SECRETARY KERRY'S REMARKS REGARDING HUMAN RIGHTS IN NORTH KOREA

FROM:  U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT 

Remarks at Event on Human Rights in the D.P.R.K.

Remarks

John Kerry

Secretary of State

Waldorf-Astoria

New York City, DC

September 23, 2014

Thank you very much, Ambassador King, and I want to thank Assistant Secretary Tom Malinowski for bringing us together today with Danny Russel. And I’m particularly grateful to our fellow ministers and diplomatic corps for being here today, and particularly grateful to my colleagues, the Foreign Minister of Japan, the Foreign Minister of the Republic of Korea, for being here to share in this, and Prince Zeid also, whose leadership is so important on it.

We are here today to really confront some of the most urgent issues of conscience, and policymaking is often marked by complicated decisions, by close calls. But some things remain crystal clear: Barbarity, inhumanity – I think you can call it evil – we all recognize still exist. And in the challenges that we’re facing in the Middle East right now, that has been underscored in the last days. We simply cannot be blind to these egregious affronts to human nature and we cannot accept it, and silence would be the greatest abuse of all.

What goes on inside North Korea – systematic repression, collective punishment, arbitrary execution, penal colonies, prison camps – these abuses are actually unfathomable to nearly the entire world, and they should have no place in the 21st century. North Korea’s leadership may act as if it is impervious to our concern, as if nothing that we say can penetrate its self-imposed isolation. And yet on some level, North Korea’s leaders do understand that their behavior brings shame upon their country in the eyes of the world. Why else would Pyongyang go to such extraordinary lengths to keep their prison camps secret? Why else would they refuse to allow access to the Red Cross, the UN, and the international NGOs, or dismiss out of hand horrific accounts provided by defectors as mere propaganda?

Well, in many ways now, the veil has been truly lifted. No longer can North Korea’s secrecy be seen as an excuse for silence or ignorance or inaction, because in 400 pages of excruciating detail and testimony from over 80 witnesses, the UN Commission of Inquiry’s report on the DPRK has laid bare what it rightly calls systematic, widespread, and grave violations of human rights. Thousands upon thousands of North Korea’s citizens are being robbed of their dignity and stripped of their humanity in penal colonies, if they are lucky enough to survive at all. Torture and forced abortions are routine. And the sentencing of Americans to labor camps without a trial – a fair trial – is as unjust as it is reprehensible.

So today, many nations come together with one voice. To the tens of thousands who are suffering in Yodok, Hwasong, Kaechon, and in prison camps across North Korea, we say, “You may be hidden, but we can see you. We know you’re there. Your captors can silence your voice and assault your dignity, but they cannot deny your basic humanity.” And we have someone with us today who you will meet shortly whose life story proves that to be true.

We should all ask ourselves if we who are free, we who have the extraordinary privilege of coming together in a way like this today, if we don’t stand with men and women suffering in anonymity in places like North Korea, then what do we stand for? And if we don’t give voice to the voiceless, then why even bother to speak about these issues?

So we say to the North Korean Government, all of us here today: You should close those camps. You should shut this evil system down. As the Commission of Inquiry report concludes, “The gravity, scale, and nature of these violations reveal a state that does not have any parallel in the contemporary world.” And the commission makes a set of clear recommendations to the DPRK Government. Some are as simple as acknowledging its abuses and holding those responsible to account. Others involve reforming the basic institutions of society.

The United States looks forward to working with the European Union, Australia, Japan, the Republic of Korea, and other nations on a strong UN resolution that carries these recommendations forward. And I want to thank High Commissioner for Human Rights Prince Zeid and former Justice of the High Court of Australia Mr. Michael Kirby, who chaired the commission. Let me also recognize the extraordinary work of the Australian Government. My friend, Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, who is here, for helping to ensure the UN report gets the attention that it deserves.

And finally, I want to thank my counterpart from the Republic of Korea, Minister Yun Byung-se, for his country’s commitment to host a High Commission Field Office that will serve as our eyes and ears to North Korea’s injustice. And of course, I thank the Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida for lending his strong, important voice to this cause.

But most of all, I want to thank Shin Dong-hyuk for being here with us today. Shin was born in a North Korean prison camp. At a young age, Shin was forced to watch executions, to eat frogs and rodents to survive, and to endure having part of a finger cut off as a punishment. He spent the first 23 years of his life living this way. And by recounting his experiences of brutality and humanity, he makes witnesses of us all.

But Shin is far more than a survivor of unconscionable cruelty. In his escape from such remarkable evil, from a nightmare that few of us could even imagine, he is also a source of inspiration and hope. There is no easy solution to this challenge, but none of us have a right to lose hope because the people in those camps don’t. We must stay persistent in standing up for our most fundamental values whenever and wherever they are threatened. That is the only way we can achieve the transformation that is imperative.

Shin, thank you for bearing witness to that truth and for being here with us today, and we look forward to hearing your comments. Thank you. (Applause.)

PRESIDENT OBAMA'S STATEMENT ON AIRSTRIKES WITHIN SYRIA

FROM:  THE WHITE HOUSE 

September 23, 2014

Statement by the President on Airstrikes in Syria

South Lawn

10:11 A.M. EDT

THE PRESIDENT:  Good morning, everybody.  Last night, on my orders, America’s armed forces began strikes against ISIL targets in Syria.  Today, the American people give thanks for the extraordinary service of our men and women in uniform, including the pilots who flew these missions with the courage and professionalism that we've come to expect from the finest military that the world has ever known.

Earlier this month, I outlined for the American people our strategy to confront the threat posed by the terrorist group known as ISIL.  I made clear that as part of this campaign the United States would take action against targets in both Iraq and Syria so that these terrorists can't find safe haven anywhere.  I also made clear that America would act as part of a broad coalition.  And that's exactly what we've done.

We were joined in this action by our friends and partners -- Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Bahrain, and Qatar.  America is proud to stand shoulder to shoulder with these nations on behalf of our common security.

The strength of this coalition makes it clear to the world that this is not America’s fight alone.  Above all, the people and governments in the Middle East are rejecting ISIL and standing up for the peace and security that the people of the region and the world deserve.

Meanwhile, we will move forward with our plans, supported by bipartisan majorities in Congress, to ramp up our effort to train and equip the Syrian opposition, who are the best counterweight to ISIL and the Assad regime.  And more broadly, over 40 nations have offered to help in this comprehensive effort to confront this terrorist threat -- to take out terrorist targets; to train and equip Iraqi and Syrian opposition fighters who are going up against ISIL on the ground; to cut off ISIL’s financing; to counter its hateful ideology; and to stop the flow of fighters into and out of the region.

Last night, we also took strikes to disrupt plotting against the United States and our allies by seasoned al Qaeda operatives in Syria who are known as the Khorasan Group.  And once again, it must be clear to anyone who would plot against America and try to do Americans harm that we will not tolerate safe havens for terrorists who threaten our people.

I've spoken to leaders in Congress and I'm pleased that there is bipartisan support for the actions we are taking.  America is always stronger when we stand united, and that unity sends a powerful message to the world that we will do what’s necessary to defend our country.

Over the next several days I will have the opportunity to meet with Prime Minister Abadi of Iraq, and with friends and allies at the United Nations to continue building support for the coalition that is confronting this serious threat to our peace and security.  The overall effort will take time.  There will be challenges ahead.  But we're going to do what’s necessary to take the fight to this terrorist group, for the security of the country and the region and for the entire world.

Thanks.  God bless our troops.  God bless America.

END

U.S. STAKEOUT REMARKS AFTER UN SECURITY COUNCIL CONSULTATIONS ON MIDDLE EAST

FROM:  U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT 

U.S. Mission to the United Nations: Remarks at a Stakeout Following Security Council Consultations on the Middle East

09/16/2014 05:03 PM EDT

AS DELIVERED

Hi everyone. I just want to briefly summarize this morning’s consultations. Robert Serry, the Special Coordinator for Middle East Peace, briefed the Council on the UN’s work to support the ceasefire in Gaza, as well as the UN’s work in Syria. Our discussion also covered Iraq, and Council members raised a number of questions on all these matters.

On Gaza, Council members discussed the ceasefire, which continues to hold, as well as ongoing humanitarian aid delivery and reconstruction efforts through a newly agreed mechanism.

On Syria, Council members expressed broad support for Special Envoy de Mistura and his mission. Council members continue to believe that the only solution to the conflict is a political one.

In my national capacity, let me quickly discuss a few points regarding the situation in Gaza and Iraq. Let me actually, just – these remarks – anyway, I’m sure in our questions we’ll discuss Gaza, but my remarks are going to center on Iraq.

Over the last month, we’ve all seen the international community increasingly cooperate with Iraqi forces, including Iraqi security forces and Kurdish forces, on a range of counter-terrorist and humanitarian actions – from blocking ISIL’s advance on Erbil to breaking the siege of the Yezidis on Mount Sinjar. Next Wednesday, President Obama will lead a Council session designed to address the specific challenge of foreign terrorist fighters as they impact the conflict in Syria, in Iraq, and in several other conflicts across the globe.

Let me conclude with a comment on the High-Level Ministerial on Iraq scheduled for 2:00 p.m. this Friday, September 19th. Secretary Kerry will chair the session and Special Representative for Iraq Nickolay Mladenov will travel from Baghdad to brief the Council.

The session will be held in debate format so that non-Council members whose interests are especially affected by the Iraq situation, as well as countries making significant security, economic, or humanitarian contributions to assist Iraq, will be able to speak under rule 37. We expect more than 40 countries to participate, many at the ministerial level. It will provide an opportunity for these countries to unite in support of the newly formed government in Iraq led by Prime Minister Abadi and the Iraqi people as they work with the international community in their fight against ISIL and cope with the humanitarian crisis resulting from the conflict with ISIL.

Thank you. And with that, I’m happy to take a few questions.

Reporter: Ambassador, on Syria, do you think the UN Security Council has to authorize a resolution for any use of force if there is a coalition to be interested in any kind of intervention?

Ambassador Power: Let me say a few things. First, I addressed this issue yesterday – the very, very same question. President Obama has made very clear that ISIL represents a threat to U.S. core national security interests, to U.S. personnel, to U.S. facilities, and to U.S. citizens, as we’ve seen. With respect to international law, the specific basis will depend on the particular facts and the particular circumstances of any military action, but we believe that we have a basis for action.

In terms of the Security Council’s role, again, you’re seeing – you will see the Security Council active on a very important ISIL-related issue on Friday, when Secretary Kerry convenes the Council in support of the Iraqi government and in support of the anti-ISIL effort. It’s certainly premature for me to speculate on what the Council might do on other matters.

Reporter: (inaudible) Mr. Serry?

Ambassador Power: Mr. Serry did not raise issues related to authorities.

Reporter: Ambassador, what are some of the legal bases for action, specifically on –

Ambassador Power: Again, I’m not – as I said very clearly, it depends on the particular facts and circumstances of any action. We’re talking now about a hypothetical action that hasn’t been taken up to this point. In the event that action is taken, believe me, we will have plenty of time to engage on that. But please, if you have another question –

Reporter: May I ask on Gaza?

Ambassador Power: Of course.

Reporter: Can you tell us a little bit on, give us your assessment on, the progress made on the Gaza resolution that has been on the Council’s plate for many weeks?

Ambassador Power: I don’t have an update of the kind that you’re seeking. I think we continue to believe that a resolution could play a positive role in, you know, enhancing the durability of a ceasefire, but we are still in consultations. It is a topic that came up over the course of the briefing, but I don’t have an update for you on the likely outcome of consultations.

Reporter: Ambassador, you mentioned yesterday how unusual it is for the Council to address a public health crisis like Ebola. Now that you’ve circulated a draft resolution to the Council and you’re holding the meeting on Thursday, have any Council members raised any concerns that this maybe isn’t in the purview of the Council and shouldn’t be addressed by the Council?

Ambassador Power: I would say the response, not only to the emergency session, not only to the draft resolution that, as you say, we’ve just circulated, but also to CDC’s leadership, to the briefing we had yesterday at the U.S. mission – where more than 115 permanent representatives and deputy permanent representatives attended – so the response has been overwhelmingly positive. I do want to underscore your point that this is an extremely unusual occurrence for an infectious disease outbreak to come before the Council. I think one of the things that has ensured that this effort has received such broad-based support is the outspoken leadership on the part of Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea, and Nigeria. I think they have made it very clear to Council members how urgent they think this session is, how important it is to work in parallel in the General Assembly and in the Security Council, and how severe the threat to national security for each of these countries is, to regional security, and to broader international peace and security. So we’ve had, again, overwhelming support up to this point, but again the negotiations on the resolution are ongoing.

Reporter: Ambassador, Madame President – in your national capacity, next week the General Assembly. Without mentioning all of these different meetings, what can you tell an average public citizen about – is there an opportunity for the U.S. on all of these fronts or is it just too hectic, or as they have described it as “diplomatic speed-dating,” to make any dent in this wide variety of crises? And please don’t use the words “next week” if possible in your answer, thank you.

Ambassador Power: Don’t use the words…

Reporter: “Next week.”

Ambassador Power: I see. (Laughter)

Reporter: You’re print, but –

Ambassador Power: My print heritage. Okay. Two of the issues that are most on peoples’ mind right now in the United States and all around the world are ISIL and the monstrous threat that they pose, really, to any civilian whose path they cross, and Ebola, which is unfolding and spreading at a scope that demands an urgent and much more substantial response than the international community has mobilized so far. Both of those efforts require broad coalitions, require transnational solutions, require cooperation among countries near and far, require burden sharing – again, a division of labor. Both of these threats, I think, illustrate the founding purpose of the United Nations and the purpose of bringing the heads of state of the United Nations together every season, which is: how do we pool our resources to cooperate, not only to deal with common threats, but to deal with threats that we simply – no single nation can deal with alone? So, I think the timing of the General Assembly session this year is especially good, certainly for the United States, as we are attempting to spearhead coalition-building, really, in both areas. And we have high expectations on the basis of the last several weeks that you will see countries stepping up to an extent they haven’t up to this point.

Thank you.

PRESS AVAILABILITY: SECRETARY KERRY AND EGYPTIAN FOREIGN MINISTER SAMEH SHOUKRY

FROM:  U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT 

Joint Press Availability With Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry

Press Availability

John Kerry

Secretary of State

Cairo, Egypt

September 13, 2014

FOREIGN MINISTER SHOUKRY: (Via interpreter) Today we had discussions, (inaudible) long discussions during which the U.S. Secretary met President Abdelfattah al-Sisi, and this was an opportunity for them to discuss bilateral relations in details and openly. And they addressed several issues regionally and on the global (inaudible), the situation in Iraq or Syria or Libya, in addition to developments related to the cease-fire in Gaza.

They also discussed the meeting that they held in – concerning terrorism and joint and common action in order to address the phenomena of terrorism in general, and also with respect to the spread of ISIS throughout Syria and Iraq. They also discussed the importance of the strategic relationship between the U.S. and Egypt, and they agreed on the importance of continuing this relationship and further enhancing in the service of the interests of both countries on the basis of mutual respect and also the status of the U.S. as a major global power and Egypt as a regional power. And they focused on the political scene and the ability of each party to positively impact the situation and reach a positive resolution to several issues in the region.

The discussions also addressed the Palestinian question, which is a central problem in the Middle East region, and there was agreement in opinion over the importance of resuming the Palestinian-Israeli negotiations leading up to the founding of a Palestinian state on Palestinian territory with Jerusalem – East Jerusalem as its capital. And there was agreement that resolving this problem will result in stability and the removal of several of the root causes of tension at the regional and global levels.

I would welcome Secretary Kerry, and I have had the opportunity to discuss several issues with him here in Egypt and also through the constant communication that we have together, and I would like to thank him for his cooperation, and I hope there would be certainly more opportunities in the future to continue our joint work in the interest of both countries. Thank you.

SECRETARY KERRY: Well, thank you very much, Foreign Minister Shoukry, my friend Sameh. I’m very appreciative for that. I’m very appreciative for the welcome here. And indeed, Foreign Minister Shoukry and I are constantly in touch with each other, and I think we have a very strong working relationship which is now defining itself even in more initiatives that we will be working on together. I’m very pleased to be back here in Cairo and I’m very grateful to Foreign Minister Shoukry and President al-Sisi for their invitation to come back here in order to talk about the coalition that we are building to deal with ISIL, but also to deal with a number of other very complicated and important issues in the region, ranging from Gaza-Palestine to the Iran nuclear negotiations, Libya, and other issues.

I had an opportunity to meet this morning also with Secretary General Nabil Eraraby of the Arab League, and I want to thank the Secretary General for his continued commitment to peace and to security within the Arab world. The relationship that the United States and Egypt share has long been a critical part of the United States relationship with the entire region. And today, I reiterated to President al-Sisi and to Foreign Minister Shoukry the United States commitment and desire to see Egypt succeed in the many transitions that it currently faces. We will support Egypt as it undertakes significant economic reforms, as it holds parliamentary elections at near term, and as it works to follow through on its pledge to protect human rights, which we believe is an essential ingredient of stability.

We also pledged to continue to work closely with Egypt to advance our common strategic interests, a number of which were the centerpiece of our discussions here today. I reiterated to President al-Sisi and to Foreign Minister Shoukry how appreciative we are of Egypt’s leadership in brokering the Gaza cease-fire. Together, our nations and other international partners will continue to discuss the path forward for the two parties to be able to reconvene in Cairo, to work through the critical underlying issues that have stood in the way of an enduring cease-fire, and frankly have prevented it for too long.

We also discussed the clear need to support the elected government next door in Libya. Both Egypt and the United States understand that while our nations must continue to push for a peaceful resolution, ultimately, the Libyan people and their elected representatives are the only ones who can decide that it is time to resolve their conflicts through constructive political dialogue. And we hope they will make that decision as swiftly as possible. What we both know is they had an election, the election had an outcome, and everyone should respect the outcome of that election.

Our conversations also focused extensively on our shared fight against terrorism and extremism. Egypt is on the front lines of extremist threats, particularly when it comes to the extremist groups in the Sinai. And that is why, in an effort to support the Egyptian Government’s work to counter those threats, last month we announced our intention to deliver 10 Apache helicopters to the Egyptian military. The fact is that in today’s globalized world, it’s only a matter of time before the threat of terrorism anywhere becomes a threat of terrorism everywhere.

That has certainly been proven true in the case of ISIL. It is an organization whose brutality and sheer evil knows no bounds. ISIL claims to be fighting on behalf of Islam, but it actually has nothing to do with Islam. It is increasingly clear that its message of hate is rejected by the overwhelming majority of Muslims all around the world. I have heard this loud and clear from leader after leader in Muslim states that I have visited, and it is clear in the pronouncements of religious leaders around the world in meetings that I have had throughout the region this week, including the conference in Jeddah where I met with the leaders from Egypt, Turkey, Jordan, Iraq, Lebanon and the GCC states. And we all met with the sole goal of discussing the global effort to take on ISIL and to continue to fight against terrorism.

As an intellectual and cultural capital of the Muslim world, Egypt has a critical role to play in publicly renouncing the ideology that ISIL disseminates. This was a very important feature of our discussions in Jeddah and again today here in Cairo. And it is something that the Egyptian religious establishments at Al Azhar and Dar al-Ifta – they both fully support and understand.

As President Obama explained earlier this week, we believe the only way to eliminate the ISIL threat is by building a global coalition that will support the Iraqi Government across a number of critical efforts, including by providing military support, but also – importantly, because this won’t be done by military alone – importantly, humanitarian aid, by addressing the illicit funding streams that come to ISIL, by stopping the flow of foreign fighters which all countries can become engaged in, and by repudiating the gross distortion of Islam that ISIL is spreading to whoever will listen.

So we’re very grateful that both Egypt and the Arab League have supported this coalition every step of the way. And in each of the meetings that I had today, we discussed how we could better accelerate the efforts in bringing more nations on board and in dividing up the responsibilities. We also discussed the urgent need to engage our international partners as well as Iraq’s diverse groups in supporting the new, inclusive Iraq Government. And this needs to be at the forefront of every aspect of the global coalition’s work.

Today, we discussed with President al-Sisi steps that Egypt can and will take with respect to Iraq. And I’m very pleased to say that today, Prime Minister Abadi, the new prime minister of Iraq, announced that they are taking some very specific steps to minimize the potential for any civilian casualties as they take on ISIL in populated areas.

On Monday, Foreign Minister Shoukry, Secretary General Elaraby, and I will meet again in Paris for the International Conference on Peace and Security in Iraq. And there, we will continue our work to move the coalition forward. Almost every country has an ability to play some kind of a role in this fight against ISIL, and to join this coalition one way or the other. And we are committed to working with nations in every corner of the globe to figure out in what way they can constructively contribute to the effort to push back against terrorism.

The bottom line is that terrorists like ISIL have no place in the modern world, but it’s up to the world to enforce that truth. Engaging the global community of nations in that effort is our goal in Paris, and it will be our goal at the United Nations General Assembly in several different events that will focus on Iraq and on ISIL and on foreign fighters. And it will be our goal, I am convinced, from our meetings today and over the last week – it will be our goal, in every meeting that we have on the international basis together, working to degrade and ultimately to defeat ISIL wherever it exists. Thank you.

MODERATOR: (In Arabic.)

QUESTION: (Via interpreter) (Inaudible.) My question is to John Kerry. U.S.-Egyptian relations have witnessed perhaps some (inaudible). But what is the future of these relations and what’s the strategic dimension in this relationship?

And my question to Minister Shoukry: There are meetings that are taking place (inaudible) countries and most of the UN. What is Egypt’s vision regarding what’s going on? And also what is its position towards the situation in Iraq and fighting terrorism? Thank you.

SECRETARY KERRY: Do you want me to go first now?

FOREIGN MINISTER SHOUKRY: Please.

SECRETARY KERRY: Well, thank you for the question. As I think you know, I served in the United States Senate for 29 years, and many times as a senator, I came here to Egypt, to Cairo. So for many years, I have had a sense of the importance of Egypt. Egypt is one quarter of the population of the Arab world. And as I said in my comments a moment ago, Egypt is a cultural, an intellectual center as well as a critical leader with respect to this part of the world, and obviously, with its history, carries great importance on a global basis.

Egypt has been going through an enormous transition itself in these last few years. Most importantly, the people of Egypt have had a chance to vote and define their future. And President al-Sisi is now trying to work hard to implement that future, and the United States wants this government to succeed, because its success is important to the region, important to all Egyptians, obviously, and important to the world. Egypt is an ally, an important partner in regional security. Egypt had the courage to make peace years ago with Israel, and that brought great pain and suffering to Egypt, but it was a courageous act. It was the right thing to do. And today, Egypt is helping to broker a cease-fire to make peace a leader for stability and for the region.

So we have great hopes that this economic transition, this cultural, this political transition taking place will grow in its dimensions. And President al-Sisi reaffirmed to me today the commitment of Egypt to hold the parliamentary elections, the importance of moving forward on any number of fronts to stabilize, to attract capital, to bring business in, to create jobs, and to focus on the real business of governing. The United States will work with Egypt in that process because of our longstanding friendship of importance.

And yes, sometimes friends have a disagreement over one thing or another, but friends also understand the roots of their relationship and the reason for continuing to work for those things that are of common interest. That’s exactly what the United States and Egypt will continue to do.

FOREIGN MINISTER SHOUKRY: (Via interpreter) (Inaudible) responsibility with respect to achieving stability in the Middle East and at a global level. This is an immediate interest to Egyptian national interest and reflects the desire of the Egyptian people to create a framework that would respond to its own needs and development and (inaudible), also to build a modern democratic state that would positively respond and react on its regional and international (inaudible).

The (inaudible) have put forward a vision for fighting terrorism and the rise of – and also to fight ISIL because Egypt believes that it’s very important for the world to continue their efforts strongly to fight this extremism and these terrorist actions that take Islam as a cover, when in reality, they seek to realize political gains and use military methods and barbaric methods. This cannot be in line with the (inaudible) of the modern times or the interest of the peoples of the region. We support all international effort to fight terrorism and we support these efforts and we will take all measures that are intended to eliminate this phenomena altogether, whether in Libya or any other part of the Arab world or in the African continent in particular.

With respect to the Libyan issue, on the 13th, we will hold a conference on Libya with the participation of our European partners who also look at the political structure that Egypt has proposed to find a resolution – political solution to the situation in Libya, and to also alert people to the threats associated with the use of military action. We are also considering the interests of the Libyan people and we hope that the conflicting parties would come together for a political solution. At the same time, we will also continue to support the legitimacy of the Libyan Government and parliament, because it’s the only true reflecting, of course, of the desire of the Libyan people who have elected, and that has been recognized also by the international community.

We hope that this support will assist the Libyan people and institutions in restoring their ability to control the future of Libya.

MODERATOR: And (inaudible), Jason from Reuters.

QUESTION: My first question is for Mr. Foreign Minister. Is there any evidence of Islamic states or ISIL linking up with Ansar either through teaching or other forms of cooperation, and is this a concern? And I just have a follow-up: From your perspective, should the coalition against ISIL be brought in doubt – or, sorry, be limited to Sunni Arabs? Should it include Iran?

And, sorry, one last follow-up question for Mr. Secretary: You keep raising human rights issues and Egypt’s leaders keep disregarding you, most notably when three Al Jazeera journalists were jailed a day after you called for their release. Isn’t it clear the Egyptians are disregarding your concerns because they understand you want their cooperation in counterterrorism?

FOREIGN MINISTER SHOUKRY: (Via interpreter) With respect to the first part of the question and the relations between terrorist organization, we definitely monitor these relationships between the various organizations, and in the end, this – ideologically speaking, this organization is linked and these organizations share that common vision, and we don’t believe there’s a different – perhaps just in the tactics used by these organizations and the way they depict themselves to the international community.

But we believe that this extremist, exclusionary ideology is common among all terrorist organizations, and the cooperation is something we monitor, and we realize that they cross borders and defeat the idea of the national state, and they want to eliminate these states so that this extremist ideology will prevail. We believe also that this action and the elimination of terrorism is a collective responsibility for members of the international community, and we will take honest and credible steps in order to achieve this goal to prevent any form of funding or communication any (inaudible) between these organizations, and also to fight the ideas of these extremist organization. There should be agreement between members of the international community to eliminate these phenomena wherever they may be.

SECRETARY KERRY: Look, let me be clear. The United States doesn’t ever trade its concern for human rights for any other objective. It is always a concern. It’s an honest concern. And we had a frank discussion today about the concerns that have been expressed. I believe that President al-Sisi and Foreign Minister Shoukry and others are well aware of concerns that have been expressed and are, in fact, working at a number of things, including reviewing the demonstration law and other things that have been expressed as part of those concerns.

Now, just as in the United States, we have a separation of powers, so they have a separation of powers here with an independent judiciary. And I am personally confident that over the course of the next weeks, months, days – on an appropriate schedule that is controlled by Egyptians, not by me or anybody else complaining – that issues will be addressed as they ought to be. And I am confident that this is a concern shared by this government, and let’s just see how things play out in the months and days ahead.

SECRETARY KERRY'S REMARKS WITH TURKISH FOREIGN MINISTER CAVUSOGLU

FROM:  U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT 

Remarks With Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu Before Their Meeting

Remarks

John Kerry

Secretary of State

Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Ankara, Turkey

September 12, 2014

FOREIGN MINISTER CAVUSOGLU: (In Turkish.)

Ladies and gentlemen, it is a privilege to have my dear friend and colleague in Ankara. This is third meeting, it’s going to the third meeting of us after Wales and Jeddah. And we have spoken on the phone several times again. And you know the issues that you can imagine on what issues we are going to focus during the meetings, particularly what’s going on in the Middle East and particularly in the Syria and Iraq and challenges and the threats. And since we got this chance, of course we would like to discuss some other issues besides the bilateral one – Middle East – I mean, the peace process over there, cease-fire, and maybe Armenia, Cyprus, definitely Ukraine.

Once again, I would like to welcome my dear friend. I’m looking forward to having (inaudible) to discuss all these issues. John, would you like to say something, both in English and Turkish, please? (Laughter.)

SECRETARY KERRY: Thank you very much. It’s a great privilege for me to be back in Ankara. I’m happy to be here in Turkey, and happy to be here with Mevlut. He and I have gotten to know each other quickly. We’ve had very in-depth conversations about all of the subjects on which Turkey and the United States are deeply involved. And we are important partners, obviously, in NATO, but not just in NATO. We have concerns with respect to what’s happening from Libya to Mali to the Horn of Africa and throughout the Middle East, and of course, now the events in Iraq. So we have a great deal to talk about.

Over the last year and a half I grew to have one of my closest relationships in foreign policy with Ahmet Davutoglu, now prime minister. And we worked extremely closely, talking frequently. So far in my relationship with Minister Cavusoglu, we are already engaging in that kind of discussion. We met in Wales, we talked about the urgency of dealing with ISIL and the urgency of dealing with the support for the Government of Iraq. And of course, together we will be chairing a counterterrorism forum and the United Nations General Assembly in a few days.

So we have a very full agenda and I look forward to constructive conversations both with him, with the new prime minister, and with the new president and my old friend, President Erdogan. Thank you all very much.

REMARKS AT UNICEF EXECUTIVE BOARD SECOND REGULAR SESSION

FROM:  U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT 

U.S. Mission to the United Nations: Remarks at the UNICEF Executive Board Second Regular Session

09/09/2014 05:54 PM EDT

AS DELIVERED 

Thank you, Mr. President, and thank you Executive Director Lake for your remarks. Your statements always allow us to reflect on the impressive range of UNICEF’s truly essential work on behalf of the world’s children every day, often in the most arduous environments. We thank you and UNICEF staff worldwide for your dedication.

Over the last year, we have all seen the devastating impact of a rising scale of mounting and overarching crises – natural disasters, conflicts, and health emergencies, which take a particularly cruel toll on children. As many of these crises have become chronic, children in West Africa, the Central African Republic, the Philippines, Syria, South Sudan, Ukraine, the Middle East, Iraq and elsewhere have suffered unacceptable levels of violence, disruption, and vulnerability to which no child should be subject. UNICEF is vital for children in these kinds of conditions, providing water, medicines, nutrition, education, protection, and critical health services.

Let me particularly highlight the role UNICEF is playing in responding to the recent outbreak of Ebola in West Africa, which could affect almost 20,000 individuals and cause devastating secondary damage to public health infrastructure and economic development in the affected countries for years to come. UNICEF has the trust of local officials and communities and is in a rare position to make a significant difference in reducing suffering, as well as supporting efforts to mitigate secondary effects, and we believe it is critical for UNICEF to have continued flexibility to respond to such complex and evolving emergencies.

We are therefore grateful for UNICEF’s efforts to strengthen capacity for rapid and scaled humanitarian response, such:

Your nominating high caliber and an increasing number of candidates for the Humanitarian Coordinator Pool with tangible incentives for staff to pursue these positions;

Your taking on board the recommendations of evaluations to address gaps and ensure that actions taken are widely understood throughout the organisation;

And your taking the initiative to increase country office preparedness for cluster leadership in high-risk-contexts and improving capacity for cluster leadership.

We welcome any further moves that will ensure more consistent recruitment and training of right-skilled staff for large-scale emergencies, sufficient regular budget allocation to support changing scales of emergency response, better clarity on cluster roles and responsibilities, and increased reliance on joint work with other agencies.

Protection is obviously fundamental, and we welcome UNICEF’s embrace of the Rights Up Front agenda to improve protection of children in emergencies; your work to develop data-driven advocacy around protection; and your actions to improve prevention and response to sexual and gender-based violence.

We also look forward to even stronger emphasis on disabilities in all UNICEF activities,with disaggegated assessments to help ensure that children with disabilities have equal access to humanitarian and other forms of assistance.

We also appreciate Director Lake’s candor about the strain on the organization from multiple emergencies, and his call not to lose focus in the face of calamity on the long-term investments we need to make in children’s health and well-being and the developmental work for which UNICEF has long been known.

You also rightly insist that we look with clear eyes at the underlying drivers of risk, that we redouble every effort to remedy them, with a determination not to fail. You have also outlined a compelling path that would help integrate UNICEF’s emergency and development work in a way that builds the resilience of families and communities at all levels. We agree that the divide between humanitarian and development work is artificial, and we should seek every opportunity to bridge it.

UNICEF’s developmental work is widely and deservedly praised: getting children the nutrients they need to survive and thrive; getting the most vulnerable children to school and ready to learn; promoting adequate water and sanitation, food, and health services; working with other agencies to help prevent teenage pregnancy and help young women get access to trained birth attendants; and partnering with countries to advance the Millennium Development goals.

We need you to continue this work and we appreciate UNICEF’s leadership as a strong advocate for children’s priorities in our continuing deliberations over the post-2015 development agenda.

Turning to management issues, we appreciate UNICEF’s continuing dedication to transparency and accountability, including your pioneering tools like the Monitoring Results for Equity System. You have been a leader in the UN system in this regard.

It’s worthy of note that MoRES has now been expanded from 30 countries in 2012 to 80 countries in 2013, enabling more strategic analysis of data and improved results, including through integration of MoRES into countries’ own planning and monitoring systems, which builds capacity, builds comparability, and improves data collection that can improve results.

With regard to resources, we are glad to note UNICEF’s strong financial situation, with total revenue reaching an all-time high of $4.9 billion, nearly $1 billion more than 2012. These figures are a testament to your hard work on partnerships but mainly to the integrity, enduring value, and urgent need for UNICEF’s work. We also note with appreciation that you have dedicated resources where they are needed, including the 27% of revenue this year devoted to children in emergencies.

Turning briefly to the issue of critical mass: in our view, critical mass should simply reflect all the resources necessary for agencies to deliver the results we have agreed in Strategic Plans and integrated budgets. Every dollar is critical for UNICEF’s life-saving work. In the Board’s deliberations, we think the recently agreed decision on critical mass at the UNDP/UNFPA/UNOPS Board will provide a useful basis for moving forward.

Let me then just close in thanking you and all UNICEF staff once again for your leadership, dedication, and determination to champion the world’s most vulnerable children. Thank you.

ROSE GOTTEMOELLER'S REMARKS AT ANNUAL DETERRENCE SYMPOSIUM

FROM:  U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT

Remarks at the Annual Deterrence Symposium

Remarks

Rose Gottemoeller

Acting Under Secretary for Arms Control and International Security 

U.S. Strategic Command

Omaha, Nebraska

August 14, 2014

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Thank you for that kind introduction. I am always honored to be a speaker here at the Annual Deterrence Symposium and of course, I am glad to be here at the invitation of Admiral Cecil Haney. Turn about is fair play: The Admiral gave a great speech at my invitation last month in Washington to a group of young people on the threshold of their careers. More on that later. Thank you, Admiral, for all you do for this nation.

While we are gathered here today in Omaha, the world is facing serious challenges: The threats to Ukraine’s sovereignty and Russia’s flagrant disregard for international law, the continuing conflicts in the Middle East, a dangerous Ebola outbreak in West Africa. It goes without saying that most people are not focused on nuclear weapons or nuclear deterrence. But we all know that we have important work to do and we do it. My admiration for this community, in and out of uniform, knows no bounds. We are ready to work. That is the theme I’m striking today: We who focus on the foundation of our nation’s nuclear deterrent are ready to work.
Strategic stability is the cornerstone of American national security, but as all of you know, it is not a static state of being. Threats to strategic stability can surface quickly and it is incumbent upon all of us to recognize those threats, anticipate them when we can, and make moves to counter them. We must be prepared for the unpredictable, and constantly on the look-out so that we see threats emerging while they are still over the horizon. My role as a diplomat is different from your roles on the military side, but our goals are no different. As President Obama said five years ago in Prague, as long as nuclear weapons exist, we will maintain a safe, secure, and effective nuclear arsenal. And that is as we seek the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons.

Violation of the Intermediate Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF)

One threat to strategic stability has made news in the last month. As you all know, the Department of State recently delivered the Annual Arms Control Compliance Report to Congress with the determination that the Russian Federation is in violation of its INF Treaty obligations not to possess, produce, or flight-test a ground-launched cruise missile with a range capability of 500 to 5,500 kilometers, or to possess or produce launchers of such missiles.
We have been attempting to address this very serious matter with Russia for some time, as the United States is wholly committed to the continued viability of the INF Treaty. We are asking Russia to return to compliance with the Treaty in a verifiable manner.

This groundbreaking treaty serves the mutual security interests of the parties – not only the United States and Russia, but also the 11 other states bound by its obligations. Moreover, this Treaty contributes to the security of our allies and to regional security in Europe and in the Far East.

When we notified Russia of our determination of a violation, we made it clear that we are prepared to discuss this in a senior-level bilateral dialogue immediately. We hope that this dialogue begins soon, with the goal that Russia return to compliance with its obligations under the Treaty.

There is an expert debate in Russia about its nuclear modernization programs and about the contribution of the INF Treaty to Russia’s security. It is important for Russia to take into account that no military decisions happen in a vacuum. Actions beget actions. Our countries have been down the road of needless, costly and destabilizing arms races. We know where that road leads and we are fortunate that our past leaders had the wisdom and strength to turn us in a new direction. Let us hope that debate in and out of the government leads to a decision to return Russia to compliance with all of its international obligations.

New START and Future Reductions

Despite our serious concerns about Russia’s violation of the INF Treaty, we believe that the New START Treaty is in the national security interest of the United States. The New START Treaty enhances our national security and strategic stability with Russia and both the United States and Russia are implementing the Treaty’s inspection regime.

Current tensions with Russia highlight the importance of both the verification and confidence provided by data exchanges and on-site inspections under the Treaty, and the security and predictability provided by verifiable mutual limits on strategic weapons. We take questions about compliance with arms control treaties very seriously and are closely monitoring Russian compliance with the New START Treaty. We assess that Russia is implementing and complying with the New START Treaty, and that the Treaty remains in our national security interest. The mutual predictability this gives to the U.S.-Russia relationship increases stability, especially during difficult times such as now.

With respect to future agreements, the United States will only pursue agreements that are in our national security interest and that of our allies. The offer that President Obama made in Berlin one year ago, of an up to one-third reduction in operationally deployed warheads beyond the New START limits, is a sound one, and worthy of serious consideration. We will continue to be open to discussion of agreements that would reduce nuclear and other military threats. Of course, we know that the situation is different than it was four years ago, four months ago, four weeks ago.

But cooperation in the arms control realm has been an important facet of strategic stability over the past forty years and it should remain so in the future. Moreover, we need nuclear cooperation with Russia and others to address new threats, first and foremost the risk that terrorists could acquire a nuclear weapon or the fissile materials needed to make one. We will continue to pursue arms control and nonproliferation tools, because they are the best - and quite frankly - the only path that we can take to effectively prevent a terrorist nuclear threat and reduce nuclear dangers more broadly.

The United States has taken steps to reduce the role of nuclear weapons in our national security strategy. We have clearly stated that it is in the U.S. interest, and that of all other nations, that the nearly 70-year record of non-use of nuclear weapons be extended forever.
We are taking time now to prepare the ground for the future. That includes more research into how we incorporate new technologies and innovations into verification and monitoring. We can also shape, maintain, and improve strategic stability through a variety of bilateral and multilateral dialogues, including in the Track 1.5 and Track 2 realms. These engagements reduce the potential for misunderstanding and provide the basis for future agreement and cooperation.

Multilateral agreements like a Fissile Material Cutoff Treaty (FMCT) can also enhance global stability. The United States will continue to push for the commencement of negotiations on such an agreement.

And we are working to expand our public outreach and educational efforts on the Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty. As stated in the April 2010 U.S. Nuclear Posture Review: “Ratification of the CTBT is central to leading other nuclear weapons states toward a world of diminished reliance on nuclear weapons, reduced nuclear competition, and eventual nuclear disarmament.”

As we consider arms control and nonproliferation priorities, we will continue to consult closely with our allies and partners every step of the way. Our security and defense – and theirs – is non-negotiable.

Conventional Deterrence Tools

While nuclear deterrence is and will remain an important part of protecting our nation and our allies, we must also make full use of our non-nuclear capabilities – that includes regional and homeland missile defenses, security cooperation, assurances and conventional arms control.
Of course, the Russian Federation’s challenge to the security of Europe and Ukraine’s territorial integrity has to be factored into our work to modernize conventional arms control.
First and foremost, we need to make the best use of the regimes currently in place. The Vienna Document 2011 and the Open Skies Treaty, which are part of the conventional arms control regime in Europe, are vital tools to maintain stability and have provided transparency about military activities in and around Ukraine.

Second, we must consider our options for the future. We will continue the process of modernizing the Open Skies Treaty, including the upgrade to digital sensors to replace obsolescent film cameras.

With regard to the Vienna Document mechanisms, it is clear to us that there is room to improve provisions for notification of military activity and risk reduction, among other issues. Moving forward, the United States will work with others to update the Vienna Document in a way that builds on our recent experiences. NATO will also continue its review of the future of conventional arms control in Europe. We recognize that now is not the time to engage Russia on this, but we need to be thinking now about how in the future a revitalization of conventional arms control in Europe could contribute to improving mutual security in the Euro-Atlantic region.
Of course, we are not without good examples to follow. We can and will benefit from the experience of the so-called Dayton Article IV states. Eighteen years ago, these states in the Western Balkans were emerging from years of bloody conflict. Through hard work, they established military stability and security, despite a range of differences.

The architects of Dayton created a comprehensive arms control agreement that led to significant reductions in heavy weapons and equipment in just six months. Without as much as a breather, the states involved then turned their efforts to the harder step of fulfilling the obligations laid out in the Agreement, to sustain disengagement of military forces and create a stable security environment for all. The Dayton Article IV experience is a testament to what can be achieved through conventional arms control measures at a time when they are being sorely tested elsewhere in Europe.

Space and Cyber Deterrence

In addition to fully realizing the potential of conventional deterrence, we must make sure that we are ahead of the curve on space and cyber issues. I know this was the subject of a panel yesterday and rightly so - it is critical that we identify ways to stabilize behavior in both realms.
My colleague, Deputy Assistant Secretary Frank Rose spoke about strategic stability in space yesterday, highlighting the point that it is essential that all nations work together to adopt approaches for responsible activity in space in order to preserve this domain for future generations. China’s recent irresponsible and provocative ASAT test accentuates the importance of these efforts. Russia’s pursuit of anti-satellite weapons is also a matter of concern. Destabilizing actions like these threaten the long-term security and sustainability of the outer space environment.

In the cyber realm, the Department of State’s Office of the Coordinator for Cyber Issues, led by Chris Painter, is leading our efforts to promote an open, secure, and reliable information and communications infrastructure that supports international trade and innovation, strengthens international security, and fosters free expression.

As we move forward, we should continue to cooperate and coordinate both internally and with our friends and allies. Such efforts as the UN Group of Government Experts that convened last month will continue to enhance our common understanding of the ways in which international law is essential to maintaining peace and stability in cyberspace. Cyberspace can be the source of both great societal advances and significant threats. There is no doubt that domain will only remain stable through our collective efforts.

Deterrence in the Future

Of course, you know all of this - all of what we have been talking about - is moot if we don’t attract the next generation to nuclear policy jobs. As I said at the outset, this community is ready to work, but we can’t work forever. We have some recruiting to do. Frank Klotz struck this same note this morning: we need to bring the next generation into the nuclear deterrence enterprise.
That is why I was so pleased that Admiral Haney was able to join the Department of State’s 5th Annual Generation Prague Conference that was focused on engagement with the next generation of nuclear experts. It is one piece of ongoing efforts, but it is not enough. We need to be actively recruiting political scientists, lawyers, physicists, geologists, engineers, and more, if we want to make sure that this essential part of national security will be supported as long as it needs to be.

In closing, I want to leave you with a thought.

History has shown us that when faced with obstacles, we always have several paths. When it comes to our current situation with the Russian Federation, I, for one, want to follow the path that President Reagan took, the path that President George H.W. Bush took. When confronted with a difficult and sometimes unpredictable partner in the Soviet Union, they did not take their ball and go home. They did not let strategic stability become a political punching bag. They set about the hard task of building up strategic stability through arms control treaties and agreements, and they succeeded in making this world a safer place. They worked hard, and achieved much.

So let’s leave Omaha ready to work. In the world of nuclear stability and deterrence, there is much to do.

Thank you.

SECRETARY KERRY'S REMARKS AT CENTER FOR AMERICAN PROGRESS' INDIA: 2020 PROGRAM

FROM:  U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT 

Remarks at the Center for American Progress' India: 2020 Program

Remarks

John Kerry

Secretary of State

Center for American Progress

Washington, DC

July 28, 2014

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Neera, thank you very, very much. Thank you for confirming to me your mother’s fealty. (Laughter.) I’m deeply appreciative for her support through the years and I’m sorry we lost you when you were 18, but I’m glad you wound up here, as is everybody else. We’re delighted that you’re here.

It’s a privilege for me to be back at the Center for American Progress, and I am very, very apologetic for the delay. I know I’ve kept you all from your appointed rounds and I apologize for that. It’s good to get the telephone unglued for a few minutes here. Obviously, we are still working hard at trying to deal with the issue of the crisis in the Middle East. I spoke to it a little earlier today, so I’m not going to repeat what I said, except to say to all of you that we want to be able to find a way to get to a table to discuss the underlying issues which are real and impactful on everybody and on the region. And we hope to be able to find the magic formula by which the violence could cease for a long enough period of time to try to find that sustainable ceasefire which could allow you to move on from there. The region has known violence for far too long. Too many innocent people caught in the crossfire, too many lives ruptured, and so it is imperative for all of us in positions of responsibility to do everything we can to try to find a diplomatic way, a peaceful way forward if possible.

It is a privilege for me to be back here at the Center for American Progress. Ambassador Sandhu, thank you for being here representing the Embassy, the DCM here, all of our ex-ambassadors and ex-assistant secretaries of Defense and otherwise – greatly appreciative for their supports and efforts to advance the very crucial relationship between the United States and India. And at a time when so many people are – you know, back in history when they were looking for a lot of simple slogans and silver bullets to cure an immediate problem, which was pretty basic, that the Democratic Party was out of the White House and sidelined in the minority in both the House and the Senate – that’s when a guy named John Podesta stood up and was determined to get past the day-to-day ups and downs of the Washington echo chamber, and helped to shape a principled and progressive policy agenda for governing.

John knew then what he practices now in the White House for President Obama: Good policy is good politics. So – excuse me, let me get rid of my flight here – good policy really does make good politics. I always found that and I’ve always tried to practice that. Under Neera Tanden’s leadership for the last couple years, CAP has continued to prove that good ideas are still the most important currency in our political debate. And that is a principle that has also guided CAP’s work on foreign policy, especially in convening Track II, the first intensive climate change dialogue between the United States and India.

India 2020 builds on that success by showing how the United States and India together can tackle global challenges, from security in the Asia Pacific to providing clean energy to delivering more inclusive growth. And Vikram Singh and Rich Verma are going to help lead us together on that, bringing some of the best minds together in terms of policy and politics, and I thank you very, very much for your contribution. Rich and Vikram, thank you for what you’re undertaking. It is really a dialogue about what is in most people’s currency but not always yet fully blossomed, one of the most important relationships internationally.

Now I just got back, as I think you all know, from a pretty intensive trip to Egypt, Israel, the West Bank, and to Europe, working to try to find an end to the violence that has threatened our ally Israel, and which has also cost hundreds of innocent lives in Gaza and elsewhere. The fact is that we were able to produce at least the beginnings of a ceasefire process, a 12-hour ceasefire, then confusion over 4 hours and 12 hours. But the bottom line is the concept of that, I think, is still appreciated by all, and the key now is to find the road, not the question of what.
Now there are some in America who question America’s efforts actually not just in America. There’s some people who ask this elsewhere. But particularly here, they question about our efforts to bring peace to various conflicts around the world. I think they ought to ask: What’s the alternative? Make no mistake, when the people of Israel are rushing to bomb shelters, when innocent Israeli and Palestinian teenagers are abducted and murdered, when hundreds of innocent civilians have lost their lives, I will and we will make no apologies for our engagement.
Ungoverned spaces threaten us all. Instability threatens us all. And upholding the rule of law and humanitarian standards are not only national security imperatives; they are the right thing to do. This is who we are and this is what we do. And frankly, I think it is what we do with greater gusto, with greater grounding, if you will, in international rule of law and structure, than almost – almost any other country.

But I want to be very clear about something, and that’s why I’m here today: Even as we focus on crises and flashpoints that dominate the daily headlines and govern the cable talk shows and so forth, even as that happens and they demand our leadership, we will always act with long-term strategic imperatives foremost in our mind, and that’s why we’re here today. You can go to any capital in the world and you can find different nuanced and self-assured perspectives about American foreign policy. But if you were lucky enough to have the top hundred foreign policy thinkers sit in a room together and you asked them to name the most important relationships for which the United States, with that relationship, will most affect the direction of the 21st century, I can guarantee you this: Every single one of them would rank the U.S.-India relationship right up there in the top tier.

So I want to emphasize the key relationship for the United States – one of the key relationships for the United States in that context is the deepening relationship with India, and particularly trying to deepen our ties with India in terms of our strategic imperatives, both of us. It doesn’t matter just to us or to India; it actually matters to the world. And that’s why, in my first months as Secretary of State, I went to India. And it’s no coincidence that at the time, I – that in Prime Minister Modi’s first 100 days in his government, I’m now returning to Delhi for two days of Strategic Dialogue and discussion. And it was no accident that in the intervening time, we’ve had many discussions and meetings and the prime minister – former Prime Minister Singh, came here to the White House during that period of time.

But then, of course, they had an election. And as everybody knows, from certain number of months during an election, things tend to be put on hold. Now is the time to renew that dialogue with a new government, with a new set of opportunities, new possibilities. This is a potentially transformative moment in our partnership with India, and we’re determined to deliver on the strategic and historic opportunities that we can create together.

In a globalized world, we recognize that yes, India’s going to have many different partners. That’s the nature of the world we’re in today. But we believe there are unique opportunities for just United States and India, and that the dynamism and the entrepreneurial spirit of Mumbai and Bangalore, of Silicon Valley and of Boston – that is precisely what is required in order to solve some of the world’s greatest challenges.

President Obama is absolutely right to call this a defining partnership for the 21st century. India’s new government has won an historic mandate to deliver change and reform. And together, we have a singular opportunity to help India to be able to meet that challenge – to boost two-way trade, to drive South Asia’s connectivity, to develop cleaner energy, to deepen our security partnership in the Asia Pacific and beyond. The United States and India can and should be indispensable partners for the 21st century, and that is, I assure you, the way we approach the Modi government and the way we view this particular time. This week, Secretary Pritzker and I will be emphasizing those opportunities as we meet leaders of India’s new government.

Now we face, as we all know – and Neera talked about it, and it is true – this is a particularly challenging moment. Forces that were pent up for years in the Cold War tampened down by dictatorship and absence of freedom to speak have suddenly been released everywhere, and everywhere everybody is in touch with everybody all the time. It changes the face of politics profoundly everywhere. People have more information, more ability to organize, more ability to talk to each other. So we do face a host of critical challenges together and we face a world in which more young people more rapidly are demanding more from their governments with too many places where there’s too little response. And that is a challenge for all governance, none more so than what we do to link our economies, India and the United States, in order to further our shared prosperity agenda.

What we do to strengthen global security and a rules-based international system, how we turn the challenges of climate change into an opportunity for greater cooperation and economic growth – these are the big challenges. These are opportunities for us. Our countries have had a decades-long relationship, and I can personally remember the lingering sense of suspicion and distrust when I first went to India at the end of the Cold War. I traveled to Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore with executives from companies like Raytheon and Nextel, companies that are doing booming business in India today. I remember talking to then-Finance Minister Singh about the reforms that were needed and the opening up of the economy and the ability to be able to attract capital and have rules that made sense to everybody that we all understood. I remember that back then, and I felt then the possibility of the enormous potential of a closer, stronger partnership.

And now, it’s not hard to see how in this moment, we can actually deliver on that partnership’s full promise. The new Indian Government’s plan, “Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas”, together with all, development for all – that’s a concept, a vision that we want to support. We believe it’s a great vision, and our private sector is eager to be a catalyst in India’s economic revitalization. American companies lead in exactly the key sectors where India wants to grow: in high-end manufacturing, in infrastructure, in healthcare, information technology, all of them vital to sort of leapfrogging stages of development so you can provide more faster to more people
India also wants to build a more competitive workforce, and already 100,000 Indians study each year in American universities. But America’s community colleges actually set a remarkable standard for 21st century skills training. We should be expanding our educational ties across the board, increasing opportunities for young people in both of our nations. I know Prime Minister Modi drew from that energy of India’s youth during his campaign. He repeatedly pointed out that while India’s one of the world’s oldest civilizations, it has the world’s youngest population. Prime Minister Modi has said that young people have a natural instinct to rise like a flame. And he has spoken about India’s duty to nurture that instinct, and we believe, frankly, that’s a duty for both of our nations.

And that means strengthening the exchange in technical education, in vocational programs for high-skilled trades, and especially in areas where we can build on the entrepreneurial and innovative spirit of both of our nations. And we all know about the extraordinary work ethic that people in India have and the capacity to be able to do this and seize this opportunity. One of the marked contrasts of this moment is this juxtaposition to parts of the world where young people demanded a participation in this world they see around them, and rose up against leadership that had stultified over the course of years, decades even – Tunisia, Egypt, Syria. They all began without one flake of religious extremism involved in the revolutions that brought change. It was all about young people gathering and forcing the notion that they wanted something more to life. They wanted opportunity, education, respect, dignity, jobs, a future.

So this possibility I’ve just defined between India and the United States, which fits very neatly into Prime Minister Modi’s vision that he expressed in a campaign which was ratified overwhelmingly by the people of his country is exactly the vision that we need to embrace now, and that’s why this opportunity is actually so ripe. This area of cooperation is particularly exciting, I think, and I’m particularly confident about these opportunities, because only countries that reward creativity the way the United States and India do could have possibly launched Hollywood and Bollywood. (Laughter.) Only countries that celebrate the entrepreneur the way we do could have launched Silicon Valley and Bangalore as global epicenters for innovation.
Innovation and entrepreneurship are in both of our DNA, and they not only make us natural partners; they give us natural advantages in a world that demands adaptability and resilience. The United States and India cannot afford to just sort of sit back and rest on these currently existing advantages. We have to build on them and we have to build on them by investing more in one another. Now unlike some other nations, the United States cannot direct a private corporation to go invest in a particular country. President Obama can’t order businesses to build factories in Kolkata or Chennai. It just doesn’t happen.

But we do know this from several hundred years of experience: If India’s government delivers on its plans to support greater space for private initiative, if it creates greater openness for capital flows, if it limits subsidies that stifle competition, if it provides strong intellectual property rights, believe me, even more American companies will come to India. They may even race to India. And with a clear and ambitious agenda, we can absolutely help create those conditions.
So as we work with our trading partners around the world to advance trade and investment liberalization, India has a decision to make about where it fits in the global trading system. India’s willingness to support a rules-based trading order and fulfill its obligations will help to welcome greater investment from the United States and from elsewhere around the world. The greater transparency and accountability that Prime Minister Modi put in place during his time as chief minister tells us he has already provided a model of how raising standards can actually increase economic growth.

Now I believe the United States and India should continue to reach for the ambitious target that Vice President Biden laid out last summer in India, to push from 100 billion to 500 billion a year in trade. And whatever impediments we may face along the way, we need to always be mindful of the opportunities and the bigger picture around this. So it’s in our – excuse me. It is completely in our mutual interest to address those obstacles that kind of raise their head here and there as you go along the way and to remember that a lot bigger opportunities will come from more robust ties, so we need to keep our eye on the prize out there and not get dragged down by one small or lesser particular aspect of a restraint. The bigger picture has to guide us and the end game has to guide us.

If you have any doubts, just look at the opportunities that Ford is creating right now in India. They’re doubling production from plants in Gujarat and Chennai. They’re investing 1 billion to make India a global hub for exports. Take a look at the jobs that TATA is creating for Americans by expanding auto design and sales in the United States, adding to its 24,000 employees already in this country. Already, Indian investment creates close to 100,000 jobs right here at home.

And we also convinced – we are convinced that just as the United States and India can do more to create shared prosperity, so can India and its neighbors. Simply from the size of South Asia’s market – 1.6 billion consumers – and from India’s geography, sitting at the center of this dynamic Asian continent, the opportunities are leaping out at us. They’re just enormous. And just to underscore how untapped this potential is, consider this: South Asia is the least integrated economic region in the world. Fastest growing region in the world, Southeast Asia.
By strengthening trade links with Bangladesh, by building on the political opening in Burma, by increasing trade with the Asia Pacific and Southeast Asia, India can be at the heart of a more connected, prosperous region. So we are deeply committed to helping India grab ahold of these opportunities.

That’s why the United States is supporting an Indo-Pacific Economic Corridor to connect South Asia to Southeast Asia. That’s why we’re focused on investing in regional infrastructures and in the creation of a regional energy market. And that’s why we’re supporting new trade routes linking Central and South Asia with the New Silk Road Initiative. I mean this is – the possibilities here are gigantic.

Now clearly, Prime Minister Modi understands the opportunities that regional connectivity provides for India and for a more stable, prosperous region. And by inviting leaders from around the region to his swearing-in, and by bringing them together to speak about connecting their economies as one of his first orders of business, he is eager for India to play a leading role. And guess what? So are we.

Nowhere is that leadership more critical than in improving cross-border trade and relations between India and Pakistan. Prime Minister Modi took the important first step of inviting Nawaz Sharif to his inauguration. Both men are business-minded leaders who want to create opportunity for their people. I talked to Nawaz Sharif after his visit there. He was very encouraged, thought it was positive, possibilities he understood. So improved trade is a win-win for both countries and both peoples. And I know that there are plans for the commerce secretaries and foreign secretaries to meet in the coming weeks in order to build on that. I commit to you that the United States will do everything we can to encourage India and Pakistan to work together and improve the prospects for both prosperity and stability in the region.
Now India has already shown a deep commitment to regional stability with the generous investments in Afghanistan. At this critical moment of transition and in the coming months, support from all across the international community will be vitally important. In the coming days, I will continue to work closely with President Karzai, with the candidates, with the United Nations in order to provide Afghanistan with support during the transition. And we look forward to working also with India on this, and we look forward to India engaging with its neighbors so that Afghanistan’s connections to the region and the world are defined by the opportunity that they can create together.

Far beyond Afghanistan, India is assuming greater responsibilities for regional and global security. As India plays an increasingly global role, its interests are served by forging strong partnerships on a broad range of issues. Among South Asian nations and within international organizations, India should be a global leader. That’s why President Obama voiced his clear support for a reformed UN Security Council that includes India as a permanent member.
For several years, India has been a major partner in the fight against piracy in the Strait of Malacca and off the Horn of Africa. Even as we speak, India and the United States are participating in RIMPAC and Malabar joint naval exercises. Secretary Hagel will explore broadening our deepening – the deepening possibilities of our relationship with India when he travels there in early August.

Counterterrorism is also a challenge to both of our nations. The United States and India are continuing a very close partnership in that regard we began after the horrific Mumbai attacks, and then we began to train first responders in order to help protect our citizens. And President Obama was critical clear – crystal clear about the stakes for our counterterrorism partnership in his West Point speech in May. And our two nations have already provided one model of how these partnerships can work. Our collaboration on counterterrorism and real-time information sharing has helped us confront common threats and bring terrorists to justice.

But there is obviously room for us to be able to do more. When terrorist attacks took 400 Indian lives in 2013 alone, we know that the threat of terrorism remains too real and far too high for India’s people. Confronting terrorism requires our continued partnership and it requires continued vigilance. And it also means leading with our values. India and the United States are two nations that have worked hard to overcome our own divisions so that today we draw strength from pluralism and diversity. We’ve got to provide that example as we work to provide opportunity beyond our borders, addressing the conditions that allow extremists to thrive in the first place.

I won’t tell you where, but I’ll tell you I was with a foreign minister of a country in Africa recently, and we had dinner and we talked kind of candidly and openly as you can in that situation. And he said to me – I asked him about their Muslim population and what was happening. And he said, “Well, X percentage of our population is Muslim, and we’re very worried, because the bad guys have a strategy. They grab these young minds when they’re 13, 14, 15, 16. They pay them originally, and then when they get the minds, they don’t pay them anymore, they don’t have to. Then they send them out to recruit or conduct a mission. And they subvert the state. They have a strategy. Do we?”

It’s a prime question for all of us, and in so many parts of the world where 60 percent of the population is under the age of 30, 50 percent under the age of 21, 40 percent under the age of 18 and more in some places – if these people don’t find jobs and they don’t get an education and they don’t have opportunity and dignity and respect and a voice, then you know who’s going to grab them and say, out of frustration, “There’s a better way.” That’s part of our challenge and responsibility as great global powers, and that’s part of how we tame the most dangerous impulses of a more interconnected world.

One challenge that drives home just how interconnected and interdependent we are on this planet is this challenge of a lifetime called climate change. For millions of Indians, extreme weather and resource shortages are not future threats; they are here now. They’re endangering their health and prosperity and security every single day.

In India’s largest rice-producing region, West Bengal, the Monsoon rains have been 50 percent lower than average this year. This comes after the monsoons all but failed last year in several Indian states, helping to cause one of the worst droughts in a generation, affecting 120 million Indians.

In parts of northern India, armed bandits have imposed what amounts to a water tax, demanding 35 buckets a day. So believe me, it is not hard to measure the ways in which climate change every single day is already a catalyst for instability. I can show you places in the world where tribes fight over a well and people are dying because of the absence of water.
And while parts of India suffer from a once-in-a-generation drought, others suffer from – guess what – historic rains. When I arrived in India last summer, Uttarakhand was grappling with historic floods that killed more than 5,000 people.

So climate volatility is clearly taking a toll on India’s population. And so is pollution. Of the 10 cities in the world with the worst air quality, six are in India. Each year in India, the effects of air pollution cause nearly 1.5 million deaths.

So we know what the down sides are, but happily, guess what, we also know what the solutions are. And forging these solutions is a huge economic opportunity for both of us. The solution comes from areas where we already do things very well, where we’ve already made great progress, where innovation, smarter energy policy, and clean energy technology are already defining the future.

Let me just share with everybody – I reinforce this again and again whenever I get a chance. The solution to climate change is energy policy. It’s not some magical, unreachable, untouchable thing out there. It’s not pie in the sky. It’s energy policy. And where we put good energy policy in place, we reduce emissions and we begin to contribute to the solution. It’s a huge market, my friends.

I also remind people that the market that created the great wealth of the United States of America during the 1990s, which made Americans individually and otherwise richer than they’d ever been in American history – at the top end it made people richer than they did in the 1920s when we didn’t have an income tax, and every single quintile of American income earners saw their income go up in the 1990s. You know what that was? A $1 trillion market with one billion users. It was the high-tech computer, personal computer, et cetera market.

Today’s energy market is a – today’s energy market is a $6 trillion market now, with four to five billion users, growing to nine billion users over the course of the next 30 years, by 2050. Just think about that. It’s an opportunity for huge numbers of jobs, for transformation in the provision of our power, transformation in health, get rid – lowering the pollution, moving into the new energy sources, providing safety and security in energy so we don’t have instability. And I could run on in the possibilities, not the least of which our global responsibility to stand up for and leave a cleaner, better, more sustainable Earth to our children and our grandchildren. It’s a way of living up to our responsibility as stewards of the planet, which, by the way, is directed to us in every major scripture of every major religion.

Now, both of our nations pride ourselves on science and innovation. So the bottom line is this is up to us. It’s up to us to deliver. I know Prime Minister Modi understands the urgency. He’s called for a Saffron Revolution, because “the saffron color represents energy.” And he said that “this revolution should focus on renewable energy sources such as solar energy, to meet India’s growing energy demand.” He is absolutely right, and together I believe that we can at last begin a new constructive chapter in the United States-India climate change relationship.

The United States has an immediate ability to make a difference here, and we need to eliminate the barriers that keep the best technology out of the Indian market. And the United States can help India find and develop new sources of energy through renewable technologies and greater export capacity for liquefied natural gas.

Already, we’ve brought together more than 1 billion in financing for renewable energy projects. And with this funding, we helped to bring India’s first 1,000 megawatts of solar power online. But we need to build on the U.S. India Civil Nuclear Agreement, so that American companies can start building and can start providing clean power to millions in India. And we need to build on the $125 million investment that we’ve made in a Joint Clean Energy Research and Development Center.

Prime Minister Modi has also made a commitment to electrify every home in India by 2019. With fewer limits on foreign technology and investment in India’s green energy sector, we can help make clean power more cost-effective and more accessible at the same time. We can provide 400 million Indians with power without creating emissions that dirty the air and endanger public health. And by working together to help an entire generation of Indians leapfrog over fossil fuels, we can actually set an example to the world.

So I readily acknowledge that today’s climate challenges did not start with India. And we know that the United States is the second-largest emitter of carbon in the world – the first now being China, who have overtaken us. But we also know that we can’t solve these problems alone – no one. They require partnership. And our partnership requires our leadership. By acting right now to reduce emissions, just as President Obama has done here in the United States, by investing in innovation, and by working together in the UN climate negotiations, we could prevent the most devastating consequences of climate change and meet this generational challenge.
Lastly, in this century, one that will continue to be defined by competing models of government, India and the United States have a common responsibility – we already have it; we share it – to prove that democracies can deliver for their citizens. Our two nations believe that when every citizen, no matter their background, no matter their beliefs, can make their full contribution. That is when we are strongest and that’s when we’re most secure.

So we are two confident nations, connected by core values, optimistic nations, never losing sight of how much more we can and must achieve. From women’s rights to minority rights, there is room to go further with our work together. And we also have to speak with a common voice against the violence against women in any shape or form that is a violation against our deepest values.

The United States and India are two nations that began both of their founding documents with exactly the same three words: “We the people.” By deepening our partnership, we can work together to deliver opportunity to all of our people and become stronger nations.
President Roosevelt, of course, described America as having a “rendezvous with destiny.” India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru spoke about India’s “tryst with destiny.” This can be a moment where our destinies actually do converge. And if we harness our capacity of our two nations, if we deepen our partnership, if we make smart choices, if we seize these opportunities, the United States and India can create a more prosperous and secure future for the world and for one another.

That is why I leave for Delhi tomorrow night, and that is why the President will welcome Prime Minister Modi to Washington in September. Because this is the moment to transform our strategic relationship into an historic partnership that honors our place as great powers and great democracies. We intend to leave not an instant behind us. We are going to get to work now. Thank you. (Applause.)

PRESIDENT OBAMA MAKES STATEMENT ON UKRAINE AND GAZA

FROM:  THE WHITE HOUSE 

Statement by the President on the Situation in Ukraine and Gaza

South Lawn

11:16 A.M. EDT

THE PRESIDENT:  Good morning, everybody.  I want to make a brief statement about the tragedy in Ukraine.  Before I do, though, I want to note that Secretary Kerry has departed for the Middle East.  As I’ve said many times, Israel has a right to defend itself against rocket and tunnel attacks from Hamas.  And as a result of its operations, Israel has already done significant damage to Hamas’s terrorist infrastructure in Gaza.  I’ve also said, however, that we have serious concerns about the rising number of Palestinian civilian deaths and the loss of Israeli lives.  And that is why it now has to be our focus and the focus of the international community to bring about a cease-fire that ends the fighting and that can stop the deaths of innocent civilians, both in Gaza and in Israel.

So Secretary Kerry will meet with allies and partners.  I’ve instructed him to push for an immediate cessation of hostilities based on a return to the November 2012 cease-fire agreement between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.  The work will not be easy.  Obviously, there are enormous passions involved in this and some very difficult strategic issues involved.  Nevertheless, I’ve asked John to do everything he can to help facilitate a cessation to hostilities.  We don’t want to see any more civilians getting killed.

With respect to Ukraine, it’s now been four days since Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was shot down over territory controlled by Russian-backed separatists in Ukraine.  Over the last several days, our hearts have been absolutely broken as we’ve learned more about the extraordinary and beautiful lives that were lost -- men, women and children and infants who were killed so suddenly and so senselessly.

Our thoughts and prayers continue to be with their families around the world who are going through just unimaginable grief.  I’ve had the opportunity to speak to a number of leaders around the world whose citizens were lost on this flight, and all of them remain in a state of shock but, frankly, also in a state of outrage. 

Our immediate focus is on recovering those who were lost, investigating exactly what happened, and putting forward the facts.  We have to make sure that the truth is out and that accountability exists. 

Now, international investigators are on the ground.  They have been organized.  I’ve sent teams; other countries have sent teams.  They are prepared, they are organized to conduct what should be the kinds of protocols and scouring and collecting of evidence that should follow any international incident like this.  And what they need right now is immediate and full access to the crash site.  They need to be able to conduct a prompt and full and unimpeded as well as transparent investigation.  And recovery personnel have to do the solemn and sacred work on recovering the remains of those who were lost.

Ukrainian President Poroshenko has declared a demilitarized zone around the crash site.  As I said before, you have international teams already in place prepared to conduct the investigation and recover the remains of those who have been lost.  But, unfortunately, the Russian-backed separatists who control the area continue to block the investigation.  They have repeatedly prevented international investigators from gaining full access to the wreckage.  As investigators approached, they fired their weapons into the air.  These separatists are removing evidence from the crash site, all of which begs the question -- what exactly are they trying to hide?

Moreover, these Russian-backed separatists are removing bodies from the crash site, oftentimes without the care that we would normally expect from a tragedy like this.  And this is an insult to those who have lost loved ones.  This is the kind of behavior that has no place in the community of nations.

Now, Russia has extraordinary influence over these separatists.  No one denies that.  Russia has urged them on.  Russia has trained them.  We know that Russia has armed them with military equipment and weapons, including anti-aircraft weapons.  Key separatist leaders are Russian citizens.  So given its direct influence over the separatists, Russia and President Putin, in particular, has direct responsibility to compel them to cooperate with the investigation.  That is the least that they can do. 

President Putin says that he supports a full and fair investigation.  And I appreciate those words, but they have to be supported by actions.  The burden now is on Russia to insist that the separatists stop tampering with the evidence, grant investigators who are already on the ground immediate, full and unimpeded access to the crash site.  The separatists and the Russian sponsors are responsible for the safety of the investigators doing their work.  And along with our allies and partners, we will be working this issue at the United Nations today. 

More broadly, as I’ve said throughout this crisis and the crisis in Ukraine generally, and I’ve said this directly to President Putin, as well as publicly, my preference continues to be finding a diplomatic resolution within Ukraine.  I believe that can still happen.  That is my preference today, and it will continue to be my preference.

But if Russia continues to violate Ukraine’s sovereignty and to back these separatists, and these separatists become more and more dangerous and now are risks not simply to the people inside of Ukraine but the broader international community, then Russia will only further isolate itself from the international community, and the costs for Russia’s behavior will only continue to increase. 

Now is the time for President Putin and Russia to pivot away from the strategy that they’ve been taking and get serious about trying to resolve hostilities within Ukraine in a way that respects Ukraine’s sovereignty and respects the right of the Ukrainian people to make their own decisions about their own lives.

And time is of the essence.  Our friends and allies need to be able to recover those who were lost.  That's the least we can do.  That's the least that decency demands.  Families deserve to be able to lay their loved ones to rest with dignity.  The world deserves to know exactly what happened.  And the people of Ukraine deserve to determine their own future. 

Thanks.

END
11:25 A.M. EDT