FROM: U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT
Secretary Kerry Roundtable with Chinese CEOs on Investment and Innovation
Fact Sheet
Office of the Spokesperson
Washington, DC
November 8, 2014
Secretary of State John Kerry met with Chinese business leaders in Beijing today to discuss the importance of open investment climates and innovation as critical ingredients for continued economic success. The Secretary led an interactive discussion on the value of an open, transparent and predictable investment environment in promoting entrepreneurship and job creation.
Representing $20 billion in existing investments in the United States and annual revenues of over $120 billion, the participants included the Chairmen and CEOs of about ten companies across several sectors, including real estate, technology entertainment, manufacturing, and food products.
Secretary Kerry was joined at this event by U.S. Ambassador to China Max Baucus, U.S. Deputy Secretary of Commerce Bruce Andrews, Deputy U.S. Trade Representative Robert Holleyman, and Assistant Secretary of State for Economic and Business Affairs Charles Rivkin.
The roundtable focused on areas of cooperation between the United States and China that would expand economic opportunities in both countries and strengthen the foundation for global growth. The following essential building blocks of a cutting edge, innovative economy were highlighted:
Trade and Investment: An open, transparent, and predictable investment environment gives businesses confidence to invest and helps spur innovation, economic growth, and job creation. The U.S. government welcomes foreign direct investment, including from China. Chinese investment in the United States benefits both countries and demonstrates the concept of “shared prosperity.” Our growing two-way trade and investment relationship is fueling economic growth and job creation in both countries and is a key pillar in our overall bilateral relationship.
Intellectual Property Rights: Better intellectual property rights protection and enforcement are in our common interest and are critical to economic growth in both China and the United States. Robust patent, copyright, trademark and trade secret systems provide vital incentives for innovators to take the risk to develop and commercialize new ideas. Adhering to clear and consistently-applied rules and regulations creates predictable markets where businesses are confident to invest.
Free Flow of Information: The U.S. government strongly supports respect for freedom of expression, including on the Internet. The more freely information flows, the stronger our societies become. The open exchange of information, including on the Internet, enables companies and employees to share and refine ideas, allowing the broader economy to benefit from their diversity.
At the roundtable, Secretary Kerry invited participants to apply to attend the SelectUSA 2015 Summit that U.S. Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker will host on March 23-24, 2015 in Washington, DC. The event will connect businesses and investors from around the world with U.S. economic development organizations at the state, regional, and local levels. Participants will benefit from unique networking opportunities; one-on-one meetings; moderated panels; and discussions on the latest information on business investment. Established by President Obama in 2011, SelectUSA promotes and facilitates business investment into the United States as part of efforts to strengthen America’s global competitiveness.
Showing posts with label GLOBAL TRADE. Show all posts
Showing posts with label GLOBAL TRADE. Show all posts
Sunday, November 9, 2014
Tuesday, April 22, 2014
U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL'S REMARKS ON POLICY AND DIPLOMACY
FROM: U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT
U.S. Foreign Policy and Diplomacy
Remarks
Tom Kelly
Acting Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Political-Military Affairs
Asia Pacific Center for Security Studies
Fort DeRussy, Waikiki
April 17, 2014
Aloha! I work in the Foreign Ministry of the United States, the U.S. State Department. I’ve been a diplomat my entire life, and so I’m usually dressed a lot more formally than I am today. If it were up to me, I’d always dress like this. For the past few years, I’ve overseen the State Department’s Bureau of Political Military Affairs. This bureau is the connective tissue between the Department of State and the Department of Defense. We work closely with the Department of Defense to make sure that the work that we do is complimentary and consistent with U.S. foreign policy goals.
I know that many of you are leaders in your own nations on issues affecting defense, security, and foreign policy. So I thought that I would spend some time this morning giving you an overview of how, in our own government, we have tried to bring two distinct parts of our government – diplomats and soldiers – together so that we better serve the foreign policy and security interests of the United States. As someone who grew up on the shores of the Pacific Ocean, I’d also like to put the recent U.S. “rebalance to Asia” in proper context, and discuss with you our current security priorities in the Asia-Pacific region.
Now I realize that it may strike some of you as odd that you have a diplomat rather than a soldier standing before you today to talk about U.S. security policy. But from the way we handle national security policy in the United States, it actually makes sense. For us, defense and foreign policy are two sides of the same coin. When the United States enters a military partnership with a foreign country, our bilateral relationship becomes more intimate and enduring. And we diplomats can help our military colleagues to handle the many challenges that confront them in foreign theaters of operation. As all of you know, it’s a complicated world out there.
At the forefront of the United States’ foreign policy is the notion that America helps itself by helping others. At his confirmation hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Secretary of State John Kerry said that, “Global leadership is a strategic imperative for America, not a favor we do for other countries. It amplifies our voice and extends our reach….and it really matters to the daily lives of Americans.”
And in a world dominated by sovereign nation states, the United States can’t lead without looking at the question of security, which is the fundamental preoccupation of any nation. Security cooperation plays a central role in American foreign policy. As we in the US Government take on the challenges that this world presents, we look first and foremost to building the right kind of security partnerships to meet them.
The challenges we face today typically can’t be solved by just our military, or our economic engagement, and – while it pains me to say this as a State Department official – we can’t resolve everything just with our diplomatic efforts, either. No, addressing today’s challenges demands we utilize all of these elements of national power. Addressing the world’s toughest problems really does take a whole-of-government effort. So at our President’s behest, the Secretaries of State and Defense are working harder than ever before to improve our cooperation and coordination with the Defense Department and other agencies.
Building security partnerships starts at home. It requires our diplomacy and defense to be on the same page and it requires the Departments of State and Defense to coordinate and work more closely than ever before. And today I can tell you that the current level of cooperation between State and Defense is truly unprecedented. We are seeing more interaction, more coordinated engagements, more personnel exchanges than ever before.
One way we work with the Department of Defense is through personnel exchanges. We have more than 100 Foreign Service Officers working as Political Advisors, or Polads, in various areas within the Department of Defense. They work at, among other places, the Pentagon, Europe and, of course, in PACOM, the Pacific Command. In return, the Department of Defense has a large number of military personnel serving in various capacities at the Department of State. The guy who sits next to me at the State Department is a two-star Navy Admiral. The reason we trade personnel like this is that we understand the need to better understand each other so that we can work together more effectively, now and in the future. To achieve our objectives in today’s globalized world, we want diplomats to be able to think like soldiers, and soldiers to be able to think like diplomats.
When the United States – through our security cooperation efforts – enhances the military capabilities of our allies and partners, we inherently strengthen their ability to handle their own security. All countries benefit from a global environment that is stable and prosperous, and many could do more to take an active role in supporting it.
Building the capacity of our partners and allies reflects more than strategic reality, though. We are also acutely aware that because of the budgetary pressures that our government faces, the U.S. Government is looking for cost-effective ways to achieve its strategic objectives at home and abroad. In short, building partner capacity is a prudent investment which deepens our strategic ties and helps defend our interests in an era of diminishing resources.
One vital tool that I would like to talk a bit more about is our ability to deliver security assistance to allies and partners. These programs can be a critical tool to support states trying to build their security capacity. Security is often the foundation for economic growth, democratic governance, and the preservation of human rights. Therefore, by helping our partners to take on greater security responsibilities, our assistance helps empowers others to advance peace and stability, while at the same time reducing the likelihood of putting our military forces in harm’s way.
To our great fortune and benefit, countries want to partner with the United States. One indication of that is the tremendous growth of U.S. defense trade in recent years. In 2013, we saw $27.80 billion in for foreign military sales by American defense companies. A significant number of these potential sales in the region were with allies such as South Korea, Australia and Japan, but a large proportion was also with partners such as India. These sales strengthen our alliances and partnerships in the region—a top goal of the “rebalance” to the Asia-Pacific as well as the Department’s Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review and our Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs’ Joint Regional Strategy—but also bolster the U.S. economy.
To put that into perspective, 2012 was our largest year in history of foreign military sales to date by American defense companies, amounting to nearly $70 billion in calendar year 2012. The year before that, in 2011 we saw $32.1 billion in Foreign Military Sales, which broke previous record the year before, at $31.6 billion. We also completed the UK and Australia defense trade treaties, which will help our defense industry and make our partnerships with these two nations even closer. In 2013, we also processed more than 78,000 licenses for direct commercial sales with an average processing time of 21 days.
Washington Priorities
Building partnerships in the Asia-Pacific region takes up a lot of time and attention at the top of our government in Washington. For many of us, thinking about Asia and the Pacific is nothing new. The Pacific Ocean has always been a part of my life. For those of you who know the United States, I grew up in Manhattan Beach, a beach town in Southern California that is right next to Los Angeles. And our President was born right here on this island. He still comes back to Hawaii with his family every year. For people like us, and many millions of other Americans, the Pacific isn’t just a strategically important location or a good place to make money. It’s our home.
So it’s no surprise that the Asia-Pacific has been a priority for President Obama since he took office in 2009. The administration based this vision on America's stake in a prosperous and stable region. In this, President Obama’s second term, we continue to build on those commitments to modernize our alliances, strengthen regional institutions and respect for rule of law, and engage more effectively with emerging powers such as China. Our policy is not merely words: we are dedicating more diplomatic, public diplomacy and assistance resources to the region. And we are diversifying to put more of a focus on economic development, on energy, people-to-people exchanges, and education.
The Rebalance Towards Asia: Cooperative Opportunities
The Asia-Pacific is home to many of the world’s most heavily traveled trade and energy routes. $555 billion in U.S. exports to the region last year supported 2.8 million jobs in America. The security and prosperity of the United States are inextricably linked to the peaceful development of the Asia-Pacific. Peaceful development means economic partnership opportunities that can tie our societies closer together.
When I look at the history of the Asia-Pacific over the past sixty years, I see a period of extraordinary prosperity. Hundreds of millions of people have lifted themselves out of poverty, providing an example to the rest of the world. In just a few generations, the Asia-Pacific has fostered innovative economies that today are fueling global growth.
At the Asia Pacific Economic Conference in October, Secretary Kerry described how U.S. economic engagement is good for both the region and good for the United States. Within APEC and as part of our ongoing rebalance toward Asia, we worked to strengthen regional economic integration; promote energy cooperation, private sector investments, and education exchange; reduce barriers to trade and investment; improve connectivity; and support sustainable growth.
On the margins of APEC, Secretary Kerry joined Trans Pacific Partnership Leaders in announcing that the negotiations are on track to complete the historic agreement this year. With its high ambition and pioneering standards for new trade disciplines, the TPP will be a model for future trade agreements and a promising pathway to our APEC goal of building a Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific.
The Secretary also spoke at the Global Entrepreneurship Summit in Kuala Lumpur, also in October, to more than 3,000 entrepreneurs, investors, academics, startup organizers, business people, and government officials from over 100 countries.
In short, the Asia-Pacific is a by-word for opportunity for investment and win-win partnerships.
But reaching the goal of universal prosperity also depends on security – in this case, maritime security. We know that you don’t get trade within Asia, and with Asia and the Americas, without open sea lanes. The way we see it, twenty-first century capitalism cannot function unless the sea lanes throughout Asia-Pacific remain secure. A Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific includes freedom of navigation.
In Asia as in the rest of the world, the key to effective security is effective security partnerships. We’re working to modernize our alliances and ensure that we can cooperate seamlessly with partners to respond to crises and contingencies. The potential problems are not limited to those caused by people. Mother Nature sometimes reminds us that she is in charge. Super Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines is a case in point. The U.S. played an important role in supporting the recovery. That crisis demonstrated that a credible U.S. security presence is very important. And that security presence in itself is essential for economic progress to occur.
The most recent example, I think, of our interest in the security of Asia is our joining the Regional Cooperation Agreement on Combating Piracy and Armed Robbery against Ships in Asia. This is better known as ReCAAP. We recently signed the accession agreement. I understand that the United States received a warm welcome at the meeting of the ReCAAP Information Sharing Center at the beginning of March. We look forward to a long and close relationship. ReCAAP, of course, is not the only multilateral program in which we participate. We also take part in the ASEAN Regional Forum or the East Asia Summit, Pacific Islands Forum, and APEC, as well as in the bilateral engagements on the margins of those multilateral meetings. When you look at U.S. participation in those meetings, you will see again and again evidence of how much the Obama Administration is committed to the Asia-Pacific as a strategic component of our foreign policy and economic agenda.
This island is also the home port of the U.S. Pacific Fleet. The United States Navy obviously has a huge role to play in the safety of the Asia-Pacific’s sea lanes. As the U.S. rebalances toward Asia, we will increase the percentage of our surface ships in the Pacific theater from about 50 to over 60. But it’s not just a quantitative shift; it’s also a qualitative one. The United States is moving its most technologically advanced platforms to the Pacific. For example, all the ships of the Zumwalt Guided Missile Destroyer Class will come to the Pacific. The first P-8s—an incredible improvement in Maritime Patrol Aircraft capabilities—will come to the Pacific first. Our Navy’s newest surface combatant, the Littoral Combat Ship, has already completed one deployment to the South China Sea. We’ll see another rotational deployment this summer. When we do field the Joint Strike Fighter, it will go first to the Pacific theater.
The challenges in the maritime domain remain complex and complicated. Our Chief of Naval Operations has spoken at length about partnerships and our Navy’s ability to contribute to the global challenge of maintaining freedom of navigation and overflight. These partnerships will enable all navies to take advantage of each other’s strengths and build a maritime community that enables all of us to sail the seas without intimidation or interference. Working together in partnerships, whether bilaterally or multilaterally, allows us to also respond more quickly to humanitarian and disaster assistance when needed.
The Rebalance as Continuity of U.S. Policy
The story of the rebalance is a story of continuity. The United States has been and will continue to be a Pacific Power. Our strategic rebalance to the Asia-Pacific recognizes the important role the region will play in the 21st century and the fact that the region is critically important to U.S. security and economics. As a marker of how important we see continuing our support of Asia-Pacific, the Obama administration has begun a process which will increase foreign assistance to the Asia-Pacific region by seven percent.
You may have noticed that in the rebalance much of our effort seems to be aimed at South and Southeast Asia. One of the reasons for that is that we have always had a very strong presence, including the stationing of several thousand American soldiers and sailors, in Northeast Asian countries like the Republic of Korea and Japan. We seek to deepen our engagement with new partners and multilateral institutions in Southeast Asia, to find opportunities to work together to advance our shared interests.
And quickly, I want to address the issue of China. I know that there are some in Beijing who think our rebalance to the Asia-Pacific is part of a broader American effort to contain China. Let me be clear: that is not the case. On the contrary, the United States seeks to continue building a cooperative partnership with China. A positive and cooperative relationship with China is a key element of our rebalance strategy. We understand that China will play an important role in critical global challenges like fighting climate change, wildlife trafficking, and countering proliferation. We welcome that role: those problems won’t get fixed without China’s help. And we recognize that our two economies are deeply intertwined. We consistently seek to engage with China on all levels on a wide range of issues. We want to do more with China in many areas, including economic relations. National Security Advisor Susan Rice recently said that the United States welcomes China and any other nation interested in joining and sharing the benefits of the Trans-Pacific Partnership so long as they can commit to the high standards of the agreement.
The United States is committed to building healthy, stable, reliable, and continuous military-to-military relations with China. We maintain a robust schedule of military-to-military exchanges and dialogues in pursuit of that goal and to encourage China to exhibit greater transparency with respect to its military capabilities and intentions. In addition, U.S. military, diplomatic, and defense officials participate in a range of combined civilian-military dialogues with the Chinese in which we work to build mutual trust and understanding. I’ve participated personally in some of them, both in Washington and Beijing.
Farther Into Asia
South Asia, where I’ll travel in a few days, also merits some comment. I’ve travelled several times over the past few years to India. I think it’s fair to say that there is growing interest in both Washington and New Delhi in greater security cooperation. There is a significant degree of coincidence of strategic interests. During the Obama Administration, the United States carried out our first political-military dialogue with India in six years. And it was significant because we were able to help our Indian counterparts work through the challenges of our interagency process on national security issues. Indian officials told us that the dialogue is especially helpful in helping them to coordinate the same issues within their own government, as well as giving them a better idea of how to deal with our own large and admittedly complicated bureaucracy. The Indian military is also increasingly interested in buying equipment from the United States. Our foreign military sales to India have grown from virtually zero in 2008 to more than $9 billion. In comparison, we had only $363 million in military sales with India from 2002-2006.
I’m not going to India on this trip, but I will travel to Bangladesh, another important South Asian partner. I’ll visit the port city of Chittagong, where the Bangladeshi Navy will show me the Somudra Joy, formerly the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Jarvis, which enables the Bangladeshi Navy to promote maritime security. This transfer has achieved real results by contributing to a seventy percent reduction in piracy in the Bay of Bengal.
My conviction and my experience is that our ongoing rebalance strategy that dates back to 2009 is broad, is deep, and encompasses not just regional security, but also economic prosperity, and people-to-people ties. This is the subject of a very intense ongoing interagency collaboration within the U.S. Government, precisely because it is a strategic priority of the President, of the Administration, and of the nation.
This brings me back to the beginning of my speech, and what motivates U.S. leaders to invest significant resources to support U.S. leadership in the Asia-Pacific and around the globe. Citizens of this country are learning what you already know – that world events are closer to home than we may think, and can change rapidly. That means we need to be on our toes, adapting and evolving to enhance and sustain U.S. global leadership. This can be challenging, but we really need to remember that in this changing world it has been international partnerships that have brought about stability and prosperity, not only to the United States, but across the world.
By tackling the world’s toughest problems together, we can bring new perspectives and expanded capabilities to bear. And we can build partnerships to be proud of – within government, with civil society, and with nations around the world.
Thank you again for your personal contributions to that effort. And with that, I will be happy to take your questions.
I know that many of you are leaders in your own nations on issues affecting defense, security, and foreign policy. So I thought that I would spend some time this morning giving you an overview of how, in our own government, we have tried to bring two distinct parts of our government – diplomats and soldiers – together so that we better serve the foreign policy and security interests of the United States. As someone who grew up on the shores of the Pacific Ocean, I’d also like to put the recent U.S. “rebalance to Asia” in proper context, and discuss with you our current security priorities in the Asia-Pacific region.
Now I realize that it may strike some of you as odd that you have a diplomat rather than a soldier standing before you today to talk about U.S. security policy. But from the way we handle national security policy in the United States, it actually makes sense. For us, defense and foreign policy are two sides of the same coin. When the United States enters a military partnership with a foreign country, our bilateral relationship becomes more intimate and enduring. And we diplomats can help our military colleagues to handle the many challenges that confront them in foreign theaters of operation. As all of you know, it’s a complicated world out there.
At the forefront of the United States’ foreign policy is the notion that America helps itself by helping others. At his confirmation hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Secretary of State John Kerry said that, “Global leadership is a strategic imperative for America, not a favor we do for other countries. It amplifies our voice and extends our reach….and it really matters to the daily lives of Americans.”
And in a world dominated by sovereign nation states, the United States can’t lead without looking at the question of security, which is the fundamental preoccupation of any nation. Security cooperation plays a central role in American foreign policy. As we in the US Government take on the challenges that this world presents, we look first and foremost to building the right kind of security partnerships to meet them.
The challenges we face today typically can’t be solved by just our military, or our economic engagement, and – while it pains me to say this as a State Department official – we can’t resolve everything just with our diplomatic efforts, either. No, addressing today’s challenges demands we utilize all of these elements of national power. Addressing the world’s toughest problems really does take a whole-of-government effort. So at our President’s behest, the Secretaries of State and Defense are working harder than ever before to improve our cooperation and coordination with the Defense Department and other agencies.
Building security partnerships starts at home. It requires our diplomacy and defense to be on the same page and it requires the Departments of State and Defense to coordinate and work more closely than ever before. And today I can tell you that the current level of cooperation between State and Defense is truly unprecedented. We are seeing more interaction, more coordinated engagements, more personnel exchanges than ever before.
One way we work with the Department of Defense is through personnel exchanges. We have more than 100 Foreign Service Officers working as Political Advisors, or Polads, in various areas within the Department of Defense. They work at, among other places, the Pentagon, Europe and, of course, in PACOM, the Pacific Command. In return, the Department of Defense has a large number of military personnel serving in various capacities at the Department of State. The guy who sits next to me at the State Department is a two-star Navy Admiral. The reason we trade personnel like this is that we understand the need to better understand each other so that we can work together more effectively, now and in the future. To achieve our objectives in today’s globalized world, we want diplomats to be able to think like soldiers, and soldiers to be able to think like diplomats.
When the United States – through our security cooperation efforts – enhances the military capabilities of our allies and partners, we inherently strengthen their ability to handle their own security. All countries benefit from a global environment that is stable and prosperous, and many could do more to take an active role in supporting it.
Building the capacity of our partners and allies reflects more than strategic reality, though. We are also acutely aware that because of the budgetary pressures that our government faces, the U.S. Government is looking for cost-effective ways to achieve its strategic objectives at home and abroad. In short, building partner capacity is a prudent investment which deepens our strategic ties and helps defend our interests in an era of diminishing resources.
One vital tool that I would like to talk a bit more about is our ability to deliver security assistance to allies and partners. These programs can be a critical tool to support states trying to build their security capacity. Security is often the foundation for economic growth, democratic governance, and the preservation of human rights. Therefore, by helping our partners to take on greater security responsibilities, our assistance helps empowers others to advance peace and stability, while at the same time reducing the likelihood of putting our military forces in harm’s way.
To our great fortune and benefit, countries want to partner with the United States. One indication of that is the tremendous growth of U.S. defense trade in recent years. In 2013, we saw $27.80 billion in for foreign military sales by American defense companies. A significant number of these potential sales in the region were with allies such as South Korea, Australia and Japan, but a large proportion was also with partners such as India. These sales strengthen our alliances and partnerships in the region—a top goal of the “rebalance” to the Asia-Pacific as well as the Department’s Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review and our Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs’ Joint Regional Strategy—but also bolster the U.S. economy.
To put that into perspective, 2012 was our largest year in history of foreign military sales to date by American defense companies, amounting to nearly $70 billion in calendar year 2012. The year before that, in 2011 we saw $32.1 billion in Foreign Military Sales, which broke previous record the year before, at $31.6 billion. We also completed the UK and Australia defense trade treaties, which will help our defense industry and make our partnerships with these two nations even closer. In 2013, we also processed more than 78,000 licenses for direct commercial sales with an average processing time of 21 days.
Washington Priorities
Building partnerships in the Asia-Pacific region takes up a lot of time and attention at the top of our government in Washington. For many of us, thinking about Asia and the Pacific is nothing new. The Pacific Ocean has always been a part of my life. For those of you who know the United States, I grew up in Manhattan Beach, a beach town in Southern California that is right next to Los Angeles. And our President was born right here on this island. He still comes back to Hawaii with his family every year. For people like us, and many millions of other Americans, the Pacific isn’t just a strategically important location or a good place to make money. It’s our home.
So it’s no surprise that the Asia-Pacific has been a priority for President Obama since he took office in 2009. The administration based this vision on America's stake in a prosperous and stable region. In this, President Obama’s second term, we continue to build on those commitments to modernize our alliances, strengthen regional institutions and respect for rule of law, and engage more effectively with emerging powers such as China. Our policy is not merely words: we are dedicating more diplomatic, public diplomacy and assistance resources to the region. And we are diversifying to put more of a focus on economic development, on energy, people-to-people exchanges, and education.
The Rebalance Towards Asia: Cooperative Opportunities
The Asia-Pacific is home to many of the world’s most heavily traveled trade and energy routes. $555 billion in U.S. exports to the region last year supported 2.8 million jobs in America. The security and prosperity of the United States are inextricably linked to the peaceful development of the Asia-Pacific. Peaceful development means economic partnership opportunities that can tie our societies closer together.
When I look at the history of the Asia-Pacific over the past sixty years, I see a period of extraordinary prosperity. Hundreds of millions of people have lifted themselves out of poverty, providing an example to the rest of the world. In just a few generations, the Asia-Pacific has fostered innovative economies that today are fueling global growth.
At the Asia Pacific Economic Conference in October, Secretary Kerry described how U.S. economic engagement is good for both the region and good for the United States. Within APEC and as part of our ongoing rebalance toward Asia, we worked to strengthen regional economic integration; promote energy cooperation, private sector investments, and education exchange; reduce barriers to trade and investment; improve connectivity; and support sustainable growth.
On the margins of APEC, Secretary Kerry joined Trans Pacific Partnership Leaders in announcing that the negotiations are on track to complete the historic agreement this year. With its high ambition and pioneering standards for new trade disciplines, the TPP will be a model for future trade agreements and a promising pathway to our APEC goal of building a Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific.
The Secretary also spoke at the Global Entrepreneurship Summit in Kuala Lumpur, also in October, to more than 3,000 entrepreneurs, investors, academics, startup organizers, business people, and government officials from over 100 countries.
In short, the Asia-Pacific is a by-word for opportunity for investment and win-win partnerships.
But reaching the goal of universal prosperity also depends on security – in this case, maritime security. We know that you don’t get trade within Asia, and with Asia and the Americas, without open sea lanes. The way we see it, twenty-first century capitalism cannot function unless the sea lanes throughout Asia-Pacific remain secure. A Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific includes freedom of navigation.
In Asia as in the rest of the world, the key to effective security is effective security partnerships. We’re working to modernize our alliances and ensure that we can cooperate seamlessly with partners to respond to crises and contingencies. The potential problems are not limited to those caused by people. Mother Nature sometimes reminds us that she is in charge. Super Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines is a case in point. The U.S. played an important role in supporting the recovery. That crisis demonstrated that a credible U.S. security presence is very important. And that security presence in itself is essential for economic progress to occur.
The most recent example, I think, of our interest in the security of Asia is our joining the Regional Cooperation Agreement on Combating Piracy and Armed Robbery against Ships in Asia. This is better known as ReCAAP. We recently signed the accession agreement. I understand that the United States received a warm welcome at the meeting of the ReCAAP Information Sharing Center at the beginning of March. We look forward to a long and close relationship. ReCAAP, of course, is not the only multilateral program in which we participate. We also take part in the ASEAN Regional Forum or the East Asia Summit, Pacific Islands Forum, and APEC, as well as in the bilateral engagements on the margins of those multilateral meetings. When you look at U.S. participation in those meetings, you will see again and again evidence of how much the Obama Administration is committed to the Asia-Pacific as a strategic component of our foreign policy and economic agenda.
This island is also the home port of the U.S. Pacific Fleet. The United States Navy obviously has a huge role to play in the safety of the Asia-Pacific’s sea lanes. As the U.S. rebalances toward Asia, we will increase the percentage of our surface ships in the Pacific theater from about 50 to over 60. But it’s not just a quantitative shift; it’s also a qualitative one. The United States is moving its most technologically advanced platforms to the Pacific. For example, all the ships of the Zumwalt Guided Missile Destroyer Class will come to the Pacific. The first P-8s—an incredible improvement in Maritime Patrol Aircraft capabilities—will come to the Pacific first. Our Navy’s newest surface combatant, the Littoral Combat Ship, has already completed one deployment to the South China Sea. We’ll see another rotational deployment this summer. When we do field the Joint Strike Fighter, it will go first to the Pacific theater.
The challenges in the maritime domain remain complex and complicated. Our Chief of Naval Operations has spoken at length about partnerships and our Navy’s ability to contribute to the global challenge of maintaining freedom of navigation and overflight. These partnerships will enable all navies to take advantage of each other’s strengths and build a maritime community that enables all of us to sail the seas without intimidation or interference. Working together in partnerships, whether bilaterally or multilaterally, allows us to also respond more quickly to humanitarian and disaster assistance when needed.
The Rebalance as Continuity of U.S. Policy
The story of the rebalance is a story of continuity. The United States has been and will continue to be a Pacific Power. Our strategic rebalance to the Asia-Pacific recognizes the important role the region will play in the 21st century and the fact that the region is critically important to U.S. security and economics. As a marker of how important we see continuing our support of Asia-Pacific, the Obama administration has begun a process which will increase foreign assistance to the Asia-Pacific region by seven percent.
You may have noticed that in the rebalance much of our effort seems to be aimed at South and Southeast Asia. One of the reasons for that is that we have always had a very strong presence, including the stationing of several thousand American soldiers and sailors, in Northeast Asian countries like the Republic of Korea and Japan. We seek to deepen our engagement with new partners and multilateral institutions in Southeast Asia, to find opportunities to work together to advance our shared interests.
And quickly, I want to address the issue of China. I know that there are some in Beijing who think our rebalance to the Asia-Pacific is part of a broader American effort to contain China. Let me be clear: that is not the case. On the contrary, the United States seeks to continue building a cooperative partnership with China. A positive and cooperative relationship with China is a key element of our rebalance strategy. We understand that China will play an important role in critical global challenges like fighting climate change, wildlife trafficking, and countering proliferation. We welcome that role: those problems won’t get fixed without China’s help. And we recognize that our two economies are deeply intertwined. We consistently seek to engage with China on all levels on a wide range of issues. We want to do more with China in many areas, including economic relations. National Security Advisor Susan Rice recently said that the United States welcomes China and any other nation interested in joining and sharing the benefits of the Trans-Pacific Partnership so long as they can commit to the high standards of the agreement.
The United States is committed to building healthy, stable, reliable, and continuous military-to-military relations with China. We maintain a robust schedule of military-to-military exchanges and dialogues in pursuit of that goal and to encourage China to exhibit greater transparency with respect to its military capabilities and intentions. In addition, U.S. military, diplomatic, and defense officials participate in a range of combined civilian-military dialogues with the Chinese in which we work to build mutual trust and understanding. I’ve participated personally in some of them, both in Washington and Beijing.
Farther Into Asia
South Asia, where I’ll travel in a few days, also merits some comment. I’ve travelled several times over the past few years to India. I think it’s fair to say that there is growing interest in both Washington and New Delhi in greater security cooperation. There is a significant degree of coincidence of strategic interests. During the Obama Administration, the United States carried out our first political-military dialogue with India in six years. And it was significant because we were able to help our Indian counterparts work through the challenges of our interagency process on national security issues. Indian officials told us that the dialogue is especially helpful in helping them to coordinate the same issues within their own government, as well as giving them a better idea of how to deal with our own large and admittedly complicated bureaucracy. The Indian military is also increasingly interested in buying equipment from the United States. Our foreign military sales to India have grown from virtually zero in 2008 to more than $9 billion. In comparison, we had only $363 million in military sales with India from 2002-2006.
I’m not going to India on this trip, but I will travel to Bangladesh, another important South Asian partner. I’ll visit the port city of Chittagong, where the Bangladeshi Navy will show me the Somudra Joy, formerly the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Jarvis, which enables the Bangladeshi Navy to promote maritime security. This transfer has achieved real results by contributing to a seventy percent reduction in piracy in the Bay of Bengal.
My conviction and my experience is that our ongoing rebalance strategy that dates back to 2009 is broad, is deep, and encompasses not just regional security, but also economic prosperity, and people-to-people ties. This is the subject of a very intense ongoing interagency collaboration within the U.S. Government, precisely because it is a strategic priority of the President, of the Administration, and of the nation.
This brings me back to the beginning of my speech, and what motivates U.S. leaders to invest significant resources to support U.S. leadership in the Asia-Pacific and around the globe. Citizens of this country are learning what you already know – that world events are closer to home than we may think, and can change rapidly. That means we need to be on our toes, adapting and evolving to enhance and sustain U.S. global leadership. This can be challenging, but we really need to remember that in this changing world it has been international partnerships that have brought about stability and prosperity, not only to the United States, but across the world.
By tackling the world’s toughest problems together, we can bring new perspectives and expanded capabilities to bear. And we can build partnerships to be proud of – within government, with civil society, and with nations around the world.
Thank you again for your personal contributions to that effort. And with that, I will be happy to take your questions.
Saturday, April 5, 2014
SECRETARY KERRY'S REMARKS AT PLENARY OF THE U.S.-MOROCCO STRATEGIC DIALOGUE
FROM: U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT
Remarks at Opening Plenary of the U.S.-Morocco Strategic Dialogue
John Kerry
Secretary of State
Secretary of State
Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Rabat, Morocco
April 4, 2014
FOREIGN MINISTER MEZOUAR: (Via interpreter) Mr. John Kerry, Mr. Ambassador Dwight Bush, ladies and gentlemen, I’m very delighted to be hosting you today in this meeting and in this visit, which is as – important as the second round of the Strategic Dialogue between the United States and the Kingdom of Morocco. Delighted also to work with you together so that this round is a second boost for a strategic partnership between our two countries.
Welcome, Mr. John Kerry, the Secretary of State for foreign affairs, and also I would like to welcome the delegation, your delegation. Welcome, Mr. Ambassador Dwight Bush, whom we are delighted to have with us here. And we are convinced that he shares the same feelings.
Mr. Secretary of State, ladies and gentlemen, I would like first to commend the interest that the American administration has always shown towards Morocco as a country that represents a model for stability and quite democratic reforms, which reiterate its belief in the values of the freedom, justice, (inaudible). (Inaudible) would like for this interest which represents (inaudible) quite clear during the visit of His Majesty Mohammed VI to Washington. And that was the (inaudible) very interesting at the level of its result as translated by the statement, the common statement whose content is an optimistic roadmap for our two countries. And it opened horizons and opportunities, new horizons, and the new opportunities for cooperation to face the international changes and the many expectations of our two people.
The Strategic Dialogue which started in 2012 is based on a very (inaudible), also to see the future for a strategic partnership, a multidimensional partnership, (inaudible), economic, cultural, and peace relations based on common values in which we believe together the values of freedom, democracy, human rights, tolerance, peace, and human solidarity.
The economic cooperation (inaudible) a very important point in the Strategic Dialogue in spite of the progress that was achieved at this level, like the (inaudible) of the free exchange. We are looking forward, of course, to more cooperation. And in this context, the size of the investments, American investments in Morocco, shows efforts that we have to make because it represents only 8 percent of all the investments attracted by Morocco. At the time when we’re looking forward to the fifth international (inaudible).
(Inaudible) our cultural and education partnership, which is diverse and numerous, we would like to report the positive process into (inaudible) university education thanks to a network of American schools in the country, led by the University of New England, which will open in the city of Tangier, and also thanks to the programs of university exchange which has made it possible for thousands of Moroccan students to study in American universities.
Within the same spirit of cooperation and – because of the values of peace and tolerance, Morocco hosted the J. Christopher Stevens full – Virtual Exchange, which was launched by His Majesty Mohammed VI and President Obama, and it will contribute to the interaction of these two cultures. And I am convinced that the cultural and educational work group will be one of the concerns, and they will have to think about new topics for this cooperation at the level of university and youth.
Mr. Secretary of State, Morocco has always, under the leadership of His Majesty, in the process of reforms that are political – and its experience in the reconciliation was a model that became a reference not only in the region and contributed to the facilitation of the core democratic reforms, thanks to the (inaudible) of the institutions of Morocco and their maturity and their ability to react and interact with the changes, both nationally and internationally. The flexibility of our institution and their openness and their ability to listen and because they believe in the values of modern times might have helped Morocco to interact in a balanced way with new developments.
In this framework, the process of reforms was launched through the constitution of 2011 and its democratic provisions and guarantees of universal rights all through the reform of justice and good governance, in addition to the reinforcement of equality between men and women which, I think, agrees with the reforms of our country and its international commitments. In the domain of human rights, we put in place mechanisms to control those rights. And this is about the National Council for Human Rights, which opened branches in the regions of Morocco and made the recommendations to the government about the civil rights and political rights in their universal dimension. The government also worked on the translation of these recommendations on the ground in the form of laws, the last of which was making it impossible for – to present people to military courts. All these initiatives of reforms are guarantees that Morocco gave to its people on one hand, and this is very important, and also to its partners, led by the United States on one hand. And it made of it a special case which deserves to be called exceptional, and the uniqueness of its experience in the regional context, which is still seeking stability.
So this process came to reiterate the role of Morocco at a very precise moment in the region, facing challenges of violence, extremism, terrorism, and instability, in particular in the region of the Sahel. And in this context, the spiritual authority which His Majesty enjoys because he’s the leader of the believers, plays a very important role in facing extremism, and it also disseminates cooperation with African countries in the religious domain at a moment where Africa needs this spiritual support to face terrorism based on these values, the values of tolerance. But to guarantee the stability in the region and the Sahel in particular has to be the result of the settlement of the crisis in the Sahara. Therefore, Morocco appreciates the support that is given by the United States to the efforts of the Secretary General of the United Nations and his special envoy to find a final solution accepted to all about the Sahara on the basis of the Moroccan initiative for self-rule, which was considered by the American Administration to be very serious and realistic.
The Moroccan initiative in its content reacts to the expectations of the people in the Sahara in the management of their own affairs, which guarantees dignity, freedom, and development. And in this framework, I would like to report the role of the National Council for Human Rights and its regional communities, especially in the south of Morocco, to reinforce the culture of human rights. And I would like also to report the recommendations for the development of the region as suggested by the National Committee for Human Rights and which have been launched very recently.
So Morocco, to enter the African environment, is based on the support of our friendly people and that we need here to point out to the different visits conducted by His Majesty to a number of African countries, and which seeks to reinforce cooperation – South-South cooperation and focuses on peace and the settlement of conflicts in a peaceful way, and also human development and also the preservation of cultural identity and the religious identity of a number of African countries, and are very delighted to report at the same time the interest in the African continent and the initiative of the United States of America in the person of President Barack Obama to organize next August the first summit of the United States and Africa. And this is a strong sign to the commitment of the American Administration towards the development of this continent.
In this context, Morocco is convinced that it is necessary to implement common programs with our American partner to guarantee stability and economic prosperity and also to have access to energy and reinforce trade and encourage investments in various domains. We are convinced of our ability together to contribute to build a stronger partnership towards Africa based on three pillars – Morocco, the United States, and Africa – in order to invest in common because of the position of Morocco as a hub towards Europe and Africa, and also because of what we can do for the stability in the Sahel and in Africa in general.
The international current reality, Mr. Secretary of State, as well as the challenges for the peaceful settlement of conflicts imposes (inaudible) Morocco to continue its efforts in the framework of the United Nations and international agreements according to the statement on the – following the meeting of His Majesty and the President of the United States. So Morocco renews its commitment to work together with the United States and any other international actors for more coordination of our attitudes in order to put an end to bloodshed in the civilians – Syrian civilians – and in order to find a solution accepted to all for political transition that will guarantee the integrity of Syria. Our commitment to the values of peace is behind our attempt to find a solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict on the basis of the option of two countries that live together in peace. Undoubtedly, the recommendations of the 20th round of the Al Quds Committee held in Marrakesh and the – is a step towards the achievement of these common objectives.
Mr. Secretary of State, ladies and gentlemen, the atmosphere of an understanding – of the environment of understanding based on common political and references of democracy and human rights makes us believe in our ability for a common partnership on the basis of new developments (inaudible), and this will be very important and decisive in determining the process in this region and in Africa in general at the economic and – level, and also peace, but also to fight terrorism and disseminate stability, which have to go through the processing of tensions in the region. And this is a role that Morocco tries to play very strongly because it is convinced that a strategic partnership with the United States of America is going to bring the two countries together and achieve the objectives like our relations have done in the past in many domains.
I would like to welcome once again the Secretary of State as well as the delegation that comes with him, and also his (inaudible) ambassador. I wish the success to the proceedings of our group. Thank you very much indeed. (Applause.)
SECRETARY KERRY: Well, thank you very much, Minister Mezouar. Thank you for a very, very generous welcome. We had a spectacular dinner last night. As many of you know, the tradition of a great meal in Morocco is a long-held one and a very special one. And I want you to know that I’m going to try to persuade people in America that we need to have a meal where we have eight meals in one. It’s really – it was splendid, and it’s wonderful to come together in this beautiful hall, a mini-United Nations, really spectacular.
And I will tell you I’ve had the privilege in the last year visiting many foreign ministers in their offices, but very few are as splendid as the office I just was in with the view of the river and the wall and the old fort and the city in the background – absolutely spectacular. I don’t know how he gets any work done. From now on, I told him when I telephone him, I’m going to have this image in my mind of this extraordinary view as he sits there talking to me.
I value enormously, as President Obama does, our relationship with His Majesty as well as with the foreign minister and his team, and we’re very, very grateful to the Moroccan Ministry of Foreign Affairs in cooperation for hosting us here for this Strategic Dialogue. I’m very grateful to our new ambassador – many of you probably have not had the chance to meet him yet – Dwight Bush, who just arrived here five or six days ago, will present his credentials today prior to my meeting with His Majesty. And we’re grateful to the U.S. Mission for their cooperation and help here.
And we’ve got with us a really first-tier delegation involved in this dialogue, as you do, Mr. Minister. And I think this is an important step in helping our countries to build a very longstanding relationship and take it to a new level in a very new and challenging time, as you just described in your comments. We often talk about the rich history of the relationship between the United States and Morocco. Morocco was the first nation to recognize the United States in 1777, and we remember with great gratitude and with a sense of respect for history the important role that Morocco played during the Second World War. And it’s truly important to remember the deep historical foundation and friendship between Morocco and the United States. So when I hear the minister a few minutes ago talk about freedom and democracy, human rights, tolerance, peace, human values, we understand this is part of our DNA. And it’s not a coincidence that our relationship goes back to 1777.
So we have much to build on, and the work of the Strategic Dialogue and of our strategic partnership will contribute to the ability of the United States and Morocco to show that we value something a lot more powerful than our past, and that’s the future. We are here today to help shape a common future, and it’s a future defined by a shared prosperity and shared security that we can create together, but it’s also shared by all of those values that Salaheddine just a moment ago enumerated.
We just met a few minutes ago upstairs in a bilateral meeting. And the foreign minister laid out to me, to us, a very comprehensive and eloquent statement about the transformation and the transition that is taking place in Morocco, the efforts Morocco is making to manage this movement to the future. In some parts of the world, there is a major resistance to modernity, and how each nation makes this transition will be defined by each nation individually. There are going to be different ways, different speeds, different levels of accomplishment in different places.
We want to make sure that we are thoughtful and sensitive to that process, but obviously, we also want to make sure that we’re encouraging and working cooperatively and creatively to help countries be able to make this transition. We’re living in a world with a remarkable population bubble – unbelievable numbers of young people. Sixty percent of the country – this country and others – under the age of 30; 50 percent or more under the age of 25. It’s extraordinary. And the challenge of any government anywhere to be able to provide jobs, education, opportunity is enormous.
I mean, all of us remember that what began in Tunisia was not religiously driven; it wasn’t extremist driven. It was a fruit vendor who was exhausted by corruption, by the inability to be able to lead his life and sell his wares. And when a police officer slapped him around and refused to allow him to do what he was doing, he rebelled and set himself on fire, and that fire ignited a revolution.
In Tahrir Square, it wasn’t driven by the Muslim Brotherhood or any religious or other Islamist effort. It was driven by young people who were demonstrating against a structure that didn’t allow them to have opportunity. And everybody today is connected. No politician can shut off the world. Nobody has the ability to be able to tune it all out, because everybody through communications and travel and the internet and television, everybody knows what’s going on everywhere.
When I was in Kyiv, in Ukraine a few weeks ago, I met a man near the Maidan who said to me, “You know, I just came back from Australia. And the reason I came back is I want to make sure that in my country I have the ability to live the way I saw people living in Australia.” It’s pretty simple.
So this is our challenge together, and the United States is deeply committed to an incredibly vibrant and extraordinary capacity that Morocco has and is already exhibiting, already engaged in – by you, not by anybody else. You have, with the leadership of His Majesty, King Mohammed VI, already undertaken major reforms and major efforts to manage the future. And the United States has demonstrated commitment to that, I hope, in many ways, and we will continue to. We want to work with you. We have a $700 million Millennium Challenge Compact, which was completed last year. It’s just one step.
But I think the growth in our bilateral trade, which has actually tripled over the last 10 years, is very significant, and we want it to go further. I heard the foreign minister tell me that we’re still a small percentage of foreign direct investment. We want that to grow. And Morocco is one of fewer than 20 countries in the world, and the only country on this continent where the United States has a free trade agreement. That’s important. But we can’t pretend that that’s enough and we don’t come here pretending that it is.
We need to build on the strength of that investment, and we need to strengthen it. Morocco’s incredible potential for growth and it’s growing role as a vital gateway to a very dynamic continent, make it even more vital for the United States, frankly, to be able to grow the relationship.
So when Morocco is already among the top African nations investing in African nations, you can understand why investors around the world want to be part of it. And that’s part of what has attracted dozens of American companies to the U.S.-Morocco business development conference that took place last month. Morocco is clearly a country that is open for business and open to the world. And that’s exciting. It’s never been more clear than in recent months during King Mohammed VI’s recent outreach to the region.
With the 18 different agreements Morocco signed earlier this year with Mali, in areas from microfinance to infrastructure, Morocco is driving both greater security and greater prosperity in the region, in the Maghreb. And I also understand that his – after His Highness left Mali he left immediately to go to Guinea, Gabon, and the Ivory Coast, where he also brokered a series of new economic agreements. That’s all just in the first months of this year. So I guess it sounds like he and I have a similar travel schedule. But apart from that, he’s really aggressively out there trying to manage this process and push it forward.
And of course, King Mohammed VI was in Washington, as Salaheddine mentioned, for a very important meeting last fall where we clearly rededicated ourselves to the importance of the relationship, and I believe that visit has helped to strengthen ties that we see in every facet of this relationship.
We are also very appreciative and excited that Morocco is hosting the Global Entrepreneurship Summit later this year. I went to last year’s Summit in Kuala Lumpur. I had the privilege of speaking to about 5,000 young kids, all who want to be entrepreneurs. And I cannot tell you the energy and the excitement and the initiative of those young people, all of whom, in our language, want to be the next Bill Gates and the next Steve Jobs. They’re exciting. And it gives you enormous hope for the future. What we have to do is create the climate for these young people to be able to take an idea and make it into a business and use their energy and ingenuity.
So I firmly believe that the places where citizens have the freedom to dream up a new idea, and to take that idea and put it into reality, those are the places where people can be their own boss and where they’re free to fail – those are the societies that are the most successful, they’re the societies that are most cohesive, and those are the places that are most peaceful, tranquil, and satisfied.
USAID’s new strategy here in Morocco is focused on supporting exactly that kind of pursuit of prosperity. And the efforts that they began last year are concentrated on three areas: developing the workforce; supporting more responsive government; and improving education in those first, most critical years. If you can’t get a decent education and then get some kind of a job to build on that education, you will be economically handicapped the rest of your life. And that’s an important principle to begin any discussion about the future. USAID is making those commitments – I want to emphasize this, it’s very important – we’re making those commitments to support what the Moroccan people and the parliament have committed to together. We’re not trying to make independent initiatives. We’re not trying to do something that isn’t proved, not part of the process, but we want to support Morocco as it implements the organic laws, opens up its civil society, and finds the most effective ways to introduce difficult but necessary economic reforms.
Now obviously – although we talked upstairs about how possibly to deal with extremism and to deal with society, education and jobs and opportunity and civil society are in some ways equally important or more important than security – but still security is one of the most fundamental obligations that a government owes its citizens. And here too, the United States and Morocco stand side by side. In fact, the Moroccan Royal Armed Forces are wrapping up the 2014 African Lion military exercise in Agadir today. And for a decade now, the United States has participated in these exercises; we are expanding them to include other partners from Africa, Europe, and Canada. And Morocco’s military commitments continue to be a mark of strength and a stabilizing force in the region. And the evolving threats in the Maghreb make it clear that this kind of commitment is really more vital than it’s ever been.
I also want to commend Morocco for its leadership in the Global Counterterrorism Forum and especially Morocco’s proactive role in co-leading with the Netherlands the year-long GCTF initiative to address the phenomenon of foreign fighters.
So whether in Morocco’s support for Mali’s new government or its continued efforts to counter violent extremism, in its robust economic outreach in the region and commitment to fostering religious tolerance, Morocco is playing an essential leadership role and we come here today to show our understanding of and respect for that role.
The United States stands by and will stand by this relationship every step of the way. President Obama is deeply committed to that, and that commitment comes from much more than the impressive group of American officials who’ve come here today. It comes from our people.
We know that that commitment is evident in many different ways. You just mentioned the Christopher Stevens virtual exchange. We’re very, very grateful to your leadership with respect to that. And as you know, Christopher Stevens was a Peace Corps volunteer here. Today, I will be swearing in the latest class of Peace Corps volunteers, and they’re going to join the more than 4,000 Americans who have dedicated two years of their lives to serve here in Morocco since the day that President Kennedy started the Peace Corps and made this call for deeper engagement in the world.
We’re very, very grateful that Morocco has engaged the United States as a partner and as a friend from the very beginning of that initiative. And we take pride in what we’ve accomplished together and in the many ways that the bonds between our people have deepened. So I want you to know that President Obama is committed to making certain that that legacy is a legacy that we can build on here today and work together on every single day going forward in order to grow this relationship with the work that we do in the days to come. So Mr. Minister, thank you very, very much for your generous welcome here, and thank you for hosting this Strategic Dialogue. (Applause.)
Welcome, Mr. John Kerry, the Secretary of State for foreign affairs, and also I would like to welcome the delegation, your delegation. Welcome, Mr. Ambassador Dwight Bush, whom we are delighted to have with us here. And we are convinced that he shares the same feelings.
Mr. Secretary of State, ladies and gentlemen, I would like first to commend the interest that the American administration has always shown towards Morocco as a country that represents a model for stability and quite democratic reforms, which reiterate its belief in the values of the freedom, justice, (inaudible). (Inaudible) would like for this interest which represents (inaudible) quite clear during the visit of His Majesty Mohammed VI to Washington. And that was the (inaudible) very interesting at the level of its result as translated by the statement, the common statement whose content is an optimistic roadmap for our two countries. And it opened horizons and opportunities, new horizons, and the new opportunities for cooperation to face the international changes and the many expectations of our two people.
The Strategic Dialogue which started in 2012 is based on a very (inaudible), also to see the future for a strategic partnership, a multidimensional partnership, (inaudible), economic, cultural, and peace relations based on common values in which we believe together the values of freedom, democracy, human rights, tolerance, peace, and human solidarity.
The economic cooperation (inaudible) a very important point in the Strategic Dialogue in spite of the progress that was achieved at this level, like the (inaudible) of the free exchange. We are looking forward, of course, to more cooperation. And in this context, the size of the investments, American investments in Morocco, shows efforts that we have to make because it represents only 8 percent of all the investments attracted by Morocco. At the time when we’re looking forward to the fifth international (inaudible).
(Inaudible) our cultural and education partnership, which is diverse and numerous, we would like to report the positive process into (inaudible) university education thanks to a network of American schools in the country, led by the University of New England, which will open in the city of Tangier, and also thanks to the programs of university exchange which has made it possible for thousands of Moroccan students to study in American universities.
Within the same spirit of cooperation and – because of the values of peace and tolerance, Morocco hosted the J. Christopher Stevens full – Virtual Exchange, which was launched by His Majesty Mohammed VI and President Obama, and it will contribute to the interaction of these two cultures. And I am convinced that the cultural and educational work group will be one of the concerns, and they will have to think about new topics for this cooperation at the level of university and youth.
Mr. Secretary of State, Morocco has always, under the leadership of His Majesty, in the process of reforms that are political – and its experience in the reconciliation was a model that became a reference not only in the region and contributed to the facilitation of the core democratic reforms, thanks to the (inaudible) of the institutions of Morocco and their maturity and their ability to react and interact with the changes, both nationally and internationally. The flexibility of our institution and their openness and their ability to listen and because they believe in the values of modern times might have helped Morocco to interact in a balanced way with new developments.
In this framework, the process of reforms was launched through the constitution of 2011 and its democratic provisions and guarantees of universal rights all through the reform of justice and good governance, in addition to the reinforcement of equality between men and women which, I think, agrees with the reforms of our country and its international commitments. In the domain of human rights, we put in place mechanisms to control those rights. And this is about the National Council for Human Rights, which opened branches in the regions of Morocco and made the recommendations to the government about the civil rights and political rights in their universal dimension. The government also worked on the translation of these recommendations on the ground in the form of laws, the last of which was making it impossible for – to present people to military courts. All these initiatives of reforms are guarantees that Morocco gave to its people on one hand, and this is very important, and also to its partners, led by the United States on one hand. And it made of it a special case which deserves to be called exceptional, and the uniqueness of its experience in the regional context, which is still seeking stability.
So this process came to reiterate the role of Morocco at a very precise moment in the region, facing challenges of violence, extremism, terrorism, and instability, in particular in the region of the Sahel. And in this context, the spiritual authority which His Majesty enjoys because he’s the leader of the believers, plays a very important role in facing extremism, and it also disseminates cooperation with African countries in the religious domain at a moment where Africa needs this spiritual support to face terrorism based on these values, the values of tolerance. But to guarantee the stability in the region and the Sahel in particular has to be the result of the settlement of the crisis in the Sahara. Therefore, Morocco appreciates the support that is given by the United States to the efforts of the Secretary General of the United Nations and his special envoy to find a final solution accepted to all about the Sahara on the basis of the Moroccan initiative for self-rule, which was considered by the American Administration to be very serious and realistic.
The Moroccan initiative in its content reacts to the expectations of the people in the Sahara in the management of their own affairs, which guarantees dignity, freedom, and development. And in this framework, I would like to report the role of the National Council for Human Rights and its regional communities, especially in the south of Morocco, to reinforce the culture of human rights. And I would like also to report the recommendations for the development of the region as suggested by the National Committee for Human Rights and which have been launched very recently.
So Morocco, to enter the African environment, is based on the support of our friendly people and that we need here to point out to the different visits conducted by His Majesty to a number of African countries, and which seeks to reinforce cooperation – South-South cooperation and focuses on peace and the settlement of conflicts in a peaceful way, and also human development and also the preservation of cultural identity and the religious identity of a number of African countries, and are very delighted to report at the same time the interest in the African continent and the initiative of the United States of America in the person of President Barack Obama to organize next August the first summit of the United States and Africa. And this is a strong sign to the commitment of the American Administration towards the development of this continent.
In this context, Morocco is convinced that it is necessary to implement common programs with our American partner to guarantee stability and economic prosperity and also to have access to energy and reinforce trade and encourage investments in various domains. We are convinced of our ability together to contribute to build a stronger partnership towards Africa based on three pillars – Morocco, the United States, and Africa – in order to invest in common because of the position of Morocco as a hub towards Europe and Africa, and also because of what we can do for the stability in the Sahel and in Africa in general.
The international current reality, Mr. Secretary of State, as well as the challenges for the peaceful settlement of conflicts imposes (inaudible) Morocco to continue its efforts in the framework of the United Nations and international agreements according to the statement on the – following the meeting of His Majesty and the President of the United States. So Morocco renews its commitment to work together with the United States and any other international actors for more coordination of our attitudes in order to put an end to bloodshed in the civilians – Syrian civilians – and in order to find a solution accepted to all for political transition that will guarantee the integrity of Syria. Our commitment to the values of peace is behind our attempt to find a solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict on the basis of the option of two countries that live together in peace. Undoubtedly, the recommendations of the 20th round of the Al Quds Committee held in Marrakesh and the – is a step towards the achievement of these common objectives.
Mr. Secretary of State, ladies and gentlemen, the atmosphere of an understanding – of the environment of understanding based on common political and references of democracy and human rights makes us believe in our ability for a common partnership on the basis of new developments (inaudible), and this will be very important and decisive in determining the process in this region and in Africa in general at the economic and – level, and also peace, but also to fight terrorism and disseminate stability, which have to go through the processing of tensions in the region. And this is a role that Morocco tries to play very strongly because it is convinced that a strategic partnership with the United States of America is going to bring the two countries together and achieve the objectives like our relations have done in the past in many domains.
I would like to welcome once again the Secretary of State as well as the delegation that comes with him, and also his (inaudible) ambassador. I wish the success to the proceedings of our group. Thank you very much indeed. (Applause.)
SECRETARY KERRY: Well, thank you very much, Minister Mezouar. Thank you for a very, very generous welcome. We had a spectacular dinner last night. As many of you know, the tradition of a great meal in Morocco is a long-held one and a very special one. And I want you to know that I’m going to try to persuade people in America that we need to have a meal where we have eight meals in one. It’s really – it was splendid, and it’s wonderful to come together in this beautiful hall, a mini-United Nations, really spectacular.
And I will tell you I’ve had the privilege in the last year visiting many foreign ministers in their offices, but very few are as splendid as the office I just was in with the view of the river and the wall and the old fort and the city in the background – absolutely spectacular. I don’t know how he gets any work done. From now on, I told him when I telephone him, I’m going to have this image in my mind of this extraordinary view as he sits there talking to me.
I value enormously, as President Obama does, our relationship with His Majesty as well as with the foreign minister and his team, and we’re very, very grateful to the Moroccan Ministry of Foreign Affairs in cooperation for hosting us here for this Strategic Dialogue. I’m very grateful to our new ambassador – many of you probably have not had the chance to meet him yet – Dwight Bush, who just arrived here five or six days ago, will present his credentials today prior to my meeting with His Majesty. And we’re grateful to the U.S. Mission for their cooperation and help here.
And we’ve got with us a really first-tier delegation involved in this dialogue, as you do, Mr. Minister. And I think this is an important step in helping our countries to build a very longstanding relationship and take it to a new level in a very new and challenging time, as you just described in your comments. We often talk about the rich history of the relationship between the United States and Morocco. Morocco was the first nation to recognize the United States in 1777, and we remember with great gratitude and with a sense of respect for history the important role that Morocco played during the Second World War. And it’s truly important to remember the deep historical foundation and friendship between Morocco and the United States. So when I hear the minister a few minutes ago talk about freedom and democracy, human rights, tolerance, peace, human values, we understand this is part of our DNA. And it’s not a coincidence that our relationship goes back to 1777.
So we have much to build on, and the work of the Strategic Dialogue and of our strategic partnership will contribute to the ability of the United States and Morocco to show that we value something a lot more powerful than our past, and that’s the future. We are here today to help shape a common future, and it’s a future defined by a shared prosperity and shared security that we can create together, but it’s also shared by all of those values that Salaheddine just a moment ago enumerated.
We just met a few minutes ago upstairs in a bilateral meeting. And the foreign minister laid out to me, to us, a very comprehensive and eloquent statement about the transformation and the transition that is taking place in Morocco, the efforts Morocco is making to manage this movement to the future. In some parts of the world, there is a major resistance to modernity, and how each nation makes this transition will be defined by each nation individually. There are going to be different ways, different speeds, different levels of accomplishment in different places.
We want to make sure that we are thoughtful and sensitive to that process, but obviously, we also want to make sure that we’re encouraging and working cooperatively and creatively to help countries be able to make this transition. We’re living in a world with a remarkable population bubble – unbelievable numbers of young people. Sixty percent of the country – this country and others – under the age of 30; 50 percent or more under the age of 25. It’s extraordinary. And the challenge of any government anywhere to be able to provide jobs, education, opportunity is enormous.
I mean, all of us remember that what began in Tunisia was not religiously driven; it wasn’t extremist driven. It was a fruit vendor who was exhausted by corruption, by the inability to be able to lead his life and sell his wares. And when a police officer slapped him around and refused to allow him to do what he was doing, he rebelled and set himself on fire, and that fire ignited a revolution.
In Tahrir Square, it wasn’t driven by the Muslim Brotherhood or any religious or other Islamist effort. It was driven by young people who were demonstrating against a structure that didn’t allow them to have opportunity. And everybody today is connected. No politician can shut off the world. Nobody has the ability to be able to tune it all out, because everybody through communications and travel and the internet and television, everybody knows what’s going on everywhere.
When I was in Kyiv, in Ukraine a few weeks ago, I met a man near the Maidan who said to me, “You know, I just came back from Australia. And the reason I came back is I want to make sure that in my country I have the ability to live the way I saw people living in Australia.” It’s pretty simple.
So this is our challenge together, and the United States is deeply committed to an incredibly vibrant and extraordinary capacity that Morocco has and is already exhibiting, already engaged in – by you, not by anybody else. You have, with the leadership of His Majesty, King Mohammed VI, already undertaken major reforms and major efforts to manage the future. And the United States has demonstrated commitment to that, I hope, in many ways, and we will continue to. We want to work with you. We have a $700 million Millennium Challenge Compact, which was completed last year. It’s just one step.
But I think the growth in our bilateral trade, which has actually tripled over the last 10 years, is very significant, and we want it to go further. I heard the foreign minister tell me that we’re still a small percentage of foreign direct investment. We want that to grow. And Morocco is one of fewer than 20 countries in the world, and the only country on this continent where the United States has a free trade agreement. That’s important. But we can’t pretend that that’s enough and we don’t come here pretending that it is.
We need to build on the strength of that investment, and we need to strengthen it. Morocco’s incredible potential for growth and it’s growing role as a vital gateway to a very dynamic continent, make it even more vital for the United States, frankly, to be able to grow the relationship.
So when Morocco is already among the top African nations investing in African nations, you can understand why investors around the world want to be part of it. And that’s part of what has attracted dozens of American companies to the U.S.-Morocco business development conference that took place last month. Morocco is clearly a country that is open for business and open to the world. And that’s exciting. It’s never been more clear than in recent months during King Mohammed VI’s recent outreach to the region.
With the 18 different agreements Morocco signed earlier this year with Mali, in areas from microfinance to infrastructure, Morocco is driving both greater security and greater prosperity in the region, in the Maghreb. And I also understand that his – after His Highness left Mali he left immediately to go to Guinea, Gabon, and the Ivory Coast, where he also brokered a series of new economic agreements. That’s all just in the first months of this year. So I guess it sounds like he and I have a similar travel schedule. But apart from that, he’s really aggressively out there trying to manage this process and push it forward.
And of course, King Mohammed VI was in Washington, as Salaheddine mentioned, for a very important meeting last fall where we clearly rededicated ourselves to the importance of the relationship, and I believe that visit has helped to strengthen ties that we see in every facet of this relationship.
We are also very appreciative and excited that Morocco is hosting the Global Entrepreneurship Summit later this year. I went to last year’s Summit in Kuala Lumpur. I had the privilege of speaking to about 5,000 young kids, all who want to be entrepreneurs. And I cannot tell you the energy and the excitement and the initiative of those young people, all of whom, in our language, want to be the next Bill Gates and the next Steve Jobs. They’re exciting. And it gives you enormous hope for the future. What we have to do is create the climate for these young people to be able to take an idea and make it into a business and use their energy and ingenuity.
So I firmly believe that the places where citizens have the freedom to dream up a new idea, and to take that idea and put it into reality, those are the places where people can be their own boss and where they’re free to fail – those are the societies that are the most successful, they’re the societies that are most cohesive, and those are the places that are most peaceful, tranquil, and satisfied.
USAID’s new strategy here in Morocco is focused on supporting exactly that kind of pursuit of prosperity. And the efforts that they began last year are concentrated on three areas: developing the workforce; supporting more responsive government; and improving education in those first, most critical years. If you can’t get a decent education and then get some kind of a job to build on that education, you will be economically handicapped the rest of your life. And that’s an important principle to begin any discussion about the future. USAID is making those commitments – I want to emphasize this, it’s very important – we’re making those commitments to support what the Moroccan people and the parliament have committed to together. We’re not trying to make independent initiatives. We’re not trying to do something that isn’t proved, not part of the process, but we want to support Morocco as it implements the organic laws, opens up its civil society, and finds the most effective ways to introduce difficult but necessary economic reforms.
Now obviously – although we talked upstairs about how possibly to deal with extremism and to deal with society, education and jobs and opportunity and civil society are in some ways equally important or more important than security – but still security is one of the most fundamental obligations that a government owes its citizens. And here too, the United States and Morocco stand side by side. In fact, the Moroccan Royal Armed Forces are wrapping up the 2014 African Lion military exercise in Agadir today. And for a decade now, the United States has participated in these exercises; we are expanding them to include other partners from Africa, Europe, and Canada. And Morocco’s military commitments continue to be a mark of strength and a stabilizing force in the region. And the evolving threats in the Maghreb make it clear that this kind of commitment is really more vital than it’s ever been.
I also want to commend Morocco for its leadership in the Global Counterterrorism Forum and especially Morocco’s proactive role in co-leading with the Netherlands the year-long GCTF initiative to address the phenomenon of foreign fighters.
So whether in Morocco’s support for Mali’s new government or its continued efforts to counter violent extremism, in its robust economic outreach in the region and commitment to fostering religious tolerance, Morocco is playing an essential leadership role and we come here today to show our understanding of and respect for that role.
The United States stands by and will stand by this relationship every step of the way. President Obama is deeply committed to that, and that commitment comes from much more than the impressive group of American officials who’ve come here today. It comes from our people.
We know that that commitment is evident in many different ways. You just mentioned the Christopher Stevens virtual exchange. We’re very, very grateful to your leadership with respect to that. And as you know, Christopher Stevens was a Peace Corps volunteer here. Today, I will be swearing in the latest class of Peace Corps volunteers, and they’re going to join the more than 4,000 Americans who have dedicated two years of their lives to serve here in Morocco since the day that President Kennedy started the Peace Corps and made this call for deeper engagement in the world.
We’re very, very grateful that Morocco has engaged the United States as a partner and as a friend from the very beginning of that initiative. And we take pride in what we’ve accomplished together and in the many ways that the bonds between our people have deepened. So I want you to know that President Obama is committed to making certain that that legacy is a legacy that we can build on here today and work together on every single day going forward in order to grow this relationship with the work that we do in the days to come. So Mr. Minister, thank you very, very much for your generous welcome here, and thank you for hosting this Strategic Dialogue. (Applause.)
Saturday, April 28, 2012
SEC. OF STATE HILLARY CLINTON SPEAKS AT GLOBAL IMPACT ECONOMY FORUM
FROM: U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT
Remarks at the Global Impact Economy Forum
Remarks Hillary Rodham Clinton
Secretary of State Loy Henderson Auditorium
Washington, DC
April 26, 2012
Thank you. Oh, thank you all very much. Thank you. Thank you, all. Thank you. That was perfect timing, bottoms up. I loved hearing that as I walked in. Thanks to Kris Balderston, his staff in our office of the Global Partnership Initiatives, and everyone here who has helped to plan this forum providing us a lot of great advice and counsel.
I’m also delighted to welcome Sir Richard Branson. Thank you so much for being here. I love the fact that he is such a strong proponent for business as unusual. And I’m excited he’s here because many, many, many years ago, I wanted to be an astronaut, and I think he may be my last chance to live out – (laughter) – that particular dream.
You’re here because you know that we have an opportunity with the convergence of the recognition on the part of government, the private sector, civil society, that we can be so much more effective working together than working at cross-purposes. And for me, this is a great moment to look at where we stand in the world in the pursuit of economic growth and prosperity that is broadly inclusive and sustainable. You know the statistics as well as anyone: One out of three people in the world today living on less than $2 a day; the challenges we face from finite resources, climate change, and other environmental degradation; looking at how people themselves are being empowered from the bottom up in large measure because of the phenomenon of social media. And it’s not only happening somewhere out there, it’s happening everywhere.
And the fact is, these trend lines, apart from the headlines that we all spend most of our time looking at, are profoundly important to foreign policy and national security of all of our countries, because governments everywhere, including most particularly our own, are grappling with what challenges like these mean for our citizens. We believe expanding economic opportunity is fundamental to achieving our own national interest. We want more prosperous societies. We want to see people moving into the middle class. We want to see that creativity and entrepreneurial spirit fostering growth. And we have been working within the Obama Administration to bring our various institutions together to try to put forth that as a focus for us.
So the State Department, the U.S. Agency for International Development, the Department of Commerce, the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, many other of our own institutions working together with international and multilateral institutions are trying to crack the code on removing the obstacles that limit growth. But we have to be more intentional about it. And that’s part of what this forum is meant to both represent, but far more importantly, help us achieve.
And we recognize that so called official development assistance is no longer the leading edge indicator or tool that it used to be. In the 1960s, official development assistance represented about 70 percent of capital flows into developing nations. Today that number is about 13 percent. Where does the rest come from? Well, you know it comes from the private sector, comes from increased trade revenues, it comes from the flow of remittances, and any number of other non-governmental sources. So we’ve made it a goal of this Administration to do more to engage with and coordinate with the private sector, non-profits, philanthropists, diasporas, and anyone else who has value to add.
We know we need partnerships and innovative alliances, which is why one of the first things I did at the State Department was to set up this Office of Global Partnerships. We needed to tear down the silos that prevented us from working creatively and smartly together. We needed to facilitate and scale up the impact economy. And we needed to make it clear that we were over the separation mentality that for too long has guided our efforts.
What do I mean by that? Well, in the past, we looked at corporate revenue and corporate responsibility as separate concerns. We looked at government activity and everything else as separate concerns. Now we know that there’s so much out there that is happening but may not be shared broadly enough so that it both inspires and catalyzes others to do the same. There is a market waiting to be filled in every corner of this world.
So if we can open the doors to new markets and new investments, we can tap as many as 1.4 billion new mid-market customers with growing incomes in developing countries. Taken together, they represent more than $12 trillion in spending power. That’s a huge potential customer base, not only for American companies, which is my primary concern, but also for others. So when we make investments from the three stools of this strategy, official development assistance, not-for-profit philanthropic assistance, private sector investments, we are not only helping to grow and strengthen middle classes in developing nations, we are also supporting the businesses that create jobs here at home. We know that working with the private sector can bolster both our foreign policy interests and our development efforts. But we hope the private sector knows that working with government and civil society also offers value. And increasingly our goals, I would argue, overlap.
Consider just a few examples: Each year, India’s farmers produce nearly 200 million metric tons of rice and wheat, but they lose nearly one-tenth of it after harvest. Just the portion of grain that farmers lose because they don’t have a good way to dry and store their crops would feed about 4 million additional people. And I believe that Sachpreet Chandhoke is here today. Is Sachpreet here? Yes, yes. Well, last year, she led a team of students from Kellogg School of Management to take on this challenge. They designed and pitched the Grain Depot Fund as part of the International Impact Investing Challenge. They proposed building village-level warehouses where local farmers can access the proper equipment to dry their crops and store them, protected from insects, humidity, and theft. Investors in these warehouses will see returns of almost 20 percent while also helping prevent the needless loss of grain, increasing the farmers’ incomes by as much as 15 percent, and creating dozens of local jobs around the storage centers. So with numbers like that, it’s easy to see why Sachpreet and her colleagues won the competition. (Applause.)
Or look at northern Haiti. With its proximity to the U.S. market, the area has great potential to be a regional manufacturing hub. But for decades, despite interest, there was a lack of industrial facilities, limited electric supply, inadequate ports, which all held back private investment. Today, the north of Haiti ranks as one of Haiti’s poorest regions, and of course, Haiti is the poorest country in our hemisphere.
So last year, working with the Government of Haiti and the Inter-American Development Bank, the State Department facilitated a $500 million public-private partnership with the leading Korean garment manufacturer Sae-A. This partnership will develop a globally competitive industrial park in northern Haiti, one of the largest in the Caribbean. It will include an onsite power plant, a waste water treatment facility, and executive residences. Sae-A has projected that it will create 20,000 jobs by 2016 and they will be investing more than $70 million in northern Haiti. The region will continue to benefit from ongoing investments in housing and health clinics, a new container port, and electrification projects for the towns surrounding the industrial park. Sae-A began moving into the first two new 100,000 square feet factory buildings this week, and we expect other tenants to follow later in the year.
At a larger level, our Overseas Private Investment Corporation offers institutional proof that impact investing works. Throughout its 40-year history – and is Elizabeth Littlefield here, our current head of OPIC? – they have been making investments with positive social and environmental returns at the same time as OPIC has generated a profit for American taxpayers. Last year, OPIC issued a call for proposals to catalyze a greater commitment to impact investing. And so far, it has approved $285 million in financing for six new funds that will invest in projects improving job creation, healthcare, combating climate change, and the like.
These are just a few of the examples I could give you of what we are really focused on making happen. And that’s why we are sponsoring and hosting this Global Impact Economy Forum. You’re here because you understand creating shared value is actually in all of our interest. We need all the potential partners, not only here, but who are not in the room, to understand that as well. Our goal is to create an inclusive economic ecosystem that fosters this kind of investing.
So today, I’m proud to announce two exciting new partnerships. USAID – I don’t know if Raj Shah – is Raj here? Ah, oh good, you’re here. USAID’s Development Innovation Ventures, or DIV, invests in breakthrough development solutions that truly have the potential to change millions of lives at a fraction of the usual cost. And now, through a new Global Development Alliance between USAID and the Skoll Foundation – I don’t know if Jeffrey Skoll is here as well – we are dedicating more than $40 million to focus on scaling up game-changing innovations that are cost-effective and sustainable.
This was one of Raj’s and my principal goals when we both came into our positions. It is obviously important to provide humanitarian relief when people are starving because of bad government policies that undermine agricultural development or because of drought or other acts of nature. But it’s better to get ahead of the curve and to invest in new, more effective agricultural production. It’s fine to set up clinics, to take care of people when they’re sick or they’re suffering from disease, but it’s better to get ahead of it and to find interventions like bed nets that will actually prevent disease in the first place. So we’re investing a lot of money in Development Innovation Ventures because we think it will save money, but we need private sector support and ideas as well.
Secondly, we are committed to doing development and diplomacy differently. That’s why I commissioned the first-ever Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review to take a hard look at ourselves and make sure we knew what we were doing that worked and do more of it and stop what we were doing that didn’t work. So our second program is part of our ongoing investing with impact initiative. It’s called Accelerating Market-Driven Partnerships, or AMP. It’s very important in Washington you get a good acronym – (laughter) – so people spend a lot of time trying to figure out what the initials will sound like. AMP will bring a business eye to taking on social and environmental problems in developing markets. We will launch it in Brazil, focused first on building sustainable cities, from providing low-cost housing, to offering skills training that builds capacity of local workers, to improving urban waste management systems. AMP will draw on the resources of the private sector, civil society, and multilateral partners in both Brazil and the United States, including Arent Fox, Machado Associados, Grupo ABC, HP, the Rockefeller Foundation, the World Bank Group, and Mercy Corps.
So we’re bringing a whole-of-government approach and a broad base of partners to this, creating an innovation toolkit looking at the critical elements necessary to strengthen science and technology to support entrepreneurship and innovation. We’ll be sending our first innovation delegation to Brazil. We’re collaborating with Department of Housing and Urban Development through the Energy and Climate Partnership of the Americas to advance this initiative. If it proves successful in Brazil, we’ll obviously want to expand it and invite you to join us.
Now, I’m not the only one who will be announcing new commitments today. Many of you are here to do the same. This forum fundamentally is built on the idea we don’t have to choose between doing well and doing good. The only choice we have to make is to do better – do better in government, do better in business, do better in civil society. And one thing is clear: We cannot solve our problems or address our challenges without working together. That goes for countries working together and all of us as well. So I have high hopes for this forum. I thank everybody who has been contributing to it to bring it to reality, and I look forward to working with you on the partnerships and opportunities that it helps to midwife for all of us. Thank you very much. (Applause.)
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