Remarks With Luxembourg Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn Before Their Meeting
Remarks
Hillary Rodham Clinton
Secretary of State
Treaty Room
Washington, DC
July 25, 2012
SECRETARY CLINTON:
Well, it’s a pleasure to welcome the Vice Prime Minister and Foreign
Minister of Luxembourg here. I have the opportunity to work with him on a
number of important issues in NATO and in other fora, where we are
committed to advancing our shared values and interests. And I’m looking
forward to the opportunity to discuss a wide range of issues. So
welcome, Jean. We’re so happy you’re here.
DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER ASSELBORN: Thank you, Hillary. First, I
am grateful and it’s an honor for me to be here. It’s the sixth time
that I have been in this house as Foreign Minister. I saw three
different colleagues, three highly appreciated personalities, and I want
to thank you, Hillary, in the name of Luxembourg for the very, very,
great job you are doing since now.
SECRETARY CLINTON: Thank you.
DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER ASSELBORN: Let me – a little bit on
Europe and United States. I think that we are facing unprecedented
challenges on the economic future (inaudible) in our region. But I think
that we have to put our energies together. We cannot face them, I
think, alone. We will not manage it to face and to find solutions. So I
think that more than ever, today we have to pray together and to put
really our energies in the same basket.
I just want to mention maybe three topics very briefly that I think
that we have to work together. The first is Sahara. I was in Africa in
the last two weeks, in Addis Ababa and also in Mozambique. And in the
Sahara region, there is a humanitarian crisis and a security crisis that
is unfolding out of our very eyes. And we have to cooperate, I think,
with the Western African organizations and West African Union to avoid
(inaudible) of this region.
The second point, of course, is Syria. I think that the only aim of
the United States and the European Union is to make – to increase the
pressure on the regime that the killings and the violence stop. And
therefore we need to cooperate with all the diplomatic means that we
have our – at our disposal.
And the last point, I think, on Northern Africa, there is a lot of
hope, I think, and in Egypt – you have been there – in Libya, but also
in Tunisia. The core challenge is to accept the results of democratic
elections and to safeguard, if I can say, the fundamental human rights
fixed in the UN Charter and to support – and that’s very important for
Europe to support the countries to restart the economy and to give
social hope to these countries.
So I think only three points that – for us as Europeans. I am the
longest serving foreign minister in the European Union, but now more
than ever, I think we can share, and we have to share, our values and
cooperate very strongly together. Thank you.
SECRETARY CLINTON: Well, we certainly agree with that.
DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER ASSELBORN: Thank you.
SECRETARY CLINTON: Thank you, all, very much.
