U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT SPECIAL BRIEFING

FROM: U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT
Background Briefing: En Route to Turkey
Special Briefing
Senior Department Official
En Route, Ankara, Turkey
March 1, 2013


MODERATOR: All right, good morning everybody. We are en route from Rome to Ankara. This is now our fourth stop on Secretary Kerry’s first trip.

QUESTION: London, Berlin, Paris, Rome.

MODERATOR: This is our fifth stop on Secretary Kerry’s first trip. We have with us today [Senior State Department Official], hereafter Senior State Department Official, to talk to you about the Ankara stop. Take it away, [Senior State Department Official].

SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: Hi, everybody. So we’ve got a full afternoon and evening planned for Ankara, where the Secretary will have a chance to meet with Foreign Minister Davutoglu, Prime Minister Erdogan, and President Gul. He’ll actually begin as soon as we land by doing a memorial ceremony at the Embassy.

You know, of course, on February 1st there was the bombing at the Embassy that sadly, tragically took the life of a Turkish guard, and he wants to pay tribute to the courage of that individual who was performing his duties and protecting Americans working at the Embassy. And that will also underscore the importance of our common challenge in facing terrorism, which will be one of the big things on our agenda for the discussions.

Turkey – it was – the Secretary felt it important to stop in Turkey on this trip. It’s obviously in some ways a pivot between the European stops that we just did and the challenges in the Middle East, and Turkey naturally plays an important role in both as a member of NATO, an aspirant to the EU with important relations with European countries – Greece, Cyprus, and the Balkans – but also a neighbor and important player in Iran, Iraq, Syria, Egypt, and the rest of the Middle East.

So as always with Turkey, there’s an enormous agenda. We always try to get through it all, and there’s never enough time. But fortunately, as I say, we got a long afternoon and evening, so we should have a chance to really go into depth into a lot of issues. I won’t try to do that for you, and I’m happy to take your questions. I’ll maybe just flag a couple of those that I’m sure will be raised, I guess – starting with Syria, the urgent problem that we have been addressing in Rome.

And I think it’s fair to say that we’re very much on the same page with the Turkish Government when it comes to Syria, and have been for some time, starting with the basic commitment of both countries to work towards the political transition and the departure of Assad. And I think Turkey welcomed the announcements that Secretary Kerry made on behalf of the President in Rome yesterday about new assistance to the Syrian opposition. Turkey is also doing its part in helping the Syrian opposition and doing more than its part in welcoming and supporting over 150,000 refugees at great cost. And we are going to continue to work very closely together to get them to that goal.

I mentioned counterterrorism cooperation already. And just to flag that again, at the – near the top of the list, not just in the wake of the February 1st bombing, but obviously, we face very common challenges in dealing with the PKK threat, which we’ve defined as a threat to both countries, the threat from al-Qaida, and other extremist groups. We cooperate well with Turkey, which is a co-chair of the Global Counterterrorism Forum that Secretary Clinton and Foreign Minister Davutoglu launched a couple of years ago. And the Secretary will have a chance to discuss how we can better deal with what is a growing threat in the region in the world.

Israel – you know we have been working hard over the past couple of years to foster a better cooperation to restore what was once historic cooperation between Turkey and Israel. The Secretary will have a chance to express his concern over the remarks that Prime Minister Erdogan made in a – reportedly made in a speech yesterday equating Zionism with a crime against humanity. Obviously, we strongly disagree with that notion. You saw the statements out of Washington yesterday making clear that we felt that statement was both offensive and wrong, and I’m sure the Secretary will be able to convey that to the Prime Minister directly this afternoon.

We have regretted for some time that Turkey and Israel, which are both strong friends and partners of the United States and once cooperated extensively with each other in terms of trade and tourism and even military and strategic cooperation, that cooperation has broken down. Deeply unfortunate. And we’ll continue to urge Turkey and continue to urge both countries to do what they can and normalize that important relationship.

So much else will be on the agenda. I don’t want to take too much time. We’re going to be called up forward in a minute. Iran, obviously; Turkey shares our goal dealing with Iranian nuclear challenge, and the Secretary can provide a readout of the Almaty talks. He’ll also address some regional issues that are important to us, including Armenia and the Caucasus and Nagorno-Karabakh, Cyprus in the wake of presidential election. Turkey, EU – so much more, but why don’t I end there and see what’s on your mind?

MODERATOR: Arshad. No? James.

QUESTION: Since he’s going to be providing a readout of the Almaty talks, perhaps you could do likewise for us.

SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: Well, I think we have already on the ground in Almaty given a readout of the talks. We felt they were constructive. There was no breakthrough and we didn’t expect a breakthrough, but as you saw, the parties agreed to resume in the coming weeks both at a technical level and at a higher political level to see if we can make progress on the package that P-5+1 put on the table. And you’ve read about the elements of that package.

And again, I don’t want to overpromise, but we’re encouraged, at least, that these talks will begin in the near term, because we have long felt that we are proposing a way for Iran to meet its obligations to the international community, to respect UN Security Council resolutions, to take advantage of the possibility of having a civil nuclear energy program but without moving towards nuclear weapons capability, which the President has made absolutely clear is unacceptable.

QUESTION: What I don’t understand is why you consider these talks more encouraging, more – or useful, as the Secretary said, than previous talks that resulted in agreements to talk.

SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: Well, I wasn’t on the ground in Almaty, so I can’t give you a firsthand account of that. But our people who were there felt that the sanctions have gotten Iran’s attention, and they understand that a failure to respond to the constructive ideas we’re putting on the table will only lead to further international isolation and consequences. And they were responsive on that basis.

MODERATOR: But of course, the onus is on Iran, and we’ll see what they come back with when we meet again.

QUESTION: Just wanted to ask about Syria and Russia. Obviously, here you have the 11, and they’re cooperating. There’s a lot of talk about unity, being on the same page, and kind of a – the jobs that each of them have. Are – is the Secretary in any type of cooperation with the Russians as he goes along on this trip? You getting any feedback at all from them on what happened in Rome?

SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: Yes. You know the Secretary spent a good hour and a half with Lavrov on the eve of Rome, and we have been in touch with the Russians again both before and after Rome. We have never felt that dialogue with the Russians and what the countries that met in Rome are doing are mutually incompatible or inconsistent. The countries that met in Rome are determined to do everything they can to support the Syrian opposition in – with the objective of strengthening it, changing Assad’s calculation, and bringing about the political transition that we believe is – and the departure of Assad that we believe is absolutely essential. And they’re consulting together, they’re taking decisions together, and we made progress in moving on that agenda.

But that doesn’t mean we won’t continue to talk to Russia. As I think we discussed in this group the other day, we have long felt that this process would be facilitated if Russia would support it. We’ve been to the Security Council several times seeking Russia’s support and have failed to get it, but we will continue to try because we don’t believe that Russia has a magic wand here like anybody else does, but if Russia would make also clear that Assad needs to go, and if Russia would stop providing him both the political legitimacy and other support that it has been giving him, it would facilitate our task.

So we’re going to carry on with the partners we met in Rome in supporting the opposition and pressuring Assad, but we’re also going to carry on talking to the Russians. The French President Hollande was in Moscow the day after Secretary Kerry was in Paris, taking our common message to the Russians; that we want to see them join us in implementing what we – including the Russians, as Secretary Kerry has reminded everybody in the past couple of days – agreed to in Geneva, which is accepting a transitional body with full executive powers established on the basis of mutual consent, which we all know means that Assad cannot play a role.

QUESTION: Since the Patriot missile batteries have been deployed, how do you assess the comfort level of the Erdogan government about the Syrian border issues? And how much of his earlier concern and request for those Patriots do you think was real, and how much was he playing to the home constituents?

MODERATOR: The question was: Now that the Patriot batteries are in place, is Prime Minister Erdogan feeling more comfortable in terms of Turkish security?

SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: Yeah. I mean, I think the Patriot deployment was a good sign of our bilateral solidarity with Turkey, and general NATO solidarity with Turkey on the question of Syria. After some missiles and artillery had crossed the border, Turkey asked its NATO partners, including us, for help in bolstering its air defenses. And several NATO allies, those with a Patriot capability that can be deployed – the United States, Germany, and the Netherlands – agreed to do that, to deploy Patriots to Turkey, and to do it in a coordinated NATO fashion. Every member of NATO supported the decision and agreed to use NATO command and control. And we said we would do it, and we did it, and it’s now operational on the Turkish border. And I think Prime Minister Erdogan welcomes that, both to strengthen his air defenses against that air and missile threat, and also to demonstrate that we stand by Turkey.

Now, no one ever thought that this was a comprehensive solution to a problem. In the weeks following the declaration of an operational capability, you saw there was a bombing at the border. So there are other ways that Turkey’s borders can be threatened by the Syrians. Obviously, the refugee flow alone is a threat to Turkish borders. So there is great concern, and we continue to stand by Turkey. But the Patriot deployment was one positive element of how we can show our support and solidarity.

PARTICIPANT: (Inaudible.)

QUESTION: Hi, [Senior State Department Official]. The sort of comments that were attributed to Erdogan and other Turkish officials on Israel and Zionism are not really new. They seem to say – they’ve said these things periodically. And so they make these comments, the U.S. condemns them, and then things more or less continue. Is there any special urgency or point Secretary Kerry may make to drive the point home? Because over time, this pattern is likely to have a corrosive effect on American-Turkish relations.

SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: Well, it does have a corrosive effect. I mean, yes, there have been comments in the past that we have taken issue with and we have raised and we’ve criticized both from Washington and directly with our Turkish counterparts. I mean, one thing you can say about this relationship is we do have a frank discussion. And the previous Secretary of State had multiple conversations, frank conversations with her counterpart. The President and Prime Minister Erdogan have as well. And so we have an ongoing and very transparent dialogue, and we’re close enough and friendly enough to say when we disagree, and we’ve strongly disagreed with comments in the past, and we strongly disagree with this one.

I don’t think that this particular comment has been made like this before. This was particularly offensive, frankly, to call Zionism a crime against humanity. I don’t think we’ve heard that before, and like I said, I’m sure the Secretary will be very clear about how dismayed we were to hear it. And I don’t want to get into speculation about the overall relationship, but just to state the obvious, that it complicates our ability to do all of the things that we want to do together when we have such a profound disagreement about such an important thing.

QUESTION: Can I just switch (inaudible)?

MODERATOR: One more question.

QUESTION: Just – it’s brief, but on that. So the Turks have – this is just about the Turkish-Israeli relationship, not about your relationship. How concerning – how bad is it, and how concerning is that to you? And are you still telling the Turks to stop preventing Israel from being invited to all sort of these different events and keeping them out of these NATO advisory councils and things?

SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: You want to repeat the question?

MODERATOR: So, the question was: How bad is the Turkey-Israel relationship getting, and are we working on the issues like Israeli access to NATO programs, et cetera?

SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: The Turkey-Israel relationship is frozen. It’s not positive in the way that it used to be positive. And that’s deeply unfortunate. We want to see a normalization because – not just for the sake of the two countries, but for the sake of the region, and frankly for the symbolism of it. Not that long ago, you had these two countries –

PARTICIPANT: He’s ready for the briefing.

SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: -- okay – demonstrating that a majority-Muslim country could have very positive and strong relations with a Jewish state. And that was a sign for the region of what was possible. As for the specific latter part of your question, yes, we continue to stand by the principle that Turkey shouldn’t block Israel’s participation in any multilateral activities. We found a way forward in the NATO context to allow exercises and partnership activities to move ahead. And we continue to take the view that if Turkey doesn’t want to participate in activities with Israel, that’s obviously its sovereign right. But we want to see – we don’t want to see Israel excluded from multilateral activities in which they also should have a sovereign right to participate.

MODERATOR: I apologize, guys. We have to cut this off. But the boss is looking to see us. Thanks.

U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE KERRY MAKES REMARKS WITH GERMAN FOREIGN MINISTER WESTERWELLE



U.S. Sec. Of State Kerry Takes Cell Phone Photo Of Brandenberg Gate.  Credit: U.S. State Department. 

FROM: U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT
Remarks With German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle After Their Meeting
Remarks
John Kerry
Secretary of State
Foreign Ministry
Berlin, Germany
February 26, 2013

FOREIGN MINISTER WESTERWELLE: And I will speak in my native language.

SECRETARY KERRY: For sure.

FOREIGN MINISTER WESTERWELLE: So Mr. Secretary John Kerry, ladies and gentlemen, welcome in Berlin to all of you. And I will now continue in my native language.

(In German.)

So once again, John, thank you so much for coming to Berlin so early in your new office. We are honored and we are delighted to have not only an experienced politician here in Berlin as a guest, but also someone who has some very special personal background with this city. So please welcome, and may I ask you now to take the floor.

SECRETARY KERRY: Well, guten tag. Thank you very much, Guido. (In German.) And I thank you all very much for a generous welcome. (In German), if you don’t mind, because it’s easier for me.

But it’s a great, great privilege. I want to start by thanking the Foreign Minister for his very generous welcome today. I want to thank him for his hospitality, but I also thank him because he and I have met and worked together at a number of conferences in various parts of the world over time. So we begin with a relationship and we begin as friends, and I look forward to continuing that.

It’s also – the Minister has mentioned a personal connection here to the city, and it’s a great pleasure for me to be able to return to Berlin, which is a special city indeed. As a young man, I spent some time here when my father worked here as a Foreign Service officer in the 1950s. In those challenging times the United States stood with the people of Germany, and through the years we have worked successfully side by side in order to meet an extraordinary number of challenges across Europe and around the world.

Germany is without doubt one of our strongest and most effective allies in the world, and we are very, very grateful for your leadership, the leadership of your government, and the sustaining friendship and support of your people because it has made a difference. A lot has changed, but today the ties that bind the United States and Germany obviously remain stronger than ever, and they are, again, going to guide us through these challenging times, I’m confident, Guido. I look forward to continuing discussion.

We began now, and in a short period of time I think it’s fair to say we touched on a remarkable number of issues, found significant agreement, and talked about things that we will continue to talk about over lunch.

We are going to discuss our ongoing efforts to build a peaceful and stable Afghanistan. And I want to thank, on behalf of President Obama and the American people, I want to thank the Foreign Minister and the Chancellor, and I will have a chance to thank her personally in a little while, for Germany’s steadfast support in a very difficult undertaking in order to make this critical transition work for everybody.

As I said in London, we are, of course, talking with all of our allies about the issue of Syria in advance of our meeting in Rome on Thursday, and I want to especially thank the Foreign Minister for Germany’s leadership in increasing the pressure on the Syrian regime. The German Patriot missile deployment in Turkey is important, and Germany’s support in planning the future reconstruction with the Friends of Syrian People is also an important consideration.

And of course, the Foreign Minister and I are going to talk about one of the most important things in our relationship, and that is our strong economic partnership. President Obama has announced his vision, which I think is an important one and shared by the Chancellor and others here, for a new economic partnership with Europe. Germany is our largest trade partner in Europe, and we want to see even more trade and investment that will create jobs – jobs for Germans, jobs for Americans, jobs for all Europeans – and help to lift the European economy at a time that it obviously needs it. That’s why it is a priority for President Obama and one that I will work on diligently to try to advance a comprehensive, transatlantic trade and investment partnership. And I look forward to hearing the Foreign Minister’s views and sharing thoughts about how we can accelerate that and try to do it seriously and rapidly.

The list of shared concerns goes on and on: security, counterterrorism, financial regulations, trade, many, many other issues. So I am really delighted to have an opportunity to dig into these issues with the Foreign Minister. I am confident that in the years ahead the German-American partnership is going to continue to be strong, continue to be as important as it has been, and in fact, I’m sure it can grow. And we look forward to doing that.

I will say that I had an opportunity a little while ago at a coffee shop to share thoughts with a large number of young people. It was really interesting for me as an American to listen to the questions of young Germans and their hopes for the future. They’re very similar to the hopes of young people in America, all of whom are connected today in ways that are profound and important to all of our hopes and to all of our politics. So I think all of what we do here and talk about is really for future generations. That’s what this is about, and Guido and I look forward to having an in-depth lunch and a longer conversation about these issues.

Thank you, my friend.

FOREIGN MINISTER WESTERWELLE: Thank you so much.

QUESTION: Concerning the Euro (inaudible), Mr. Kerry –

SECRETARY KERRY: I think we have – wait, wait.

MODERATOR: I have two questions, the first question from Jill Dougherty, CNN.

QUESTION: Secretary Kerry, thank you very much. I want to ask you about Iran. As we know, the Iran talks are taking place in Kazakhstan. And how realistic is it to expect any type of progress toward any type of agreement? I mean, just look at the facts. You have Iran continuing to enrich uranium to 20 percent, practically on the eve of the talks they say that they’re going to be building more reactors, they’re installing new centrifuges. Why shouldn’t we think that they are just playing for time, because after all, they have elections coming up in June? Thank you.

SECRETARY KERRY: Well, Jill, look, I want to respect the fact that the Almaty talks are going on. And given that, I think it would really be a mistake in the middle of the talks for me to try to talk at any length about what the dynamics of those talks are. Let me simply say this: Our P-5+1 proposal includes reciprocal measures that encourage Iran to make concrete steps in order to begin addressing international community’s concerns. Those concerns are very clear; we couldn’t make them more clear.

And so what I will do in the middle of these talks today here in Germany is express my hope, and I think our hope, that these talks can advance that dialogue and that Iran itself will make its choice to move down the path of a diplomatic solution. There is a diplomatic path. There is a clear way through this. And I want these talks to have their chance to work through before I comment further.

QUESTION: (Inaudible.) Mr. Secretary, (inaudible). You already mentioned Syria in your statement. People keep dying there on a daily basis. What can the U.S., what can Germany do in terms of an immediate support for the militant opposition in Syria? And will that topic be on the agenda in your talks later today with Secretary Lavrov of Russia?

SECRETARY KERRY: Well, my talks – there will be a lot of topics on the agenda with Foreign Minister Lavrov. And I look forward to that conversation. He and I know each other fairly well. I’m anxious to have a chance to sit down with him. And I think I should let him have an opportunity to define that agenda with me. So I’m not going to comment on talks that haven’t yet taken place.

With respect to Syria, we began a discussion. We have more to talk about in the course of lunch. But there’s a reason we’re going to Rome. We’re going to Rome to bring a group of nations together to precisely talk about this problem. And I don’t want to get ahead of that meeting or our ability to begin to think about exactly what will be part of it. What I’ve said previously is I’ve gone to London, I’m here in Berlin today, I’m going to Paris tonight and then to Rome, precisely to consult with our friends and allies. And I think it’d be a mistake to start laying out what we’re going to do before we’ve consulted, number one, and number two, before we’ve all come together to make those decisions. So we’ll see where we are when we get to Rome.

FOREIGN MINISTER WESTERWELLE: (In German.)

SECRETARY KERRY: Thank you, sir. Thank you very much.

SECRETARY KERRY MEETS WITH BERLIN EMBASSY STAFF AND FAMILIES

FROM: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
Meeting With Staff and Families of Embassy Berlin
Remarks
John Kerry
Secretary of State
U.S. Embassy Berlin
Berlin, Germany
February 26, 2013

Guten morgen. Wie gehts ihnen? Es ist wunderbar, wieder hier in Berlin zu sein. Yeah. Danke. [Translation: Good morning. How are you? It is wonderful to be here in Berlin again. Thanks.] (Applause.) You can tell Rosetta Stone works on the airplane, folks. (Laughter.) No, no, no. I’m only joking. I really have wonderful memories.

Last night, I got a chance to walk out of the hotel and I walked out through the street here along the bricks in the middle of the road and then over into the Holocaust museum, and I’ve seen it before. But I’d never had a chance to walk through it. And at night, last night, walking through it, sort of going down and up and with the height and the different sizes and the disorientation and everything, I really thought what a brilliant, brilliant memorial that is, but also I thought how courageous and forthright it is by the Government of Germany to decide to put it right there, right here, near the Brandenburg Gate, near the Reichstag, where so much history was and still is.

And so it’s a great reminder, that and the bricks in the road, of the journey that we’re all on together. And that’s why it’s very, very special for me to be able to be here in Germany today, the second stop of my first trip as the new Secretary of State. And it’s special for me to be able to come back, obviously, here to this city where I was about that high, right over there. I got my passport out the other day when I went into the State Department. It said 4 foot 3, brown hair. And I said, "What happened?" Anyway. (Laughter.)

But – and I want to say good morning to each of the consulates that are tuning in, I guess Dusseldorf and Stuttgart, Hamburg, Bonn, and what – Leipzig, Munich. And hello to you guys and thank you.

I’m not going to talk for long. Usually in my speeches when I was a senator that was an applause line. (Laughter.) But anyway, that’s a senatorial thing, folks. Let me just say very, very quickly a profound thank you to you from the President of the United States for whom we all serve and for your country. The one thing I learned when I came here back in the 1950s was it’s not easy being in the Foreign Service, civil service, or locally employed employee, because there are sacrifices involved in this. And sometimes I’m sure each of you has sort of said, "Gosh, here I am in this far-off land, wherever it is, and life is a little different and tougher in some places than others." and you kind of say, "Am I missing something?" or "Am I – would it be better for my kids if I were home or whatever I’m doing?", and so forth. Those questions come to everybody.

And I just – I want to assure you that this is one of the great adventures and one of the great services that any person can perform for their country. It makes an enormous difference. I think there’s something like 1,600 people working here, 30-plus departments of our government all coming together working on various issues, to work on the transatlantic trade investment concept that’s now on the table, to work on Mideast peace, to work on counterterrorism, counternarcotics, and visas, and peoples’ problems. So I really just bring you the gratitude of a nation, and I hope the understanding of the Secretary of State for what you’re going through.

We face tough budget choices, and I know you sometimes scratch your heads – because I do it at home – and say what the hell are those guys doing or not doing as the case may be, and it’s frustrating. And I get it.

One thing I promise you, I will be a tireless champion on behalf of our mission. I believe in it, heart and soul. The difference we make to other people, the incredible virtue of being able to touch people in another country and show them the real face of America, to carry our values with us every day in everything that we do, is unparalleled. It is a blessing, and I know the difference that it makes to people all over the world, because as chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, I had the privilege of traveling so many different places and seeing it and hearing it.

I was the author with Bill Frist, who was then majority leader of a then not very consequential piece of legislation that people weren’t too tuned into but a few people opposed, like Jesse Helms of North Carolina. And it was our early initiative to try to deal with AIDS. And it had all the pejoratives of that time attached to it. But Bill Frist joined with me and largely because of his confidence that Republicans had, bipartisan, Jesse Helms, conservative from North Carolina, signed onto the bill. We passed it unanimously in the United States Senate, it became law, and today, my friends, that is PEPFAR. And we have saved over 5 million lives, children, in Africa alone. That’s an extraordinary story. (Applause.)

And you can replicate that in so many different ways, whether it was years ago, the effort to stand up for people trying to emigrate from the other side of this wall, whether it was our President standing out there – first John Kennedy coming here and saying, "Ich bin ein Berliner," or Ronald Reagan saying, "Tear down that wall," you are on the cusp of history here, and you always have been. And probably because John Kennedy came here and put his stamp on all of that, there’s a special pride in the fact that the Ambassador Jim Melville – Jim, incidentally, this embassy is here because for every year since 1941, since the war ended, after it was torn down, we’d send somebody over here to sort of stake our claim on an annual basis. And Jim was the guy who came and staked it on one occasion. So Jim, we all owe this embassy to you and your hanging in there. (Applause.)

But it’s also appropriate that there are three Boston boys represented here in the Ambassador Phil Murphy, and Jim, and myself. So there’s a Boston connection to this place right here outside the Brandenburg Gate, and we love it. I want to thank Ambassador Murphy for his tremendous service and for his family, who’ve, I think, done an extraordinary job here. And Jim, we’re very, very grateful to you. Thank you, Phil. We really appreciate it. Thank you very, very much. (Applause.)

And final comment to all of you, just to wrap up, because I don’t want to destroy the productivity of this embassy – thanks for coming out this morning just to say hi. I wanted to have the chance to say hello to everybody. I just – my dad worked in the Clayallee annex with Jim Conant, who was then the High Commissioner of Germany, as we called it, fresh from being president of Harvard University. My dad was the legal adviser at that point in time.

And I used to have great adventures. My bicycle and I were best friends. And I biked all around this city. I remember biking down the Kurfurstendamm and seeing nothing but rubble. This was in 1954. It was still pretty much in the rebuild. And that, fresh from 1945 – the war was very much still on people’s minds. The Reichstag was completely burned out. And I biked down by the Brandenburg Gate and out across.

And one day, using my diplomatic passport, I biked through the checkpoint and went into the east sector, and noticed very quickly how dark and unpopulated and sort of unhappy people looked, and how dark the clothing was, and very few cars, very sparse – a memory that hit this 12-year-old kid. And I kind of felt a foreboding about it, and I didn’t spend much time. I decided to skedaddle and then got back out of there and went home and proudly announced to my parents what I had done. (Laughter.) And was promptly grounded and had my passport pulled and that was it for me. (Laughter.)

But I used to bike through the Grunewald for hours on end, and up and down, around. And I had a wonderful time here. Sailed under the Enz, got to know the city. And know this is such an incredible, vibrant, dynamic, modern, 24-hour, 24-7, 365 city. And you all are part of that.

So thank you for representing our nation in this extraordinary capital in the country of a great, great important ally. Thank you for what all of you do. Keep on truckin’, as the song says. And keep faith. And I promise you I will be your champion in Washington. We’ll fight the budget. We’ll do everything we can to explain to Americans how important our work is here, and I thank you for every single bit of it. Thank you. (Applause.)

REMARKS BY U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE KERRY AND JAPANESE FOREIGN MINISTER KISHIDA

FROM: U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT
Remarks With Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida Before Their Meeting
Remarks
John Kerry
Secretary of State
Treaty Room
Washington, DC
February 22, 2013


SECRETARY KERRY: Good afternoon, everybody. It’s my great pleasure to welcome the Foreign Minister of Japan, His Excellency Fumio Kishida. We’ve just come from an excellent meeting of the President and the Prime Minister of Japan, and I think it’s fair to say that almost every topic with respect to Japanese-American relations was discussed.

We meet now, two of the three strongest economies in the world, and we meet as very special friends in a very strong alliance, an alliance that I can say to you is really evolving into a global partnership and which is critical to the peace and security of the Asia Pacific.

I want to particularly thank the people of Japan and the leadership of Japan for their extraordinary cooperation on a number of global issues: on counterterrorism - the efforts with respect to Afghanistan; where Japan has been a major partner - efforts in Mali most recently; where we regret the loss of life and we particularly express our sympathies to Japan for the loss of 10 citizens at the In Amenas facility. And Japan has worked hard with respect to the issue of nuclear nonproliferation. They have been an important partner in reducing the level of fuel being used and bought, purchased from Iran. They’ve been important with respect to the enforcement of sanctions.

Japan is also a very important partner in efforts to try to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions, and the Prime Minister raised this issue in the conversation with the President. And Japan, importantly, has been part of the Major Economies Forum and the Clean Climate Coalition and other initiatives, and I think the Minister and I look forward to following up on the discussion that was initiated by the President and the Prime Minister earlier.

Just to underscore the importance of the relationship with Japan, obviously everybody has been aware of tensions around the Senkakus Islands, and I want to compliment Japan on the restraint that it has shown, its efforts to try to make sure that this does not flare up into a significant confrontation. And we make it clear with respect to the Republic of – the Democratic Republic of North Korea, which has recently engaged in very reckless behavior with its nuclear test, that we believe the alliance with Japan is strong, our security commitments with Japan are real and we stand behind them, and they are strong.

So I welcome the Foreign Minister here. There are a number of things that are less critical, I think, that we will be talking about, but I look forward to a good discussion. And most importantly, I look forward to this very important continued global alliance and partnership that we have built. Thank you for visiting us, Minister.

FOREIGN MINISTER KISHIDA: (Via interpreter) Let me start by saying that I appreciate the kind and powerful messages and words from Secretary Kerry with regard to Japan. Right after taking office as Secretary of State, we have had two opportunities so far to talk to each other over the phone, and this is our first meeting – face-to-face meeting, and certainly it is my pleasure to see you in person this time.

With Mr. Secretary, I certainly have looked forward to having discussions on the Japan-U.S. alliance, as well as how we respond to the situations in the Asia Pacific, in the Middle East, as well as the Sahel, and also how we look forward to working on global issues such as counterterrorism and also the issue of environment. And I certainly look forward to having a discussion, and also, by doing so, we would like to deepen our cooperation.

Just a while ago both Mr. Secretary and myself attended the Japan-U.S. summit meeting and during the meeting both leaders had a candid discussion to cover issues such as the economy, security affairs, as well as foreign policy challenges. And I would like to underscore that the meeting was indeed very meaningful. And right now we are going to have the Japan-U.S. foreign ministers meeting with Mr. Secretary, and by having this meeting we would like to do a follow-up based on the outcome of the discussion of the summit meeting. And also, we would like to have the exchange of opinions on the regional affairs.

Obviously, the Japan-U.S. alliance is a lynchpin of the – Japan’s foreign policy, and by working together hand in hand with Mr. Secretary, we would like to achieve progress in reinforcing the Japan-U.S. alliance. And once again, thank you very much for taking the time out to have the foreign ministers meeting today.

SECRETARY KERRY: Thank you very much. Thank you.

SECRETARY OF STATE KERRY'S STATEMENT ON THE RESIGNATION OF POPE BENEDICT XVI

Holy See (Vatican).  Credit:  CIA World Factbook.

FROM: U.S. DEPARTMENTOF STATE
Resignation of His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI
Press Statement
John Kerry
Secretary of State
Washington, DC
February 11, 2013
　

The United States is grateful to His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI for his leadership of and ministry to the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics. He has been a man of action and principle, working to promote human rights and dignity in places around the globe where they are too often denied, and a voice of clarity and conviction about our obligations as stewards of a fragile planet. As I heard Pope Benedict say during the Mass he celebrated in Washington nearly five years ago, Americans remain a people of hope and America a land of freedom and opportunity. He believes, as we do, that the qualities that have made our nation strong can also help make the world freer and more just. We have been honored to work with the Holy See during the nearly eight years of his papacy and look forward to continued collaboration in areas of common interest to our nation and to the Catholic Church. We wish Pope Benedict great peace and health and we will keep him in our prayers.

2013 LUNAR NEW YEAR

U.S. Secretary Of State John Kerry

FROM: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE
2013 Lunar New Year
Press Statement
John Kerry
Secretary of State
Washington, DC
February 6, 2013
　

On behalf of the American people, I am delighted to send my heartfelt wishes for good health, good fortune, happiness, and prosperity to all those around the world celebrating the arrival of the Lunar New Year this February 10.

This week, millions of people will make the journey – some across great distances – to reunite with their loved ones to mark the Lunar New Year. Here in the United States, many families will likewise gather to welcome the New Year. These public and private celebrations, held by multigenerational immigrant communities, highlight the diversity of American society and the deep and complex bonds that link the American people with peoples from around the world. President Obama and I look forward to strengthening our commitment to building ever-stronger relations with the people of the Asia-Pacific through initiatives that foster economic growth, improve regional security, and advance cooperative friendships among our peoples.

In this festive time, I would like to wish all great success in the coming year as we continue to work together to deepen partnerships and find solutions to the challenges we face.