s government delivers on its plans to support greater space for private initiative, if it creates greater openness for capital flows, if it limits subsidies that stifle competition, if it provides strong intellectual property rights, believe me, even more American companies will come to India. They may even race to India. And with a clear and ambitious agenda, we can absolutely help create those conditions.
So as we work with our trading partners around the world to advance trade and investment liberalization, India has a decision to make about where it fits in the global trading system. India’s willingness to support a rules-based trading order and fulfill its obligations will help to welcome greater investment from the United States and from elsewhere around the world. The greater transparency and accountability that Prime Minister Modi put in place during his time as chief minister tells us he has already provided a model of how raising standards can actually increase economic growth.
Now I believe the United States and India should continue to reach for the ambitious target that Vice President Biden laid out last summer in India, to push from 100 billion to 500 billion a year in trade. And whatever impediments we may face along the way, we need to always be mindful of the opportunities and the bigger picture around this. So it’s in our – excuse me. It is completely in our mutual interest to address those obstacles that kind of raise their head here and there as you go along the way and to remember that a lot bigger opportunities will come from more robust ties, so we need to keep our eye on the prize out there and not get dragged down by one small or lesser particular aspect of a restraint. The bigger picture has to guide us and the end game has to guide us.
If you have any doubts, just look at the opportunities that Ford is creating right now in India. They’re doubling production from plants in Gujarat and Chennai. They’re investing 1 billion to make India a global hub for exports. Take a look at the jobs that TATA is creating for Americans by expanding auto design and sales in the United States, adding to its 24,000 employees already in this country. Already, Indian investment creates close to 100,000 jobs right here at home.
And we also convinced – we are convinced that just as the United States and India can do more to create shared prosperity, so can India and its neighbors. Simply from the size of South Asia’s market – 1.6 billion consumers – and from India’s geography, sitting at the center of this dynamic Asian continent, the opportunities are leaping out at us. They’re just enormous. And just to underscore how untapped this potential is, consider this: South Asia is the least integrated economic region in the world. Fastest growing region in the world, Southeast Asia.
By strengthening trade links with Bangladesh, by building on the political opening in Burma, by increasing trade with the Asia Pacific and Southeast Asia, India can be at the heart of a more connected, prosperous region. So we are deeply committed to helping India grab ahold of these opportunities.
That’s why the United States is supporting an Indo-Pacific Economic Corridor to connect South Asia to Southeast Asia. That’s why we’re focused on investing in regional infrastructures and in the creation of a regional energy market. And that’s why we’re supporting new trade routes linking Central and South Asia with the New Silk Road Initiative. I mean this is – the possibilities here are gigantic.
Now clearly, Prime Minister Modi understands the opportunities that regional connectivity provides for India and for a more stable, prosperous region. And by inviting leaders from around the region to his swearing-in, and by bringing them together to speak about connecting their economies as one of his first orders of business, he is eager for India to play a leading role. And guess what? So are we.
Nowhere is that leadership more critical than in improving cross-border trade and relations between India and Pakistan. Prime Minister Modi took the important first step of inviting Nawaz Sharif to his inauguration. Both men are business-minded leaders who want to create opportunity for their people. I talked to Nawaz Sharif after his visit there. He was very encouraged, thought it was positive, possibilities he understood. So improved trade is a win-win for both countries and both peoples. And I know that there are plans for the commerce secretaries and foreign secretaries to meet in the coming weeks in order to build on that. I commit to you that the United States will do everything we can to encourage India and Pakistan to work together and improve the prospects for both prosperity and stability in the region.
Now India has already shown a deep commitment to regional stability with the generous investments in Afghanistan. At this critical moment of transition and in the coming months, support from all across the international community will be vitally important. In the coming days, I will continue to work closely with President Karzai, with the candidates, with the United Nations in order to provide Afghanistan with support during the transition. And we look forward to working also with India on this, and we look forward to India engaging with its neighbors so that Afghanistan’s connections to the region and the world are defined by the opportunity that they can create together.
Far beyond Afghanistan, India is assuming greater responsibilities for regional and global security. As India plays an increasingly global role, its interests are served by forging strong partnerships on a broad range of issues. Among South Asian nations and within international organizations, India should be a global leader. That’s why President Obama voiced his clear support for a reformed UN Security Council that includes India as a permanent member.
For several years, India has been a major partner in the fight against piracy in the Strait of Malacca and off the Horn of Africa. Even as we speak, India and the United States are participating in RIMPAC and Malabar joint naval exercises. Secretary Hagel will explore broadening our deepening – the deepening possibilities of our relationship with India when he travels there in early August.
Counterterrorism is also a challenge to both of our nations. The United States and India are continuing a very close partnership in that regard we began after the horrific Mumbai attacks, and then we began to train first responders in order to help protect our citizens. And President Obama was critical clear – crystal clear about the stakes for our counterterrorism partnership in his West Point speech in May. And our two nations have already provided one model of how these partnerships can work. Our collaboration on counterterrorism and real-time information sharing has helped us confront common threats and bring terrorists to justice.
But there is obviously room for us to be able to do more. When terrorist attacks took 400 Indian lives in 2013 alone, we know that the threat of terrorism remains too real and far too high for India’s people. Confronting terrorism requires our continued partnership and it requires continued vigilance. And it also means leading with our values. India and the United States are two nations that have worked hard to overcome our own divisions so that today we draw strength from pluralism and diversity. We’ve got to provide that example as we work to provide opportunity beyond our borders, addressing the conditions that allow extremists to thrive in the first place.
I won’t tell you where, but I’ll tell you I was with a foreign minister of a country in Africa recently, and we had dinner and we talked kind of candidly and openly as you can in that situation. And he said to me – I asked him about their Muslim population and what was happening. And he said, “Well, X percentage of our population is Muslim, and we’re very worried, because the bad guys have a strategy. They grab these young minds when they’re 13, 14, 15, 16. They pay them originally, and then when they get the minds, they don’t pay them anymore, they don’t have to. Then they send them out to recruit or conduct a mission. And they subvert the state. They have a strategy. Do we?”
It’s a prime question for all of us, and in so many parts of the world where 60 percent of the population is under the age of 30, 50 percent under the age of 21, 40 percent under the age of 18 and more in some places – if these people don’t find jobs and they don’t get an education and they don’t have opportunity and dignity and respect and a voice, then you know who’s going to grab them and say, out of frustration, “There’s a better way.” That’s part of our challenge and responsibility as great global powers, and that’s part of how we tame the most dangerous impulses of a more interconnected world.
One challenge that drives home just how interconnected and interdependent we are on this planet is this challenge of a lifetime called climate change. For millions of Indians, extreme weather and resource shortages are not future threats; they are here now. They’re endangering their health and prosperity and security every single day.
In India’s largest rice-producing region, West Bengal, the Monsoon rains have been 50 percent lower than average this year. This comes after the monsoons all but failed last year in several Indian states, helping to cause one of the worst droughts in a generation, affecting 120 million Indians.
In parts of northern India, armed bandits have imposed what amounts to a water tax, demanding 35 buckets a day. So believe me, it is not hard to measure the ways in which climate change every single day is already a catalyst for instability. I can show you places in the world where tribes fight over a well and people are dying because of the absence of water.
And while parts of India suffer from a once-in-a-generation drought, others suffer from – guess what – historic rains. When I arrived in India last summer, Uttarakhand was grappling with historic floods that killed more than 5,000 people.
So climate volatility is clearly taking a toll on India’s population. And so is pollution. Of the 10 cities in the world with the worst air quality, six are in India. Each year in India, the effects of air pollution cause nearly 1.5 million deaths.
So we know what the down sides are, but happily, guess what, we also know what the solutions are. And forging these solutions is a huge economic opportunity for both of us. The solution comes from areas where we already do things very well, where we’ve already made great progress, where innovation, smarter energy policy, and clean energy technology are already defining the future.
Let me just share with everybody – I reinforce this again and again whenever I get a chance. The solution to climate change is energy policy. It’s not some magical, unreachable, untouchable thing out there. It’s not pie in the sky. It’s energy policy. And where we put good energy policy in place, we reduce emissions and we begin to contribute to the solution. It’s a huge market, my friends.
I also remind people that the market that created the great wealth of the United States of America during the 1990s, which made Americans individually and otherwise richer than they’d ever been in American history – at the top end it made people richer than they did in the 1920s when we didn’t have an income tax, and every single quintile of American income earners saw their income go up in the 1990s. You know what that was? A $1 trillion market with one billion users. It was the high-tech computer, personal computer, et cetera market.
Today’s energy market is a – today’s energy market is a $6 trillion market now, with four to five billion users, growing to nine billion users over the course of the next 30 years, by 2050. Just think about that. It’s an opportunity for huge numbers of jobs, for transformation in the provision of our power, transformation in health, get rid – lowering the pollution, moving into the new energy sources, providing safety and security in energy so we don’t have instability. And I could run on in the possibilities, not the least of which our global responsibility to stand up for and leave a cleaner, better, more sustainable Earth to our children and our grandchildren. It’s a way of living up to our responsibility as stewards of the planet, which, by the way, is directed to us in every major scripture of every major religion.
Now, both of our nations pride ourselves on science and innovation. So the bottom line is this is up to us. It’s up to us to deliver. I know Prime Minister Modi understands the urgency. He’s called for a Saffron Revolution, because “the saffron color represents energy.” And he said that “this revolution should focus on renewable energy sources such as solar energy, to meet India’s growing energy demand.” He is absolutely right, and together I believe that we can at last begin a new constructive chapter in the United States-India climate change relationship.
The United States has an immediate ability to make a difference here, and we need to eliminate the barriers that keep the best technology out of the Indian market. And the United States can help India find and develop new sources of energy through renewable technologies and greater export capacity for liquefied natural gas.
Already, we’ve brought together more than 1 billion in financing for renewable energy projects. And with this funding, we helped to bring India’s first 1,000 megawatts of solar power online. But we need to build on the U.S. India Civil Nuclear Agreement, so that American companies can start building and can start providing clean power to millions in India. And we need to build on the $125 million investment that we’ve made in a Joint Clean Energy Research and Development Center.
Prime Minister Modi has also made a commitment to electrify every home in India by 2019. With fewer limits on foreign technology and investment in India’s green energy sector, we can help make clean power more cost-effective and more accessible at the same time. We can provide 400 million Indians with power without creating emissions that dirty the air and endanger public health. And by working together to help an entire generation of Indians leapfrog over fossil fuels, we can actually set an example to the world.
So I readily acknowledge that today’s climate challenges did not start with India. And we know that the United States is the second-largest emitter of carbon in the world – the first now being China, who have overtaken us. But we also know that we can’t solve these problems alone – no one. They require partnership. And our partnership requires our leadership. By acting right now to reduce emissions, just as President Obama has done here in the United States, by investing in innovation, and by working together in the UN climate negotiations, we could prevent the most devastating consequences of climate change and meet this generational challenge.
Lastly, in this century, one that will continue to be defined by competing models of government, India and the United States have a common responsibility – we already have it; we share it – to prove that democracies can deliver for their citizens. Our two nations believe that when every citizen, no matter their background, no matter their beliefs, can make their full contribution. That is when we are strongest and that’s when we’re most secure.
So we are two confident nations, connected by core values, optimistic nations, never losing sight of how much more we can and must achieve. From women’s rights to minority rights, there is room to go further with our work together. And we also have to speak with a common voice against the violence against women in any shape or form that is a violation against our deepest values.
The United States and India are two nations that began both of their founding documents with exactly the same three words: “We the people.” By deepening our partnership, we can work together to deliver opportunity to all of our people and become stronger nations.
President Roosevelt, of course, described America as having a “rendezvous with destiny.” India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru spoke about India’s “tryst with destiny.” This can be a moment where our destinies actually do converge. And if we harness our capacity of our two nations, if we deepen our partnership, if we make smart choices, if we seize these opportunities, the United States and India can create a more prosperous and secure future for the world and for one another.
That is why I leave for Delhi tomorrow night, and that is why the President will welcome Prime Minister Modi to Washington in September. Because this is the moment to transform our strategic relationship into an historic partnership that honors our place as great powers and great democracies. We intend to leave not an instant behind us. We are going to get to work now. Thank you. (Applause.)
Friday, October 25, 2013
SECRETARY OF STATE KERRY'S REMARKS AT CENTER FOR AMERICA PROGRESS
FROM: U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT
Remarks at the Center for American Progress' 10-year Anniversary Policy Conference
Remarks
John Kerry
Secretary of State
St. Regis Hotel
Washington, DC
October 24, 2013
Thank you very much. Thank you.
Neera, thank you very, very much. Thank you all. It’s wonderful for me to be here. Neera and I come from the same part of the country and share many of the same values, but none more important than our devotion to the American League Champion Boston Red Sox. Yeah. (Applause.) No boos, no boos. No boos allowed. (Laughter.) Anyway, in her role, obviously, as CAP’s John Farrell – for those of you who follow baseball, you know what I’m talking about – he’s the manager of the team, guys. He got them there. So anyway, she obviously has been extraordinary in her leadership at CAP. And this institution, I think everybody knows, has been strong and steady ever since she took that over.
And frankly, before Neera and John Podesta, our fearless leader here, opened CAP’s doors a decade ago, which is what is being celebrated here today, everybody here knows that they did an extraordinary job of helping to steer President Clinton’s administration during a time of unprecedented prosperity at home and also importantly, from my point of view today on a day-to-day basis, a period in which America enjoyed and earned huge respect around the world.
President Clinton understood very clearly that in a complex and changing world, our friends and our foes alike are going to be more impressed, as he said, “by the power of our example than by the example of our power.” And the person who President Clinton said best exemplifies that particular principle in these times is President Obama. I would say to you that over the last five years that the power of our example has been strong, a lot stronger than some people may perceive in a world of 24/7 cacophony. But the fact is that whether in Afghanistan, where we’re etching out a drawdown in a bilateral security agreement, or Iraq, where we did drawdown and leave, or the Far East, where we have a repositioning and rebalancing, or in the START treaty, or in our efforts in the Middle East today, our efforts to lead on Syria, on many other things, the President’s engagement, I believe, has underscored many times over how America plays an absolutely indispensable role in promoting peace, security, and shared prosperity around the world.
And I will tell you I thought I had a pretty good sense of those things as the chairman of the Foreign Relations committee and a 28-year veteran of that committee. But I will tell you that it has become far more clear to me in these many meetings and in these many journeys how absolutely true it is that we are indispensable, and that if we’re going to move in the directions we want to, whether it’s climate change that you were just talking about, or a host of other challenges, we’re going to do it with our leadership, with the highest standards.
It’s my privilege to serve as the President’s Secretary of State. Every day, I get to witness how much good, how much engagement we offer, how much our diplomats do around the world. And I remember an observation that my dad made, who was a Foreign Service officer for a period of time, that he shared with me about diplomacy. He said good diplomacy comes from the ability to be able to see the world through someone else’s eyes, through the eyes of the people in another country. But today it’s become much clearer to me, more than ever before, that it isn’t just about how people in another part of the world see their own challenges. We also have to be far more conscious about how our leadership looks through other people’s eyes.
Now as Neera mentioned a moment ago, I just literally landed, just came back from a marathon session with Prime Minister Netanyahu, with the London 11 Syrian support group, with Saud al-Faisal in Saudi Arabia and others. And in the past eight months, over more than 100 days abroad in every corner of the world, I have seen how our allies, our partners, and those who wish to challenge us or do us harm – they’re all sizing us up every day; they’re taking our measure.
And what we do in Washington matters deeply to them. And that’s why a self-inflicted wound, like the shutdown that we just endured, can never happen again. (Applause.) As President Obama said, the shutdown “encouraged our enemies…emboldened our competitors, and it depressed our friends who look to us for steady leadership.”
I will tell you, apart from the jokes that some of the summits that I went to about whether because we weren’t being paid, one country or another could buy our meals, there were real consequences to our not being there. And now that this recent moment of politics has passed and since I’m no longer in elected office myself, I wanted just to come here this afternoon as you celebrate a 10th anniversary and contemplate the progressive challenges ahead, I wanted to reflect on the damage that events like the one we’ve just been through can do to the esteem in which the United States is held in the world, a key component of our national power.
Now let me underscore that none of what occurred is irreparable or irreversible and the strength of our principles and the strength of our people are still the envy of the world. But being a responsible democracy requires that we don’t walk ourselves to the brink every opportunity we get – that we don’t play games with our credit rating or our credibility.
During the shutdown, I was attending the APEC Summit in Indonesia, the ASEAN Summit in Brunei, and the Global Entrepreneurship Summit in Malaysia. And I spoke with our allies throughout Asia, throughout the entire Asia Pacific region, all of whom were assembled at these various summits. And that is a region that matters deeply to us. It matters to our economy. It matters to our security. And our economy and our security are closely intertwined in this complex world we’re living in today. The leaders in that region agreed that the strength of our partnership is much greater than a moment in politics – thank heavens – but those politics also, I’m telling you, clearly weighed heavily on their minds.
And it has entered into the calculation of leaders. As we negotiate with Iran, as we negotiate with the Middle East peace process in Israel, can we be counted on? Will the Congress come through? Can the President make an agreement which will be held?
Believe me: The shutdown, and the dysfunction, and the simplistic dialogue that came with it, didn’t impress anyone about the power of America’s example.
And you didn’t need to talk to an Asian foreign minister in order to get a sense of that. Just go online and read any of the number of dailies of our allies’ papers.
London’s Daily Telegraph said, “The U.S. is recklessly throwing away its future.”
A major daily in Seoul urged America “to stop holding their citizens and the world economy hostage.”
The biggest business daily in Germany reported, “The damage done is great and it has shaken America’s reputation.”
Notice how none of these assessments blamed one political party or another. They took no interest whatsoever in opinion polling, hypothetical electoral consequences, 2016, who won the news cycle, who would win the Senate. Nope, none of it. They simply wanted to know: Will America be a credible partner tomorrow?
I personally have every confidence that we can and that we are. But others are going to need to see us steer a steady course in order to rebuild their confidence. In the days to come, if we let domestic differences overwhelm diplomacy, those differences will undermine our shared values, and most importantly, our shared interests. The question is no longer whether our politics stops at the water’s edge, but whether our politics stops us from providing the leadership that the world needs.
The question is whether America will lead the $6 trillion global energy economy, which is the solution to what the panel was talking about, and as Al Gore, I am confident, will describe to you. Energy policy is the solution to global climate change, a $6 trillion market. The market that made America rich in the 1990s was a $1 trillion market with 1 billion users. The energy market is a $6 trillion market with about 5 billion users, and it’s going to rise to 9 billion users over the next 20, 30 years.
So you and I know that if we make the right choices, we can get there. The question is whether America is going to continue to be a global model for entrepreneurship and the magnet for the world’s brightest minds. You and I know if we take the steps to shore up our economic strength at home and we continue to welcome foreign citizens who seek to fulfill their aspirations in the United States, we can get there. But we have to make that choice.
The question is whether we’re going to invest in education and R&D at home, and ensure that the United States can compete and win in this highly competitive global marketplace. You and I know we can do that, but we have to make this a priority at a time of enormous pressure to drastically cut government spending.
Now, I have to tell you, when these questions are avoided altogether, when they’re put on the back burner, when we tie one hand behind our backs, whether through political stalemates or even shutting down the government, we’re just getting in our own way. And we diminish our influence and we frustrate our own aspirations.
The simple fact is that the shutdown created temporary but real consequences in our ability to work with our partners and pursue our interests abroad.
The shutdown didn’t just shutter the World War II Memorial, as unfortunate as that was – it stunted our ability to promote the principles and values that our veterans sacrificed for.
The shutdown didn’t just shutter the Statue of Liberty – it temporarily closed the doors to refugees and students who were seeking visas to learn here and to contribute to our economy.
The shutdown delayed security aid to Israel, one of our closest allies, obviously, and a critical democracy in a region that’s undergoing tremendous upheaval. Why would in common sense, why would you want to do that?
The shutdown sent hardworking public servants home, including officials whose job is to enforce the sanctions against Iran – sanctions that actually helped to create the pressure that have brought us to this moment of cautious possibility in the region.
The shutdown furloughed four Nobel Laureates who were working in the federal government, to put critical research funding on hold for Nobel Laureates of tomorrow.
Negotiations were also delayed on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, a trade deal President Obama has championed in order to continue to increase American exports around the world and to create jobs here at home and help Europe, help the Far East, begin to create the jobs to come out of the economic doldrums.
So this political moment was far more than just symbolism, far more than just a local fight. It matters deeply to our power and to our example. And while this chapter is temporarily over, we’ve got another date looming, and the experience has to serve as a stern warning to all. It should force us to consider in the weeks and months ahead what the world will look like if America is less present and less credible. Make no mistake, the greatest danger to America doesn’t come from a rising rival. It comes from the damage that we’re capable of doing by our own dysfunction and the risks that will arise in a world that may see restrained or limited American leadership as a result.
That doesn’t mean by any means that America ought to serve as the world’s policeman. That’s not what I’m talking about, and that’s not what President Obama’s talking about. We can’t solve every problem, certainly not on our own, but we remain the indispensable partner, the anchor of global security, and a catalyst for global prosperity.
So as I’ve said before, this is not the time to retreat or retrench. We need to be out there, and we need to be engaged with the world. Why? Because for every billion dollar in goods and services that we export, we create 5,000 jobs here at home. Because when we help other countries stand on their own two feet, we create trading partners for our businesses. In fact, 11 of our 15 biggest trading partners used to be the recipients of American aid. Korea, Republic of Korea, is now a donor, where 15 years ago it was a recipient of aid. No other nations bring so many countries together in support of global standards, international norms, where we encourage a race to the top, not to the bottom.
And looking ahead, as we fulfill our moral responsibility to combat climate change, to improve global health, to ensure that women have the same rights as men, and give voice to those who have none, we are the ones who will give people around the world the courage to be able to speak up and the confidence to be able to work together.
I’ve seen it, I know it. There’s no arrogance in saying that. I know there are some Americans who don’t care how the world sees us, but in an integrated world, a genie that no politician can put back into any bottle, we have lost the luxury of looking only inward. Today, isolationism is the enemy of economic prosperity and security at the same time.
My friends, the 21st century, like the last one, we’re going to see competition between different ideals and different systems of governance. And as a model for a whole bunch of nations, I think we have a special responsibility to demonstrate that democracy does deliver for its citizens. When democracy appears dysfunctional, aspiring peoples are all the more likely to settle for some other model. Extremists and autocrats rush to fill the vacuum. And the bigger their platform around the world, the greater the danger to our security here at home. Mark my words, it is connected.
I’ve often said that America is not exceptional because we talk about ourselves as being exceptional and beat our chests and stand up and say, “We’re exceptional.” It’s not because we say we are. It’s because we do exceptional things. And we’ve always done that. We’re the nation that defeated the Axis powers, and then invested billions of dollars in their recovery – and we never asked to be paid back. That’s exceptional.
We’re the nation that faced down the Soviet Union with the force of our ideals and alliances – and without resorting to the force of arms. That’s exceptional.
We’re the nation that saw the human toll of AIDS spiraling out of control in Africa, most people thinking we’d never rein it in, and we mustered the will and the resources to lead a global response that is now looking at the possibility of an AIDS-free generation. That is exceptional.
We’ve led the effort to reduce child mortality by 60 percent in Afghanistan over the last decade, and three million more Afghan girls are in school, and raised life expectancy by 20 years for the average Afghan citizens.
My friends, there are so many ways, so many examples, of where we have helped others with no request in return, and they’re all exceptional.
So as we did all these things, of course our leaders confronted deep disagreements, didn’t we? Even as we did those things. But guess what? Those leaders shared an even deeper commitment to our responsibilities in the world. They understood that while our differences can be clear, they cannot be crippling. The power of our example has never come from the purity of any one ideology. It’s come from the principled action of all of us together as one nation.
And as the aspirations that make America great go global, there are incredible opportunities for America to benefit and also to provide leadership. The work we do over there – the exports we sell, the democracies we support, the high standards that we set – all of them can create jobs and opportunity right here at home. We cannot afford to cede the best possibilities of this young century to others who have decided to be more disciplined than we have.
The world watches us, but I’m telling you, I can feel it. I hear it. The world will not wait for us. The shutdown is now behind us, but the answers to many of the same questions still stare us in the face and await us. In the weeks and months to come, we need our conversation to be worthy of the confidence and trust of the American people, and recognize it is part and parcel of the power of America’s example in the world.
In this time of challenge and opportunity, we need to commit to reaching out across the aisle and across the world, as Americans did before us, so that we can do the exceptional things that America has always done, and that Americans expect us, as their leaders and as their government, to do. That’s how we meet our responsibilities to the nation, that’s how we meet our responsibilities to the world, and that’s how we meet our responsibilities to the next generation. That’s how we make the power of our example even stronger today and in the years to come.
Thank you very much. (Applause.)
Remarks at the Center for American Progress' 10-year Anniversary Policy Conference
Remarks
John Kerry
Secretary of State
St. Regis Hotel
Washington, DC
October 24, 2013
Thank you very much. Thank you.
Neera, thank you very, very much. Thank you all. It’s wonderful for me to be here. Neera and I come from the same part of the country and share many of the same values, but none more important than our devotion to the American League Champion Boston Red Sox. Yeah. (Applause.) No boos, no boos. No boos allowed. (Laughter.) Anyway, in her role, obviously, as CAP’s John Farrell – for those of you who follow baseball, you know what I’m talking about – he’s the manager of the team, guys. He got them there. So anyway, she obviously has been extraordinary in her leadership at CAP. And this institution, I think everybody knows, has been strong and steady ever since she took that over.
And frankly, before Neera and John Podesta, our fearless leader here, opened CAP’s doors a decade ago, which is what is being celebrated here today, everybody here knows that they did an extraordinary job of helping to steer President Clinton’s administration during a time of unprecedented prosperity at home and also importantly, from my point of view today on a day-to-day basis, a period in which America enjoyed and earned huge respect around the world.
President Clinton understood very clearly that in a complex and changing world, our friends and our foes alike are going to be more impressed, as he said, “by the power of our example than by the example of our power.” And the person who President Clinton said best exemplifies that particular principle in these times is President Obama. I would say to you that over the last five years that the power of our example has been strong, a lot stronger than some people may perceive in a world of 24/7 cacophony. But the fact is that whether in Afghanistan, where we’re etching out a drawdown in a bilateral security agreement, or Iraq, where we did drawdown and leave, or the Far East, where we have a repositioning and rebalancing, or in the START treaty, or in our efforts in the Middle East today, our efforts to lead on Syria, on many other things, the President’s engagement, I believe, has underscored many times over how America plays an absolutely indispensable role in promoting peace, security, and shared prosperity around the world.
And I will tell you I thought I had a pretty good sense of those things as the chairman of the Foreign Relations committee and a 28-year veteran of that committee. But I will tell you that it has become far more clear to me in these many meetings and in these many journeys how absolutely true it is that we are indispensable, and that if we’re going to move in the directions we want to, whether it’s climate change that you were just talking about, or a host of other challenges, we’re going to do it with our leadership, with the highest standards.
It’s my privilege to serve as the President’s Secretary of State. Every day, I get to witness how much good, how much engagement we offer, how much our diplomats do around the world. And I remember an observation that my dad made, who was a Foreign Service officer for a period of time, that he shared with me about diplomacy. He said good diplomacy comes from the ability to be able to see the world through someone else’s eyes, through the eyes of the people in another country. But today it’s become much clearer to me, more than ever before, that it isn’t just about how people in another part of the world see their own challenges. We also have to be far more conscious about how our leadership looks through other people’s eyes.
Now as Neera mentioned a moment ago, I just literally landed, just came back from a marathon session with Prime Minister Netanyahu, with the London 11 Syrian support group, with Saud al-Faisal in Saudi Arabia and others. And in the past eight months, over more than 100 days abroad in every corner of the world, I have seen how our allies, our partners, and those who wish to challenge us or do us harm – they’re all sizing us up every day; they’re taking our measure.
And what we do in Washington matters deeply to them. And that’s why a self-inflicted wound, like the shutdown that we just endured, can never happen again. (Applause.) As President Obama said, the shutdown “encouraged our enemies…emboldened our competitors, and it depressed our friends who look to us for steady leadership.”
I will tell you, apart from the jokes that some of the summits that I went to about whether because we weren’t being paid, one country or another could buy our meals, there were real consequences to our not being there. And now that this recent moment of politics has passed and since I’m no longer in elected office myself, I wanted just to come here this afternoon as you celebrate a 10th anniversary and contemplate the progressive challenges ahead, I wanted to reflect on the damage that events like the one we’ve just been through can do to the esteem in which the United States is held in the world, a key component of our national power.
Now let me underscore that none of what occurred is irreparable or irreversible and the strength of our principles and the strength of our people are still the envy of the world. But being a responsible democracy requires that we don’t walk ourselves to the brink every opportunity we get – that we don’t play games with our credit rating or our credibility.
During the shutdown, I was attending the APEC Summit in Indonesia, the ASEAN Summit in Brunei, and the Global Entrepreneurship Summit in Malaysia. And I spoke with our allies throughout Asia, throughout the entire Asia Pacific region, all of whom were assembled at these various summits. And that is a region that matters deeply to us. It matters to our economy. It matters to our security. And our economy and our security are closely intertwined in this complex world we’re living in today. The leaders in that region agreed that the strength of our partnership is much greater than a moment in politics – thank heavens – but those politics also, I’m telling you, clearly weighed heavily on their minds.
And it has entered into the calculation of leaders. As we negotiate with Iran, as we negotiate with the Middle East peace process in Israel, can we be counted on? Will the Congress come through? Can the President make an agreement which will be held?
Believe me: The shutdown, and the dysfunction, and the simplistic dialogue that came with it, didn’t impress anyone about the power of America’s example.
And you didn’t need to talk to an Asian foreign minister in order to get a sense of that. Just go online and read any of the number of dailies of our allies’ papers.
London’s Daily Telegraph said, “The U.S. is recklessly throwing away its future.”
A major daily in Seoul urged America “to stop holding their citizens and the world economy hostage.”
The biggest business daily in Germany reported, “The damage done is great and it has shaken America’s reputation.”
Notice how none of these assessments blamed one political party or another. They took no interest whatsoever in opinion polling, hypothetical electoral consequences, 2016, who won the news cycle, who would win the Senate. Nope, none of it. They simply wanted to know: Will America be a credible partner tomorrow?
I personally have every confidence that we can and that we are. But others are going to need to see us steer a steady course in order to rebuild their confidence. In the days to come, if we let domestic differences overwhelm diplomacy, those differences will undermine our shared values, and most importantly, our shared interests. The question is no longer whether our politics stops at the water’s edge, but whether our politics stops us from providing the leadership that the world needs.
The question is whether America will lead the $6 trillion global energy economy, which is the solution to what the panel was talking about, and as Al Gore, I am confident, will describe to you. Energy policy is the solution to global climate change, a $6 trillion market. The market that made America rich in the 1990s was a $1 trillion market with 1 billion users. The energy market is a $6 trillion market with about 5 billion users, and it’s going to rise to 9 billion users over the next 20, 30 years.
So you and I know that if we make the right choices, we can get there. The question is whether America is going to continue to be a global model for entrepreneurship and the magnet for the world’s brightest minds. You and I know if we take the steps to shore up our economic strength at home and we continue to welcome foreign citizens who seek to fulfill their aspirations in the United States, we can get there. But we have to make that choice.
The question is whether we’re going to invest in education and R&D at home, and ensure that the United States can compete and win in this highly competitive global marketplace. You and I know we can do that, but we have to make this a priority at a time of enormous pressure to drastically cut government spending.
Now, I have to tell you, when these questions are avoided altogether, when they’re put on the back burner, when we tie one hand behind our backs, whether through political stalemates or even shutting down the government, we’re just getting in our own way. And we diminish our influence and we frustrate our own aspirations.
The simple fact is that the shutdown created temporary but real consequences in our ability to work with our partners and pursue our interests abroad.
The shutdown didn’t just shutter the World War II Memorial, as unfortunate as that was – it stunted our ability to promote the principles and values that our veterans sacrificed for.
The shutdown didn’t just shutter the Statue of Liberty – it temporarily closed the doors to refugees and students who were seeking visas to learn here and to contribute to our economy.
The shutdown delayed security aid to Israel, one of our closest allies, obviously, and a critical democracy in a region that’s undergoing tremendous upheaval. Why would in common sense, why would you want to do that?
The shutdown sent hardworking public servants home, including officials whose job is to enforce the sanctions against Iran – sanctions that actually helped to create the pressure that have brought us to this moment of cautious possibility in the region.
The shutdown furloughed four Nobel Laureates who were working in the federal government, to put critical research funding on hold for Nobel Laureates of tomorrow.
Negotiations were also delayed on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, a trade deal President Obama has championed in order to continue to increase American exports around the world and to create jobs here at home and help Europe, help the Far East, begin to create the jobs to come out of the economic doldrums.
So this political moment was far more than just symbolism, far more than just a local fight. It matters deeply to our power and to our example. And while this chapter is temporarily over, we’ve got another date looming, and the experience has to serve as a stern warning to all. It should force us to consider in the weeks and months ahead what the world will look like if America is less present and less credible. Make no mistake, the greatest danger to America doesn’t come from a rising rival. It comes from the damage that we’re capable of doing by our own dysfunction and the risks that will arise in a world that may see restrained or limited American leadership as a result.
That doesn’t mean by any means that America ought to serve as the world’s policeman. That’s not what I’m talking about, and that’s not what President Obama’s talking about. We can’t solve every problem, certainly not on our own, but we remain the indispensable partner, the anchor of global security, and a catalyst for global prosperity.
So as I’ve said before, this is not the time to retreat or retrench. We need to be out there, and we need to be engaged with the world. Why? Because for every billion dollar in goods and services that we export, we create 5,000 jobs here at home. Because when we help other countries stand on their own two feet, we create trading partners for our businesses. In fact, 11 of our 15 biggest trading partners used to be the recipients of American aid. Korea, Republic of Korea, is now a donor, where 15 years ago it was a recipient of aid. No other nations bring so many countries together in support of global standards, international norms, where we encourage a race to the top, not to the bottom.
And looking ahead, as we fulfill our moral responsibility to combat climate change, to improve global health, to ensure that women have the same rights as men, and give voice to those who have none, we are the ones who will give people around the world the courage to be able to speak up and the confidence to be able to work together.
I’ve seen it, I know it. There’s no arrogance in saying that. I know there are some Americans who don’t care how the world sees us, but in an integrated world, a genie that no politician can put back into any bottle, we have lost the luxury of looking only inward. Today, isolationism is the enemy of economic prosperity and security at the same time.
My friends, the 21st century, like the last one, we’re going to see competition between different ideals and different systems of governance. And as a model for a whole bunch of nations, I think we have a special responsibility to demonstrate that democracy does deliver for its citizens. When democracy appears dysfunctional, aspiring peoples are all the more likely to settle for some other model. Extremists and autocrats rush to fill the vacuum. And the bigger their platform around the world, the greater the danger to our security here at home. Mark my words, it is connected.
I’ve often said that America is not exceptional because we talk about ourselves as being exceptional and beat our chests and stand up and say, “We’re exceptional.” It’s not because we say we are. It’s because we do exceptional things. And we’ve always done that. We’re the nation that defeated the Axis powers, and then invested billions of dollars in their recovery – and we never asked to be paid back. That’s exceptional.
We’re the nation that faced down the Soviet Union with the force of our ideals and alliances – and without resorting to the force of arms. That’s exceptional.
We’re the nation that saw the human toll of AIDS spiraling out of control in Africa, most people thinking we’d never rein it in, and we mustered the will and the resources to lead a global response that is now looking at the possibility of an AIDS-free generation. That is exceptional.
We’ve led the effort to reduce child mortality by 60 percent in Afghanistan over the last decade, and three million more Afghan girls are in school, and raised life expectancy by 20 years for the average Afghan citizens.
My friends, there are so many ways, so many examples, of where we have helped others with no request in return, and they’re all exceptional.
So as we did all these things, of course our leaders confronted deep disagreements, didn’t we? Even as we did those things. But guess what? Those leaders shared an even deeper commitment to our responsibilities in the world. They understood that while our differences can be clear, they cannot be crippling. The power of our example has never come from the purity of any one ideology. It’s come from the principled action of all of us together as one nation.
And as the aspirations that make America great go global, there are incredible opportunities for America to benefit and also to provide leadership. The work we do over there – the exports we sell, the democracies we support, the high standards that we set – all of them can create jobs and opportunity right here at home. We cannot afford to cede the best possibilities of this young century to others who have decided to be more disciplined than we have.
The world watches us, but I’m telling you, I can feel it. I hear it. The world will not wait for us. The shutdown is now behind us, but the answers to many of the same questions still stare us in the face and await us. In the weeks and months to come, we need our conversation to be worthy of the confidence and trust of the American people, and recognize it is part and parcel of the power of America’s example in the world.
In this time of challenge and opportunity, we need to commit to reaching out across the aisle and across the world, as Americans did before us, so that we can do the exceptional things that America has always done, and that Americans expect us, as their leaders and as their government, to do. That’s how we meet our responsibilities to the nation, that’s how we meet our responsibilities to the world, and that’s how we meet our responsibilities to the next generation. That’s how we make the power of our example even stronger today and in the years to come.
Thank you very much. (Applause.)
Sunday, April 1, 2012
STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL ON PIRACY OFF THE HORN OF AFRICA
The following excerpt is from a Department of State e-mail:
Piracy Off the Horn of Africa
Remarks Andrew J. Shapiro
Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Political-Military Affairs Remarks to the Center for American Progress
Washington, DC
March 27, 2012
Thank you for inviting me here today. I want to thank the Center for American Progress [CAP] for having me here to speak on the important subject of piracy off the Horn of Africa. CAP is a tremendous leader in developing new ideas and in approaching issues in new ways. I come here before you today to talk about an issue that the Obama administration has also had to approach in new and innovative ways.
Despite the romantic notions surrounding piracy of previous centuries, modern day piracy represents a new and complex threat to the international community. While piracy at sea is certainly not a new problem, its modern re-incarnation has an impact of a different magnitude. Piracy off the coast of Somalia threatens one of the principal foundations of today’s modern interconnected global economic system – and that is freedom of navigation on the high seas. In a globalized world, the impact of piracy in one area of the world can cause a ripple effect greater in magnitude than ever before. We live in an era of complex, integrated, and on-demand global supply chains. People in countries around the world depend on secure and reliable shipping lanes for their food, their medicine, their energy, and consumer goods. By preying on commercial ships in one of the world’s most traversed shipping lanes, pirates off the Horn of Africa threaten more than just individual ships. They threaten a central artery of the global economy, and therefore global security and stability.
When the Obama administration came to office the problem of piracy off the coast of Somalia was snowballing out of control. In 2007 and 2008 pirate attacks began to escalate dramatically. A vicious and reinforcing cycle was forming. Motivated by escalating ransom payments – which grew into the millions of dollars – and a lack of other employment opportunities, more and more Somali men took to the waters. Piracy, as a result, went from a fairly ad hoc, disorganized endeavor to a highly developed transnational criminal enterprise. Flush with money, pirates were also able to improve their capabilities and expand their operations further and further away from shore.
To make matters worse, Somalia offered pirates near ideal conditions. Piracy is a prime example of the dangers and problems that can arise from the presence of ungoverned spaces in our globalized world. In places where pirates operate – through the coastal areas in Puntland and parts of central Somalia – the lack of governance and weak institutions provide them with a safe haven. Additionally, with more than two thousand miles of coast line and with the Gulf of Aden to its north, Somalia sits along one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world. International seaborne trade traversing through the Suez Canal to get from the United States or Europe to Asia must also travel through the Gulf of Aden and therefore along Somalia’s coast. This high volume of trade means that there is virtually an endless supply of ships for Somali pirates to target.
Piracy emanating from Somalia therefore represented a perfect storm for the international community – a weak state in a strategically essential location that harbors a rapidly growing transnational criminal enterprise and which threatens a vital artery of the global economy. Action had to be taken.
While there seemed to be no limit to the growth of piracy, through the collective effort of the United States, the international community, and the private sector, we are now seeing signs of clear progress. The numbers clearly demonstrate this. In 2011, the number of successful pirate attacks fell by nearly half. As a result, there has been a significant drop in the numbers of ships and crew held hostage. In January 2011, pirates held 31 ships and 710 hostages. In early March of 2012 pirates held eight ships and 213 hostages – a roughly 70 percent decline. This is still way too many, but it is clear advances are being made.
Today, I want to talk to you about the U.S. response to Somali piracy and why I think our efforts, and the efforts of the international community and the private sector are having an impact. In combating piracy, the Obama administration has pursued a strategy that seeks to leverage all elements of U.S. power. We have developed and pursued an integrated multi-dimensional approach toward combating piracy that focuses on:
diplomatic engagement to spur collective international action;
expanding security on the high seas through the use of naval assets to defend private vessels and to disrupt pirate attacks;
preventing attacks by encouraging industry to take steps to protect itself;
deterring piracy through effective legal prosecution and incarceration;
and finally debilitating the networks that support piracy operations.
Let me now turn to talk about our diplomatic response. The international community has adopted innovative steps to address the problem of piracy. For our part, the United States has helped lead the international response and galvanize international action. As the State Department’s Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review concluded, “solving foreign policy problems today requires us to… bring countries and peoples together as only America can.” This is exactly what the United States has done when addressing the problem of piracy.
From the beginning, the United States has adopted a multilateral approach focused on addressing this issue as a shared challenge. Piracy affects the international community as a whole and can only be effectively addressed through broad, coordinated, and comprehensive international efforts. In January 2009, the United States helped establish the Contact Group on Piracy off the Coast of Somalia to both prompt action and coordinate the efforts to suppress Somali piracy. The Contact Group is based on a voluntary membership and was established concurrent with the UN Security Council’s passage of Resolution 1851. It now includes over 70 nations as well as international and maritime industry organizations, to help coordinate national and international counter-piracy policies and actions.
The Contact Group serves as an essential forum for interaction between states and regional and international organizations. A number of specialized working groups were established within the Contact Group to address a variety of subjects, including, naval coordination at sea, judicial and legal issues concerning captured pirates; and public diplomacy programs in Somalia to discourage piracy. Through these working groups, the Contact Group adopts a problem solving approach toward addressing piracy. While we don’t always agree on everything, we agree on a lot and this coordinated international engagement has spawned action. In this regard, the Contact Group helps synchronize the international efforts underway to prevent duplication and to maximize the impact of international efforts.
The issue of piracy has also become a significant component of our diplomatic engagement with countries. This is something we see at the State Department in our dealings with countries across the globe. When I engage in diplomatic talks with countries as varied as Indonesia and Brazil, piracy is on the agenda. It is a shared challenge that many countries have an interest in seeing addressed. The issue of piracy therefore has an ancillary diplomatic benefit, as it often proves to be a useful subject for us to discuss with countries with which we are looking to expand our security relationship.
Our response to piracy is an example of how we are seeking to lead in new ways, by reaching out to new actors, building new kinds of partnerships and coalitions. American diplomatic engagement and leadership on piracy has helped catalyze the action of others so that the burden of maintaining global stability is shared.
Now let me turn to talk about how we are increasing security at sea. As pirate attacks increased, the United States, NATO, the EU, and many other national navies took action.
The United States established Combined Task Force 151 – a multinational task force charged with conducting counter-piracy naval patrols in the region. It operates in the Gulf of Aden and off the eastern coast of Somalia, covering an area of over one million square miles. In addition, there are a number of coordinated multinational naval patrols off the Horn of Africa. NATO is engaging in Operation Ocean Shield, the European Union has Operation ATALANTA, and other national navies in the area conduct counter-piracy patrols as well. On any given day up to 30 vessels from as many as 20 nations are engaged in counter-piracy operations in the region, including countries new to these kinds of effort like China, India, and Japan. U.S. and international naval forces have thwarted pirate attacks in progress, engaged pirate skiffs, and successfully taken back hijacked ships during opposed boardings.
We have also sought to create a safe transit corridor for commercial shipping vessels. U.S. Naval Forces Central Command or NAVCENT has worked with partners to set up a nearly 500-mile long transit corridor through the Gulf of Aden. This transit zone is heavily patrolled by naval forces and used by some countries for convoy operations. The corridor has helped reduce the number of attacks within the transit zone but it also has had the unfortunate side effect of pushing pirate activities further out to sea.
This demonstrates how pirates are constantly adapting their tactics in response to international efforts. One example of this is their expanded use of mother-ships – which are themselves pirated ships with hostage crews aboard. These ships launch and re-supply groups of pirates who use smaller, faster boats for attacks. They can carry dozens of pirates and tow many skiffs for multiple simultaneous attacks. This has made pirates more difficult to interdict and more effective at operating during monsoon season, which previously restricted their activities. Mother-ships have extended the pirates’ reach far beyond the Somali Basin. Somali pirates now operate in a total sea space of approximately 2.5 million square nautical miles – an area equivalent to the size of the continental United States. Pirate activity has even extended as far as the waters off the coast of India. This increase makes it difficult for naval or law enforcement ships and other assets to reach the scene of a pirate attack quickly enough to disrupt an ongoing attack. There is just too much water to patrol.
But in the cat and mouse game that is modern day piracy, we have responded as well. Since discovering the use of mother-ships, international navies now seek to identify and interdict mother-ships when possible. These are very delicate engagements however. With hostages on board and with mother-ships sometimes capable of traveling thousands of miles, interdictions and contested boardings of mother-ships by international navies are at times not possible. Yet we are making progress in isolating these vessels when discovered and boarding when necessary.
An example of this occurred in January of this year, when the U.S. Navy rescued an Iranian fishing vessel that had been hijacked and was being used as a mother-ship. The mother-ship was discovered when its skiffs launched an attack on another commercial vessel travelling nearby. Under attack, the commercial vessel contacted the US Navy, which was able to respond in time, forcing the pirates to break off their attack and head back to their mother-ship. While the pirates thought that was the end of the engagement, U.S. forces were on their tail and tracked the pirate skiffs undetected back to the Iranian vessel. When U.S. warships approached, all 15 pirates surrendered and the Iranian crew held hostage aboard was freed. The pirates were arrested by U.S. forces and were transported to the Seychelles for prosecution. This case demonstrated our principled commitment to freedom of navigation no matter the country impacted.
The American public should also know that this administration will do everything it can to ensure the safety and security of American citizens threatened by pirates. The Obama administration has made clear that it will act aggressively to rescue and protect American citizens threatened by piracy and that it will act diligently against those who perpetuate these crimes. Just months into office, President Obama was confronted with the hostage taking of the American captain of the MAERSK Alabama. The President authorized the use of force to rescue the captured captain and after a long standoff, U.S. Navy Seals successfully freed the captain by force. And this year, just hours before the State of the Union address, President Obama ordered U.S. special forces to rescue an American and a Danish aid worker being held hostage on the ground in Somalia. The health of the American hostage Jessica Buchanan was deemed to be in jeopardy and President Obama ordered U.S. forces to attempt a rescue mission. This dangerous mission clearly demonstrated our resolve. If you attack or capture an American citizen, we will act vigilantly and aggressively to make sure you face justice.
Private Sector
Another integral part of the response to piracy has been the critical role played by the private sector in taking measures to prevent and deter attacks. Perhaps the most significant factor in the decline of successful pirate attacks has been the steps taken by commercial vessels to prevent and deter attacks from happening in the first place. We have found that the best defense against piracy is often simply vigilance on the part of the maritime industry.
In response to the growing threat, we worked with the shipping industry to expand and develop its implementation of industry-developed “best management practices” to prevent pirate boardings before they take place. These include practical measures, such as:
proceeding at full speed through high risk areas;
employing physical barriers such as razor wire;
posting additional look-out;
reporting positions to military authorities; and
mustering the crew inside a “citadel” or safe-room in the vessel when under attack.
These steps, when properly implemented, remain some of the most effective measures to protect against, and repel, pirate attacks. Recognizing the value of these measures, the U.S. government has required U.S.-flagged vessels sailing in designated high-risk waters to take additional security measures. Nevertheless, we remain troubled that there are still commercial ships travelling through pirate-infested waters that have yet to implement proper security measures. Approximately 20 percent of all ships off the Horn of Africa are not taking proper security precautions. Unsurprisingly, these account for the overwhelming number of successfully pirated ships.
However, we must also recognize that even when fully implemented best management practices do not guarantee security from pirates. As a result, we have also supported the maritime industry’s use of additional measures to enhance their security – such as having armed security teams on board. To date, not a single ship with Privately Contracted Armed Security Personnel aboard has been pirated. Not one.
These teams serve as a potential game-changer in the effort to counter-piracy. While many expected these teams to be made up of undisciplined “cowboys” that would cause an increase in the violence at sea, from what we have seen so far this has not been the case. We have not seen cases of pitched battles at sea between pirates and armed security personnel. In fact, in most engagements, the situation ends as soon as pirates are aware an armed security team is on board. In most cases, as pirates approach a ship the armed security teams will use flares or loudspeakers to warn the pirates. If the pirates keep coming, they will fire warning shots. That is usually when the interaction ends. Pirates break off the attack and turn their skiffs around and wait for another less protected ship to come by. These teams therefore have served as an effective deterrent.
However, when a vessel is successfully hijacked our foremost concern is always about the safety of the crew, regardless of nationality. The U.S. government is acutely aware of the dilemma that ship owners face when ships and sailors are taken hostage. While the safety of the crew is critical, we must all acknowledge that submitting to pirate ransom demands only ensures that future crews will be taken hostage. The United States has a long tradition of opposing the payment of ransom, and we have worked diligently to discourage or minimize ransom payments. While some may consider this the cost of doing business, every ransom paid further institutionalizes the practice of hostage-taking for profit and promotes its expansion as a criminal enterprise. We strongly encourage flag States, shipowners and private parties involved in hostage crises to seek assistance from appropriate U.S. government sources in their crisis management procedures.
The enormous ransoms that are paid out make the kidnapping-for-ransom industry incredibly lucrative. The average ransom is now at $4.5 million per incident and has reached as much as $12 million. We also know that lucrative industries fight hard to stay in business. Indeed, despite the decline in successful attacks, the overall number of attempted attacks actually increased slightly in 2011 compared to 2010. In light of the pirates growing difficulties at sea, we have seen pirates shift to targeting hostages on land, such as with the captured American and Danish aid workers. Pirates’ ability to adapt means that the maritime industry and the international community must be constantly vigilant in assessing the effectiveness of self-protection measures.
Prosecution, Incarceration, and Pirate Networks
Now let me turn to another aspect of our response – our efforts to deter piracy through effective apprehension, prosecution and incarceration of pirates and their supporters and financiers. Today, over 1,000 pirates are in custody in 20 countries around the world, most are or will be convicted and sentenced to lengthy prison terms.
An important element of our counter-piracy approach involves renewed emphasis on enhancing the capacity of states – particularly those in the region – to prosecute and incarcerate suspected pirates. The United States is currently supporting efforts to:
increase prison capacity in Somalia;
develop a framework for prisoner transfers so convicted pirates serve their sentence back in their home country of Somalia;
and to establish a specialized piracy chamber in the national courts of one or more regional states.
We are seeing progress in this area. Last year a new maximum security prison opened in northern Somalia to hold convicted pirates. And just this past month the government of the Seychelles once again demonstrated its tremendous commitment to combating piracy by accepting the 15 pirates captured from the Iranian fishing vessel for prosecution.
Nevertheless, the capacity and willingness to prosecute and incarcerate pirates is limited. Countries in the region that might be able and otherwise willing to prosecute Somali pirates in their national courts often decline to do so because they do not want to take dozens of Somali pirates into their already overburdened prison systems. In this regard, we are in some ways a victim of our own success. We are apprehending more pirates at sea, leading to more crowded prisons. Expanding the capacity to prosecute and incarcerate pirates is a real challenge and is one that the international community, including the governments of flag states and ship owners, will have to work hard to address.
As piracy has evolved into an organized transnational criminal enterprise, it is increasingly clear that the arrest and prosecution of pirates captured at sea is insufficient on its own to meet our longer term counter-piracy goals. Most pirates captured at sea are often low-level operatives. The sad fact is that prosecution is often a limited deterrent for men lacking employment opportunities onshore and who are willing to embark hundreds of miles out to sea in nothing more than a small boat – exposed to the elements and often with limited fuel. Sometimes pirates fail to carry enough fuel to get back from a voyage, which forces them to take remarkable risks in attempting to hijack vessels. An untold number of pirates are lost at sea every year. Part of what makes piracy seem so intractable is that despite these dangers, the lack of other economic opportunities in coastal communities means there is no shortage of willing recruits for pirate organizers to choose from.
After an intensive review of our strategy last year, Secretary Clinton approved a series of recommendations which, taken together, constitute a new strategic approach. A focus on pirate networks is now at the heart of our strategy.
We are using all of the tools at our disposal in order to disrupt pirate networks and their financial flows. We are focused on identifying and apprehending the criminal conspirators who lead, manage, and finance the pirate enterprise, with the objective of bringing them to trial and disrupting pirate business processes. Often, the best way to attack organized crime is to follow the money. Pirate organizers receive income both from investors and ransom payments, and disburse a portion of the proceeds of ransoms back to these investors. Already, the United States has indicted and is prosecuting two alleged Somali pirate negotiators.
The Contact Group recently validated the importance of this approach and formed a new working group to assist in multilateral coordination to disrupt the pirate enterprise ashore. We are working to connect law enforcement communities, intelligence agencies, financial experts, and our international partners to promote information sharing and develop actionable information against pirate conspirators. This effort will include tracking pirate sources of financing and supplies, such as fuel, outboard motors, and weapons.
Situation on the Ground in Somalia
Lastly, the only long-term solution to piracy is the re-establishment of stability, responsive law enforcement, and adequate governance in Somalia. This will require concentrated and coordinated assistance to states in the region – including those parts of Somali society with which we can work – to build their capacity to deal with the social, legal, economic and operational challenges to governance, effective law enforcement and economic development. To that end, the United States continues to support the Djibouti Peace Process, the Transitional Federal Government (TFG), and other regional authorities working toward these same goals. Last month Secretary Clinton attended the London Conference on Somalia, which the United Kingdom convened to galvanize high-level international support for Somalia’s political transition.
As the Secretary noted, Somalia is at a critical juncture, with less than five months left to complete the Roadmap to End the Transition. The United States and its partners are working to help the TFG and other Somali leaders seize this opportunity to make progress toward greater security and political stability. We also welcome the expansion of the troop level, mandate, and logistical support package for the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM). AMISOM has made impressive security gains over the past several months, and we believe this positive trend will continue and will provide additional space for political progress and humanitarian access.
However, acknowledging the difficult situation on shore does not preclude progress at sea. While there is no simple solution to modern-day piracy, we are making advances to address what was seemingly an intractable transnational problem. The effective and coordinated international response to piracy also provides an example of how – with U.S. leadership – the international community can respond to other transnational threats and challenges that emerge. The U.S. response to piracy is also a prime example of how we as a government can address new and emergent transnational challenges. Addressing these threats requires us to be flexible and innovative in how we respond. It also requires agencies across the U.S. government to work together so that we bring every tool that we have to bear – including our diplomatic, military, law enforcement, economic, and intelligence tools. There isn’t just one thing we can do, or just one policy we can implement, that will simply solve piracy. Reducing and mitigating the threat posed by piracy will be long, hard work. But it is clear that the multi-faceted nature of our response is having an impact. While pirates will continue to adapt and evolve, it is vital that we stay vigilant and continue our efforts – the security of the region and the global economy depend on it.
With that I will be glad to take your questions.
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