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.)

SECRETARY OF STATE KERRY'S REMARKS TO STAFF AND FAMILIES AT U.S. EMBASSY IN MANILA, PHILIPPINES

FROM:  U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT 

Meeting With Staff and Families of Embassy Manila

Remarks

John Kerry
Secretary of State

U.S. Embassy Manila

Manila, Philippines

December 17, 2013

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SECRETARY KERRY: Thank you very, very much. Magandang gabi. (Laughter.) I’m going to let you have it. What?
AUDIENCE: Almost.
SECRETARY KERRY: Almost. Well, come here. Come here. Come here. How should I say it? (Laughter.) All right. Give me the right way.

AUDIENCE: Magandang gabi.

SECRETARY KERRY: Magandang gabi. (Applause and cheering.) So he’s not such a good teacher. (Laughter.)

Anyway, it is wonderful to be here in this historic Embassy. And thank you all for the privilege of sharing a few thoughts with all of you being here.

First of all, you are very blessed to have one of the best in the entire Foreign Service. This guy has worked on so many different initiatives. He’s been in Latin America; he’s been in Bosnia, the Bosnia team – of the Dayton Accords. He’s worked with Deputy Secretary Strobe Talbott. He has been the bureau chief of INR, as you know – intelligence and research. And you’ve got the right person for this moment out here. He’s a professional, and I’m delighted that he’s representing our country as ambassador. And you’re lucky to have him. Anyway, thank you. (Applause.)
And Brian Goldbeck – it’s hard to see him. Somewhere he’s here. I met him as I came in. Brian (inaudible).

PARTICIPANT: He’s back here somewhere.

SECRETARY KERRY: Brian’s hiding back there, but he shouldn’t be hiding, because as all of you know, his leadership was essential during the period of the typhoon response, and Ben Hemingway and Amy Reardon, the DART team, the extraordinary work that all of you did.
There are so many people I want to run through all of the names but the Citizen Service piece – everything we did was actually stunning, linking people to aid, getting aid, finding the $45 million, rapidly getting it out there. Where’s Colonel Wylie? Is he here somewhere? No, not here. Well, obviously the job that JUSMAG did in terms of operations and coordination, flying so many people from Tacloban and bringing them up to Manila and everything – it’s really an extraordinary story.

I know you guys have a huge tradition here, the sort of one team, one mission concept. But you gave that more meaning than almost any embassy in the entire world. And every one of you should applaud everybody else here, because it’s an extraordinary story. Thank you for doing what you do. (Applause.)

I understand we’ve got a few very special people here. Cesar Buensuceso has worked in HR 30 years. Cesar, I gather is here. Not here. Well, tell him we did him a shout-out and – (laughter) – his absence was noticed. (Laughter.)

How about Lourdes Apolinario? No, she’s not here? She’s also – she’s served 34 years. She knows better than to be here. Excelsa Espiritu. Excelsa. Is Excelsa here? Likewise, they’ve all worked so long they’ve earned the privilege to going home early. (Laughter.)

Well, will you thank them for me? Because honestly, for all of you who are local hires – and we have over 1,000 of them here – we cannot do what we do without you. And everybody is so grateful. There are almost 400, about 350 to 400 folks, here who are direct hires and some of them are Civil Service and some are Foreign Service officers, some political appointees and some third nationals. But we are hugely grateful to all of you from the Philippines who make it possible for us to know what we’re doing and to put the right face on America. So every one of us join in saying thank you to you for the job you do. (Applause.)

I’m going to be very quick, because I want to have a chance to shake some hands and take a few photos as we run out of here. But let me just tell you what a great, great privilege it is for me to be back here. I had always had this thing in my mind about the Philippines because my grandfather’s cousin was a governor-general here back in 1909, 1912. And so he came back with all this beautiful mahogany wood and narra wood – (laughter) – unbelievable baskets and different things, and we grew up with these things, looking at them, and we admired them. And I would say, wow, that’s an amazing place, I want to go.

And when I became a senator, the first place I went to, not so much because of that but because I had heard so many stories about what was happening in terms of political repression and the Marcos regime and abuse and so forth that I wanted to come here. And I spent five hours with Ferdinand Marcos in the Malacanang Palace and was convinced after that conversation that the United States needed to change its policy.

And so the first amendment I ever passed as a young senator was about the Philippines, and we changed our foreign aid program to make it conditional. And Marcos got kind of angry at me, but figured he was going to show this young whippersnapper senator who was boss, and he called a snap election in order to re-legitimize himself.

Well, NAMFREL and lot of dedicated people here in the Philippines had a different idea, and they created a network of poll watching and accountability and transparency. So when that election took place, we knew what was happening with the voting. We weren’t able to prove it until 13 courageous women walked out of the polling counting computer center, took refuge in the church, and I went and met with them at the cathedral, and they stood up and told their story of how they were putting legitimate vote counts that gave Cory Aquino the victory into the computers but coming out on the tote board was completely fictitious numbers worked towards Marcos.

We blew the lid off of the fraudulent election and within weeks Ronald Reagan pulled the rug out from under him, sent his top aide over here, top senator, friend, Paul Laxalt delivered the message and Marcos was gone. That shows you what you can do. That’s called accountability, democracy, people power. That’s what it was called.

So as I come here now, we’re at this (inaudible) in terms of American foreign policy and the world we’re living in. There are huge challenges all around the planet. And every country is in play, in a sense, because there are too many places where there’s failed governments or failing governments or near-failed states, or failed states. And we need to prove successes. We need to show that we can respond to people’s needs. In this incredible economic transformation that’s taking place, an awful lot of people making a lot of money and an awful lot of people being left behind. And what we’re going to need to do is even that out and work at this as we create our trade agreements, as we work at the governance issues, as we bring healthcare, and build capacity in countries.

That’s the challenge of American foreign policy today, and each and every one of you should be really excited about being on the cutting edge of this global transformation taking place. There are a lot of folks I know that I run into – when I ran for president, went around the country, I’d meet a lot of people who hated their jobs, and you knew they got up in the morning and the only reason they went to work was to survive and pay the bills, but not because they loved their work. This work we all have the privilege of really loving, because we can make a difference in the lives of other people and meet people and be ambassadors – every single one of us – for our nation and for our values. And those of you who are Filipino who share those values, share those affections, you can be part of that journey, because it’s yours as much as ours.
So I want to thank all of you for being part of this. Thank you for choosing to do what you do. And I look forward over the next three years – unless I screw up royally – (laughter) – to continuing to work with all of you to help make this happen. Thank you all, and God bless. (Applause.)

STATE DEPARTMENT RELEASES SECRETARY OF STATE KERRY'S INTERVIEW WITH ABC NEWS

FROM:  U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT
Interview With Martha Raddatz of ABC's This Week
Interview
John Kerry
Secretary of State
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
December 15, 2013

QUESTION: Mr. Secretary, I want to get right to reports out of North Korea that the young leader, Kim Jong-un, has executed his uncle, his mentor, one of the most powerful people in North Korea. What does this tell you about the danger coming from North Korea?

SECRETARY KERRY: Well, it tells us a lot about, first of all, how ruthless and reckless he is. And it also tells us a lot about how insecure he is, to a certain degree. It tells us a significant amount about the instability internally of the regime, with the numbers of executions. This is not the first execution. There have been a significant number of executions taking place over the last months, which we’re aware of. And most importantly, it underscores the importance for all of us of finding a way forward with North Korea in order to denuclearize the peninsula. It’s an ominous sign of the instability and of the danger that does exist.

QUESTION: Well, what does it tell you about him? We know so little about him.

SECRETARY KERRY: We don’t know. I mean, North Korea remains relatively opaque. It is not easy, but we do have insights. And the insights that we have tell us that he is spontaneous, erratic, still worried about his place in the power structure, and maneuvering to eliminate any potential kind of adversary or competitor and does so, obviously, ruthlessly. I mean, you saw the pictures of his uncle being arrested in front of everybody at this meeting.

QUESTION: And this was so public.

SECRETARY KERRY: I mean, it really reminded me of a video that we saw of Saddam Hussein doing the same thing, having people plucked out of an audience, with people sitting there sweating, and nobody daring to move or do anything. This is the nature of this ruthless, horrendous dictatorship and of his insecurities.

And I think we need to factor that into the urgency of getting China, Russia, Japan, South Korea, all of us to stay on the same page and to put as much effort into the denuclearization as possible. To have a nuclear weapon potentially in the hands of somebody like Kim Jong-un just becomes even more unacceptable.

QUESTION: I want to move to the other headline, which is out of Iran, and Robert Levinson, the FBI agent who was reportedly working with the CIA in Iran, disappeared seven year ago. His family has confirmed to ABC News that he did have ties to the CIA. I know you’re not going to confirm anything like that, but I want to tell you what his family said. They say that the U.S. Government has abandoned and betrayed him and is getting lip service from the Obama Administration on their efforts for his release. Has there been any real progress?

SECRETARY KERRY: Well, there hasn’t been progress in the sense that we don’t have him back. But to suggest that we’ve abandoned him or anybody has abandoned him is simply incorrect and not helpful. The fact is that I have personally raised the issue, not only at the highest level that I have been involved with, but also through other intermediaries. So we don’t have any meeting with anybody who has something to do with Iran or an approach to Iran where we don’t talk to them about how might be able to find to find not just Levinson, but we have two other Americans that we’re deeply concerned about.

QUESTION: Do you have any --

SECRETARY KERRY: And we’re looking for proof of life. We’re working on several processes that I’m not free to talk about, but there are a number of different channels that are being worked, and they’re being worked aggressively.

QUESTION: Do you believe the Iranian Government is responsible for his disappearance?

SECRETARY KERRY: I think the Iranian Government – I can’t tell you what happened or how the sequence was, but I think the Iranian Government has the ability to help us here, and we hope they will.

QUESTION: The major news out of Syria this week: the U.S. has suspended nonlethal aid because Islamist rebels took over a warehouse.

SECRETARY KERRY: Yeah.

QUESTION: How did that happen?

SECRETARY KERRY: Well, it happened because there’s a certain amount of infighting taking place within the opposition. And this is the nature of the beast that has been unleashed by Bashar al-Assad, who probably is feeding some of it himself because he likes to try to play the part that he is the better alternative to these extremists. So there are some indicators that he’s even fueling some of that.

The problem is you have some radical Islamic elements there.

QUESTION: So what’s the next move?

SECRETARY KERRY: Well, there isn’t more – the moderate opposition has been united up until recently, and we believe they still can be united. We are aiming towards the Geneva II conference, which will take place in January – in the latter part of January. We are committed to try to bring people together, a strong representation of the opposition, together with the Assad regime representatives and with maybe 30 or so other countries and all try to work in the same direction, which is to get a political settlement out of Syria.

QUESTION: When can you start the nonlethal aid back again to those moderate…

SECRETARY KERRY: I think very quickly.

QUESTION: What are you waiting for?

SECRETARY KERRY: Well, we’ve already had, we’ve already had some proffers to have the warehouse protected and other kinds of things. But I think people want to be careful, have the meetings that we need to have, and make certain we can proceed forward thoughtfully. Nobody wants to just fill the warehouse up again and have it taken over again. That doesn’t make sense. So we need to make sure where we’re going.

But look, this is complicated. This isn’t easy. A year ago, before the President started to focus on this and figuratively had to accelerate the efforts to get a political solution, nothing was happening except fighting and killing. And a year ago, chemical weapons were being used and under the control of the Assad regime. Now, through our diplomatic efforts, we are moving towards a peace conference, difficult as it is --

QUESTION: And you really think that’s going to happen next month?

SECRETARY KERRY: We’re committed to going. The Russians are committed to going. Countries are committed to going.

QUESTION: John McCain says: The moderate opposition groups are losing. As a result, extremists are filling the void, and entire sections of Syria, stretching deep into Iraq, are now effectively safe havens for al-Qaida. True?

SECRETARY KERRY: There’s some truth – yeah, it’s absolutely true. Al-Qaida has greater clout there than it had before, and it’s an increasing threat. And it’s a threat we’re going to have to confront.

But John also understands that the members of Congress, with whom he serves, were not willing to put additional money in in order to fund overtly and put money into the opposition significantly.

QUESTION: Let’s turn to the war we are still in, and that is in Afghanistan. And there’s very little progress it appears with Hamid Karzai, the president who does not want to sign this security agreement that would allow U.S. forces to remain beyond 2014, making it clear that’s what the U.S. wants, to allow troops to stay beyond 2014.

SECRETARY KERRY: Well, the U.S. wants success in Afghanistan. And success means having an Afghan arms force that has the ability to sustain itself and provide security to the people of Afghanistan so they can continue on the road to developing their society, their institutions, their healthcare system, their education, and other things that are happening today. When America went into Afghanistan, Martha, there were about 900,000 kids in school. They were all boys. Today there are about 7 or 8 million children in school, and almost 40 percent of them are girls. So there’s a huge transformation taking place, and we want to try to hold onto that.

QUESTION: And this – if we don’t leave those troops there, can you guarantee that young women can still go to school there?

SECRETARY KERRY: No. Absolutely not. You can’t guarantee anything, I think. If American forces were not there, I think there would be serious challenges with respect to Afghanistan’s security. But – here’s the but – I believe that Hamid Karzai, either he or his successor will sign this. Now I think he needs to sign it.

QUESTION: His successor? So it’s okay for a successor --

SECRETARY KERRY: I said they will. No, no, no. I said either he or they will, but he needs to sign it.

QUESTION: By when? Give me a date.

SECRETARY KERRY: We negotiated – let me just finish – we negotiated an agreement. That wasn’t in place, by the way, a year ago. Now we have an agreement that’s been negotiated, and he has said to me personally, as recently as a day ago, reiterated through his minister, that the language is fine. So we are very close to the ability to move forward. And I believe it will be signed and I hope it’ll be signed as soon as possible.

QUESTION: Is there a cutoff date, where you have to say we can’t do it, we can’t leave troops there?

SECRETARY KERRY: Well, there is a cutoff date, but I’m not going to get into cutoff dates. I think what’s important to understand is --

QUESTION: First it was October, then it was going to have to be by January.

SECRETARY KERRY: No. This needs to be signed as soon as possible. And I think he understands that.

QUESTION: How long do you want troops to stay there?

SECRETARY KERRY: Well, that’s up to the President of the United States and it’s up to the process on the ground. But the President has already said we are prepared to be there for a number of years going forward in a very different role, a very diminished role of training, advising, and equipping the Afghans. We will not be in combat. America will not be engaged in combat.

QUESTION: But counterterrorism troops, you want there as well.

SECRETARY KERRY: It’s a very different. We will be doing counterterrorism. That is correct.

QUESTION: That’s combat.

SECRETARY KERRY: Well, it is – not automatically, not directly. It can be intel gathering. It can be providing information to the Afghans that they act on. And in some cases, it might wind up being kinetic by American forces. But the point is, it’s not day-to-day combat against the Taliban on behalf of the Afghan people. It’s counterterrorism to fight against terrorists – al-Qaida, and Haqqani Network, others – who are threatening American assets and America itself.

QUESTION: You’ve put so much effort in your first year into Mideast peace. You’ve got the parties talking, but has there been any real concrete progress on the really tough issues?

SECRETARY KERRY: Yes. Actually, there has been. But we’ve agreed not to be talking about what we’re doing, because it just creates great expectations, it creates pressure, it creates opposition in some cases. If this conflict was easy, Martha, this would have been done years ago. It’s confounded presidents and secretaries of state for 30 or 40 years. And it’s complicated.

QUESTION: And you feel this time its different?

SECRETARY KERRY: Well, I think we’re in a different moment now. And hopefully the leaders will seize this moment and at least move the balls forward somewhat.

QUESTION: We’re sitting in Ho Chi Minh City. You’re a Vietnam War veteran and an anti-war activist after the Vietnam War. How much of your world view comes from your time spent here?

SECRETARY KERRY: Well, obviously, some of it Martha. But one thing I’m very careful – very, very careful – not to do is see everything through the lens of Vietnam. That would be a huge mistake. And it’s informative, but it doesn’t imprison me. It doesn’t dominate me.

QUESTION: Thanks very much, Mr. Secretary.

SECRETARY KERRY: Thank you.

SECRETARY OF STATE KERRY'S STATEMENT ON MAIDAN SQUARE PROTEST IN UKRAINE

FROM:  U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT 
12/10/2013 10:32 PM EST
Statement on Events in Ukraine
Press Statement
John Kerry
Secretary of State
Washington, DC
December 10, 2013

The United States expresses its disgust with the decision of Ukrainian authorities to meet the peaceful protest in Kyiv's Maidan Square with riot police, bulldozers, and batons, rather than with respect for democratic rights and human dignity. This response is neither acceptable nor does it befit a democracy.

Last week in Brussels and Moldova, I underscored publicly the importance of all sides avoiding violence and called on President Yanukovych to fulfill the aspirations of the Ukranian people. We put the government on notice about our concern.

As Vice President Biden made clear to President Yanukovych during their phone call yesterday, respect for democractic principles, including freedom of assembly, is fundamental to the United States' approach to Ukraine. This is a universal value not just an American one. For weeks, we have called on President Yanukovych and his government to listen to the voices of his people who want peace, justice and a European future. Instead, Ukraine's leaders appear tonight to have made a very different choice.

We call for utmost restraint. Human life must be protected. Ukrainian authorities bear full responsibility for the security of the Ukrainian people.

As church bells ring tonight amidst the smoke in the streets of Kyiv, the United States stands with the people of Ukraine. They deserve better.

STATE DEPARTMENT PRESS STATEMENT ON INTERNATIONAL DAY FOR ELIMINATION OF VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN

FROM:  U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT 

International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women and 16 Days of Activism

Press Statement

John Kerry
Secretary of State

Washington, DC

November 25, 2013

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Each November 25, we reaffirm a global commitment to the elimination of violence against women and renew our collective pledge to the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-based Violence.

This fight is deeply personal to me. As a prosecutor, I saw firsthand the ravages of violence against women. As a proud father of two daughters, and as a husband to a strong woman who has invested so much of her public passion towards improving the lives of women, I know the difference it makes when women and girls have the opportunity to pursue their full potential and live free of violence. By contrast, gender-based violence not only undermines human rights, but poses significant obstacles to public health, economic and social development, and long lasting peace. It ruptures families. It breeds poverty and instability, and it can prevent women and girls, and their entire communities, from realizing their full potential.

We know we have much work to do. Despite all the collective international outrage, gender-based violence continues with impunity, and on a harrowing scale. Gender-based violence remains an epidemic of global proportions that cuts across every social and economic class, ethnicity, race, religion, and education level. In fact, nearly one-third of women worldwide have experienced some form of physical or sexual violence. That is an unacceptable statistic and must be a wake-up call.

The United States has made addressing gender-based violence a priority domestically and abroad. As evidenced by the first U.S. Strategy to Prevent and Respond to Gender-Based Violence Globally, the first National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security, and new commitments to prevent and respond to gender-based violence starting at the onset of humanitarian emergencies, we are working comprehensively to improve prevention, protection, and prosecution measures to address this global scourge.

This day is a time to reaffirm our determination to turn words into action, and we commit to doing our part to make the world free from brutal acts that deprive our fellow citizens of a life of equality and human dignity.

SECRETARY OF STATE KERRY'S REMARKS ON TRANSGENDER DAY OF REMEMBRANCE

FROM:  U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT 
Transgender Day of Remembrance
Remarks
John Kerry
Secretary of State
Washington, DC
November 20, 2013

The State Department joins people around the world in marking Transgender Day of Remembrance, honoring the memory of lives lost to violence provoked by fear and hatred of transgender and gender non-conforming people.

We have made tremendous progress in advancing the rights of LGBT persons. But when people continue to be harassed, arrested and even killed simply because of who they are and who they love, we know that we still have hard work before us.

The sad truth is that in too many places, including the United States, transgender persons continue to face violence and discrimination on a daily basis.

In too many cases, crimes against LGBT persons, including murder, are not thoroughly investigated or prosecuted. Transgender persons are frequently denied medical care and public services. They still suffer discrimination in employment, education, and housing.

Each of these episodes threatens our common humanity. Together, we pay a price when rights are trampled. And, together, we win when rights are protected.

That is why we are engaging diplomatically to address the specific challenges faced by transgender persons. And that’s why we will continue to urge other governments to protect all of their citizens regardless of their gender identity. Through the Global Equality Fund, we are increasing support to civil society organizations to combat bias-motivated violence targeting transgender persons.

The rights of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender persons are not special or separate or different. They are basic human rights. And human rights are universal, not negotiable.

On Transgender Day of Remembrance, we renew our commitment to ensuring that all persons are able to live safely, freely and with dignity, regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity.

SECRETARY OF STATE KERRY'S MAKES REMARKS WITH NORWEGIAN FOREIGN MINISTER BORGE BRENDE

FROM:  U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT 
Remarks With Norwegian Foreign Minister Borge Brende Before Their Meeting
Remarks
John Kerry
Secretary of State
Treaty Room
Washington, DC
November 15, 2013

SECRETARY KERRY: Thank you very much. I’m really happy to welcome His Excellency, the Foreign Minister of Norway Borge Brende. It’s very, very nice to have him here. There’s no way to exaggerate the enormous amount of good work and cooperation and partnership that Norway has with the United States, but most importantly, Norway is just a huge global citizen. And I want to thank the Government of Norway and the people of Norway for the incredible role that they play on rule of law, on civil society, on humanitarian assistance, on global environmental issues, on humanitarian issues of grave concern, on proliferation.

Recently, Norway has stepped up and offered to be helpful with ships to be able to transport chemical weapons out of Syria. They have – when I traveled to the Sudan some time ago, I would run into the Norwegian oil minister who would be there helping to work on the solutions to the Sudanese oil issues. Norway is a terrific partner, a NATO ally, a great friend of the United States. And so I’m really happy to welcome the Foreign Minister – the new Foreign Minister here.

I had the privilege of living in Norway for a couple of years a long time ago, so I have a special affinity for Norway and Norwegians, but leaving that aside, the amount of global engagement that Norway executes is really astounding for the size of the country, and we all marvel at it.

Finally, they are also a terrific partner on the Arctic and on global climate change, which is a challenge that we all share.

So I’m very, very happy to welcome you here, it’s good to have you, and I look forward to have conversations.

FOREIGN MINISTER BRENDE: Thank you so much. Thank you.

QUESTION: Can you say something in Norwegian?

SECRETARY KERRY: (In Norwegian.) (Laughter.) I learned how to say a few things here and there.

QUESTION: Mr. Secretary, now that --

SECRETARY KERRY: No, no, no. Let me – I want the Minister to have a chance to say hello and then we’re going to go talk. Thank you.

FOREIGN MINISTER BRENDE: Thank you, Mr. Secretary. Secretary Kerry, thank you for those very warm words. We in Norway strongly feel that the friendship between our two countries is very important to us, and the importance is growing. I think this also shows how close we are. We meet after a short time. And as the Secretary also strongly underlined, we will today discuss the humanitarian situation in Syria that is appalling, but we also are committed from the Norwegian side to now support the Security Resolution 2119 to make sure that weapons of mass destruction, chemical weapons, again, cannot be used against the people of Syria. The implementation of this resolution is extremely important.

We thank you, Mr. Secretary, for your leadership in this. I think without your courage – personal courage – that would not have happened. We from the Norwegian side – I’ll share also more details with the Secretary – we are committed, of course, on financing the whole operation with serious money to OPCW. We also will have Norwegian ships supporting the transportation. And we’re also stepping up further on the humanitarian relief. Already, we are the sixth largest donor. And we will also work heavily on making sure that the presidential statement in the Security Council on access to all the people suffering – the IDPs inside Syria – will be enforced. This is of extremely high importance.

Also, we are very supportive of the work that you, Mr. Secretary, are now doing on Israel-Palestine. We’re trying our best, as the leaders of the AHLC group, the donor group for PA. We know that the Palestinian areas have fundamental challenges now on the growing deficit, and Norway will follow up to make sure that the economic piece of Palestine is dealt with in a proactive way. And I would say, Mr. Secretary, we know that if you personally hadn’t stepped up and also made sure that Mr. Abbas and Mr. Netanyahu came together, this would not have happened. And in politics, people do make a difference, and if we in any way can support your work now on this, we are there.

Also on Iran, of course, this is the big issue. We support your leadership there and we hope that there will be a good deal for the world, because the alternatives, we do know they’re not good either.

On NATO, this is crucial importance for Norway. We have a huge discussion now also in Europe on the Eastern Partnership. For us, it is important that these countries can make a choice themself. This is fundamental in Europe, and this is a core value for us.

SECRETARY KERRY: Good.

FOREIGN MINISTER BRENDE: So again, thank you, Mr. Secretary, for receiving us and thank you for your kind words about Norway.

SECRETARY KERRY: Thank you, everybody. Appreciate it.

FOREIGN MINISTER BRENDE: Thank you.

SECRETARY KERRY: Thank you.

SECRETARY OF STATE KERRY'S REMARKS AT FORMER PRIME MINISTER RABIN'S MEMORIAL

FROM:  U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT 
Remarks at Former Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin's Memorial
Remarks
John Kerry
Secretary of State
Tel Aviv, Israel
November 5, 2013

SECRETARY KERRY: It’s a great privilege for me and always a sad moment to come to remember the memory of a great man, a great general, a great prime minister, a great leader, a great man of peace. And one can hear his booming voice saying the words – the famous words – “We are destined to live together.”

Here, just moments before his life was taken and the possibilities of peace were disrupted through an act of violence, he stood up on that balcony with his friend, Shimon Peres, and together, they sang, “Don’t whisper a prayer. Sing a song of peace in a loud voice.” We are now 18 years since that moment, and it is clear that we need voices ready to sing a song of peace loudly, with courage, with the same determination that Prime Minister Rabin showed in his quest for peace. He dared to take the risks for peace because he believed not just that it was important for the sake of peace, but that it was vital for the security and future of Israel, and of the region.

Eighteen years is important because I am told that 18 is important in the Proverbs – the 18th Proverb, it says that “Death and life are in the power of the tongue.” Death and life in the power of the tongue. So what we say with our voices, how we talk about peace, how we prepare the possibilities of peace are really critical to all of us. We need to avoid incitement. We need to sing that song that Prime Minister Rabin and President Peres embraced together.

Eighteen is also, I am told, very important in Hebrew, because the letters that write the word “eighteen” literally mean life, hayyim. I remember shouting those words once from the top of Masada in my first visit to the Holy Land. And we stood up there and together, as a group, we shouted across the chasm, “(In Hebrew), hayyim.” Those words meant something to me. And so maybe 18, maybe the word hayyim in life will have a special meaning at this particular moment.

The Proverbs also teach us L’chaim. That’s something we now need to put into practice. So I come here without any illusions about the difficulties, but I come here determined to work with leaders – with the Prime Minister, with the President of the Palestinian Authority – to try to find a way forward so that Israel can live the dream that President Peres and Prime Minister Rabin expressed so eloquently and beautifully in the tragedy of that day here and in many days before that.

We will continue to work, and I can promise Israelis that America will stand by the side of Israel every step of the way. We believe this is something that is possible, that is good for all, and that it can be achieved. And I will leave here inspired by being here with Dalia and with members of the family, most importantly by seeing the symbolism of the turbulence, the earthquake that followed that moment of violence. It should rededicate every person in Israel with the possibility of a just and appropriate and fair peace which protects the security of Israel, guarantees that Israel’s security will be protected, but makes possible for people to live the words of the prime minister, “We are destined to live together,” I add, in peace. Thank you.

MR. HULDAI: We appreciate the fact that you took the time to begin your visit here in Tel Aviv, the center of Israeli democracy. In this spot, Prime Minister of Israel Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated because of his quest for peace. From here, he spoke. We want to tell you, Mr. Secretary, that the people of Israel and the city of Tel Aviv, therefore, want peace. And the person who will manage to bring peace, will receive our highest appreciation, and it is true.

So I wish you and all of us good luck in this challenging mission. Thank you, Mr. Secretary.

SECRETARY KERRY: Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

MS. RABIN-PELOSSOF: Mr. Secretary, Mayor of Tel Aviv, ambassadors of Israel to Washington and Ambassador Dan Shapiro, Ambassador Martin Indyk, and all the staff that joins you, I really appreciate and I am moved – the fact that you came to this painful and tragic spot in Tel Aviv where his life was taken brutally 18 years ago. It’s very symbolic that you came here. It’s the 5th of November. Yesterday, we marked the 18th anniversary.

And we all wish you all the best because everybody that stands here understand that this is the only way, his way, that maybe was a little ahead of his time, but 18 years is enough time that has passed by, and it’s time to make peace between Israelis and the Palestinians. We wish you luck and we keep our fingers crossed. And thank you so much for coming over here. (Applause.)

SECRETARY OF STATE KERRY'S REMARKS AT LASK AIRBASE IN POLAND

FROM:  U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT
Remarks at Medal Ceremony at Lask Military Airbase
Remarks
John Kerry
Secretary of State
Lask Military Airbase
Lask, Poland
November 5, 2013

Well, thank you very much, Mr. Minister of Defense. It is an honor for me to be able to be here. It's an honor to be here at the Lask Airbase, one of the most visible and powerful symbols of the enduring alliance between our nations. I have to tell you that it's particularly exciting for us to see these F-16s in back of me. I am a pilot, though I wasn't an F-16 pilot. But it's pretty tempting, and I can tell you that for a member of my traveling team, Colonel Scott Thompson, United States Air Force, is our own top gun traveling with us, a former F-16 Air Force pilot. And I know he'd love to get out of his uniform and go up now and hit the afterburner.

I'm very proud to share with you that the military partnership that we are living here today and that we are building on here today began only a stone's throw away from my home town of Boston. It was in a famous seaport just to the north of Boston called Marblehead, where Casimir Pulaski, the father of the American Cavalry, arrived from Poland more than 230 years ago. And he wrote to General George Washington, "I came here where freedom is being defended to serve it and live and die for it." Here at last, we actually are continuing the work and the partnership that Pulaski began not just in the defense of freedom, but in our work together to defend and promote freedom and prosperity from so many people across the world.

I will have the honor of awarding a Meritorious Service Medal in a few moments to a soldier who embodies this commitment, Lieutenant Colonel Bagan. As the commanding officer of a Polish special operations task group in Afghanistan, he served with great valor. His bravery is a testament to the courage and the character of the Polish people, and it is a perfect example of why the United States is proud to call you among our closest friends.

Of course, Lieutenant Colonel Bagan is not alone is his incredible service and sacrifice. For more than a decade, thousands of Polish men and women stood shoulder to shoulder with American forces in Afghanistan and with our NATO allies and partners. At this airbase, we see clearly that we are not resting on the strength of our alliance; we are investing in it. The American airmen here are the first in our history to be stationed full-time on Polish soil. As they train alongside their Polish partners, they complete some of the most realistic combat simulation, and they use some of the most modern aircraft in Europe. Even as we speak, U.S. and Polish forces are taking part in Steadfast Jazz, a military exercise that will train and test the NATO Response Force.

In the years to come, our ability to respond rapidly to a changing world and to changing threats will be measured by more than just one test. That is why Poland’s $45 billion investment in modernizing its defense forces is so vital to our partnership and the future of the NATO alliance. With this investment, Poland is showing its steadfast commitment to peace and to the security, and it sending a powerful message to all NATO members. Poland is showing that our shared security and shared prosperity requires sharing responsibility for the future.

And I want you to know that the United States is fully ready to help Poland meet that responsibility, as the Defense Minister can readily attest. We believe deeply in the quality of the equipment that is behind me, the F-16s, and in other equipment that we produce. And we are prepared to make that equipment available to Poland as it makes its choices about the future and the continued interoperability demands of NATO.

So I want to thank the Defense Minister for his hospitality here today. This was an opportunity for us to meet and to talk about our goals. But it’s also an opportunity for us to underscore the importance of this relationship. In the men and women who serve together here at Lask, we see the ties that bind our two nations together and make us stronger. As we make good on our historic commitment to peace and to prosperity, we look forward to closer cooperation and we look forward to greater partnership in the years to come. We thank our friends in Poland for their steadfast efforts with the United States

SECRETARY OF STATE KERRY MAKES REMARKS TO MISSION SAUDI ARABIA STAFF

FROM:  U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT 

Meets with Mission Saudi Arabia Staff

Remarks

John Kerry
Secretary of State

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

November 4, 2013

---

SECRETARY KERRY: Thank you very much. Thank you very much. (Applause.) Thank you very, very much. How are you all? Everybody good? Did anybody here care that the Red Sox won? I saw one hand go up – two, three. (Laughter.) Well, at least somebody is staying in touch. That’s great.

Well, it’s good to be here with everybody. I understand you have a new welcome to the great 120 kids family, and we have Lucas – Louis, Bill, and Claudia. Where are they? Right here. Come on up. Let me – come over. Let me see. How old is he now?

PARTICIPANT: He is four weeks today.

SECRETARY KERRY: Oh, my God. And I’ve really woken him up big time, haven’t I? (Laughter.) He’s sound asleep, folks. He could care less. (Laughter.) That is so fantastic. That’s so cool. How many kids do you have?

PARTICIPANT: This is our first kid.

SECRETARY KERRY: Fabulous. Congratulations. That’s really, really fantastic. That’s great. (Applause.) I’m excited about that. I’m paying really close attention now because I have two daughters, both of whom are pregnant at the same time, right now. So, high expectations – a second for one, and a first for the other. So it was really fun.
So, are you guys having fun? Hi, how are you? You look fabulous. You absolutely look spectacular. Everybody have a good Halloween?

AUDIENCE: Yes.

SECRETARY KERRY: All right. I am proud to announce that the winner of the best door is the financial management bureau. (Applause.) So, what did you do? Tell me what you did. What did you do to the door? I mean, it was so scary. Where are you from? You’re from India. Do you like Halloween? Do you think you could take it back to India? We could make a big deal. (Laughter.) Anyway, that’s very exciting.

Listen, thank you all very much. I just want to say to everybody here, we are enormously appreciative. President Obama, Vice President Biden, myself, really want to say thank you to all of you for the great work that you do. We have the three posts out here as you all know better than anybody – Dhahran and Jeddah and Riyadh. And a lot of work gets done. And I know it’s not the easiest posting, and that’s why I particularly want to thank you. There are always difficulties in any country where we go because everybody has to adjust, but needless to say, here, where there have been tensions and there are different norms and different cultural restraints and different requirements, everybody needs to really be a lot more sensitive to those things. So I thank you for doing that and I thank you for the tremendous work that you’re doing.
I am here now because there’s a lot happening in this region, and obviously with Egypt in transition and facing major economic challenges, with the challenges of Yemen and counterterrorism, and Bahrain going through certain transition and its own tensions, and of course Syria, which is putting pressure on everybody, and needless to say the ever presence of various jihadists of one kind or another – al-Qaida, others, al-Shabaab. I mean, you run the list.
So it’s difficult, but we’re making progress. I really believe that. Slowly but surely, I think people are beginning to realize there’s a better alternative than this incredible nihilism where people think that you get somewhere by blowing other people up without any other purpose. The Saudis particularly are trying to make a transition. The King is investing in diversity, he’s investing in education, he’s investing in health care. And as you know, because you live here, there are things that are changing. It doesn’t happen overnight. It takes time. But there’s a transformation taking place throughout the Middle East. And I think that if we can be successful in Egypt, for instance, and if we can get stability and ultimately hopefully peace in a place like Syria, the possibilities are endless.

The Saudis are very, very important to all of these things. The Saudis are really the sort of senior player, if you will, within the Arab world, together with Egypt. Egypt is in more of a transition, so Saudi Arabia’s role is that much more important. And the Saudis have an ability to be able to influence a lot of the things that we also care about and we work together on. And we’re working together particularly on the Middle East peace process, on Syria, on Egypt, and on Iran. Iran will not get a nuclear weapon. We are determined. President Obama has made that absolutely clear. And we need to work with our Saudi friends in an effort to try to deal with all of these issues.

Now, as all of you know because you’re the people dealing with it on a day-to-day basis, we have a lot going on with the Saudis. We do a lot. We do things in military to military. We do counterintelligence. We do agriculture, education, in health. There are a whole bunch of things that we do. So this Embassy and our consulate efforts here in this country are enormously, enormously important. And I want to thank every single one of you.

I understand there’s a fellow, Ghulam Rasool Khan. He’s not here, I know. But I want to thank all of the local staff. I think there are 30 nationalities working here in this family, and we are very, very grateful to the many local staff who help to make our functions possible here. But it’s really quite amazing. And Ghulam has been here since 1977, which is a pretty long time. He’s got all the bad stories, all the good ones from all that history. But, anyway.

So I just wanted to say to you as I come through here fairly quickly – I don’t usually make such a quick stop, but we have a very intensive schedule this week. But I particularly wanted to have the opportunity to visit with His Majesty the King of Saudi Arabia. And I’m particularly grateful because I know that he is not seeing enormous numbers of people these days. But right now, we have some very important things to talk about to make certain that the Saudi Arabian-U.S. relationship is on track, moving forward, and doing the things that we need to accomplish.
So a profound thank you to every single one of you. We’re proud of you. We’re grateful for all the hard work you do. And I hope that in the days ahead I’ll get back here, and next time I come, I can welcome three or four or five more new children. We’ll see what happens. Thanks very much. Take care. (Applause.)

SECRETARY OF STATE KERRY'S REMARKS AT WORLD AIDS DAY EVENT

FROM:  U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT  
Remarks at President Obama's World AIDS Day Event
Remarks
John Kerry
Secretary of State
The White House
Washington, DC
December 2, 2013

Gayle, thank you very, very much. Thanks for your tremendous leadership and your collaboration in this effort, and to all of our distinguished colleagues in the Obama Administration and distinguished guests here, all of whom the President – most of whom, many of whom the President named – we’re grateful to you for being here and being part of this. And I thank the President for convening this really rather remarkable group of leaders, of activists, on this challenging and monumental issue.
The President’s commitment and his follow-through and his fundamental belief in the possibility of an AIDS-free generation and the hard work of so many of you have all combined to put that extraordinary goal within our grasp, amazing as that may seem.

I want to thank my colleague, Secretary Kathleen Sebelius for her tremendous leadership at HHS and Raj Shah, who is our distinguished leader of AID, who’s on the front lines helping to make sure that this actually gets implemented. And all of you who have been so critical to being able to bring us to where we are, I might remark that the HIV is – really, the work within HHS on HIV has really set the gold standard for the world, and we can be very, very proud of it. I’m also glad that Deborah Von Zinkernagel and Julia Martin and John Monahan from the State Department are all here. They are leading our efforts to implement the President’s blueprint and writing a brand new chapter in the President’s fight against AIDS.

I also want to say a special thank you to Bill Gates. Bill and I are – we share a deep commitment to trying to improve the lives of others. He’s giving away billions of dollars and I’m giving shorter speeches than I used to. (Laughter.) It’s about the match.

There are so many really remarkable AIDS warriors assembled here – scientists and public servants, researchers and advocates, Republicans and Democrats – all of whom have put ideology and partisanship, party, even nation state aside in the interest to try to embrace a much larger and more important vision, a more global vision, a universal vision. And by reaching across disciplines and across different faiths, and by reaching across the aisle and across the world simultaneously, everybody here has really helped to tap into what we like to think are the deepest values of our country but happily are shared by so many other countries and so many other people around the world.

One thing that has stood out on this issue from my point of view – I sat where Barbara Lee – she’s in the House, I was in the Senate, but we were in the same endeavor – and I’ll tell you, whether it was Barbara Lee and Senator Bill Frist, or whether it was Jesse Helms and myself – improbable – Jesse Helms, who came to that table and helped us pass this unanimously in the United States Senate – no matter how deep the political differences were, we all managed to be able to find a way for this issue to unite us. And in our collective refusal to allow AIDS to ravage yet another generation, we showed a deeper determination to meet our global responsibilities.

That’s really what’s happening here. This is not a small deal. I want to compliment Congress, Barbara, for continuing the tradition and passing the PEPFAR Stewardship and Oversight Act, which the President just talked about looking forward to signing.

When you really consider how we bridge those differences and the distance that we have traveled in this, this journey is even that much more remarkable. I can really remember back in 1991 when Bill Frist and I joined together as the chairs of the CSIS Task Force to study HIV/AIDS and very little was known about it. I remember the fear back then, literally, and in politics, it was a tricky thing to talk about publicly. As recently as ten years ago, AIDS was a death sentence for many, and experts warned that in parts of the world, we had reached a point literally of no return.

But what I remember most and what I’ve been privileged to be part of every step of the way is how everybody came together to push back against that pessimism. When the leaders in this room and in entire communities, entire countries which were ravaged by AIDS – when you looked out and saw this challenge, you didn’t see someone else’s crisis. You saw our shared humanity and our shared responsibility.

Now, with this World AIDS Day yesterday and this convening here today and with the conference that will take place tonight and tomorrow, we are really renewing that commitment. And it’s appropriate, obviously, even as we do so to think about all those who have been lost in this battle who were too late – we were too late in order to save them. And we remember a lot of friends – I can remember many members, supporters of mine and others in political life, in the gay community, who were going to funeral after funeral after funeral. And there was a massive pessimism within the community and a sense that this was overwhelming and that there was no way we could win this.

Well, it is clear that we are now turning a very important corner, but it is not won. There is major challenge ahead and it will require major continued commitment in order to complete the task and live up to the memory that we want to honor of all those for whom it was too late.

In Sub-Saharan Africa, new HIV infections are down by nearly 40 percent since 2001. AIDS-related mortality has declined by nearly one-third since its peak in 2005. And globally, new infections among children have been cut in half in a decade. And access to life-saving HIV treatment has increased close to forty-fold.

I’m pleased to note that we have achieved much of this because President Obama was determined to set a higher standard, and he sort of glossed over it in his own comments, but that was a very significant commitment. On World AIDS Day two years ago, the President challenged us to reach six million more people with live-saving treatment, to provide 1.5 million HIV-positive pregnant women with treatment for their own health and to prevent onward transmission to their children, and to reach 4.7 million men with voluntary medical male circumcision services for HIV prevention.

These targets have pushed us to go further, to be more innovative, to forge new partnerships, including with many of you here in this room. And as a result, you all are now reaching more people and more lives are being saved than ever before.

Now to meet the challenge of PEPFAR’s second decade – and Raj will emphasize this, I know – we have to transform America’s role, and we need no clearer example of the transformation that we need to realize than South Africa, Rwanda, and Namibia, which – all you have to do is look at the work that they’re doing with the Country Health Partnerships. These countries provide a model for how PEPFAR is transitioning from providing direct aid to delivering support for locally run and self-sustaining efforts. This is a vital transformation.

And greater commitments from our partners in the Global Fund should give greater confidence to this initiative. I am extremely encouraged by the increased investments from the United Kingdom, Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Canada, as well as from Germany and France. And all of them are extending their high levels of commitment, and as the President just said to you, don’t leave our money on the table. If everybody steps up, we will do even more and meet this challenge.

It’s a great honor to host the Global Fund’s Fourth Replacement[1] Conference in Washington this week. And as I speak to the Conference this evening, it’s safe to say we really are chartering a new writing, a new chapter in this work. When it comes to the Global Fund, there are also lessons to learn beyond our financial leadership. To wit, the way that we have leveraged our commitments inspires greater contributions from other nations, and we have shown, I think, therein, strategic leadership. I might add I think it’s fair to say that that engagement, which the President touched on, is frankly inspiring a truly global effort, and we’re proud that it is doing so.

As we continue to confront the global challenge of AIDS, we are literally in a position to build on a great American legacy. We are, as you all know, proudly the nation that defeated the Axis powers and then turned around and invested billions of dollars in their recovery, and that has made all the difference to a powerhouse like Germany and an ally like Japan and to Europe itself. We are the nation that faced down the Soviet Union with the force of our ideals and our alliances, and without resorting to the force of arms. Now, no exaggeration, in our own time, in this generation, in our fight against AIDS – yes, in a different way, but no less important – we are able to engage in an initiative that can help define our nation and the global spirit.

If we continue to make the right choices, our work will provide for even greater possibilities. Now I want you just to think about this: Today, 11 of our 15 biggest trading partners, as recently as 10, 15, 20 years ago, were receiving aid from the United States of America. And the truth is that one day that permits us to hope that our children and our grandchildren can say the same thing about PEPFAR partners today.

When seven of the ten fastest-growing economies in the world are in Sub-Sahara Africa, the opportunities are obviously enormous. And rather than view our relationship with Africa as defined by the obstacles that we face, we literally are now able to define it by the opportunities that we can seize together.

So in every generation, Americans are called on to do exceptional things against seemingly insurmountable odds. We know that working to achieve an AIDS-free generation will continue to pose an incredible test. But with our continued commitment, I am certain that we can all look forward not only to passing that test, but to working with each other and providing a new definition of the character of our nation and the character of our global spirit.

Thank you. (Applause.)

SECRETARY OF STATE KERRY'S REMARKS AT SELECTUSE INVESTMENT SUMMIT

FROM:  U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT 
Remarks at the SelectUSA Investment Summit
Remarks
John Kerry
Secretary of State
Marriott Wardman Park
Washington, DC
November 1, 2013

Good morning. Thank you. Thank you. Good morning. Thank you. Thank you very, very much. Thanks so much. Thank you, Penny, for an extraordinary introduction. And based on that introduction, I accept the nomination. (Laughter.) I’m totally kidding. I’m out of that now; I’m out of that now.

I’ll tell you, I – about a couple of months – I mean, before I was offered the job of being Secretary of State, I was still, obviously, serving in the United States Senate. And I was walking through an airport one day, and this fellow – you notice when people have that sense of recognition. And he points at me, and he says, “Hey, you, hey you, anybody tell you you look like that Kerry guy who we sent down to Washington?” (Laughter.) And I say, “Oh, they tell me that all the time.” He says, “Kind of makes you mad, don’t it?” (Laughter.) So I’m very happy to be out of the electoral process, folks. (Laughter.) It’s just fine by me.

I’m really happy to be here and I’m very, very honored to be introduced by Penny, who is a good friend. She was very involved with me in 2004 when I ran for President. I’m just so thrilled she is now our Commerce Secretary, and I’m very grateful for the effort and the energy that’s gone into making this first ever summit such a success. No one who knows Penny is going to be surprised by that, because everything that Penny has done – in business, in philanthropy, in public service – has always been a success. And those of you who know her know that she is really a dynamic CEO in her own right, and you can feel the energy and the leadership that she is already bringing to the Commerce Department. She’s a fabulous partner and I’m thrilled by it; very, very happy to have her there.

And I was with her, and she said – I heard her in the introduction talk about being in Kuala Lumpur together, and we had a chance to go out and break bread together. And we were chatting, and she was reminding me of the story of her dad who started the family business with one motel out in Los Angeles. And she kind of lived in the motel, and then she went up to San Francisco, and boom, it grew to six. And now everybody knows what Hyatt Hotels Incorporation are – it’s a great American story. It’s a great story of entrepreneurship, and we’re so proud of Penny and grateful that she’s stepping back from the private sector to share with us that expertise and give us the energy and dynamics we need.

Her leadership of SelectUSA is just one of the reasons that this effort has the potential to grow our country, and to grow all of yours, for those of you who are here visiting from so many other countries. And we welcome you here. The single biggest reason SelectUSA is going to make a difference is, frankly, all of you, a group of very capable business leaders, people who are hungry, who understand the dynamics of the marketplace, who are ambitious in your business goals, and come here with a vision from nearly 60 countries around the world and from all across the United States.

I said in my confirmation hearing, when I was selected to become Secretary of State – I said to the Senators, my former colleagues, that in many ways, foreign policy today is economic policy. And leaders in government need to understand that. There is a synergy and an importance to this relationship that cannot be denied.

I think many of you are here because you understand this new marketplace that we’re all operating in – voracious, huge appetite. And very, very fast-moving. And we wanted you to come here and SelectUSA is the umbrella that is hosting this event because we believe deeply – we’re convinced, based on our dealings in the world, the exposure in the world, without arrogance, without chauvinism – that there is no better place in the world to invest than here in America. And there’s no better time to do it, in many ways, than right now, because some of the growth and development of the last few years has sort of equalized out in some places so that manufacturing – as the Secretary said, the number of manufacturing jobs here now – we’re growing in manufacturing again because it’s competitive again for a lot of different reasons.

So make no mistake: As we look ahead to the major trends that are going to define this new age, the factors that will determine which countries thrive, as well as which businesses thrive in this competitive marketplace, I think it’s crystal clear that the United States is going to continue, because it’s the nature and base of our economy, not because we’re somehow superior and somehow better. We just – the nature of how we have grown and where we’ve come from, from the Industrial Revolution all the way through the 1990s and the tech explosion, and into where we are now. We will continue to lead the world in both innovation and education because of the nature of our universities, the structure, the number, and the openness with which they operate.

And I believe also people will have access here because we will continue to work hard to make sure that we have the most qualified workers and one of the largest consumer markets in the world. Again, I say, I don’t say any of this with one touch of arrogance. I say it because that good news for America is also, in fact, good news for the world. It is good news for you and your businesses. And you know the importance of the American economy in terms of driving China’s economy and other economies in the world, and their importance now to driving other economies in their regions and elsewhere. And it’s a principal reason why I believe you ought to invest here. It’s why President Obama is making attracting job-creating investment a top priority at a level unlike any before.

So you are sitting here this morning, we believe, in the heart of the most open economy in the world. The United States already is the world’s largest recipient of direct foreign investment. In addition, the investment Penny mentioned about manufacturing – we have about 5.6 million total good-paying American jobs, contributing close to a trillion dollars to our economy that comes from foreign direct investment. And that’s why manufacturing, pharmaceutical, IT, energy companies from many of your countries are now setting their shop – setting up shop here in the United States every day.

Our trade agreements are built on the premise of shared prosperity. We have deals that go both ways, and those create good-paying jobs all over the world. They offer American firms unprecedented global access, which we think is critical. But it also opens our doors and our markets to foreign firms. Now, I want you to – and I think, incidentally, I’ll just tell you, I think this is the direction of the world. This is the way the world is going to move. And those who understand it and those who move most rapidly to embrace the higher standards and the openness are those who are going to be able to take advantage of the new marketplace and be leaders in the global economy. Nobody can put this genie back in the bottle. I used to have arguments up in the Senate with my colleagues. We had the great NAFTA debate and all those other struggles, free trade versus the sort of old order, if you will. And the fact is that every single time we’ve moved forward in that openness and every single time we’ve embraced one of those agreements, we’ve done better. We’ve transitioned – not always without some disruption, not always without some dislocation, obviously, but with a massive infusion of new energy and new creativity and new innovation and new jobs that come with the change.

So I want you to measure what we’ve done with our neighbors, Canada and Mexico. We opened up North American through NAFTA, the greatest single step towards shared prosperity in this hemisphere. And we know we don’t have to share a border in order to share business, which is why we have free trade agreements with 20 countries from Chile to Morocco to South Korea – markets that together reach 700 million people and seven trillion in GDP.

But none of that alone would actually make the United States the best place to invest if we didn’t also focus on our workers and make sure that we’re doing as much as we can to try to have the best workers, the most skilled and the most productive that we can, in the world, hopefully. And that’s true in part because we work hard to make sure that we train them in the best schools and universities, and a lot of effort that goes into that. And we reach out to bring the brightest minds and the best talent from all over the world. Many of you know, and many of you were, maybe, educated here in the United States. I can’t tell you how many heads of state, finance ministers, foreign ministers, prime ministers throughout government, heads of state and chief executives, who I meet as I travel the world and have for the last 29 years as a senator, who came to the United States to go to school, or who participated in educational exchanges in the Fulbright Program, for instance, or in other programs.

I meet them everywhere. The Foreign Minister of Saudi Arabia, who has been Foreign Minister for 30 plus years or more, proudly reminds me of his education at Princeton, for instance. And the Foreign Minister of Vietnam today showed me, when I saw him in New York at the United Nations General Assembly, handed me a photograph and said, “This was you and me 25, 30 years ago when I met you at Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy when you were a senator.” It’s incredible. That’s the new world we’re living in. Maybe a lot of you have a cousin or a friend who came to our shores to start their own business. In fact, about half of our small businesses are started by immigrants who know instinctively that the American Dream is not restricted to those born in America.

If you go to Miami, Chicago, San Francisco, or any major city in America, you will find a community that speaks your language, understands your culture, welcomes diversity, and can serve as an anchor for your next venture. And it’s not just the big cities. You’ve heard from President Obama, Secretary Pritzker, Secretary Lew, and so many others at this summit about a lot of the success stories – Indian manufacturers expanding plants in Upstate New York, Singaporean companies extending their supply chains to the heart of Texas, German multinationals creating jobs in small-town Kentucky, Canadian pharmaceutical subsidiaries investing in suburban Ohio, and South African energy firms investing in Southwest Louisiana. That’s not in the future. That’s now. That’s the present.

So there’s no question that the United States is lucky to be able to offer the world’s best investment climate today. And I say lucky; we’re blessed to have it, but we do try to work at it. And President Obama has made it clear we’re going to work at it even harder. No investment is about the past. It’s about the future. So we’re going to refuse to sit still. The world, as we all know, is getting more competitive, but so are we. Capital chases confidence, and I’m confident that we’re going to continue to get stronger and be more effective.

SelectUSA is a big reason why. As you’ve heard yesterday and perhaps during the week, those of you here, we’re working hard now to make it even easier for you to be able invest here, and making that effort is a much bigger part of our mission, especially now at the State Department. At home, we are coordinating at every level, from mayors of small towns all the way up to President Obama.

The State Department family around the world has been instructed, working with the Foreign Commercial Service of the Commerce Department, that we must organize dedicated investment teams, led by our capable ambassadors, drawing on the talent of our dedicated embassy staff, and we’re going to actively encourage job-creating investments in the United States as a core priority.

Our diplomats already play a huge role in helping your businesses succeed in the United States. In Estonia, our ambassador led an intensive outreach effort to encourage tech start-ups to come to the United States. In Canada, embassy officers worked with a local automotive firm in order to invest tens of millions of dollars in Michigan, where the American auto industry is now making a remarkable comeback. All over the world, working hard to help businesses meet their goals, the State Department is engaged in – with a new level of intensity and focus because of the nature of the global marketplace.

And we believe we can do more and we’re going to do more, starting in 32 markets that represent more than 90 percent of all the foreign direct investment that comes here. So what does that mean for business leaders like you? It means that you’ll now have a single point of contact to connect your company with our markets and investors, and the economic development organizations who are here to help you and your businesses grow.

Just the other week I met with a group of CEOs in Indonesia, and they – some of them expressed frustration to me with some of the foreign governments who preach the principle of open markets, but then they actually practice protectionism. These CEOs know, as you do, that freer markets create more opportunity, more growth, more dynamism, and more innovation. The freedom to fail is an important component of succeeding.

So in order to open more doors and in order to continue the best investment climate in the world, we’re going continue to add to our strong portfolio of trade agreements that reaffirm our commitment to open and free markets, and to a level playing field. Now, globalization means that people everywhere now have higher expectations. In many ways, the revolutionary events that are taking place in the Middle East and in some other parts of the world are a reflection of that. The Tunisian revolution that peacefully removed a dictator of some 30 years was not ideological. It was not inspired by religious extremism. It was a fruit vendor who wanted to practice his trade without corruption and without interference. And that fruit vendor sparked that revolution because people wanted to touch the aspirations that they now know the rest of the world is living or sharing in so many places.

Same thing in Tahrir Square. Tahrir Square was not the Muslim Brotherhood. Tahrir Square had nothing to do with that kind of politics or with any kind of religion or any kind of ideology. It was young people texting each other and using their smartphones and the virtues of being able to text and tweet and connect with people that brought about another revolution. And the same thing is what started Syria, though Syria was coopted faster by other interests and other forces.

No leader anywhere in the world can afford to look away from huge populations of young people coming at us in unprecedented numbers, all of them in touch with their aspirations. It’s a different world. It’s going to change politics as well as business. So what we’re going to try to accomplish with two enormous and high – very high-standard trade negotiations that were underway right now is to raise the standards and raise the possibilities for people.

The Trans-Pacific Partnership, which will integrate a region, represents 40 percent of global trade. And if we can lock that in, it will raise the standards around the world. When you link that to the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, which will bring Europe, which is another 40 percent of the world’s market, you will have – in fact, it’s the largest market in the world that will join with the largest individual economy in the world, and that will create an enormous transformation in the standards that people are practicing by. Those efforts will dramatically expand our market reach and they will strengthen rules-based trading so that we engage in a race to the top, not a race to the bottom. And that helps everyone compete while ensuring strong protections for workers, for consumers, and for the environment.

While we’re talking about markets, we are staring at the biggest market in the world. Some people are trying to grab it. But I want you to measure this. The market that created the great wealth of the United States in which every single quintile of income earners saw their incomes go up in the 1990s and created unprecedented wealth, more wealth than was ever created in the age of no income tax and the Pierponts and Morgans and Rockefellers and so forth – much more wealth created in the 1990s. That was a $1 trillion market with 1 billion users.

The global energy market is a $6 trillion market, and today, it has 4 billion users and it will climb to somewhere around 6 or more, maybe 9 billion users over the next 40 to 50 years, because that’s where the population of the planet is going. This is the most incredible market ever, and it is the solution, incidentally, to climate change. So we’re going to fight to stay at the forefront of this energy market, recognizing that it has the benefits of climate change as well as the marketplace. We’re going to develop the clean technologies that are going to power the world and protect our environment at the same time. Now, we’re on pace right now to be the largest oil producer by 2020 – largest oil producer in the world. Who would have thunk that one a few years ago? And that gives us the promise of alternative fuels, including shale gas, and we will become fully energy self-sufficient by the year 2035.

There’s another kind of energy that also, I think, drives us here in this country. It’s the energy that fuels our private sector, and that is the energy that comes out of an American value called entrepreneurship. The United States does know how to encourage and cultivate startups, because not too long ago, our country was a startup. Innovation isn’t just in our interest; it’s in our DNA. And that’s why we aggressively protect intellectual property rights as part of a strong, transparent, accountable legal system.

Today, we need entrepreneurship more than ever. As more and more young people join the labor market, the world is going to need about a half a billion new jobs by 2030, and many of those jobs I guarantee you have not even been invented yet. Entrepreneurship will help to solve that puzzle, and SelectUSA can help.

A few weeks ago, I met with hundreds of entrepreneurs while I was in Kuala Lumpur. These were innovators who came from all around the world and they couldn’t wait to build the next big thing. And who knows? The best ideas are never limited by borders, but these folks may be the ones already changing the world. It’s that kind of openness that drives the American economy and foreign economies, and it moves all of us forward at the same time.

Now, needless to say, we have our own interests here, for sure. It’s no secret that our President’s number-one priority is creating strong middle class jobs here at home. But he also knows that the best way to do that is to strengthen our international economic ties and foster broad growth around the world.

We know that promoting inclusive growth and strengthening the rule of law in other countries also helps us to create new markets for our businesses and jobs for our workers. And when we help other nations to develop their own ability to govern and to meet the aspirations of that booming youth population I talked about, we foster stable societies, and everybody here knows stability is pretty important with respect to investment decisions and prognosis.

We do what we do because we’ve always known that we’re sort of all in this together. We’re all connected in this. And that’s another reason why the United States, we believe, is the best place to invest, because there’s no other country where you can be so confident that your investment is going to contribute to a shared prosperity.

Now, that idea is really one of the cornerstones of our country. You saw it in the Marshall Plan. Marshall Plan rebuilt a continent after a war, when all economies were just shattered and broken. And we stepped up and invested and loaned so that we could all share in the postwar prosperity. You see it today in the recipients of American assistance who are graduating from that assistance into full-fledged partnership in the trading community. Look at South Korea. In less than a generation, South Korea has been transformed from an aid recipient to one of the major donors in the world today. That’s an incredible story. In fact, that transformation describes 11 of our 15 largest trading partners. And that kind of shared prosperity today is more important than ever before to the reasons I talked about earlier about young people and their aspirations.

We also know in the United States that we are part of something much bigger than just buying and selling, hiring and investing. Before anyone is a CEO or a Secretary of State, we are citizens. And by virtue of the fact that you’re here, I know that you consider yourselves citizens of the world. So remember: Our shared responsibility to ensure shared prosperity is one of the most important ways that we advance shared security.

As Secretary of State, I obviously travel a lot, and I do it for a reason: Because there is no substitute for face-to-face diplomacy. There’s no more reliable way to build trust, to ensure your interests and values are aligned, to close a deal. And that’s why you’ve come here from all over the world to be in Washington this week – to meet each other face-to-face, to build relationships, and to share the ideas that could hopefully, conceivably, change the world.

As you build that confidence in each other, I want you to know there is no market in the world that I believe deserves your confidence more than this one. As investors, as friends, I think you understand the United States, despite momentary political hiccups and despite sometimes the conflict of politics, still marches forward with a private sector that is increasingly empowered to be able to define for itself what the economic future will be.

My message to you is that now is the best time to make that investment, and my pitch to you is pretty direct: Get in on the ground flood of this century of possibilities and transformation. The possibility of a great global century, a century hopefully that will be defined almost exclusively by the shared prosperity that lifts people all over the world and resolves so many of the conflicts and problems that we face today, because individuals who yearn for the opportunity to touch what we have are actually able to do so. You can be part of that transformation. In fact, it won’t happen without you. And I hope the sooner we get around to the business of doing it, the sooner we will solve some of these challenges we face today.

Thank you for letting me be with you. God bless. Thank you. Thank you. (Applause.)

SECRETARY KERRY'S REMARKS AT VETERANS INNOVATION PARTNERSHIP ANNOUNCEMENT

FROM:  U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT 
Remarks at Veterans Innovation Partnership Announcement
Remarks
John Kerry
Secretary of State
Benjamin Franklin Room
Washington, DC
October 31, 2013

Thank you very, very much. I come to you today fresh from Fenway Park and flush with victory. (Applause.) It was a great night. Anybody watch? How many of you watched? Nobody? Come on. All right, a few of you. Well, anyway, it was a lot of fun for those of us who were there. It was part of my life balance program yesterday. (Laughter.) I committed to go up there, taking part.

But it’s a great, great pleasure to be here this afternoon with all of you, and really an honor for me to be introduced by Tulsi, by Congresswoman Gabbard. I’ve watched her in her early stages here, first-termer in Congress, and I’ve been impressed every single time. She speaks from her heart, speaks from her gut. She’s knowledgeable. And as I told her a few minutes ago, she’s going to be one of our stars in this political enterprise as we try to make America believe in the possibilities of getting things done again. So I’m really happy to be here with her, one of the first female combat veterans in the Congress, alongside Tammy Duckworth.

And both of them exemplify what brings us here today, which is the unique capacity that people who have worn the uniform in whatever – don’t have to be in combat, but you wear the uniform, you learn how to be part of a team, you learn leadership skills, you sacrifice wherever you go. And so it’s special, and we’re happy today to be able to do something that really capitalizes on that extraordinary experience.

I’m honored to be here with our Administrator of AID, Raj Shah, whom you’ll hear from in a little bit, who is going to help make this kind of effort executable and make it happen, and I’m delighted for his partnership on this and on many other things.

And I want to thank my good friend Drew O’Brien, my Special Representative for Global Partnerships, who has already been doing just a huge job of reaching out and creating new possibilities as we use the assets of this extraordinary Department in order to try to be creative and reach more people in different ways.

So I apologize up front to everybody, but I have to leave earlier than I had anticipated because I need to go up to the Hill to talk to both the leadership as well as the Banking Committee regarding what’s going on in terms of P5+1 talks with Iran. So I ask your indulgence in sort of liberating me, if you will, a little bit early.

But I will tell you all that for Drew, working on this program, and for me in many ways but not quite the same ways as Drew, this is very, very personal because Drew’s father, who I got to know a little bit – I helped him get some medals that he had never received from his service in war, and presented them to them – to him, and in fact not too long before he passed away. And I will tell you that Ed O’Brien, who served proudly in the Navy during World War II, including the invasion of Okinawa, embodied what we know as the Greatest Generation, those who served and defended America and saved democracy for the world. And then they came home to contribute to the community, quietly, in so many different ways, building our nation and ultimately laying the foundation for winning the Cold War, and ending it. So Drew really does understand what this is all about.

Now, I especially want to welcome all of you, all the veterans who are here in the room today, those of you who answered the call to service and took yourselves away from whatever your other course of life was for a period of time in order to wear the uniform and answer that highest calling, which is to serve your nation. I am deeply appreciative, whether you did so on the battlefield or in some other way. Everybody knows who served. It’s a team. And you can’t do one thing without the other thing happening, and it’s all connected. So we thank you all for what you did for your country in uniform, and what you’re now doing for your country that you’ve traded one uniform for another.

This is also, as Drew said, important to me. I’ve spent, literally since the day I returned from Vietnam, being involved in veterans affairs – a founder of the Vietnam Veterans of America, and involved in everything from getting Agent Orange designation for cancer and creating the charter, to working on benefits, including the change from $12,000 of insurance up to the now-$500,000. These are all parts of a continuum of effort that I’m proud of, but it never stops. And I think all of you know that. The Veterans Innovation Partnership – VIP, as we are calling it – is not about just what the State Department can do for veterans. It’s really based on the notion that veterans can do a lot for the State Department, and that we would be foolish not to try to reach out and harness the talent that exists.

I’ve always said also that being a veteran doesn’t automatically qualify you to be on the right side of any given foreign policy issue. Doesn’t work that way. No one is, myself included, but – although I’d better bat pretty high in this position. (Laughter.) But it’s a perspective and it’s obviously an important perspective.

The experience of being a veteran, I’ve always believed, does qualify you to speak with a voice that is a little bit different, and also helps you to validate ways in which we can project America’s force and values abroad. I personally never will forget – I’m sure none of you have forgotten the moment you returned home from a deployment. I certainly haven’t forgotten when I returned home from Vietnam and landed at McChord Air Force Base in Tacoma, Washington, feeling a little older than the 26 years that I was, and feeling blessed for the skills of management, leadership, organization, strategy that the United States Navy had bestowed on me even as a young lieutenant JG.

It also left me with a couple of other lessons. First, the firsthand understanding of what it means to be the tip of the spear, to be the tip of the spear on Americas’ foreign policy, and a more personal understanding of what it meant when Tony Benn wrote that all war represents the failure of diplomacy.

Few lessons ever bring home to you that more profoundly than why the efforts of this State Department must be nothing less than first rate, so that if and when we have to send young Americans into harm’s way, it is because we have no other choice. And second, the military and our experience in combat gave us all a special motivation to live life in the fullest because of those who weren’t so lucky, and that lesson is that if you come back from war, you know that every day is extra.

That’s why I asked Drew to build this new partnership to bring the unique skills that veterans have and that they’ve developed on the front lines of service to bring it to the front lines of diplomacy and of development. We need more people like Corneal Hunter, who served with the Army in Operation Desert Storm and in Kosovo, and who now brings his understanding of budgeting and management as a budget analyst in the State Department’s Bureau of Diplomatic Service. People like Phil Schlatter, the Executive Director of our Bureau of the Comptroller and Global Financial Services, whose 10-year career at the State Department was preceded by 22 years of military service that gave him experience at command levels and at staff. People like Joan Annjohlie St. Marie, whose extensive Air Force experience in disaster preparedness, shelter operations, and emergency management has prepared her well for her current role in our Bureau of African Affairs.

Through the VIP, we hope to bring together U.S. Government agencies and private sector leaders in order to seek out those who have served America and who are interested in international issues and provide them with fellowship opportunities at State, USAID, OPIC, and MCC – Millennium Challenge, and help them find international employment opportunities in both the private and the public sectors. I am absolutely convinced of the enormous talent and capacity that veterans can bring to this Department to augment what we try to do on a global basis and do so with a unique credibility, a unique ability to be able to validate both the values and the interests that we are trying to represent. I’m very grateful for the outstanding partners who’ve already signed up to work with VIP, including the University of Massachusetts in Boston, and iRobot, which is a company I worked with previously when I was in the Senate, and they are represented here today. And I welcome others from the private sector, foundations, and civil society who want to contribute to this initiative.

The bottom line is pretty simple. I believe that those who have worn the uniform and gone through the training and the experience of leadership and of partnership in so many different ways, in so many different categories within our armed services – all of them have shown that they know how to serve in one capacity, and through that capacity have now developed a new capacity to be able to serve yet again on another front. We want the State Department, AID, and all these other entities to welcome them – more than that, we want to find them. We want to seek them out and we want to put them back into service for their country, knowing that will make our country stronger and it will make our departments that much more effective.

So, thank you for being here to be part of this. God bless you all, and I look forward to seeing you in the days ahead as we implement VIP. Thank you. (Applause.)