RemarksHillary Rodham Clinton
Secretary of StateBali, IndonesiaJuly 22, 2011Thank you very much, Foreign Secretary del Rosario. Thank you for co-hosting and co-chairing this important U.S.-ASEAN ministerial. I want to thank our hosts, the Government of Indonesia and our colleague, the Foreign Minister, for giving us such a warm welcome to this beautiful part of your country.
I am pleased to have this opportunity, once again, to affirm the commitment of the United States to our partnership with ASEAN. For two-and-a-half years, the Obama Administration has prioritized our engagement with ASEAN and the region, because we believe it is an important commitment to peace, progress, and prosperity, not only in the Asia-Pacific region, but throughout the world. The countries of ASEAN are home to nearly 600 million people, and represent America's sixth largest export market. And the community of nations represented here today are really important leaders in meeting the global challenges we face together, from climate change, to proliferation, to piracy.
So, from our perspective, ASEAN is where the United States wants to be, which is why we have elevated our relationship. We acceded to the ASEAN Treaty of Amity and Cooperation. President Obama first -- hosted the first-ever U.S.-ASEAN leaders meeting. We have sent our first permanent U.S. ambassador, Ambassador Carden, to ASEAN, and joined the ministerial dialogue on defense and security. And we look forward to formally joining the East Asia Summit, which is ASEAN-driven. And today I hope we will agree to a new plan of action, a five-year blueprint for taking the partnership between America and ASEAN to the next level.
So, again, let me thank my colleagues, let me apologize for being a little late in coming to this important meeting. But I am very much looking forward to our work together, to a productive discussion about how you can realize the promise of our partnership. Thank you all very much.
Just a personal observation here: After two-and-a-half years of following Secretary Clinton all over the globe at so many conferences like this, the disjunct that has been forming in the back of my mind has crystallized. We watch her racking up the miles flying all over the globe at exhausting warp-speed, speaking in her characteristic, unhesitating bullet style, establishing, as best she can, a leadership role for the U.S.A. in the 21st century while the president insists upon "leadership from behind." They are at cross purposes!
Leadership, by definition, must be from the front line, not from the rear. Commanding officers lead the troops from the front. They do not lurk in the background and request the front line troops to submit battle plans for them to accept or reject while they drum their fingers impatiently on the topographic battleground table in the tent. This is the primary contradiction in operation within the administration and the reason why the foreign policy works as far as the president gives his secretary of state her head, and why the domestic policy is failing miserably. In short, the president lacks a Hillary Clinton setting domestic policy for him, so his "leadership from the rear" position goes unbalanced on the domestic scene by anyone willing to push for a more aggressive position at the front line.
I do not see a solution to this flaw in the administration short of replacing the top of the pyramid. If the Democratic Party does not wake up to this necessity, we will be in for another eight years of disastrous Republican leadership.
There is no sense in reelecting the incumbent to four more years of what we have right now or for the simple sake of reelecting him. We have lost our leadership role in space. We are on the verge of losing our role in the global economy, and it is the result of inaction, hesitance, and a lack of bold, confident movement forward. It is time for a change we need. If the DNC does not make that modification, we will be headed for still more change that we do not need.
That is my two cents, and every cent I have goes to HillaryClinton.com!
