To provide a glimpse into Mme. Secretary's day today, I am including some remarks from today's press briefing. The speech to which Ms. Nuland refers was the posted previous to the public schedule.
Victoria Nuland
Spokesperson
Daily Press Briefing
Washington, DCJuly 25, 2011
MS. NULAND: Well, I think the Secretary spoke very clearly, obviously in Hong Kong, about the fact that she has great confidence, that we have confidence, that we’re going to get through this, and that you have democracy in action as the two parties on the Hill work towards an agreement and work with the President on this.
There have been a lot of questions around the world, as people try to understand how our system works, how our democracy works, about where all of this is going, so that was one of the reasons why the Secretary felt it was important to make a strong statement about democracy in action and about the fact that we will come through this, and about the adjustments that our strong, democratic economy has been able to make over time whenever we faced these kinds of challenges.
More broadly, though, I hope you caught the key themes of her speech, which were to ensure that not only in the East Asian region, but around the world, that we are working together on the basis of open, free, transparent, and fair market systems in which all countries can compete on the basis of a level playing field, whether they are developing nations, developed nations, and all businesses can compete, whether they’re big businesses or small businesses.
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I think what we have are countries, leaders, businesses trying to grapple with how the American system works. They see us engaged in a democratic debate about what the right moves are going forward in the U.S. economy, but a lot of countries find our system hard to understand. So those are the kinds of questions we get – how long will this go on, are you confident that there’ll be an agreement? And I think it was important for the Secretary to make a strong statement of confidence that our system will produce a good result not only for the American people, but for the world economy as a whole.
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QUESTION: Can you tell us a little bit more the upcoming meeting in New York between U.S. and North Korea? Who’s leading the delegation and when it’s going to take place; what’s your expectation?
MS. NULAND: In terms of the timing, we’re looking at the end of the week. I don’t know whether the precise date – Thursday or Friday – in New York has been set. I think you know that the expected DPRK representative is Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kae-gwan, and I think you heard the Secretary speak to what we’re looking for in this meeting, that we see this as a preliminary session where we’re going to lay out very clearly our expectations for what will be necessary to not only resume Six-Party Talks, but to improve direct engagement between the U.S. and the DPRK.
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QUESTION: Was there any outcome regarding those issues come out when she was meeting the State Councilor Dai Bingguo and the other officials on the North Korea issues?
MS. NULAND: They did talk about North Korea today. They met for more than four hours in Shenzhen. And it was very broad-ranging conversation about the U.S.-China relationship, about our shared interest in regional issues, but North Korea was certainly one of the subjects of the meeting.
More that four hours! Comes in a close second to that six-plus hour meeting with Bibi Netanyahu at the Waldorf last December. (I think it was the Waldorf.) I want to say here and now that for someone who took a pay cut from what she voted for as her predecessor's salary (for Constitutional reasons), this Secretary of State certainly gives us more than our money's worth. But, of course, she has never been in any of this for the money, or even for the credit. All she cares about is that the work gets done.
