SECRETARY CLINTON: Thank you, Cheryl. Thank you all. So welcome, and
welcome home. It is a great pleasure for me to start this conference,
our second-ever Global Chiefs of Mission Conference. Most of the time I
see any of you, I am causing you more work and maybe more headaches as
I’m either on the end of a phone or actually in your country. And this
time, I get to host. And we’ve planned, as Cheryl said, a full day of
events. We could’ve filled a week, but we know how busy each and every
one of you happen to be, so we couldn’t take that much time away from
what you’re doing on behalf of our country.
I want to especially thank again the team that put this together and
also Cheryl Mills, who has been both chief of staff and counselor and
all-around troubleshooter and problem solver for the last three plus
years, for which I am very grateful.
And it’s almost hard to imagine how much has happened in the last
year, since we last met. The world has changed very quickly under our
feet and before our eyes. The proof is in this room. We have one more
person than we did last year, our ambassador to the newest country,
South Sudan. When we hold this conference in the future, I hope we can
count on an ambassador to Burma among our ranks, because I know that we
have no status quo in the world today. It is a dynamic, challenging
environment, and each of you is called on to play an increasingly
complicated role. Several of you have had to face not only uncertainty,
but danger and even physical threats over this past year.
So I really want to extend my thanks to all of you. You truly are the
finest colleagues I’ve ever had the pleasure of working with. I can’t
imagine any Secretary of State ever having a better team than all of
you, and I am deeply grateful for your service and your support.
Well, over the last three years, we have ended one war, and we’ve
begun to wind down another. We are affirming our place as a Pacific
power, in case anyone ever doubted. We are strengthening our alliance
with our European and NATO partners. We are elevating the role of
economics and development within our diplomacy to help create jobs here
at home and to advance our strategic interest around the world. And of
course, we are reaching beyond governments to engage directly with
people. And many of you have been so creative and smart about doing
that: conferences, seminars, travel, Twitter, Facebook. I mean, it’s
really been remarkable to see the accelerated outreach that I monitor
back here in Washington.
And we’re doing this amidst great volatility, but also great
possibility. As we watch these transformations, first and foremost in
the Arab world, but not exclusively there, we’re watching new powers
rise, the redrawing of the strategic map. It brings new opportunities
for partnership as well as growing economic competition and yes, new
threats. Al-Qaida is weakened, but still dangerous, and we have to be
literally on our toes all the time.
I believe that in this fast changing world, American leadership is
even more important. Only America has the reach, resources, and
relationships to anchor a more peaceful and prosperous world. And as
leaders within our country’s foreign policy here at the State Department
and USAID, our goal must be to bolster America’s position, not just for
the rest of this year, but for decades to come.
Last year, I spoke about our institutional efforts to do so, with the
first-ever Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review that you will
hear more about. Now we have implemented many of those recommendations
to transform diplomacy and development efforts to better position us to
deal with the world we face today and tomorrow. This includes adapting
to new foreign policy imperatives, such as cyber security and the full
range of cyber issues, standing up the first-ever bureau dedicated
solely to energy issues and all that it entails, creating a new family
of civilian security bureaus so we can better address the full range of
inter-related issues that fuel conflict and instability, and of course,
we have a lot of work still ahead of us to try to consolidate the
progress we’ve already made and to build on it.
I want to highlight some of the priority policy areas that we are
working on to sustain and deepen our leadership. I presented these same
themes to Congress a few weeks ago with our budget request. As you know,
I’ve worked very hard to make the case to Congress and the American
public. And given the difficulties of our budget environment, I am
grateful for the support that the President and the Administration and
the Congress have given us. They seem to recognize that our efforts to
elevate diplomacy and development alongside defense in pursuit of smart
power is exactly what we need to be doing in this period of time.
First, as I mentioned to Congress, we are ending a decade of armed
conflict. But when all the troops come home, thousands of State
Department and USAID employees – American and local staff – will still
be there on the frontlines in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. They will
be working under very difficult conditions to advance our vital
interests through civilian power. Tom Nides, our extraordinary Deputy
for Resources and Management, is leading our American efforts to help
Iraq become a stable, sovereign, democratic partner, and he could not
have had a better partner than Jim Jeffrey. I’m grateful to all who have
been on the team regarding Iraq because it has been a very big
challenge for us to get our arms around.
A critical element of our path forward in Afghanistan will be the
success of the Afghans in securing and leading their country for
themselves. Ryan Crocker has brought his tremendous lifetime experience
to this really difficult job at this moment. They will need help. And
I’ve asked many of you, as a key element of President Obama’s policy, to
press the governments to which you are accredited to pledge substantial
financial support to the Afghan security forces for the period beyond
2014.
I’m also counting on your personal vigorous engagement regarding
Pakistan. Cameron Munter, and before him, Anne Patterson, have had a
very challenging assignment. There are multiple overlapping worlds in
Pakistan and we have to deal with all of them simultaneously. But the
country is vital to our counterterrorism, economic stability, and
regional cooperation goals for the region. And we will continue to
engage where we even have legitimate concerns and disagreements.
In these frontline states and in all countries facing instability, we
put a special focus on protecting universal human rights, increasing
political participation, and enforcing the rule of law. It also puts an
extra burden on us to live our values and to, both on the military and
civilian side, demonstrate who we are as a people. Because when people
feel safe and empowered to pursue their legitimate aspirations, they are
more likely to reject extremism and to invest in their own societies.
So human rights and global security are deeply and directly linked. We
cannot sacrifice one without damaging both. And we have been working to
use our position on the UN Human Rights Council to continue standing up
for universal human rights on the international scene.
Now I recognize that sustainable progress on human rights and
democracy can only happen from within. But we do have an obligation to
help amplify those voices of those advocating for change in their own
societies, including nongovernmental human rights and democracy
activists. In recent years, a number of governments have taken actions
aimed at disempowering these groups. And today in the Middle East and
North Africa and elsewhere, governments are challenging the propriety of
American support for civil society organizations.
In response to these charges, I need each of you – and especially
those of you operating in restrictive environments – to communicate our
commitment to working with and supporting individuals and groups that
represent not only what we believe are our values, but universal values,
freedoms, and human rights. We need to be clear that this support is a
fundamental part of our global human rights policy that is aimed at
supporting the building blocks of sustainable democracy. Now I do think
we have to be smart about how we do it, and perhaps we can talk more
about that in the town hall, because a lot of the countries have
legitimate questions and particularly a lot of the transitioning new
democracies. So I don’t think we can assume anything. We need to be very
humble in making our case, and to do so effectively and consistently.
Now for much of the past decade, we have focused by necessity on
places where threats and instability are greatest. In the decade ahead,
we must also be just as focused on the areas of our greatest
opportunities. I think that happens to be the rest of the world. But our
second priority is our relationship with the Asia-Pacific region. And
when we talk about Asia Pacific, we are talking about from the Indian
subcontinent to the Americas. We want to expand the aperture of what
this means to the United States. So we are helping lead a
government-wide effort to build a new network of relationships and
institutions that spans the Pacific to complement the success of our
durable Atlantic partnership. We are strengthening our alliances in
Asia, launching new strategic dialogues and economic initiatives,
creating and joining important multilateral institutions to underscore
that America is and will remain a Pacific power.
In the coming century, no region will be more consequential to
America’s future. This is not just a concern for EAP. It’s also for WHA
and SCA. But it’s really for all of us, because the security and
economic interests will affect everything we do everywhere. So we have
to engage you in our efforts. And we’ve reached out to, for example, EUR
to help us with an Asia dialogue with the EU. We’re working hard with
our friends in Latin America to expand their reach to Asia, but to do so
in a way that helps themselves and not just creates a market for
natural resources.
We should engage everyone as partners to work to establish a
rules-based order for coming years. And that is particularly true, but
again, not exclusively in the Pacific. Our relationships with Latin
America and all the countries of our hemisphere are vital in their own
right, and I’m looking forward to participating in the Summit of the
Americas in a few weeks and discussing how we will continue
strengthening our ties close to home. In talking with counterparts in
the Middle East and North Africa, we often use examples from Latin
America – transitioning from military dictatorships, autocratic regimes,
to the most vibrant democratic region in the world right now.
With such dynamic growth happening on both sides of the Pacific,
there are great opportunities and natural affinities for our countries
to cooperate, an idea we have proven with free trade agreements that
have boosted economic growth from the Canadian north to the Straits of
Magellan. Of course, as we invest in these new opportunities in Asia, we
must also engage with the most consequential development of the past
year: the wave of change sweeping the Arab world. Throughout the region,
our missions have responded in remarkable, unprecedented ways, but then
again, we’ve had to. It couldn’t be business as usual from Morocco all
the way to Yemen, and everyone serving there has had to really work and
think outside the box. So our third priority area is helping those
countries complete their transitions to democracy. And this will not be
easy, and it certainly will not happen overnight.
I often tell leaders in this region that the United States has been
working on our democracy for more than 235 years. We’re still in the
process of trying to perfect it. But we have to make steady progress.
That’s not an excuse for either standing still or going backwards.
Engaging with Islamist parties is going to be a new but necessary effort
on the part of the United States, which we are undertaking at every
level.
Now obviously, not all countries in the region are embracing the
mantle of reform. We continue to apply pressure on Assad and his regime
in Syria to stop the brutality, and we work with the opposition and
like-minded countries to try to help them be in a position to be part of
a successful political transition.
So as the region transforms, so must our engagement. We must be ready
to respond to an unanticipated flood of needs in a way that reflects
our leadership. As people and governments make meaningful commitments to
reform, we will support them in tangible ways. Whether that means
advising on how to build a vibrant civil society, ensuring the full
participation of women, providing loan guarantees, or promoting
educational opportunities, we have to be active across the board. We
need to provide the right assistance, at the right moment, to the right
people. And this is also true in sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia
as well.
Promoting democracy and accountable government that delivers results
for people should be at the heart of our agenda in every part of the
world. In this effort, and in each of the other areas I’ve discussed,
Europe remains our partner of first resort. From the frontlines in
Afghanistan to the table at the UN Security Council, our alliances and
friendships with our European friends and with the institutions that
they have built have never wavered. And we look to Europe as we take on
these global challenges in the 21
st century, just as much as we did in the 20
th.
And that brings me to our fourth priority: economic statecraft. I
sent a cable on this subject to every embassy and consulate last
October, but I want to reinforce in person how important our actions at
the crossroads of economics and diplomacy are. At every turn, we should
be asking ourselves, how can we use diplomacy and development to
strengthen our country? How can we leverage our economic strength to
promote our diplomatic goals? How do we build a global economic system
that is open, free, transparent, and fair?
Now these are not new questions. But we have to bring them to the
forefront of our discussions. I think for too long, Treasury did
economics, the Commerce Department and USTR, Export-Import, OPIC, but we
have the global presence. We are everywhere. We have a thousand
economic officers. We have to be right there, at the point of the spear,
looking for these opportunities, working with and sometimes advising
our colleagues in government about the best way to cut through all of
the barriers.
Several weeks ago, we hosted a unique, unprecedented event. We
partnered with the American Chamber of Commerce and invited chambers
from across the world, along with business leaders. I told them we’ve
made jobs diplomacy a priority mission here at the State Department. And
I want to put that phrase jobs diplomacy in front of you as well. So we
do need to do more to help American companies expand their business
overseas and to promote foreign investment here at home. Where we see
corruption, red tape, favoritism, distorted currencies, or intellectual
property theft that disadvantages American companies, we must push back,
because those practices create unfair barriers to competition and slow
our economic recovery.
It was fascinating at the conference, because a lot of the
businesses, from very large to quite small but agile exporting
businesses said, “You know, I always used to think there was really no
role for the government. I was out there. I was competing. It was a free
market system. I didn’t need your embassy or your State Department to
help me. And now, I look around and I see every other country, from our
European friends to our Asian ones, who have a full partner with their
government. And we need your help.”
So, what we’re trying to do is to enhance our consular efforts, speed
up the visa process – more people are visiting and the more people who
visit, the more people here at home actually work. We’re using
development dollars to improve the quality of life for millions of
people in order to create future trading partners and new markets.
Now oftentimes, people who have a very clear view about what
diplomacy and development are for find this kind of jobs diplomacy pitch
a little bit jarring because it’s not exactly what either diplomacy or
development has been conceived of, but it’s always gone on and it always
will go on. We just have to be more intentional and effective in
delivering.
My fifth point has to do with continuing to elevate development. It’s
an indispensible pillar of our national security strategy. And
effective development requires indigenous political will, responsive,
accountable and transparent governance, economic frameworks that create
opportunities. And to achieve that, we need to broaden our traditional
development assistance tools and focus on mobilizing reform through
influence and engagement that draws on the strengths and resources of
all relevant government agencies.
Diplomacy is central to that, and part of the work we did through the
QDDR to help you as the chief of mission truly become the chief
executive of the U.S. Government presence in your countries was to ask
you to really support the development side of the ledger as well. I will
soon be sending you detailed guidance that covers modernizing our
diplomacy to better support development. And as we pursue our signature
initiatives – the Global Health Initiative, Feed the Future – we are
transforming the way we do development. Now sometimes, it’s a little
frustrating because we emphasize country ownership. And a lot of people
who have done development over the years, they go into a country and
they say, well, here’s what you need, and now countries are saying, no,
here’s what we want. And so negotiating that is really a diplomatic
effort that requires your participation.
Our Global Health Initiative will reach 6 million people with
lifesaving HIV/AIDS treatment by 2013, creating the foundation for an
AIDS-free generation. And our Feed the Future Initiative is driving
agricultural growth and improving nutrition. So we’re increasing our
capacity within countries so they can take on more responsibility. We
have to move for – towards sustainability. We’ve had so much rhetoric
about that and now we have to translate it into an active agenda. It
just doesn’t work anymore that when we go into a country with our aid,
the government in the country basically withdraws from that area and
uses the money that they were using, for example, on health, to do
something else.
So we have to be much more engaged at all levels of the government.
It’s not just the ministers of development. It’s the finance ministers,
the foreign ministers, and everyone else. So I think where we are
looking to move is to partner with governments, local groups, and the
private sector – not substitute for them – and then to deliver
measurable results. And Dr. Raj Shah has made creating a
results-oriented AID his highest priority.
And finally, of course, I couldn’t speak to this group without
stressing the global focus that we have on advancing the status of women
and girls. You know the arguments. I’ve set them forth in a series of
speeches, particularly the APEC speech in San Francisco last fall,
making the case that the full participation of women in every economy,
including our own – namely knocking down the barriers to participation,
whether they be education or access to credit or the right to inherit –
would raise the GDP of every country in the world. Now, some would only
go up a little bit, like Finland, but some could go up a very long way.
And it would be a tremendous step forward for prosperity.
And we also are stressing women’s unique contributions to making and
keeping peace. We worked hard with the Defense Department and the White
House on the first-ever National Action Plan as to how we could involve
women more effectively, because most peace treaties fail, they don’t
have buy-in, they don’t have support from the populace, and where – it’s
just coincidental, perhaps, but there is a correlation where women have
been involved, like Liberia, the chances of it lasting are at least
greater than not.
So this week, I am issuing the first-ever Secretarial policy
directive on promoting gender equality. It contains specific steps to
ensure that we integrate women and promote gender equality in every
aspect of our work – in our policy development, our strategic planning,
our budgeting and programming, our monitoring and evaluation, our
management and training practices.
Women are often the canary in the coal mine. Well, when it comes to
transitioning to democracy or sustaining democracy, we need to pay
attention to whether they’re thriving or not, because that’s one of the
earliest indicators as to whether any society is going to sustain its
democratic progress. And I’m counting on your leadership as chiefs of
mission to implement this guidance around the world.
Now I should also note that there will be changes in our
ambassadorial corps, both this summer and following the November
elections, as is customary at the end of a presidential term. The
foreign policy of the United States, however, does not stop for
elections. It requires consistent direction and management, so it is
important that our ambassadors work to remain at their posts until
either the Senate has confirmed a replacement or specific departure
instructions are given.
As I’ve traveled in so many countries over the last five, six months,
a number of you have told me that your time will be up in the spring or
in the summer. But we don’t know if we will get people confirmed in the
current political climate. We don’t know who will or won’t get
confirmed in some last-minute deal that might be worked out before the
Congress basically goes out for elections. So we very much encourage
you, in so far as possible, to stay. We need you, we look to you, and
there is no country in the world that can do without you.
Now, obviously, there are many other important issues that I haven’t
touched on. We can, I’m sure, look forward to hearing about those from
the speakers today but also at the town hall later this afternoon.
The simple truth is we have a lot to do, but we have a great team, a
great team out in the field and a great team here in Washington. I look
forward to seeing you at lunch and then later this afternoon, along with
my colleagues, to take your questions.
But now I have the great privilege to introduce Deputy Secretary Bill
Burns. I kind of think of Bill as a one-person brain trust when it
comes to policy and diplomacy. He was here as Under Secretary, the P
man, when I arrived, and it didn’t take me longer than a nanosecond to
know that I wanted him by my side as we continued to move forward in
this uncertain but exciting time. So please join me in welcoming Bill
Burns. (Applause.)
