Well! I have been hanging onto this picture (much to rachel's
anticipation) since Mme. Secretary left Oslo. It is not from the
Embassy Stockholm meet-and-greet today. It is from the Embassy Oslo
event, but it is too adorable not to share, and there are no photos
available from Stockholm. SO! Here is Hillary with a sweet little baby
along with her remarks to the families and staff at Embassy Stockholm.
Meeting with Embassy Staff and Their Families
Remarks
Hillary Rodham Clinton
Secretary of State
Stockholm, Sweden
June 3, 2012
AMBASSADOR BRZEZINSKI: Madam
Secretary, our colleagues at the U.S. Embassy and your families,
Natalia and I and the entire U.S. Embassy staff welcome you to our home,
which is also your home. Madam Secretary, thank you for making this
historic visit. This is the first visit to Sweden in more than 30 years
by a U.S. Secretary of State, purely for the purpose of enhancing,
deepening, and honoring the relationship between our two countries. And
that's what makes it historic.
I am proud to tell you, Madam
Secretary, that Swedish-American relations have never been stronger or
warmer. Sweden is in the very front ranks with us in direct engagement
with the immediate global problems we all confront. As you already know,
our Swedish hosts are both honored and very pleased you are here. They
welcome you with the same enthusiasm that we do. We are proud of you,
Madam Secretary. We are proud of America. You are most welcome. It is
really great to have you here.
Ladies and gentlemen, the Secretary of State. (Applause.)
SECRETARY CLINTON: Oh,
Mark, thank you. Thank you. Well, this is great to see all of you here
this evening, and to have a chance to say thank you to all of you,
beginning with the ambassador and Natalia and Aurora, who I just got to
meet, for their energetic and passionate work on behalf of this
important relationship between our two countries. And they do so much
together, co-authoring a blog, recording a welcome video to Swedes,
raising their daughter. It's a great team. And I want to express my
appreciation to all the great teams. To those of you who are part of
this important mission, I thank you for being part of the family of
Embassy Stockholm. And your family members who serve with you, I am
grateful to you. And I was delighted to see so many young people here
when I walked in. And I want to acknowledge and thank the locally
employed staff. We truly could not do our work without all of you.
Sweden
is one of America's top partners, one of our oldest friends. When it
comes to priorities, whether it is Afghanistan, Iran, counter-terrorism,
global economic reform, humanitarian assistance, the Swedes are right
by our side. And it is a relationship based on not only shared values,
but more than 200 years of friendship and a big migration of Swedes to
America. Because today the Foreign Minister was telling me something
like one out of every five Swedes at the beginning of the last century
actually lived in the United States. Having grown up in Chicago, like
Natalia, I knew a lot of Swedish-Americans. So I am well aware that
government-to-government relations are important, but it is truly the
people-to-people relations that keep the connections.
I also want
to thank you, because you were among the first embassies to actively
reach out to bloggers. Now, Foreign Minister Carl Bildt and I are great
champions of Internet freedom. And he is, as you may know, a prolific
blogger himself. And he has called this embassy's social media platform a
model for his own government to follow.
I think that the work
that you are doing on economic statecraft -- and I thank the ambassador
for that -- the work you are doing to increase American and Swedish
clean tech cooperation that reached agreement on $350 million in U.S.
exports to Sweden and $8 billion of Swedish investment in the United
States supports President Obama's export initiative, and helps us take
on global warming.
The deal you closed with the Swedish Armed
Forces for 15 new Black Hawk helicopters is another example. The
training and logistical support -- we will provide those Black Hawks
through our foreign military sales -- will help bring our militaries
even closer together. I had the chance to meet with the new defense
minister today, and I think there is a lot of work that she is
interested in pursuing, as well.
Now, your embassy-in-a-box
program, I love that idea. (Laughter.) It gives Swedes living outside of
Stockholm a chance to learn about study abroad opportunities and so
much more. And I want to thank everybody who helped prepare for this
visit. It is true, as Mark said, that it has been, I think, 36 years
since a U.S. Secretary of State has come just on a bilateral visit. So I
want to thank you all, particularly my control officer, Anna Stenholm*
-- I don't know where Anna is. (Applause.)
Now, I hope the weather
is better and you celebrate Sweden's national day on Wednesday. The
Prime Minister told me that yesterday was the coldest day in Sweden in
84 years. (Laughter.) It wasn't what I was expecting. But, nevertheless,
we are always prepared to make ourselves flexible as we move forward.
So, I am very pleased I had a chance to be here.
And now I just want to shake some hands. And if I can ask somebody where I should start, where should I start?
PARTICIPANT: This is from the children, State of Illinois.
SECRETARY CLINTON: Oh,
how cute is that? There is an Illinois map with a heart where Chicago
is. That is so sweet, I will take that home. (Applause.)
