SECRETARY KERRY HOSTS HOLIDAY RECEPTION

FROM:  STATE DEPARTMENT 
Secretary of State John Kerry Hosts the Unaccompanied Tour Families Holiday Reception
Remarks
John Kerry
   Secretary of State
William J. Burns
   Deputy Secretary of State
Ben Franklin Room
Washington, DC
January 7, 2014

DEPUTY SECRETARY BURNS: Good afternoon, everybody and welcome home to the Department of State. Thank you all very much for coming, and Happy New Year.

We gather today to honor those who are serving with distinction in some of the world’s most complicated places, from South Sudan to Iraq, from Yemen to Afghanistan. We gather today to express our gratitude to their loved ones – to all of you, for your service, your sacrifice, and your resiliency during months of separation, anxiety, missed birthdays, and dropped Skype calls. And we gather today to remember and celebrate the fact that during these challenging times, we have one another.

All of you know, as well as I do, that through the ups and downs of life in the Foreign Service few things remain constant. Policies changes, jobs change, schools change, ambassadors come and go. But you can always count on your State Department family being there for you. And I know that as the demands on our diplomats grow, so too do the bonds that tie us together. My family has relied on the incredible support of this remarkable institution and its remarkable people for more than three decades. There is truly no greater honor than to serve alongside all of you.

Secretary Kerry has been part of the State Department family his whole life. He knows how much we ask of our diplomats and their families, and he knows just how indispensable your efforts are to promote American interests and values and advance the cause of peace and prosperity here at home and around the world. We’re very fortunate to have him as the champion for the people of this Department and its mission, and I’m very fortunate to have the honor to introduce him this afternoon.

Mr. Secretary. (Applause.)

SECRETARY KERRY: Thank you. Thank you. Well, good afternoon and Happy New Year to everybody. And as you all know, we did not originally plan to say Happy New Year, we originally planned to say happy holidays and Merry Christmas, but because of the schedule as well as storms and different things that invaded us, here we are on what I think may well be the 13th day of Christmas. (Laughter.) I’ve heard of 12 Days of Christmas. We can rewrite the song and go from there.

Thank you to our Deputy Secretary Bill Burns for his generous introduction and for his comments about all of you and about the families around the world and your loved ones around the world. I want you to know President Obama once said that Bill Burns is that rare commodity in Washington. He’s someone who doesn’t speak loudly, but actually has something to say. (Laughter.) And I couldn’t agree more. I have really relied on his extraordinary judgment and his experience since the day I came here. And it’s really invaluable, and we’re blessed to have him in his continued service here.

Thanks a lot for joining us today. Kids, thank you. Thank you, all of you. I hope you had good holidays. Good so far? Is it cold enough for you out there? (Laughter.) This is what we call a polar vortex, and for any of you who are confused or frightened by it, this is springtime in Boston. (Laughter.) Just roll with the punches.

I really hope you’re enjoying a few moments up here to celebrate. And probably this is in keeping with the new Washington. Nothing around here happens on time anymore. But I – next year, we’re going to guarantee this party – actually this year, we’re going to guarantee this party happens this year. (Laughter.) And we’ll schedule it far enough in advance to make sure that happens.

It’s really special for me to be able to welcome all of you here at the State Department here today, to the Ben Franklin Room. I can’t tell you how proud we are of your service and the service of your loved ones. And I have to tell you, this is a family affair because it is family. Everybody is serving. And those of you who are here know as well as any people, because of the unaccompanied tours, just how much of a burden that service is and what it means. And I want you to know how incredibly grateful we are here at the Department, the President, the White House, people in the country for what you do for our nation.

Your contribution is as important as anybody’s. You remember the old saying from wartime: They also serve who stand and wait. So for each and every one of you this is really important. And I know for kids not to have whether it’s dad or mom or a spousal partner, whoever it is, not here, that’s a big deal.

I know also that every single one of you do incredible things to stay in touch with your loved ones, whether it’s Skype-ing or FaceTime-ing, which we never had. I remember standing in line for several hours Christmas of 1968 to get what we then called a MARS phone and we were – had this distant thing that sounded like you were on another planet. And you got about a minute and a half. And if after standing in line for two and a half hours, or whatever it was, you got up there and the person wasn’t there when you got there, that was it. You went to the back of the line or you didn’t get your call. So believe me, Skype-ing, FaceTime, you have a whole new world of opportunity.

And my chance to be able to say thank you to you is very personal, partly because I did spend Christmas of 1968 in uniform away from my family. I remember getting that package about two weeks after Christmas with stale brownies and hardened candy, and man, it tasted good no matter what. (Laughter.) But during the Foreign Service time we were never separated from my father, but I will tell you I can imagine and know from my own personal experience of being away from family at that special time how difficult it is.

So we’re really happy to welcome you here today. I’m absolutely stunned. It is true we have Coca-Cola floats here? Is that true? I’ve got to get one of those before I leave here. (Laughter.)

This is a demanding enough job – ask anybody who’s doing it even with their family, you can ask my family – but when you’re doing it without your family and without the whole nuclear unit, it’s even tougher. And so I just wanted to have a firsthand opportunity to be able to visit with all of you.

I thank all the members of the Diplomatic Corps who have joined us today to be able to celebrate a little bit with you, and I particularly want to thank a group of private partners who’ve joined us who’ve made this possible. This is sponsored by some private companies who care about you and care about what we’re doing. And I start by thanking our lead sponsor, the Chevron Corporation, and Mondelez International, the Coca-Cola Company, Hallmark Cards who are here and you’ll see.

Each of you are going to get a special packet when you leave. And I will tell you in advance-- I also want to thank Copiosity because Copiosity is a company that does decorative materials and wrapping. They help us with the sending of all of our care packages around the world to people, and they have helped put together this package you’re going to get. And please forgive me if you get a football that says New England Patriots on it – (laughter) – and if you get a that says Boston Red Sox, I want you to wear it with pride as an extended member of Red Sox Nation.

But most importantly, I just want to say a huge thank you to every single one of you. And I want to have a chance not to make a speech but to shake hands and take some pictures. And I particularly want to, as I say, thank you on behalf of President Obama and the country. I want to ask all the kids – by the way, I love the holiday sweaters still and the holiday dress, and it’s making me feel great because it ended too quickly. It reminds me when I was running for president out in Iowa. Everybody in Iowa wears a holiday Christmas sweater at parties, and it just sort of creates an atmosphere, and I see a lot of that here today.

So kids, if you will join me, will you all come up here on the podium and we can take a great picture with all of you? And meanwhile, happy holidays. I hope everybody has a spectacular 2014 and I look forward to seeing you later in the year. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. (Applause.)

REMARKS BY SECRETARY OF TREASURY LEW AND DEPUTY SECRETARY OF STATE BURNS REGARDING CHINA

FROM:  U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE 
Remarks at Press Availability

Remarks
William J. Burns
Deputy Secretary of State
Secretary of Treasury Jacob Lew
U.S. Department of Treasury, Cash Room
Washington, DC
July 11, 2013

MODERATOR: Everyone, thanks so much. We’re going to start with just a few questions. Let’s see. Esther, CCTV.
QUESTION: Thank you, (inaudible) of China (inaudible) TV, and I’d like to raise a question to Secretary Lew: Now both China and the United States are going through some economic changes. China’s making structural reform, and the United States is trying to revitalize its manufacture to increase jobs.

So under these unique circumstance, how do you think China and the United States can be more mutually complementary in economic cooperation? And a follow-up question on that --

SECRETARY LEW: I can’t – I’m sorry. I can’t hear.

QUESTION: (Off-mike.)

SECRETARY LEW: No, I could hear right until the end.

QUESTION: Okay. And a follow-up question on that is that what specific measures will the U.S. side take to further loosen its restrictions on exports of high-tech goods for civil use in China? Thank you.

SECRETARY LEW: I think the U.S. economy is in such a different place now than it was just four years ago. We’re growing and we’re – we have prospects for continued growth and we would like the growth to be faster, but I think that this set of meetings, as many of the meetings that I’ve had in recent months have had this character to them, that there’s a renewed recognition and respect for the resilience of the American economy. And with all of its problems, the resilience of the American political system, because we responded in a decisive way to the economic crisis and our economy is back.

Now I think that the lessons from this are that change is hard and you have to make changes to get your economy where it needs to be. And you don’t get there all at once. So we’d like to be growing more and we’d like unemployment to come down more. One of the messages that we had in these meetings, and that we heard back from the Chinese, was that they’re committed to change, that it’s a long process, that they need – they know they need more market-oriented features to their economy, and we need to open markets to each other. We welcome Chinese investment in the United States; we welcome the opportunity to have U.S. investment in China. And the agreements that we reached at these meetings reflect the importance of open markets.

The decision made by China to enter into the negotiations over a BIT, an investment treaty, with the kind of features that they’re willing to accept, shows commitment to opening markets, which is so important to our exporters.

I think one of the reasons that these discussions were so significant is that we are pushing hard for China to do things that China needs to do for itself. And it shows that there is an overlap of interest, that as China moves towards more openness in its exchange rates and its interest rates and its economic system, it’s going to mean more growth in China and more opportunity for U.S. exports to China. It’s a win-win. And we are, I think, in a place now where, as the two largest economies in the world, we have to have these kinds of conversations because the world economy needs for us to be working in that kind of cooperation.

MODERATOR: (Inaudible) Anna Yukhananov from Reuters. Anna.

QUESTION: Hi, this is Anna Yukhananov from Reuters. Thanks for taking my question. I was wondering if you could just elaborate a little bit more about the auditing agreements and whether you think this resolves some of the longstanding SEC issues, having this sharing of auditor documents.

And second, if you could just give some more specifics about exchange rates – you said you see signs of progress – if there’s anything specific that China promised to do. Thank you very much.

SECRETARY LEW: The exchange of audit information has been a very significant issue that our market regulators have needed access to the kind of information that was not forthcoming. And we’d had long discussions about the provision of that information. So the decision to make the information available permits our market regulators to do their job. Ultimately, if we’re going to have the kind of relations between the United States and China that permit easy access to each other’s markets, it requires a kind of transparency so that there can be confidence that the rules of the road are being followed and that a level playing field is really available to all. So I think it is important. It’s a rather technical issue, but it’s an important step in the road.

And on exchange rates, we had extensive discussions, as we have on each of the occasions when I’ve engaged with our Chinese counterparts, and we have acknowledged that there has been progress in closing the gap, but we’ve also made it clear that there’s still more progress that needs to be made in order to reach the point where there’s truly a market-determined interest rate.

I think we’ve made progress. We still have some more work to do.

MODERATOR: The next will be from Matt Pennington of AP.

QUESTION: Secretary Burns, can I ask you about North Korea? The State Councilor mentioned that China was committed to creating the conditions for the earlier resumption of the Six-Party Talks. Do you agree upon what those conditions are? Does China share the view of the U.S. that North Korea has to take concrete steps to show its commitment to denuclearization before talks can restart? Or does China think that talks should start now without precondition?

DEPUTY SECRETARY BURNS: I think, obviously, our Chinese colleagues can speak for themselves on this. But what I would say is the following: First, the issue of North Korea was a very high priority throughout the course of the last two days of discussions, and I think there was a strong reaffirmation from both sides of our commitment to verifiable denuclearization and to meaningful steps on the part of the DPRK to demonstrate its seriousness, because I think neither the United States nor China are interested in talks simply for the sake of talks.

And so I think, much as was the case when our two presidents met in California, much as was the case when Secretary Kerry traveled to Beijing in April, I think there’s a very strong consensus between us on the significance of this issue, on the importance of the United States and China working together to ensure that the DPRK lives up to its obligations and translates rhetoric and prior commitments into reality, into the kind of meaningful steps that I think both of us understand are essential to make real diplomatic progress.

MODERATOR: The final question will be from Bingru Wang from Phoenix TV.

QUESTION: Thank you, Jen. Hi, Secretary Burns and Secretary Lew. I have two broad questions. The first one is: Before the S&ED, a State Department official said they want to ask China to define the new type major country relationship. Now, after the S&ED, what’s your understanding of it? And are you ready to answer China’s call?

Secondly, yesterday, at a background briefing, one official described Wang Yang – he found him very – found him – had a good sense of humor. So I wonder what’s your impression of your counterparts? Do they give you strong confidence to strengthen the trust? Thank you.

SECRETARY LEW: I would say, starting with my visit to Beijing in March and the conversations we’ve had since Secretary Kerry’s visit just a few weeks later, we have felt a change in the new leadership in China. I think it was reflected when the two presidents met at Sunnylands in a very public way. It’s a new generation. There’s an openness, a desire to engage in a personal way and establish relationships, looking ahead to working with our Administration for the next four years, and for them, looking at working with the United States for 10 years. Making progress today is important, but building the kind of trust that can be the foundation for making more progress in the future is a very important part of it.

From the meetings in March through the meetings today, there’s a willingness to put the notes aside and talk directly and to deal with the difficult subjects. We dealt with some very difficult subjects and we don’t agree on everything, but to do it in a forthright way, in a direct way, and it’s – that’s the way one can build a relationship of trust. So I have a very positive reaction myself to the personal approach of the new leadership, and I think the Vice Minister brought that spirit to the team that he brought with him.

DEPUTY SECRETARY BURNS: Sorry, and I would just add that I agree very much with Jack about the overall tone of the S&ED conversations. I think it reflects the maturity of the relationship that we can not only focus on places where we can build on areas of common ground but also on areas of obvious difference, and deal with it in a candid and honest way.

I think on the personal side, Secretary Kerry has known State Councilor Yang for more than a decade, dating back to the State Councilor’s time as ambassador in Washington. They have, I think, a very easy and effective personal relationship, a lot of professional respect between the two of them, and I think that contributes enormously to the kinds of dialogue that we just had over the last couple of days.

MODERATOR: Thank you so much, everyone.

SECRETARY LEW: Thank you very much.