FROM: THE WHITE HOUSE
December 01, 2014
Readout of the President's Call with European Council President Donald Tusk
President Obama called President Donald Tusk today to congratulate him on his first day as President of the European Council. President Obama underscored the importance of continued U.S.-EU cooperation and noted the need for policy action to strengthen European economic growth. The two leaders affirmed their determination to achieve an ambitious and comprehensive Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (T-TIP) agreement. They also reiterated the U.S. and EU commitment to work with international financial institutions to provide the financial support Ukraine needs as it stabilizes its economy, implements necessary reforms, and seeks to resolve the conflict in the eastern part of the country. They agreed that sanctions against Russia cannot be eased until Russia meets its commitments under the Minsk agreements, and reiterated the joint U.S. and EU condemnation of Russia’s occupation and attempted annexation of Crimea. The leaders assessed what further actions may be necessary in response to Russia’s destabilizing actions in eastern Ukraine and Crimea. They also discussed combined efforts to support governments in western Africa as they seek to arrest the spread of Ebola, provide treatment to those infected, and partner on global health security.
Showing posts with label TRANSATLANTIC TRADE AND INVESTMENT PARTNERSHIP. Show all posts
Showing posts with label TRANSATLANTIC TRADE AND INVESTMENT PARTNERSHIP. Show all posts
Wednesday, December 3, 2014
Wednesday, May 21, 2014
VP BIDEN, ROMANIAN PRIME MINISTER PONTA MAKE REMARKS IN BUCHAREST, ROMANIA
FROM: THE WHITE HOUSE
Remarks by Vice President Joe Biden and Romanian Prime Minister Victor Ponta in a Joint Press Statement
Victoria Palace
Bucharest, Romania
1:10 P.M. (Local)
PRIME MINISTER PONTA: (As interpreted) Good day.
We are very glad and honored to have the visit of Mr. Vice President Joe Biden here in Bucharest and at the headquarters of our government.
We are very happy to see you once again after the gathering that happened in October last year in Washington. At that time, Vice President Biden said that he will come back to Romania, and as always he kept his word, and we’d like to thank him for that.
But I believe that his visit here is at the most necessary and right time for Romania, a moment when we have to reaffirm the idea of a strategic partnership that is stable and of long term between the United States of America and Romania, and the importance and confidence that the United States grant to the entire region and all of our partners and allies from the area, and also a special feeling towards the Romanian people that it’s not just our desire to have this strategic partnership, but also the United States considers Romania to be a trustworthy partner and a respected partner.
So this is the most important formula, and the presence of Vice President Biden in Bucharest is confirming this fundamental idea. I want to restate once again in the name of Romania our total commitment to meet the requirements in our role that we play as a country at the border of NATO and the European Union, of the democratic world which is at this time confronted with a crisis situation that is unprecedented in the past 25 years, the aggression on behalf of the Russian Federation, breaching the international norms, the illegal annexing of Romania [sic]. These are challenges that this region has not seen in a long time.
And furthermore the presence of Vice President Biden here is a strong message for Romania, but also a strong message for the other countries in the region, first of all for Moldova, the country for which Romania has a lot of good feelings, but also for Ukraine, for Georgia and all the others that have decided to take the route of democracy, the route of reforms, and abiding the international law.
I had discussions with Vice President Biden for the decision of the Romanian government to assume all the positions that involve our situation right now. The security can never be obtained free. The investments that the Romanian government has to increase and has already increased regarding the defense system -- and I can tell you that we have an agreement and a political consensus in that -- for that point in the sense that for a short time period up until 2016, Romania will start allocating 2 percent of the GDP for defense expenditures. And also the investment that Romania has made in -- from budgetary resources and EU financing and private financing in order to develop a strategic concept and specifically energy independence.
Romania is investing quite a lot. It is open for investments so that it -- Romania itself can ensure for itself and for the Moldovan Republic an energy independence that is even more important in the current crisis conditions, an independence that will allow us to ensure to the Romanian and Moldovan population, to the economy of both countries that Russia will never be able to impede the normal functioning of these countries by using its energy supply.
The Romanian GDP increase, and I was happy to inform Vice President Biden of the situation that right now Romania is the economy that has the most rapid growth in the European Union. This also grants the guarantee that we can be strong, that we can meet the tasks that we all have to meet here at the border of the NATO and EU, and we have an economic development later on that is even better.
In our discussion in October when I discussed with the state Secretary for Commerce, we had discussed an action plan that the Romanian government has already concluded, and it is implementing at this time in order to increase the investments of U.S. companies in encouraging commerce, in encouraging economic development and the collaboration between the two nations.
Furthermore than the bilateral collaboration, Romania is a very determined supporter of concluding the agreement that is known as T-TIP, the trade commerce agreement between the United States and the European Union. We believe that at this time in the common trading area where we also have economic collaboration and democratic similar ideas can make us stronger in front of any challenges.
I would like to say in my conclusion that Romania must and can be an example of success in this region, an example of security -- military security, of political collaboration with the United States, of economic development, and of the economic and the democratic functioning of its institutions. We have reaffirmed the government’s support for an independent justice system, an impartial justice system, an efficient justice system that will be able to apply truly that important principle of the fact that no one is above the law. And whoever breaks the law no matter what his position is must answer in front of the court.
I would like to mention at this point that we have talked quite a lot about the Moldovan state. Every time we have the opportunity to meet, I keep telling Mr. Vice President how important Moldova is for Romania, how important it is to support the United States, the European Union for this pro-European and pro-Romanian development of the Moldovan Republic. And I want to thank for the support that the Washington administration is providing in an explicit manner, and they have assumed the fact that Romania and the Romanian people will be the beneficiary of what many other European citizens have, which is the visa waiver system. All of the Romanians that go into the United States are contributing to what means the United States as a whole.
And I would like to say in my closing that I assured Vice President Biden that also in this year and the following years Romania will be for the United States a reliable and respected partner.
VICE PRESIDENT BIDEN: (In progress) hospitality, Mr. Prime Minister. It’s good to see you again. I appreciate your dedication to the U.S.-Romanian relationship, and I’ve enjoyed our chances to talk together both in Washington and here.
The first thing the Prime Minister and I spoke about today was cooperation, security cooperation between the United States and Romania. I reiterated to the Prime Minister what he already knew that -- America’s unwavering commitment to collective self-defense and Article 5. We expect all nations to honor their NATO commitments. We will honor ours. And there should be no doubt about that on anyone’s mind.
We also spoke at some length about energy security and how national security and energy security come together in this part of the world in the need to ensure that Russia can no longer continue to use its energy resources and European dependence on those resources as a weapon -- a weapon against anyone in this region.
And that's why I believe that the development of a secure, diverse and interconnected energy market in Europe is the next big step for our European colleagues to initiate in a great project of European economic integration.
We are -- where our help is welcome, we are ready to provide help, and we have some little, unique expertise in this area if it is desired.
And Romania can and should be a significant part of a European energy solution. By upgrading Romania’s infrastructure, Romania can be a lynchpin that holds together the energy markets from the Black Sea to Central and Eastern Europe. And by expanding domestic production of natural gas, Romania can emerge as an alternative supplier for its neighbors.
And by extending the Romanian pipeline network, Romania can be part of the energy solution for Moldova, a country that is now overwhelmingly almost 100 percent reliant on Russian energy.
Our countries stand together in supporting Moldova’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, its democratic development and its European aspirations.
The Prime Minister and I also spoke about steps we are taking to grow and deepen the economic partnership, including the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership that we’re in the process of negotiating. Not only will it strengthen the vibrant economies of Europe and the United States and strengthen them all, but it also will set down new rules of the road that are necessary for the conduct to trade and commerce in the 21st century.
And as I discussed with the President and the Prime Minister, there is no more important step Romania can take than to attract jobs and investment that can continue to help it grow but continue in the process to strengthen the rule of law in order to allow that to continue.
When other countries exploit corruption to undermine their neighbor’s sovereignty and independence, this is not only a matter of economic opportunity, but national security. But it’s also a matter of economic competitiveness. Where the rule of law is strong, where courts adjudicate disputes and in a transparently fair way, where the rules of the marketplace are predictable, this is where companies around the world invest. This is where they make their homes.
I was encouraged by the Prime Minister’s agreement last October to take concrete steps to improve Romania’s business climate. Of course, the follow-through is essential. But it’s underway. I applaud you, Mr. Prime Minister, for taking this initiative on such an important issue.
Romania to state the obvious is already a terrific ally, partner and friend. And our future together is bright. It’s no longer a matter of what it was a decade or more ago about what the United States can do for Romania. It’s about what we can do together to strengthen each of our countries.
So, Mr. President [sic], thank you for your commitment to continue to strengthen this relationship, for your work to make our futures even brighter and may God bless the Romanian people. May God bless America and may God protect our troops -- Romanian and American -- who are still deployed in Afghanistan.
Thank you very much, Mr. Prime Minister.
END
1:23 P.M. (Local)
Friday, May 9, 2014
U.S. CONGRATULATES PEOPLE OF THE EUROPEAN UNION ON EUROPE DAY
FROM: U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT
On the Occasion of Europe Day
Press Statement
John Kerry
Secretary of State
Washington, DC
May 8, 2014
On behalf of President Obama and the people of the United States, I congratulate the people of the European Union as you celebrate Europe Day on May 9.
Sixty-four years ago, Robert Schuman declared that a united Europe was indispensable to the maintenance of world peace. His vision continues to inspire us to join with our European partners in shaping a future worthy of our historic past.
When Europe negotiated the Treaty of Rome, the United States welcomed its contribution to the welfare of the entire free world. In 1992, when the European Community succeeded in creating a single market, U.S. companies invested – in droves. With the birth of the European Union, we worked together in a truly historic partnership to promote democracy, advance world trade, confront global challenges, and build new bridges across the Atlantic. We have supported EU efforts to jump-start growth in the Euro-zone and shore up European energy security. We continue to negotiate and remain laser focused on achieving an ambitious, comprehensive Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership. T-TIP will deepen our transatlantic economic partnership, increase economic well being on both sides of the Atlantic, and establish a way of doing business that can serve as the global gold standard.
Today, the United States and an expanded European Union are working together to defend and advance the values history has shown make all nations stronger: human rights, rule of law, and prosperity for our people and citizens around the world. Just this week, I met with EU High Representative Catherine Ashton during her visit to Washington. We had a wide ranging discussion on our shared strategy of using the tools of diplomacy to reduce the conflicts that are threatening Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and other parts of the world, including our work together in support of the people of Ukraine’s right to choose their own future. I thanked her for the tremendous cooperation between the EU and the United States.
We look back in pride on the miles we’ve traveled together. Yet we must also look forward to the challenges that lie ahead. We stand by our eastern partners in their sovereign right to choose their political and economic associations, and chart their own futures. And once again, our strength will come from our unity. As President Obama reaffirmed in Brussels, following the 2014 U.S.-EU Summit, “Europe, including the European Union, is the cornerstone of our engagement around the globe. We are more secure and more prosperous – the world is safer and more just – when Europe and America stand as one.”
On this Europe Day, the United States remains steadfast in our commitment to working side by side with our European partners and friends to advance peace and prosperity around the world, and to supporting the EU’s vision for a united, peaceful, stable, and democratic Europe.
Sixty-four years ago, Robert Schuman declared that a united Europe was indispensable to the maintenance of world peace. His vision continues to inspire us to join with our European partners in shaping a future worthy of our historic past.
When Europe negotiated the Treaty of Rome, the United States welcomed its contribution to the welfare of the entire free world. In 1992, when the European Community succeeded in creating a single market, U.S. companies invested – in droves. With the birth of the European Union, we worked together in a truly historic partnership to promote democracy, advance world trade, confront global challenges, and build new bridges across the Atlantic. We have supported EU efforts to jump-start growth in the Euro-zone and shore up European energy security. We continue to negotiate and remain laser focused on achieving an ambitious, comprehensive Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership. T-TIP will deepen our transatlantic economic partnership, increase economic well being on both sides of the Atlantic, and establish a way of doing business that can serve as the global gold standard.
Today, the United States and an expanded European Union are working together to defend and advance the values history has shown make all nations stronger: human rights, rule of law, and prosperity for our people and citizens around the world. Just this week, I met with EU High Representative Catherine Ashton during her visit to Washington. We had a wide ranging discussion on our shared strategy of using the tools of diplomacy to reduce the conflicts that are threatening Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and other parts of the world, including our work together in support of the people of Ukraine’s right to choose their own future. I thanked her for the tremendous cooperation between the EU and the United States.
We look back in pride on the miles we’ve traveled together. Yet we must also look forward to the challenges that lie ahead. We stand by our eastern partners in their sovereign right to choose their political and economic associations, and chart their own futures. And once again, our strength will come from our unity. As President Obama reaffirmed in Brussels, following the 2014 U.S.-EU Summit, “Europe, including the European Union, is the cornerstone of our engagement around the globe. We are more secure and more prosperous – the world is safer and more just – when Europe and America stand as one.”
On this Europe Day, the United States remains steadfast in our commitment to working side by side with our European partners and friends to advance peace and prosperity around the world, and to supporting the EU’s vision for a united, peaceful, stable, and democratic Europe.
Friday, February 28, 2014
REMARKS BY SECRETARY OF STATE KERRY, GERMAN FOREIGN MINISTER STEINMEIER
FROM: U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT
Remarks With German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier After Their Working Lunch
Remarks
John Kerry
Secretary of State
Benjamin Franklin Room
Washington, DC
February 27, 2014
SECRETARY KERRY: Good afternoon, everybody. It’s my great pleasure to welcome Foreign Minister Steinmeier of Germany to Washington this afternoon. And I’m really happy to be able to do this because the foreign minister and Chancellor Merkel gave me a terrific welcome and hosted me in Germany about a month ago, and it’s nice to be able to return the favor so quickly. The chancellor[1] will be here for – through tomorrow and he’ll have a series of meetings in Washington on a number of the topics we discussed today, and we very much welcome Chancellor Merkel’s upcoming visit. Our nations are both old friends and close friends, and we have the ability to talk candidly with each and to find a way to cooperate together on critical issues that engage both of us.
Frank-Walter and I spoke candidly about how we can continue to move beyond some of the current tensions that have existed and to deepen our transatlantic ties. And I appreciate the conversation that we’ve just had enormously. We had the opportunity to discuss our bilateral relationship at length, including finding the right balance between security of our citizens and the privacy of our citizens. And that is a discussion which the foreign minister will continue while he’s here in Washington and particularly tomorrow have a couple of meetings on it.
At the direction of President Obama and Chancellor Merkel, we’ve been discussing additional steps to strengthen our intelligence cooperation, and we are going to continue that conversation in the months ahead. And I certainly appreciate the serious and appropriate way in which Germany is engaged with us in that discussion.
We discussed today how to deepen and broaden our existing partnership with respect to a number of global challenges, cybersecurity being one of them, obviously. And our experts are going to meet tomorrow morning on that.
Obviously, Ukraine is at the forefront of our minds, and we spent a fair amount of our lunch talking about Ukraine. I’m very grateful to the foreign minister for his leadership, his personal leadership, his engagement with several other foreign ministers who went to Kyiv and become engaged and helped to shape, particularly with Foreign Minister Steinmeier’s leadership, the agreement that was reached.
The United States really is appreciative of that kind of leadership. It’s a shared burden, and I know that together with our French and Polish colleagues – and I talked earlier today with Polish Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski – together we were able to make – create a framework within which this change was able to be carried out after the huge violence that took place in a mostly peaceful way after that.
Today, the Rada voted overwhelmingly to approve a new transition government – technical government, importantly – and that technical government will serve until the election can be held in May. We – the United States welcomes this development and we look forward to working closely with this transitional government.
This morning, I called Foreign Minister Lavrov and we talked at some length about the transition and the events in Ukraine and in the region. And I asked specifically that Russia work with the United States and with our friends and allies in order to support Ukraine, to rebuild unity, security, and a healthy economy. And we also discussed the very tense situation in Crimea. I think it’s very important to underscore that Foreign Minister Lavrov relayed to me directly from President Putin a reaffirmation of the conversation that President Putin had over the weekend with President Obama. And he stated that both the military exercise which has been conducted is not related to the Ukraine and was previously scheduled, but also – importantly – reaffirmed President Putin’s statement that Russia will respect the territorial integrity of Ukraine.
And we believe that everybody now needs to step back and avoid any kind of provocations. And we want to see in the next days ahead, obviously, that the choices Russia makes conform to this affirmation that we received today. We are also making the same point about reducing tensions in Crimea to the Ukrainians, and it is very important that the process continue in a thoughtful and respectful way.
Let me also reiterate that as we see this technical government come into place, I want to confirm that the United States supports and welcomes this democratic step that has been taken today by the Rada to create this transitional technical government. And we look forward to working with this new government to restore national unity, security, and the protection of the rights of all Ukrainians, and that includes all minorities. We also strongly support the new government’s decision to work closely with the IMF in order to stabilize the economy, and we will support these efforts that provide bilateral support in conjunction with the IMF program. And that is our objective over these next days.
Frank-Walter and I also discussed other regional issues, including our shared interest in completing the ambitious Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership. The United States and Germany already enjoy very strong economic ties, but we both know that TTIP would lead to even more investments, more innovations, more trade, and ultimately more jobs with more economic growth in our countries as well as throughout Europe.
And finally, we discussed our shared efforts to promote peace and stability around the world. The United States welcomes Germany’s growing role in addressing global challenges. We really value Germany’s support in Afghanistan, where Germany’s ISAF contributions have been essential, along with their commitment to a post-2014 NATO mission and their financial support for the Afghan security forces.
We also value Germany’s support in the Middle East. Chancellor Merkel just made a trip to the Middle East, and I am enormously appreciative for the support that Germany is giving to the Middle East peace process and their continued interest and effort to try to help not only support us in that but bring about a final status agreement.
We also are very appreciative for Germany’s key role as a P5+1 member in the effort to try to reach agreement with Iran over Iran’s nuclear program. And we talked a little bit about that and the prospects for that over the next days. Germany joins us in making clear to everybody that Iran is not open for business, that the sanctions regime continues, and that we will maintain unity within the P5+1 as we proceed forward in this negotiation.
We value also Germany’s increasing international pressure on the Assad regime to bring about an end to the horrific war in Syria, and we talked about some of the challenges that we face with respect to the road ahead.
So Frank-Walter, you said recently that Germany is just too big to comment on world events from the sideline, and I want you to know that we couldn’t agree more. We all need Germany as a partner in these efforts. We need you on the field and engaged, and we welcome that. In Munich, I called for a transatlantic renaissance starting in 2014, and today I want to underscore that the renewal that we need is also an important strengthening of the relationship and engagement between Germany and the United States.
So I look forward to continuing to work closely on the wide range of issues that face our countries, the region, and the world, and we’re grateful to have a strong partner like Germany in that effort. Thank you, sir.
FOREIGN MINISTER STEINMEIER: (Via interpreter) Thank you, not only for inviting me here but also for the very friendly words you found right at the beginning of this press conference. I’ve only been in office for roughly 10 weeks, and we’ve met quite often, given the shortness of my term in office. We’ve met in Geneva and in other parts of the world. I am delighted about that, and I would wish to see that frequency be kept up.
But of course, the frequency of our exchanges is also tied to the international challenges we have to confront these days. Thus I would like to begin by thanking you for the initiative you have taken to make sure that the two-state solution for the Middle East can become a reality. Many efforts had been undertaken in the past that have failed, and I’m happy to see that you are engaging like hardly any other person. You are putting your political career at stake in a way, working for this two-state solution, engaging with energy and stamina, trying to convince both sides, trying to be successful where others failed before you. I very much hope that both parties in the Middle East – the Israeli Government and the Palestinian leaders – are aware of the fact that this provides an opportunity that both have to seize. They have to do that and they owe it to their respective peoples.
Now, in the immediate vicinity of Israel and Palestine, a dangerous conflict has arisen where until now we have not succeeded in putting an end to the bloodshed. The number of casualties of people who have died in the war in Syria is going into the thousands, and especially the neighboring region is affected, for refugees are fleeing to Lebanon, to Jordan, to Turkey, millions of them. And the suffering is immeasurable and it continues. The conflict is hardening and it is no longer only a battle between the government and the opposition of Syria, but it is a battle, a fight between different groups of the opposition.
We should take that as a warning, a word of caution to us to make sure that the Syria conference that in Geneva has not brought the hoped-for success – that this conference ought to continue, and we ought to apply greater strategic strictness in doing so. Mr. Brahimi, who is heading the negotiations, happens to be in Germany right now. We are in close touch with him and we are trying to convince both sides, all parties involved, of the need for a new beginning in order to see that the talks which have proven – have not proven successful so far can succeed at the end of the day.
Some of the parties involved in the Syria conference have to do their bit. We have to impress upon them that they cannot use their negotiations in order to simply play for time. They both, in the face of the suffering of the people of Syria, have to do their bit. They have to give access to humanitarian aid organizations so that they can reach out to the threatened parts of the population. And we very much hope that at least in parts of the country, a ceasefire can be agreed upon.
Of course, these days, there is one issue that is dominating our agenda and is very much on our minds. John Kerry mentioned it and made a decisive reference to the ongoing development in the Ukraine. The bloodshed in Ukraine has been stopped and we are all happy and relieved to see that that is the case. But nevertheless, Ukraine continues to be a major challenge. In the last few days since the agreement was signed between the political leadership and the opposition in Ukraine, we have witnessed that. We have seen a stormy development going far beyond the timeline that we had set ourselves only a week ago.
Today, an interim government has been appointed, mainly a government consisting of technocrats. That is good. We wanted to see a government in power quickly, speedily, that not only assumes responsibility for the decisions that have to be taken, but that can also act as a partner for negotiations with the international community, also when it comes to assessing the need for support and aid and financial support.
I underline what John Kerry just said – it’s not sufficient to form a government as such. The government now has to prove or furnish proof of the fact that it is the government of the whole of Ukraine – the north, the south, the east, and the west – that they actually stand up for those parts of the country. I, for one, believe that legislative measures to insure the disadvantaged minorities in the Ukraine, as have been taken recently, have to be made redundant. We have to make sure that that is the case. What has to be done now – and I hope that all the parties involved attend to this – is to ensure the territorial integrity of Ukraine. If one were not to attend to that, we would create tension and create instability in the region as a whole, and we cannot allow that to happen.
This is why both of us – the United States of America and Germany – place great value on the fact that given the critical situation, the country, the Ukraine – Ukraine is given some breathing space, a reprieve in order to stabilize the situation on the ground. It ought not to be our ambition at this particular point in time to draw the Ukraine – draw Ukraine towards the west or the east, Russia to the east, we, the European Union, through the west. Ukraine needs a reprieve, as I said. They need time to find footing again.
We ought to strive hard as Europeans with our partners in Europe, with the United States, with the IMF, hopefully also together with Russia, to make sure that the country – that Ukraine is given and granted the financial assistance it dearly needs in order to not be left behind in the next few days.
Dear John Kerry, we’ve been able to talk about all these matter in a sense and spirit of trust and confidence because we’re working on the foundation of a long, traditional partnership. It has grown over the decades and the years. It is based on shared values. It is a foundation that allows us to also sometimes disagree and to openly speak about it. This is why we use the opportunity today to also speak about the recent reporting over the last few weeks and months regarding activities – or, rather, surveillance activities, eavesdropping and monitoring the mobile phones of members of the German Government and others. We talked about it. And we both agree that we cannot leave it at that between both administrations. We have taken note of the fact that we have different views as regards the meaning of security and privacy, and I think we have to talk about this in a spirit of seriousness.
I am very happy to see you, and I’m grateful to you, John. I’m happy to see that the debate that has been mainly led by the media now leads us to a serious dialogue involving all the stakeholders, involving also members of civil society, a bilateral cyber-dialogue, which is to be initiated starting today. I know that the United States are quite ambitious as far as that is concerned; I will have the pleasure to meet with John Podesta tomorrow who is responsible for the review of big data and the future of privacy here in the United States. I believe that that will provide us this – provide us with the forum to talk about our different views, but also work together – let us work together in order to define privacy and protection of civil liberties.
I’m also delighted to see that though we have a conflict here in our bilateral relations, we are both working hard together. You spoke of the renaissance, and I think part and parcel of that renaissanc,e is a very ambitious project we’re negotiating right now. TTIP, I believe, constitutes a major opportunity we ought to seize. It’s not about uniformity. This is not what it is about, TTIP. Rather, we want to maintain and protect diversity in Europe amongst the individual European countries and the United States. But what we want to do is to do away with hurdles, which make it more difficult to reach out to each other. That’s the more difficult part of it. And we’re trying to achieve this in a spirit of great transparency as far as the Europeans are concerned with regard to publishing where we are making progress in the negotiations. And I hope that we will be able to take our public along, our people along on that path.
Thus, we had a very substantial agenda internationally, but also bilaterally – a very busy schedule. We’ve met four times in the last four weeks, and I think it won’t be – we will keep up. We will keep up that interval in the next few weeks to come. Thank you.
MS. PSAKI: (Inaudible) will be from Catherine Chomiak of NBC News.
QUESTION: Thank you very much. Mr. Secretary, just a follow-up on Ukraine on two things that you mentioned in your remarks. On the Crimea region, we saw armed gunmen seize the parliament building and raise the Russian flag. Did Mr. Lavrov give you assurances that they were in no way operating under the auspices of the Russian Government?
And also on the troop movements, whether they were pre-planned or not, it’s hard to see how this doesn’t increase tensions in that region. How concerned are you by these exercises, and did you ask Mr. Lavrov to postpone or scale down them? And today, Mr. Yanukovych said that he’s still the lawful president of Ukraine. What do you say to that?
And to Mr. Foreign Minister, how much money is the EU willing to give Ukraine to stand up its economy? Thank you.
SECRETARY KERRY: Well, Catherine, with respect to the events and the takeover of the Rada today, yes, of course, we talked about it. And he has said – he indicated to me that he’d actually watched it on TV and he’d seen what had happened, but he disclaimed that they had anything to do with any formal Russian initiative. And on the contrary, they’re concerned about it, and he expressed a concern about it.
They at least expressed concern that they do not want to see a breakdown into violence and into any kind of sectarian initiative, and I think they understand that to keep faith with their affirmation about protecting the territorial integrity, you can’t be encouraging a separatist movement or some other effort. The – I indicated to him that the minister of defense acting at that point in time was traveling to the region in order to indicate that they were fully prepared to live up to the Sevastopol port agreement with Russia. They had no intention of changing any of the existing laws or agreements, and that they fully intended to uphold the rights of all minorities.
And we talked today with Foreign Minister Steinmeier about one entity or another. There are several that have been proposed that might be able to be engaged in Ukraine to help in any kind of mediation and resolution of these kinds of questions. With respect to – but I think we all have to understand that nowhere is there a greater connection to or link to Russia in several different ways than there is in Crimea, but that as the days unfold, this should not become a tension or a struggle between the United States, Russia, East, West, et cetera. This is about the people of Ukraine being able to make their decisions. And I said that to the foreign minister, and the foreign minister confirmed that this is about the people of Ukraine writ large, not one group or another. So that’s what we’re focused on.
With respect to the fleet and exercises, I don’t think that they are so long or prolonged that it is something that is going to have an impact on the events there. And I think the very specific message from President Putin is one that we need to process. But as I said earlier, we will look to Russia for the choices that it makes in the next days for their confirmation of these statements. Statements are statements, words are words. We have all learned that it’s actions and the follow-on choices that make the greatest difference.
So we will watch very careful and very hopefully that Russia will join us in the effort to help shore up the economy, hold the country together, and provide a road forward. We are absolutely ready, all of us, to welcome Russia to the table of creating a democratic, pluralistic, fully inclusive Ukraine according to what the people of Ukraine are defining. It’s not our choice. It’s not Russia’s choice. It’s the choice of the people of Ukraine. And they spoke very clearly when their legislature voted to impeach the existing president and to move on to a new technical government. This was their movement, spontaneous, speedy, definitive, without any encouragement from the outside. In fact, I think most of us were taken quite by surprise by those events.
So that said, with respect to Mr. Yanukovych, Mr. Yanukovych left the field of engagement. He voluntarily departed, and he signed an agreement, and then without signing the law that was the precondition to the implementation of the rest of the agreement, he departed and took off to parts unknown and was unavailable to those of us who were trying to reach him. The Vice President of the United States had a call in to him for some 12 to 14 hours, unanswered. So I think it is clear that events have now overtaken whatever legitimacy he claimed. There is now a government, and we are looking forward to working with the government that was appointed by the legitimately elected members of the legislature and through their legitimate process.
FOREIGN MINISTER STEINMEIER: (Via interpreter) The political future is in the hands of the Ukrainians. It is for them now to decide about their future, and I hope they will do so in a way that will allow for an inclusive government that considers itself to be responsible for the people of the country as a whole. As far as economic support is concerned, I don’t think the people of Ukraine will be able to master the challenge on their own. Too many negative decisions and faulty decisions have been taken by the previous government, and Ukraine finds itself in a dire economic situation, and I don’t think they can master that challenge on their own.
But I’m not only looking to Ukraine when I’m saying what I’m going to say now. I think this would also be true for each and every one of us. Given the situation of the country and the depth of the economic crisis, anyone present here would be challenged in a way he could not cope on his own. Thus it would be good for all of us to get our support coordinated. Let us all come in and help the IMF, the United States of America – I will meet Christine Lagarde tomorrow morning. Hopefully, Russia will come in and help. We hope they also will engage in the efforts to stabilize the economic situation in Ukraine. No one will benefit from this country teetering on the brink of bankruptcy. We need political stabilization to be accompanied by economic stabilization.
Before coming to the question you put to me, how much is the European Union going to make available, before I address that question, we will have to figure out how much Ukraine needs. We have heard many different figures being placed on the table. It’s difficult for anyone to give you an exact idea of how much Ukraine needs. Yanukovych has kept the figures hidden under his desk. We very much hope that the new prime minister of Ukraine happens – who happens to be a former head of a central bank, and I think thus he will be much better suited than many other people to assess the situation.
I’m pleased, though, that Christine Lagarde has already announced that a team of experts of the IMF will leave already tomorrow in order to provide us with the respective data and give us an idea of the dimension of the challenge we have to address. I hope that the IMF stands ready to provide funds from a kind of emergency fund. Quick assistance is what’s required. I heard – I was delighted to hear that the United States are also standing ready to assist, roughly $1 billion, and the European Union would probably also follow suit about the same amount of funds.
Right now – and I beg your understanding for the fact – we are at a point where we have to admit that these decisive steps have only been taken in the last few days. And the international organizations, the European Union, all the countries are still trying to identify what best to do. But I think we’re all quite aware of the responsibility we have to bear and the need for assistance to be granted by us.
MS. PSAKI: The next question will be from Martin Klingst of Die Zeit.
QUESTION: Thank you very much. Mr. Secretary, Mr. Foreign Minister, do you both trust President Putin? And vice versa, can he trust you? What are you going to – what are you willing to offer him that you keep Russia engaged?
And is Ukraine’s possible membership in the EU and NATO still on the table, or do you think also about other options, like Mr. Brzezinski, the Finland option, keeping Ukraine or taking Ukraine as a member into the EU but keeping it out of NATO? And what can you do to support the respect for minorities in Ukraine? Are you willing to link the support to economic support?
And are you going home, Mr. Foreign Minister, with concrete offers of confidence-building measures regarding NSA and the surveillance matters? Do you have anything concrete in your hand to calm the German public? Thank you.
FOREIGN MINISTER STEINMEIER: (Via interpreter) First, as regards Ukraine, I think you will understand that we are trying whatever we can in order to make sure that we get our acts together and that we don’t sort of split up international responsibility and everyone is to pursue his or her individual interest. That is what I tried – is the point I tried to make at the beginning. Let’s not focus on attracting the Ukraine, attracting Ukraine more to the East or the West. This is not the task at hand. This is not the central task we have to attend to. This is not what I would identify as the basic needs of Ukraine.
This is also why we have undertaken manyfold efforts – I am one of the people who’ve done so – to tell Ukraine that the end of the bloodshed and our endeavors to bring that about was not directed against Russia in any way. I think it was something that had to be done. We wanted to avoid a civil war in Ukraine. Preventing such a civil war ought also to be in the interest of Russia, and thus I appeal to Russia, I urge Russia, to also participate in the endeavors that will be undertaken now.
I know that there are expectations on the part of minorities, especially on the part of the Russian minority in Ukraine. They want their rights to be respected. And I believe that protecting the rights of minorities is something that the new government has to provide for and has to be very clear and outspoken, not only in their words but also with the respective legislative action. In the coming days we will be in a position to see whether it will be possible to make sure that the international community, in conjunction with Russia, will work in the same direction and stand side by side in order to impress this upon Ukraine.
As regards your second question, if you were referring to the fact that I had come here expecting that this was the way in which the day* ought to go and that John Kerry would then hand over a signed no-spy agreement to me saying me – saying to me at the same time, good that we talked about it, this is not what brought me here. And the last few weeks and months have made it clear that this a bit more complicated than that, and this is why I said we have to realize that at this point in time we don’t always agree, we do have different assessments as regards the importance of privacy and security and granting civil liberties. We have different perspectives, different assessments. But in making that point, I am not going to say that we have to begin negotiating a bilateral no-spy agreement, but we have to talk about the fact that we are not always in agreement here, explain our point of view, describe our arguments. Our arguments are not always shared by the other side, but there will be points where we perhaps won’t ever be able to agree 100 percent.
This is why I said, given the efforts that have been undertaken in the past and that will no doubt continue in the weeks and days to come in the framework of the European Union, negotiating with the United States on a data protection agreement and negotiations that will continue between the European Union and the United States of America about adding to and complementing the Safe Harbor Agreement. But alongside with these endeavors we have to have an honest and frank dialogue about the future of protecting privacy in the age of the internet. And I’m happy to see that the American side has accepted that wish that we have expressed and is willing to talk to us about this, not only at the level of the respective administrations’ governments, that is, but also involving the stakeholders and civil society in that dialogue.
SECRETARY KERRY: I’ll just comment very quickly on the last part of the foreign minister’s answer to your question, and I just want to make it clear from an American perspective. When I was in the United States Senate, I was a coauthor, with Senator John McCain, of the Internet Privacy Act. And I also was a powerful proponent for internet neutrality. And I have always maintained that it is critical to have an internet that has an open architecture. And that’s the way the internet works most effectively. That’s the way most of our countries will be well served.
At the same time, I well understand the need to have a balance. I mean, as the author of the Privacy Act, where we were clearly trying to prevent – protect people, I’m more than acutely aware of the need for people to have their information, their rights, protected, their information protected. Their personal protection, their medical, all of that, needs to be protected. But I’m also well aware that we live in a very dangerous world, that there are many people plotting very dangerous acts in all parts of the world. No one is free from this.
Currently in Syria, there are in the – somewhere in the range of 7- to 11,000 foreign fighters. And those foreign fighters are learning the worst methods of persuasion – terror. And many of them will return to the countries from which they have come. And that includes many countries in Europe, it includes the United States, it includes Australia, it includes parts of the Middle East, South Central Asia, and Asia. And I’ve talked to leaders in those countries who are deeply concerned about what those people may do when they return to their country.
So we have a global interest in trying to know what terrorists are going to do before they do it. There was information available to people before the events of 9/11. There were telephone conversations made back and forth and so forth. We believe there’s a balance that permits law enforcement and national security to be preserved in their interests and also to preserve privacy. There have been instances where it’s gone over a line. President Obama has said that. That’s why he engaged in the most far-reaching reevaluation and review of our practices, and that’s why he issued new instructions in order precisely to deal with this issue.
So Germany does not have a protagonist here – an antagonist. We’re not adversarial. We have the same interest. And we want to make sure that all of our citizens are protected in both ways, in their privacy and in their security. And we believe there’s a balance, and we’re determined to try to get at that through a reasonable and thoughtful discussion, and I appreciate the foreign minister’s approach to it.
With respect to President Putin and the issue of trust and the question of what’s going to unfold with respect to Ukraine, let me say this. The conduct of foreign affairs is based on relationships and on discussions and the exchanges that leaders have, but it is not based solely on trust in any case that I know of. It’s always based on a concrete set of actions that people agree to take or agree to refrain from. We learned this a long time ago with Ronald Reagan and Gorbachev, where they said trust but verify. In this case, we’re not just – and I said this in my last answer – this is not about words. It’s about actions. And we will look in the days ahead to see the confirmation of the words in the choices that are taken, and I think we’d be naive otherwise.
But I don’t want to suggest that when the leader of a country tells you he’s going to do or she is going to do something, that you shouldn’t take some value in that and try to work with it. That doesn’t mean that’s all you’re relying on. And so we will work in the days ahead to come up with a process that assists all of us in guaranteeing a transition.
And with respect to the reforms and the IMF and the protection of minorities, part of the IMF will rely on reforms. Reforms will have to be taken. And clearly, to the degree the Congress of the United States or others are going to be prepared to put either a loan guarantee or a direct budget assistance agreement on the table, it’s going to require that Ukraine is moving in a certain direction that is able to be understood and measured, that it’s accountable. And I think everybody will look for accountability as we go forward.
But again, it’s important to note that these are just the beginning days. They’re always the most complicated. I think it is a good sign that within a few days the government has now been announced. It’s a technical government. We know some of the players who are involved in it. They are capable and they are people we believe we can work with effectively in order to get to elections so the people of Ukraine can make their decision.
Final part of your question: With respect to the Association Agreement and with respect to NATO, obviously, the people of Ukraine have to make their decision. This is not our decision. This is their decision. That’s part of what prompted this upheaval in the first place. My counsel to Ukrainians – unasked for but nevertheless, I think, may be pertinent – would be to focus on the things that need to be focused on now. Let the election be about the choices of the future. That’s a good thing to have a platform on and to run on. It’s a good thing for the people to have a chance to vote for.
And I think it would be good for all the parties concerned to allow some space here. This should not be solely about NATO or consolidation or association. This should be about the democratic process, the economy, the ability to protect minorities, the ability to pull Ukraine together. And I think they would be well served to hold off on those other issues until that choice has been made by the people and they have a government chosen by the people that is ready to move forward on those kinds of choices.
MS. PSAKI: Thank you, everyone.
SECRETARY KERRY: Thank you all.
Remarks With German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier After Their Working Lunch
Remarks
John Kerry
Secretary of State
Benjamin Franklin Room
Washington, DC
February 27, 2014
SECRETARY KERRY: Good afternoon, everybody. It’s my great pleasure to welcome Foreign Minister Steinmeier of Germany to Washington this afternoon. And I’m really happy to be able to do this because the foreign minister and Chancellor Merkel gave me a terrific welcome and hosted me in Germany about a month ago, and it’s nice to be able to return the favor so quickly. The chancellor[1] will be here for – through tomorrow and he’ll have a series of meetings in Washington on a number of the topics we discussed today, and we very much welcome Chancellor Merkel’s upcoming visit. Our nations are both old friends and close friends, and we have the ability to talk candidly with each and to find a way to cooperate together on critical issues that engage both of us.
Frank-Walter and I spoke candidly about how we can continue to move beyond some of the current tensions that have existed and to deepen our transatlantic ties. And I appreciate the conversation that we’ve just had enormously. We had the opportunity to discuss our bilateral relationship at length, including finding the right balance between security of our citizens and the privacy of our citizens. And that is a discussion which the foreign minister will continue while he’s here in Washington and particularly tomorrow have a couple of meetings on it.
At the direction of President Obama and Chancellor Merkel, we’ve been discussing additional steps to strengthen our intelligence cooperation, and we are going to continue that conversation in the months ahead. And I certainly appreciate the serious and appropriate way in which Germany is engaged with us in that discussion.
We discussed today how to deepen and broaden our existing partnership with respect to a number of global challenges, cybersecurity being one of them, obviously. And our experts are going to meet tomorrow morning on that.
Obviously, Ukraine is at the forefront of our minds, and we spent a fair amount of our lunch talking about Ukraine. I’m very grateful to the foreign minister for his leadership, his personal leadership, his engagement with several other foreign ministers who went to Kyiv and become engaged and helped to shape, particularly with Foreign Minister Steinmeier’s leadership, the agreement that was reached.
The United States really is appreciative of that kind of leadership. It’s a shared burden, and I know that together with our French and Polish colleagues – and I talked earlier today with Polish Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski – together we were able to make – create a framework within which this change was able to be carried out after the huge violence that took place in a mostly peaceful way after that.
Today, the Rada voted overwhelmingly to approve a new transition government – technical government, importantly – and that technical government will serve until the election can be held in May. We – the United States welcomes this development and we look forward to working closely with this transitional government.
This morning, I called Foreign Minister Lavrov and we talked at some length about the transition and the events in Ukraine and in the region. And I asked specifically that Russia work with the United States and with our friends and allies in order to support Ukraine, to rebuild unity, security, and a healthy economy. And we also discussed the very tense situation in Crimea. I think it’s very important to underscore that Foreign Minister Lavrov relayed to me directly from President Putin a reaffirmation of the conversation that President Putin had over the weekend with President Obama. And he stated that both the military exercise which has been conducted is not related to the Ukraine and was previously scheduled, but also – importantly – reaffirmed President Putin’s statement that Russia will respect the territorial integrity of Ukraine.
And we believe that everybody now needs to step back and avoid any kind of provocations. And we want to see in the next days ahead, obviously, that the choices Russia makes conform to this affirmation that we received today. We are also making the same point about reducing tensions in Crimea to the Ukrainians, and it is very important that the process continue in a thoughtful and respectful way.
Let me also reiterate that as we see this technical government come into place, I want to confirm that the United States supports and welcomes this democratic step that has been taken today by the Rada to create this transitional technical government. And we look forward to working with this new government to restore national unity, security, and the protection of the rights of all Ukrainians, and that includes all minorities. We also strongly support the new government’s decision to work closely with the IMF in order to stabilize the economy, and we will support these efforts that provide bilateral support in conjunction with the IMF program. And that is our objective over these next days.
Frank-Walter and I also discussed other regional issues, including our shared interest in completing the ambitious Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership. The United States and Germany already enjoy very strong economic ties, but we both know that TTIP would lead to even more investments, more innovations, more trade, and ultimately more jobs with more economic growth in our countries as well as throughout Europe.
And finally, we discussed our shared efforts to promote peace and stability around the world. The United States welcomes Germany’s growing role in addressing global challenges. We really value Germany’s support in Afghanistan, where Germany’s ISAF contributions have been essential, along with their commitment to a post-2014 NATO mission and their financial support for the Afghan security forces.
We also value Germany’s support in the Middle East. Chancellor Merkel just made a trip to the Middle East, and I am enormously appreciative for the support that Germany is giving to the Middle East peace process and their continued interest and effort to try to help not only support us in that but bring about a final status agreement.
We also are very appreciative for Germany’s key role as a P5+1 member in the effort to try to reach agreement with Iran over Iran’s nuclear program. And we talked a little bit about that and the prospects for that over the next days. Germany joins us in making clear to everybody that Iran is not open for business, that the sanctions regime continues, and that we will maintain unity within the P5+1 as we proceed forward in this negotiation.
We value also Germany’s increasing international pressure on the Assad regime to bring about an end to the horrific war in Syria, and we talked about some of the challenges that we face with respect to the road ahead.
So Frank-Walter, you said recently that Germany is just too big to comment on world events from the sideline, and I want you to know that we couldn’t agree more. We all need Germany as a partner in these efforts. We need you on the field and engaged, and we welcome that. In Munich, I called for a transatlantic renaissance starting in 2014, and today I want to underscore that the renewal that we need is also an important strengthening of the relationship and engagement between Germany and the United States.
So I look forward to continuing to work closely on the wide range of issues that face our countries, the region, and the world, and we’re grateful to have a strong partner like Germany in that effort. Thank you, sir.
FOREIGN MINISTER STEINMEIER: (Via interpreter) Thank you, not only for inviting me here but also for the very friendly words you found right at the beginning of this press conference. I’ve only been in office for roughly 10 weeks, and we’ve met quite often, given the shortness of my term in office. We’ve met in Geneva and in other parts of the world. I am delighted about that, and I would wish to see that frequency be kept up.
But of course, the frequency of our exchanges is also tied to the international challenges we have to confront these days. Thus I would like to begin by thanking you for the initiative you have taken to make sure that the two-state solution for the Middle East can become a reality. Many efforts had been undertaken in the past that have failed, and I’m happy to see that you are engaging like hardly any other person. You are putting your political career at stake in a way, working for this two-state solution, engaging with energy and stamina, trying to convince both sides, trying to be successful where others failed before you. I very much hope that both parties in the Middle East – the Israeli Government and the Palestinian leaders – are aware of the fact that this provides an opportunity that both have to seize. They have to do that and they owe it to their respective peoples.
Now, in the immediate vicinity of Israel and Palestine, a dangerous conflict has arisen where until now we have not succeeded in putting an end to the bloodshed. The number of casualties of people who have died in the war in Syria is going into the thousands, and especially the neighboring region is affected, for refugees are fleeing to Lebanon, to Jordan, to Turkey, millions of them. And the suffering is immeasurable and it continues. The conflict is hardening and it is no longer only a battle between the government and the opposition of Syria, but it is a battle, a fight between different groups of the opposition.
We should take that as a warning, a word of caution to us to make sure that the Syria conference that in Geneva has not brought the hoped-for success – that this conference ought to continue, and we ought to apply greater strategic strictness in doing so. Mr. Brahimi, who is heading the negotiations, happens to be in Germany right now. We are in close touch with him and we are trying to convince both sides, all parties involved, of the need for a new beginning in order to see that the talks which have proven – have not proven successful so far can succeed at the end of the day.
Some of the parties involved in the Syria conference have to do their bit. We have to impress upon them that they cannot use their negotiations in order to simply play for time. They both, in the face of the suffering of the people of Syria, have to do their bit. They have to give access to humanitarian aid organizations so that they can reach out to the threatened parts of the population. And we very much hope that at least in parts of the country, a ceasefire can be agreed upon.
Of course, these days, there is one issue that is dominating our agenda and is very much on our minds. John Kerry mentioned it and made a decisive reference to the ongoing development in the Ukraine. The bloodshed in Ukraine has been stopped and we are all happy and relieved to see that that is the case. But nevertheless, Ukraine continues to be a major challenge. In the last few days since the agreement was signed between the political leadership and the opposition in Ukraine, we have witnessed that. We have seen a stormy development going far beyond the timeline that we had set ourselves only a week ago.
Today, an interim government has been appointed, mainly a government consisting of technocrats. That is good. We wanted to see a government in power quickly, speedily, that not only assumes responsibility for the decisions that have to be taken, but that can also act as a partner for negotiations with the international community, also when it comes to assessing the need for support and aid and financial support.
I underline what John Kerry just said – it’s not sufficient to form a government as such. The government now has to prove or furnish proof of the fact that it is the government of the whole of Ukraine – the north, the south, the east, and the west – that they actually stand up for those parts of the country. I, for one, believe that legislative measures to insure the disadvantaged minorities in the Ukraine, as have been taken recently, have to be made redundant. We have to make sure that that is the case. What has to be done now – and I hope that all the parties involved attend to this – is to ensure the territorial integrity of Ukraine. If one were not to attend to that, we would create tension and create instability in the region as a whole, and we cannot allow that to happen.
This is why both of us – the United States of America and Germany – place great value on the fact that given the critical situation, the country, the Ukraine – Ukraine is given some breathing space, a reprieve in order to stabilize the situation on the ground. It ought not to be our ambition at this particular point in time to draw the Ukraine – draw Ukraine towards the west or the east, Russia to the east, we, the European Union, through the west. Ukraine needs a reprieve, as I said. They need time to find footing again.
We ought to strive hard as Europeans with our partners in Europe, with the United States, with the IMF, hopefully also together with Russia, to make sure that the country – that Ukraine is given and granted the financial assistance it dearly needs in order to not be left behind in the next few days.
Dear John Kerry, we’ve been able to talk about all these matter in a sense and spirit of trust and confidence because we’re working on the foundation of a long, traditional partnership. It has grown over the decades and the years. It is based on shared values. It is a foundation that allows us to also sometimes disagree and to openly speak about it. This is why we use the opportunity today to also speak about the recent reporting over the last few weeks and months regarding activities – or, rather, surveillance activities, eavesdropping and monitoring the mobile phones of members of the German Government and others. We talked about it. And we both agree that we cannot leave it at that between both administrations. We have taken note of the fact that we have different views as regards the meaning of security and privacy, and I think we have to talk about this in a spirit of seriousness.
I am very happy to see you, and I’m grateful to you, John. I’m happy to see that the debate that has been mainly led by the media now leads us to a serious dialogue involving all the stakeholders, involving also members of civil society, a bilateral cyber-dialogue, which is to be initiated starting today. I know that the United States are quite ambitious as far as that is concerned; I will have the pleasure to meet with John Podesta tomorrow who is responsible for the review of big data and the future of privacy here in the United States. I believe that that will provide us this – provide us with the forum to talk about our different views, but also work together – let us work together in order to define privacy and protection of civil liberties.
I’m also delighted to see that though we have a conflict here in our bilateral relations, we are both working hard together. You spoke of the renaissance, and I think part and parcel of that renaissanc,e is a very ambitious project we’re negotiating right now. TTIP, I believe, constitutes a major opportunity we ought to seize. It’s not about uniformity. This is not what it is about, TTIP. Rather, we want to maintain and protect diversity in Europe amongst the individual European countries and the United States. But what we want to do is to do away with hurdles, which make it more difficult to reach out to each other. That’s the more difficult part of it. And we’re trying to achieve this in a spirit of great transparency as far as the Europeans are concerned with regard to publishing where we are making progress in the negotiations. And I hope that we will be able to take our public along, our people along on that path.
Thus, we had a very substantial agenda internationally, but also bilaterally – a very busy schedule. We’ve met four times in the last four weeks, and I think it won’t be – we will keep up. We will keep up that interval in the next few weeks to come. Thank you.
MS. PSAKI: (Inaudible) will be from Catherine Chomiak of NBC News.
QUESTION: Thank you very much. Mr. Secretary, just a follow-up on Ukraine on two things that you mentioned in your remarks. On the Crimea region, we saw armed gunmen seize the parliament building and raise the Russian flag. Did Mr. Lavrov give you assurances that they were in no way operating under the auspices of the Russian Government?
And also on the troop movements, whether they were pre-planned or not, it’s hard to see how this doesn’t increase tensions in that region. How concerned are you by these exercises, and did you ask Mr. Lavrov to postpone or scale down them? And today, Mr. Yanukovych said that he’s still the lawful president of Ukraine. What do you say to that?
And to Mr. Foreign Minister, how much money is the EU willing to give Ukraine to stand up its economy? Thank you.
SECRETARY KERRY: Well, Catherine, with respect to the events and the takeover of the Rada today, yes, of course, we talked about it. And he has said – he indicated to me that he’d actually watched it on TV and he’d seen what had happened, but he disclaimed that they had anything to do with any formal Russian initiative. And on the contrary, they’re concerned about it, and he expressed a concern about it.
They at least expressed concern that they do not want to see a breakdown into violence and into any kind of sectarian initiative, and I think they understand that to keep faith with their affirmation about protecting the territorial integrity, you can’t be encouraging a separatist movement or some other effort. The – I indicated to him that the minister of defense acting at that point in time was traveling to the region in order to indicate that they were fully prepared to live up to the Sevastopol port agreement with Russia. They had no intention of changing any of the existing laws or agreements, and that they fully intended to uphold the rights of all minorities.
And we talked today with Foreign Minister Steinmeier about one entity or another. There are several that have been proposed that might be able to be engaged in Ukraine to help in any kind of mediation and resolution of these kinds of questions. With respect to – but I think we all have to understand that nowhere is there a greater connection to or link to Russia in several different ways than there is in Crimea, but that as the days unfold, this should not become a tension or a struggle between the United States, Russia, East, West, et cetera. This is about the people of Ukraine being able to make their decisions. And I said that to the foreign minister, and the foreign minister confirmed that this is about the people of Ukraine writ large, not one group or another. So that’s what we’re focused on.
With respect to the fleet and exercises, I don’t think that they are so long or prolonged that it is something that is going to have an impact on the events there. And I think the very specific message from President Putin is one that we need to process. But as I said earlier, we will look to Russia for the choices that it makes in the next days for their confirmation of these statements. Statements are statements, words are words. We have all learned that it’s actions and the follow-on choices that make the greatest difference.
So we will watch very careful and very hopefully that Russia will join us in the effort to help shore up the economy, hold the country together, and provide a road forward. We are absolutely ready, all of us, to welcome Russia to the table of creating a democratic, pluralistic, fully inclusive Ukraine according to what the people of Ukraine are defining. It’s not our choice. It’s not Russia’s choice. It’s the choice of the people of Ukraine. And they spoke very clearly when their legislature voted to impeach the existing president and to move on to a new technical government. This was their movement, spontaneous, speedy, definitive, without any encouragement from the outside. In fact, I think most of us were taken quite by surprise by those events.
So that said, with respect to Mr. Yanukovych, Mr. Yanukovych left the field of engagement. He voluntarily departed, and he signed an agreement, and then without signing the law that was the precondition to the implementation of the rest of the agreement, he departed and took off to parts unknown and was unavailable to those of us who were trying to reach him. The Vice President of the United States had a call in to him for some 12 to 14 hours, unanswered. So I think it is clear that events have now overtaken whatever legitimacy he claimed. There is now a government, and we are looking forward to working with the government that was appointed by the legitimately elected members of the legislature and through their legitimate process.
FOREIGN MINISTER STEINMEIER: (Via interpreter) The political future is in the hands of the Ukrainians. It is for them now to decide about their future, and I hope they will do so in a way that will allow for an inclusive government that considers itself to be responsible for the people of the country as a whole. As far as economic support is concerned, I don’t think the people of Ukraine will be able to master the challenge on their own. Too many negative decisions and faulty decisions have been taken by the previous government, and Ukraine finds itself in a dire economic situation, and I don’t think they can master that challenge on their own.
But I’m not only looking to Ukraine when I’m saying what I’m going to say now. I think this would also be true for each and every one of us. Given the situation of the country and the depth of the economic crisis, anyone present here would be challenged in a way he could not cope on his own. Thus it would be good for all of us to get our support coordinated. Let us all come in and help the IMF, the United States of America – I will meet Christine Lagarde tomorrow morning. Hopefully, Russia will come in and help. We hope they also will engage in the efforts to stabilize the economic situation in Ukraine. No one will benefit from this country teetering on the brink of bankruptcy. We need political stabilization to be accompanied by economic stabilization.
Before coming to the question you put to me, how much is the European Union going to make available, before I address that question, we will have to figure out how much Ukraine needs. We have heard many different figures being placed on the table. It’s difficult for anyone to give you an exact idea of how much Ukraine needs. Yanukovych has kept the figures hidden under his desk. We very much hope that the new prime minister of Ukraine happens – who happens to be a former head of a central bank, and I think thus he will be much better suited than many other people to assess the situation.
I’m pleased, though, that Christine Lagarde has already announced that a team of experts of the IMF will leave already tomorrow in order to provide us with the respective data and give us an idea of the dimension of the challenge we have to address. I hope that the IMF stands ready to provide funds from a kind of emergency fund. Quick assistance is what’s required. I heard – I was delighted to hear that the United States are also standing ready to assist, roughly $1 billion, and the European Union would probably also follow suit about the same amount of funds.
Right now – and I beg your understanding for the fact – we are at a point where we have to admit that these decisive steps have only been taken in the last few days. And the international organizations, the European Union, all the countries are still trying to identify what best to do. But I think we’re all quite aware of the responsibility we have to bear and the need for assistance to be granted by us.
MS. PSAKI: The next question will be from Martin Klingst of Die Zeit.
QUESTION: Thank you very much. Mr. Secretary, Mr. Foreign Minister, do you both trust President Putin? And vice versa, can he trust you? What are you going to – what are you willing to offer him that you keep Russia engaged?
And is Ukraine’s possible membership in the EU and NATO still on the table, or do you think also about other options, like Mr. Brzezinski, the Finland option, keeping Ukraine or taking Ukraine as a member into the EU but keeping it out of NATO? And what can you do to support the respect for minorities in Ukraine? Are you willing to link the support to economic support?
And are you going home, Mr. Foreign Minister, with concrete offers of confidence-building measures regarding NSA and the surveillance matters? Do you have anything concrete in your hand to calm the German public? Thank you.
FOREIGN MINISTER STEINMEIER: (Via interpreter) First, as regards Ukraine, I think you will understand that we are trying whatever we can in order to make sure that we get our acts together and that we don’t sort of split up international responsibility and everyone is to pursue his or her individual interest. That is what I tried – is the point I tried to make at the beginning. Let’s not focus on attracting the Ukraine, attracting Ukraine more to the East or the West. This is not the task at hand. This is not the central task we have to attend to. This is not what I would identify as the basic needs of Ukraine.
This is also why we have undertaken manyfold efforts – I am one of the people who’ve done so – to tell Ukraine that the end of the bloodshed and our endeavors to bring that about was not directed against Russia in any way. I think it was something that had to be done. We wanted to avoid a civil war in Ukraine. Preventing such a civil war ought also to be in the interest of Russia, and thus I appeal to Russia, I urge Russia, to also participate in the endeavors that will be undertaken now.
I know that there are expectations on the part of minorities, especially on the part of the Russian minority in Ukraine. They want their rights to be respected. And I believe that protecting the rights of minorities is something that the new government has to provide for and has to be very clear and outspoken, not only in their words but also with the respective legislative action. In the coming days we will be in a position to see whether it will be possible to make sure that the international community, in conjunction with Russia, will work in the same direction and stand side by side in order to impress this upon Ukraine.
As regards your second question, if you were referring to the fact that I had come here expecting that this was the way in which the day* ought to go and that John Kerry would then hand over a signed no-spy agreement to me saying me – saying to me at the same time, good that we talked about it, this is not what brought me here. And the last few weeks and months have made it clear that this a bit more complicated than that, and this is why I said we have to realize that at this point in time we don’t always agree, we do have different assessments as regards the importance of privacy and security and granting civil liberties. We have different perspectives, different assessments. But in making that point, I am not going to say that we have to begin negotiating a bilateral no-spy agreement, but we have to talk about the fact that we are not always in agreement here, explain our point of view, describe our arguments. Our arguments are not always shared by the other side, but there will be points where we perhaps won’t ever be able to agree 100 percent.
This is why I said, given the efforts that have been undertaken in the past and that will no doubt continue in the weeks and days to come in the framework of the European Union, negotiating with the United States on a data protection agreement and negotiations that will continue between the European Union and the United States of America about adding to and complementing the Safe Harbor Agreement. But alongside with these endeavors we have to have an honest and frank dialogue about the future of protecting privacy in the age of the internet. And I’m happy to see that the American side has accepted that wish that we have expressed and is willing to talk to us about this, not only at the level of the respective administrations’ governments, that is, but also involving the stakeholders and civil society in that dialogue.
SECRETARY KERRY: I’ll just comment very quickly on the last part of the foreign minister’s answer to your question, and I just want to make it clear from an American perspective. When I was in the United States Senate, I was a coauthor, with Senator John McCain, of the Internet Privacy Act. And I also was a powerful proponent for internet neutrality. And I have always maintained that it is critical to have an internet that has an open architecture. And that’s the way the internet works most effectively. That’s the way most of our countries will be well served.
At the same time, I well understand the need to have a balance. I mean, as the author of the Privacy Act, where we were clearly trying to prevent – protect people, I’m more than acutely aware of the need for people to have their information, their rights, protected, their information protected. Their personal protection, their medical, all of that, needs to be protected. But I’m also well aware that we live in a very dangerous world, that there are many people plotting very dangerous acts in all parts of the world. No one is free from this.
Currently in Syria, there are in the – somewhere in the range of 7- to 11,000 foreign fighters. And those foreign fighters are learning the worst methods of persuasion – terror. And many of them will return to the countries from which they have come. And that includes many countries in Europe, it includes the United States, it includes Australia, it includes parts of the Middle East, South Central Asia, and Asia. And I’ve talked to leaders in those countries who are deeply concerned about what those people may do when they return to their country.
So we have a global interest in trying to know what terrorists are going to do before they do it. There was information available to people before the events of 9/11. There were telephone conversations made back and forth and so forth. We believe there’s a balance that permits law enforcement and national security to be preserved in their interests and also to preserve privacy. There have been instances where it’s gone over a line. President Obama has said that. That’s why he engaged in the most far-reaching reevaluation and review of our practices, and that’s why he issued new instructions in order precisely to deal with this issue.
So Germany does not have a protagonist here – an antagonist. We’re not adversarial. We have the same interest. And we want to make sure that all of our citizens are protected in both ways, in their privacy and in their security. And we believe there’s a balance, and we’re determined to try to get at that through a reasonable and thoughtful discussion, and I appreciate the foreign minister’s approach to it.
With respect to President Putin and the issue of trust and the question of what’s going to unfold with respect to Ukraine, let me say this. The conduct of foreign affairs is based on relationships and on discussions and the exchanges that leaders have, but it is not based solely on trust in any case that I know of. It’s always based on a concrete set of actions that people agree to take or agree to refrain from. We learned this a long time ago with Ronald Reagan and Gorbachev, where they said trust but verify. In this case, we’re not just – and I said this in my last answer – this is not about words. It’s about actions. And we will look in the days ahead to see the confirmation of the words in the choices that are taken, and I think we’d be naive otherwise.
But I don’t want to suggest that when the leader of a country tells you he’s going to do or she is going to do something, that you shouldn’t take some value in that and try to work with it. That doesn’t mean that’s all you’re relying on. And so we will work in the days ahead to come up with a process that assists all of us in guaranteeing a transition.
And with respect to the reforms and the IMF and the protection of minorities, part of the IMF will rely on reforms. Reforms will have to be taken. And clearly, to the degree the Congress of the United States or others are going to be prepared to put either a loan guarantee or a direct budget assistance agreement on the table, it’s going to require that Ukraine is moving in a certain direction that is able to be understood and measured, that it’s accountable. And I think everybody will look for accountability as we go forward.
But again, it’s important to note that these are just the beginning days. They’re always the most complicated. I think it is a good sign that within a few days the government has now been announced. It’s a technical government. We know some of the players who are involved in it. They are capable and they are people we believe we can work with effectively in order to get to elections so the people of Ukraine can make their decision.
Final part of your question: With respect to the Association Agreement and with respect to NATO, obviously, the people of Ukraine have to make their decision. This is not our decision. This is their decision. That’s part of what prompted this upheaval in the first place. My counsel to Ukrainians – unasked for but nevertheless, I think, may be pertinent – would be to focus on the things that need to be focused on now. Let the election be about the choices of the future. That’s a good thing to have a platform on and to run on. It’s a good thing for the people to have a chance to vote for.
And I think it would be good for all the parties concerned to allow some space here. This should not be solely about NATO or consolidation or association. This should be about the democratic process, the economy, the ability to protect minorities, the ability to pull Ukraine together. And I think they would be well served to hold off on those other issues until that choice has been made by the people and they have a government chosen by the people that is ready to move forward on those kinds of choices.
MS. PSAKI: Thank you, everyone.
SECRETARY KERRY: Thank you all.
Saturday, February 1, 2014
REMARKS BY SECRETARY KERRY, GERMAN FOREIGN MINISTER STEINMEIER
FROM: STATE DEPARTMENT
Remarks With German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier After Their Meeting
Remarks
John Kerry
Secretary of State
Berlin Tegel Airport
Berlin, Germany
January 31, 2014
Remarks With German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier After Their Meeting
Remarks
John Kerry
Secretary of State
Berlin Tegel Airport
Berlin, Germany
January 31, 2014
FOREIGN MINISTER STEINMEIER: (Via interpreter) Well, ladies and gentlemen, allow me to bid you a very warm welcome. And let me say that I’m delighted to have my American colleague here today, that I am able to welcome him here to Berlin. It’s more than a stopover on the road towards Munich. We’ll see each other again on the margins of the security conference there.
Dear John, I’m very pleased to have you, delighted to be able to welcome you. The favorable winds across the Atlantic brought you here a little bit earlier than could be expected yesterday night, so this is why our talk here today was a little bit more extensive than we could have hoped for, which is a very good thing. And it’s very important, because as long as politics are made by people, and hopefully this is going to be the case for a very long time, personal contacts among those who are in political responsibility is of the utmost importance. And I think that this was a very good beginning.
We meet at an airport in Berlin. It’s not Tempelhof. Had we met in Tempelhof, we would be able to see the monument that was erected in memory of the airlift, and it would remind of those times. It would remind us of the very close links and bonds that have existed between Germany and the United States of America. We are very much aware here in Germany that a development towards a stable democracy in Germany would not have been possible without the assistance of Americans as well.
And we know that the suffering of the German people, particularly here in Berlin, would have been immeasurable had not America stepped in at the time, recognized clearly, seen its responsibility, and alleviate the suffering of the people who were enclosed.
And well, in a nutshell, ladies and gentlemen, German-American friendship is a reality. That doesn’t exclude that, from time to time, we may see things differently. That became very clear over the last few weeks and months when we were debating the surveillance activities of the NSA. But let me also state quite clearly such a debate, differences of opinion, if they are there and when they are there, must not be allowed to destroy a friendship that has grown over so many decades. And I am sure it won’t destroy this friendship.
It is true we all have to face challenges, but I am absolutely confident that we will be able to weather those challenges, because the debates that we have to make with each other we are able to have on a very firm foundation, on a very firm base as well.
Trust has been lost. I’m confident we will be able to rebuild it, to restore it. We talked about this today in our meeting, how we can actually get again into a bilateral dialogue where we look at those different assessments where we are trying to discuss about how we strike an equitable balance between freedom and security, which is sometimes difficult. We also addressed a number of bilateral issues, as I said. But we also looked a little bit beyond our two nations. The international agenda that will keep us busy also over this weekend in Munich was at the very top of our agenda.
We have just now come back from the Syrian conference. A small step was made in order to prepare to pave the way for an end to the civil strife in Syria and the civil war. Obviously, we are not completely satisfied, cannot be completely satisfied with the state of the negotiations. The only thing that we can safely say and that is positive is that those parties that for three years have been waging war against each other at least agreed at last to be at one at the same negotiating table and one in the same room. Sitting there together today, the first stage of negotiations at working level will end, and I think both of us hope that the delegations from Syria, after an appropriate time, will meet again in order to continue those negotiations.
The incredible suffering in Syria on the ground – death, expulsion, flight – all of that requires a solution where local cessation of hostilities, humanitarian corridors can be established at least as a next step. The crisis in Syria is one where my American colleague is very much engaged on, and I would like to issue a word of respect. It is a very strong attempt of the American Government to bring about also in the vicinity a solution to the Middle East peace – to the Middle East conflict, to find and establish a two-state solution, find a breakthrough there in the negotiations.
We talked about that as well just now, about the ongoing negotiations with the Israelis and the Palestinians. And dear John, I hope that your very good efforts will, in the end, be crowned by success. Wherever we see these attempts, these efforts to finally come to a peaceful solution to the Middle East conflict, wherever we can support that, we will gladly do so. And the same goes for those talks that we’ve had for quite some time already with Iran. It shows how long it may well take until conflicts that have – that are protracted, that have lasted for decades can again be calmed down. More than 30 years of conflict, more than 10 years of negotiations with Iran. Now a first step has been made that seems to be a fairly encouraging one, at least one that encourages us to test whether the Iranians, in that first step of negotiations, have been serious – whether that will be followed up in the next few weeks and months to come so that the long, ongoing dispute over the nuclear ambitions of Iran can be brought to a successful and peaceful settlement.
Tonight and tomorrow, over the weekend, we shall have an opportunity to address the situation in Ukraine repeatedly. The good news is that the last nights were more calm than the previous ones. We did not receive any news of casualties, but we’re far away from a political solution. That is true, too, there have been offers also from Yanukovych. Until this moment, we don’t know whether these offers are actually ones that one can build on that are reliable. In Munich, representatives of the opposition and of the government will be there on the ground. We shall have an opportunity to talk to the representatives of Ukraine, but we will also have an opportunity to talk to other foreign ministers present and try to explore, try to sound out what one can do not only to calm down the situation in Ukraine, but to also lend a helping hand towards enabling this country, Ukraine, to have a free and democratic future.
Thank you very much. Dear John, you have the floor.
SECRETARY KERRY: Well, thank you. You guys alright? (Laughter.)
Thank you, Frank-Walter. (Via interpreter) I am delighted to be back in Germany.
(In English) I’m really happy to be back here in Berlin, where I spent some formative years as a child. I remember Tempelhof. Obviously, we all remember the history of those events. But usually, when I came into Berlin back then, I came on a special military train from Frankfurt, which was an all-night trip. And for a young kid of 11, 12 years-old, it was a great adventure, I can assure you.
It’s special for me to be back here, and I thank my friend, Frank-Walter, for his hospitality and for being willing to meet us here at the airport like this because he has to rush off to open the Munich conference. I get to spend a little more time, and then I will join him in Munich this afternoon for the rest of that conference over the next several days. And we are grateful to Germany for its longtime hosting of this important security gathering.
Almost a year ago, I came here on my first trip as Secretary of State. And I came here – I think this was one of my first stops – because of the value, of the longstanding relationship between the United States and Germany, and particularly, I want to say, with the German people. It’s no secret, and my friend Frank-Walter referred to it, that we’ve been through a rough period in the last months. But I’m pleased to be here to help direct our focus – my focus, that of the United States and of Germany – to the future and to strengthen the trust and the confidence that has always characterized this relationship. A strong U.S.-German partnership is crucial to the long list of global issues that we face. The United States, I want you to know, welcomes Germany’s growing and important role on the world stage.
I was grateful to see Foreign Minister Steinmeier at the Geneva II conference where we had a chance to talk just a couple of weeks ago. And there we reiterated the need for a Syrian-led political solution on the brutal civil war. We’re also working very closely – again, as he discussed – on the P5+1 negotiations with respect to Iran. The international community has expressed its concerns over Iran’s nuclear program through several United Nations resolutions, and obviously, they have been – those concerns have been reinforced through the sanctions regime that has been put in place by the global community – not by one country, but with the support and ratification and affirmation of the United Nations Security Council.
So we are working together, Germany and the United States, on this critical security challenge. We are also working hand-in-hand with respect to Afghanistan, and we are very mindful of the challenges that lie ahead, but also of the deep commitment that exists between us and our important leadership with respect to the other countries involved, so that we can have a successful conclusion to this significant effort and hopefully build a prosperous future for the Afghan people.
We also discussed briefly our ongoing economic relationship. Germany and the United States – Germany is the United States’ largest single European trading partner. And this is a relationship that has meant more jobs, investment, and growth in both of our countries. We believe that much more exciting opportunities lie ahead, and this must be one of the primary areas of focus for both of us.
We are working on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership – the TTIP, as it is called. And this is a trade arrangement that could result in one of the world’s largest markets being created – the combined market of Europe and the United States – Europe the largest market in the world, the United States the largest single economy in the world. And if we can raise the standards, what we do is help the citizens of both of our countries, and indeed, of the rest of the world to see that the global community is responding in a way that provides opportunity for everybody and helps to raise the standards – the living standards, the labor standards, the trade standards, the product standards – all of the things that benefit our people. So that’s what we’re working for.
When I was here in Berlin last year – and I look forward to coming back here and being able to do this again – I had a really enjoyable, fun session with a group of young people. And we met in a cafe in the city and had a question-and-answer session, an opportunity for me to listen to them, them to listen to me, and just talk. And it was a great opportunity for me to understand better the hopes and aspirations of the next generation, and also to reconnect on a people-to-people level. It really was clear to me that young Germans and young Americans of any persuasion, walk of life, religion, belief all share the same goals, the same aspirations, and the same concerns. They share the same dreams and they share most of the same values.
So it’s our hope that those aspirations for opportunity, for democracy, for liberty, freedom, which have been at the heart of our bilateral relationship, will continue to be the centerpiece of what defines German-American relations. Those values are why both Germany and the United States find the recent events in Ukraine so concerning. We have worked shoulder-to-shoulder. Foreign Minister Steinmeier has talked to the opposition. I have talked to the opposition. We will meet with the opposition and with other leaders in Munich, and we will have an opportunity to be able to press forward in the months ahead to support democracy, freedom, freedom of association, and to support the European aspirations of the Ukrainian people. And together, we join firmly to reject violence. We are encouraging and supporting political dialogue. We hope that together, we can remain committed to helping the Ukrainians end the human rights abuses, get political prisoners released, and see their dignity restored.
So we look forward to continuing to work with Germany very, very closely to make progress on all of these issues, and frankly, just to build on the strength of the relationship that has defined United States-German relations for many decades now. And I look forward to my further meetings on that subject, but most importantly, I look forward to turning a page and getting us focused on the larger, most critical issues that we face together. Thank you.
MODERATOR: (Via interpreter) Questions from the American side, please.
QUESTION: A question for both ministers, please: What can you do to force Syria to meet its chemical weapons obligations on the deadlines that have been laid out? And on Ukraine, President Yanukovych says his government has met its obligations to resolve the crisis. Do you believe that’s true? And what is your message for the Ukrainian opposition leaders that you’ll be meeting in Munich? Thank you.
SECRETARY KERRY: Well – go ahead.
FOREIGN MINISTER STEINMEIER: No.
SECRETARY KERRY: Well, with respect to Ukraine, no. The offers of President Yanukovych have not yet reached an adequate level of reform and an adequate level of sharing of the future so that the opposition can, in fact, feel that it could legitimately come to the table and form some kind of a unity government.
Now, we believe unity is important. And we believe that moving towards that is critical. So our message to the Ukraine opposition – that is certainly my message to them that we meet with today – will be the full support of President Obama and the American people for their efforts. We will reinforce their courage and their need to continue to be unified as they press for an adequate level of a reform agenda. But we will also say to them: If you get that reform agenda, if you are able to secure genuine participation and a genuine ability to bring the country together, then we would urge them to engage in that, because further standoff and further violence – or violence that becomes uncontrollable – is not in anybody’s interest.
We also would say to our friends in Russia: This does not have to be a zero-sum game. This is not something where Ukraine should become a proxy and trapped in some kind of larger ambition for Russia or the United States. That’s not what this is about. This is about the freedom of choice for the people of Ukraine, and their ability to be able to define their future without coercion from outside forces. And that’s what we hope to achieve.
With respect to Syria, let me make it clear that Bashar al-Assad needs to understand that he agreed to an international United Nations Security Council Resolution which has reinforced a requirement that he remove all of those weapons and that he do so in a specific period of time. That was passed by unanimity within the United Nations Security Council. Russia is a partner in this effort. And Russia obviously plays a critical role in helping the Syrians to understand their obligation of compliance.
Now, Bashar al-Assad is not, in our judgment, fully in compliance because of the timing and the delays that have taken place contrary to the OPCW’s judgment that this could move faster. So the options are all the options that originally existed. No option has been taken off the table. We made that clear at the time of the passage of the UN resolution, and I restate that now today. We want the Syrian regime to live up to its obligations. And it is critical that very rapidly all of those chemical weapons be moved from once – from their 12 or so sites to the one site in the port and be prepared for shipment out of Syria all together.
Every indication we have is there is no legitimate reason that that is not happening now. And therefore we call on Bashar al-Assad to live up to his obligations or we will join together with our friends and talk about which, if any, of the options we deem necessary at this point to proceed forward.
FOREIGN MINISTER STEINMEIER: (Via interpreter) Allow me to complement that briefly. I think the importance of this agreement on the destruction of chemical weapons cannot be overestimated. After three years of civil war in Syria, this was the first agreement that allowed at least to prevent a further escalation of the violence. So it is so important therefore that these agreements are abided by. And to complement what Secretary Kerry just said, I think the Syrians and Assad need to be well aware of the fact that they’re not only toying with their own credibility but after the first talks with the Americans, the Russian side was also in on this, so they’re also toying with the credibility of the Russian side. So I very much hope that this is not the end of the debate, but that there will be pressure and adequate pressure on the Syrian side to stand by their commitments. And this is an element also that is part and parcel of how we got to Geneva II in the first place. So the agreement on the destruction of chemical weapons is very important, and if it is not kept, that would have a negative impact on Geneva II.
To complement this even further, we – and I’m saying this for the German side, as the German journalists know – only a few days ago we adopted a decision about correct – the position that we have taken up until now. We have said if the negotiations towards a political solution in Syria are to be injected with at least a glimmer of hope, then we too need to step in and give our contribution to making this possible. And this is why we have decided to be part of the destruction of chemical weapons, and those chemical weapons that are transported out of Syria. And together with American assistance, they are diluted on the Mediterranean and the residual components will then have to be removed. We have the technical possibilities to help with this process in Germany, and we are glad to be of help. So should those chemical weapons be transported from Syria, out of Syria, then about two-thirds of those weapons will be destroyed in Northern Germany.
As to Ukraine, I don’t need to add to what the Secretary has said. My impression is that Yanukovych, up until now, still has not fully understood how serious the situation is, as can clearly be seen by the nature of the offers that have been made. They have been made contingent on a number of conditions. So up until now, we have not – we do not see yet that those offers that have been made to the opposition in the end will really make a crucial difference, politically speaking, on the ground in Ukraine. And we still are not able actually to say to what extent the president is willing and ready to accept a change of his – remit of his competences according to the constitution. And that’s going to be crucial in order to come to an agreement with the opposition.
QUESTION: (Via interpreter) (Inaudible) from the German Press Agency. I have two questions directed to Secretary Kerry. You will soon – you will now also meet Chancellor Merkel, who has apparently been surveyed – eavesdropped on by the secret intelligence service of your country. I would like to know whether you are ready – whether the American side is ready to come to a contractual basis that, in the future, bans such spying – we call it, which is a bit curious, a no-spy agreement? And there are quite a number of people here in Germany who think that actually the United States ought to issue an apology. Would you be ready to do that?
SECRETARY KERRY: Well, look, the United States and Germany enjoy a really long friendship, as we have described here today, and a long history, a long history of great cooperation, and particularly on complicated issues like counterterrorism and national security and defense. As part of our deep relationship, we cooperate very, very significantly on all of the collective security issues of our countries and our citizens. As the foreign minister knows, because he’s been here before, and he’s also been involved in security issues for a long time, none of this is simple. None of this is easy.
And since 9/11, when we were attacked out of nowhere and more lives were lost than at any time since Pearl Harbor, we responded, we think carefully, but in ways that tried to deal with the protection of not just the American people, but of everybody against acts of terrorism. Madrid saw a terrible act of terrorism, London has seen acts of terrorism – Athens, various other places. And we are living in a world where unfortunately some people are willing to strap a pack on their back and walk into a crowded theater or a sports event and just blow people up. So we are trying to respond as intelligently and responsibly of all that.
Now, Chancellor Merkel and President Obama, at their mutual direction – and they’ve had several conversations – we have undertaken a extensive, close consultation with Germany, which we are engaged in on the subject of cooperation and how we move beyond this particular challenge. We now have a better understanding, I think, of the requirements and the concerns of both sides.
So what I can tell you is the consultations will continue between our intelligence services. And we absolutely share a commitment to trying to put this behind us in the appropriate way and to strengthen our practical cooperation going forward. Our consultations right now reflect our close relationship, they reflect the shared threats that we face, and the technical – very complicated technical environment in which we live where the threats to us have changed and become, in many ways, more lethal and harder to discover.
So we will continue to work to protect the privacy interests of all of our citizens. When I was in the United States Senate, John McCain and I are the original authors of the privacy laws and rules for the internet. So we are committed to privacy, and I assure our friends in Germany this will get worked through in the proper channels in the proper way, but most importantly Germany and the United States have very significant issues to continue to work on together and none of us want to let this get in the way of our ability to be able to continue to build our friendship and our cooperation.
Thank you all.
FOREIGN MINISTER STEINMEIER: Thank you.
Tuesday, November 5, 2013
SECRETARY OF STATE KERRY MAKES REMARKS IN WARSAW TO MEMBERS OF AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
FROM: U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT
Remarks to American Chamber of Commerce Participants
Remarks
John Kerry
Secretary of State
Bristol Hotel
Warsaw, Poland
November 5, 2013
SECRETARY KERRY: Thank you. Thank you very much, Joseph. Thank you. Appreciate it. Let me see if I can make this Kerry-sized. (Laughter.) Anyway, there we go. Thank you. Good morning, everybody – or good afternoon. What is it? I don’t know anymore. (Laughter.)
PARTICIPANT: Afternoon.
SECRETARY KERRY: What?
PARTICIPANT: Afternoon.
SECRETARY KERRY: Afternoon. Good afternoon. And you haven’t eaten yet, right? (Laughter.) Anyway, and it’s very dangerous because I think I’m all that stands between you and your food. (Laughter.) Is it true you’re having a meal?
PARTICIPANT: (Inaudible.)
SECRETARY KERRY: Beg your pardon?
PARTICIPANT: Yes.
SECRETARY KERRY: Okay, once I let you sit down. (Laughter.)
Well, I will not keep you too, too long, but I want to tell you, first of all, what a great honor it is for me to be here in Warsaw, in Poland. Joseph just talked about the remarkable transformation taking place here. It really is extraordinary. And in fact, it’s encouraging and inspirational. I got to walk down the street, the main street this morning, heading towards the old city. And the Ambassador, our good Ambassador, was relating to me sort of the care that went into the rebuilding and the thought about replicating what was. And so you see the beauty even though it’s more modern, obviously, it is reflective of what was there originally and a great, great statement about the spirit of this country and the sort of stubborn refusal, if you will, to be beaten down by history.
So I think it’s a great statement. It’s a great metaphor for a lot of countries today for the possibilities of what can come out of great conflict and tragedy through the determination and the imagination of the human spirit. And that’s kind of part of what we’re here to talk about here a little bit today – the story of Poland, a story really of resistance in many ways to so many different conflicts and occupations and challenges.
And I was saying just a moment ago over at the Embassy that when you hear the name Warsaw you don’t just think of that abstractly, but you think of the Warsaw Pact, the Warsaw Convention, the Warsaw Uprising, the Warsaw Ghetto. I mean, there are great moments of defiance and of transformation affiliated with the name, and more particularly with the spirit and the history. And of course, we in Massachusetts, because of Casimir Pulaski and his historic letter to George Washington when he wrote of his willingness to be there to fight for our own independence, began a great tradition of our countries being unified in our depth of commitment and belief in the human spirit, demonstrated so much through democracy and through the commitment to the power of individuals to be able to make a difference. So we celebrate that, and I thank you because I’ve been in Cairo and Riyadh for two days, so you have given me weather much more accustomed to Massachusetts and my hometown – (laughter) – than 90 degrees at this time of year.
I’m going to try to – let me just talk for a bit about sort of what really brings all of you together, because I have great respect for the work that the Chamber has done. And the companies that have invested here and the relationship at a corporate level in business is really essential to what has helped Poland to be able to be the powerhouse economically that it is today.
When this organization, the Chamber, opened its doors not too long after Communism collapsed, the country –and indeed the continent and the world – were full of hope for what the future of free markets might be able to be able to bring. But I don’t think any of us could have predicted that it would have been as unbelievably successful and rapid as it has been here in Poland. The economic strength of this country now is truly nothing less than remarkable. And just as – I mean, if you think about it, one generation after the Gdansk shipyard strikes, Poland has become – as Joseph reminded us a moment ago – the sixth largest economy in Europe. It is one of the best places to invest in the world, and it is one of the economic powerhouses of the EU. It is also one of the few transatlantic economies to grow despite the global recession, which is a testament to the Polish people’s innovation and resilience.
And that’s why the United States made our bilateral trade such a priority, because trade has quadrupled here just over the last 10 years. So I just came downstairs from a meeting with a group of young people who represent young Polish innovators, a group that is part of this alumni program of young people chosen by the Ministry of Education. The Polish Government supports them to go and take part in a program at Berkeley and at Stanford. And they’re collaborating with American partners on creative solutions to today’s challenges. And it seems to me that they are a symbol of the way in which the aspirations of young people really unite us rather than divide us, as they do in some other parts of the world. Entrepreneurship, competition, open markets, these words were never associated with Poland’s economy 25 years ago, but today they define it.
That’s the measure of the transformation and that’s what the world means when it talks about an economic miracle which has taken place here. I’m Catholic; I happen to believe in miracles, but this is a different kind. (Laughter.) And it has been really nothing short of phenomenal. It’s taken hard work, and an awful lot of you here in this room really get credit for what is happening here. Several hundred – I think at least 100,000 jobs have been brought here through the companies that are here and represented.
The fast rise – but it’s symbolic of something else, if I can just spend a minute on this. I was recently in South Korea, in the Republic of Korea, and there it struck me how this country that 15 years ago we were giving aid to, is now a donor country giving aid to other countries in the world. We go back to the Marshall Plan, which obviously Poland, because of the occupation, didn’t take part in, but you look at the rest of Europe where it did take hold, and we see how investment and rules of the road and belief in the possibilities of that investment to turn a corner, in fact, produces transformation. And the same is true for Japan. Now all of those places are not just donor countries, but they’re vibrant democracies in places that are contributing to a set of values that the world really respects and admires.
I think that if you look in other places – I was privileged to lead the effort over 10 years to open up our new economic relationship with Vietnam. Back in 1990, when we began that effort, nobody believed it was possible. Now Vietnam is one of the economic powerhouses of the world. We have vibrant investment, and it is a vibrant marketplace, a capitalist marketplace, which is very different from the place it was envisioned to be when I was there in the late 1960s.
So right now, right here in Europe, we believe we’re on the doorstep of another great transformation that could actually make trade more open, make markets more free, make competition stronger, and create more opportunity for jobs. And it even can make a broader base of economic prosperity the hallmark of the next generation in the way that we want it to be.
And of course, I’m talking about the possibilities of TTIP, the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership. Now, it’s ambitious, but its potential benefits are enormous. I talked this morning with the Prime Minister and the Foreign Minister about it. This market could integrate the world’s largest market, the EU, and the single largest economy, the United States, and create a consortium, if you will, of nations all adhering to the highest standards, not the lowest, creating a race to the top, not a race to the bottom.
And a market of that size can have a profound impact on the choices that other countries must begin to make with respect to transparency, accountability, corruption, all of the things that are really the key to attracting investment with the kind of confidence that money seeks, as it has many choices around this planet as to where to go and where to invest. TTIP will improve the rules that govern trade and it will level the playing field.
And by strengthening the rules-based trading and promoting greater transparency and regulations and standards that become more compatible, we will break some of the resistance to trade that exists and encourage this very, very important standardization, which is, in the end, I think, in the interest of everybody. If you know what the rules of the road are and you know the rules of the road are top level, you are much more prone to invest and locate and do business than you are at a place where you know you can’t get a decision from the government because they don’t have those rules or getting that decision from the government may require all kinds of hoops you have to jump through. And for our companies that adhere to the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, that can be a particular challenge against countries where they don’t.
So this is a chance to really even the scale, and I’ll give you a few examples of why it’s important to try to do this, leaving out the question of corruption practices. One of Poland’s most successful retailers in the United States is a company called Inglot Cosmetics. And it has a successful brand of breathable nail polish, something I don’t know anything about, folks. (Laughter.) But I am told that while cosmetic regulations between the EU and the U.S. are similar, they’re still just different enough in order to raise production and administrative costs that make it more difficult for people to be able to sell or compete. In TTIP, we actually save this cosmetic company time and money so that it could focus on developing more innovative products and actually engage more in selling and sales, rather than reacting to a regulative marketplace.
You can take Poland’s famous hams, which are enjoyed at dinner tables all across the United States, or you can look at Massachusetts cranberries and California grapes, which have found a growing market here in this country. These foods could be traded much more easily and cheaply than they are today, and that’s if we ease the tariffs and ease the barriers that make it harder to be able to trade. TTIP will do exactly that.
So more compatible standards could also help auto manufacturers, like General Motors, which produces more than 2 million cars a year in the southern city of Gliwice. And these companies and others like them here in Poland would greatly benefit from an increased, two-way transatlantic capacity.
So bottom line, this really is an historic opportunity. And as you come here today and you break bread in a few minutes and have a chance to talk with each other and everything, think about what you can do to help us energize this process across Europe. For those of you who travel, and most of you do, those of you who engage in a daily basis here, get people excited about this possibility, because TTIP is a political and strategic bet that we’re willing to place on one another.
And more and more – I said this during my nomination hearings, and I believe it to the core, and I’ve watched this evolution over the years in terms of foreign policy – more and more foreign policy is economic policy. And more and more, as countries have less and less cash that they’re throwing around, we will need to partner with the private sector in order to leverage change in countries. And if we can help create the framework by which countries invite companies to come and invest and be involved and streamline decision making, and help with economic zones, qualified economic zones, tax incentive, whatever it takes to create fast decisions, effective availability of workforce, all those kinds of things, that will be the greatest development to policy that there will be.
In the absence of an age when hundreds of billions of dollars would be thrown into a Marshall Plan, the new plan is really the private sector and its investment as people are competing globally to create more middle class. And as more middle class are created, more people will travel, more people will share the purchasing of goods, and more people will, in the end, have a stake in their communities that will lower the threshold of terrorism and the option that people take to choose to be violent in the choices that they make with respect to how they can define their future.
I’m telling you folks, that food vendor in Tunisia who burned himself to death was not part of a religious extremist group. He was not part of any ideology. He wanted to be able to sell his fruit without corruption, without government interference. He wanted to touch his own sense of what the brass ring was. And the same thing in Tahrir Square. Those Egyptian kids, none of them were members of the Muslim Brotherhood, none of them came there with any ideology. They were texting each other and Googling, and using FaceTime and tweet and talking and trying to figure out how to really have part of the future. The same thing in Syria: It began as an effort by young people to be able to touch the future, and then it was co-opted by others with other intent.
So building these bridges of opportunity for people is going to define the future. And I believe that the private sector, business, chambers of commerce, and others are vital instruments of global policy, not American policy, that have ways in which we will reach global aspirations and be able to meet this growing demand by unbelievable numbers of young people bursting, a new baby boom generation, that are going to demand part of that future. Sixty five percent of many countries are under the age of 40, in some countries 60 percent under the age of 25. And if we don’t educate them and provide jobs for them and opportunities, we’re going to have great difficulties.
So I thank you for the privilege of being here with you today. We’ve come a long way in one generation. And for the sake of the next generation, we clearly cannot be satisfied. There’s a huge task ahead of us. Poland is really helping, and you – all of you in this Chamber – are helping to define that road ahead. And we look not just to lecture you or to talk at you, but to partner with you in the effort to make sure that we meet your needs, and through that together meet our needs as global citizens.
Thank you all for the privilege of being with you today. Thank you. (Applause.)
Remarks to American Chamber of Commerce Participants
Remarks
John Kerry
Secretary of State
Bristol Hotel
Warsaw, Poland
November 5, 2013
SECRETARY KERRY: Thank you. Thank you very much, Joseph. Thank you. Appreciate it. Let me see if I can make this Kerry-sized. (Laughter.) Anyway, there we go. Thank you. Good morning, everybody – or good afternoon. What is it? I don’t know anymore. (Laughter.)
PARTICIPANT: Afternoon.
SECRETARY KERRY: What?
PARTICIPANT: Afternoon.
SECRETARY KERRY: Afternoon. Good afternoon. And you haven’t eaten yet, right? (Laughter.) Anyway, and it’s very dangerous because I think I’m all that stands between you and your food. (Laughter.) Is it true you’re having a meal?
PARTICIPANT: (Inaudible.)
SECRETARY KERRY: Beg your pardon?
PARTICIPANT: Yes.
SECRETARY KERRY: Okay, once I let you sit down. (Laughter.)
Well, I will not keep you too, too long, but I want to tell you, first of all, what a great honor it is for me to be here in Warsaw, in Poland. Joseph just talked about the remarkable transformation taking place here. It really is extraordinary. And in fact, it’s encouraging and inspirational. I got to walk down the street, the main street this morning, heading towards the old city. And the Ambassador, our good Ambassador, was relating to me sort of the care that went into the rebuilding and the thought about replicating what was. And so you see the beauty even though it’s more modern, obviously, it is reflective of what was there originally and a great, great statement about the spirit of this country and the sort of stubborn refusal, if you will, to be beaten down by history.
So I think it’s a great statement. It’s a great metaphor for a lot of countries today for the possibilities of what can come out of great conflict and tragedy through the determination and the imagination of the human spirit. And that’s kind of part of what we’re here to talk about here a little bit today – the story of Poland, a story really of resistance in many ways to so many different conflicts and occupations and challenges.
And I was saying just a moment ago over at the Embassy that when you hear the name Warsaw you don’t just think of that abstractly, but you think of the Warsaw Pact, the Warsaw Convention, the Warsaw Uprising, the Warsaw Ghetto. I mean, there are great moments of defiance and of transformation affiliated with the name, and more particularly with the spirit and the history. And of course, we in Massachusetts, because of Casimir Pulaski and his historic letter to George Washington when he wrote of his willingness to be there to fight for our own independence, began a great tradition of our countries being unified in our depth of commitment and belief in the human spirit, demonstrated so much through democracy and through the commitment to the power of individuals to be able to make a difference. So we celebrate that, and I thank you because I’ve been in Cairo and Riyadh for two days, so you have given me weather much more accustomed to Massachusetts and my hometown – (laughter) – than 90 degrees at this time of year.
I’m going to try to – let me just talk for a bit about sort of what really brings all of you together, because I have great respect for the work that the Chamber has done. And the companies that have invested here and the relationship at a corporate level in business is really essential to what has helped Poland to be able to be the powerhouse economically that it is today.
When this organization, the Chamber, opened its doors not too long after Communism collapsed, the country –and indeed the continent and the world – were full of hope for what the future of free markets might be able to be able to bring. But I don’t think any of us could have predicted that it would have been as unbelievably successful and rapid as it has been here in Poland. The economic strength of this country now is truly nothing less than remarkable. And just as – I mean, if you think about it, one generation after the Gdansk shipyard strikes, Poland has become – as Joseph reminded us a moment ago – the sixth largest economy in Europe. It is one of the best places to invest in the world, and it is one of the economic powerhouses of the EU. It is also one of the few transatlantic economies to grow despite the global recession, which is a testament to the Polish people’s innovation and resilience.
And that’s why the United States made our bilateral trade such a priority, because trade has quadrupled here just over the last 10 years. So I just came downstairs from a meeting with a group of young people who represent young Polish innovators, a group that is part of this alumni program of young people chosen by the Ministry of Education. The Polish Government supports them to go and take part in a program at Berkeley and at Stanford. And they’re collaborating with American partners on creative solutions to today’s challenges. And it seems to me that they are a symbol of the way in which the aspirations of young people really unite us rather than divide us, as they do in some other parts of the world. Entrepreneurship, competition, open markets, these words were never associated with Poland’s economy 25 years ago, but today they define it.
That’s the measure of the transformation and that’s what the world means when it talks about an economic miracle which has taken place here. I’m Catholic; I happen to believe in miracles, but this is a different kind. (Laughter.) And it has been really nothing short of phenomenal. It’s taken hard work, and an awful lot of you here in this room really get credit for what is happening here. Several hundred – I think at least 100,000 jobs have been brought here through the companies that are here and represented.
The fast rise – but it’s symbolic of something else, if I can just spend a minute on this. I was recently in South Korea, in the Republic of Korea, and there it struck me how this country that 15 years ago we were giving aid to, is now a donor country giving aid to other countries in the world. We go back to the Marshall Plan, which obviously Poland, because of the occupation, didn’t take part in, but you look at the rest of Europe where it did take hold, and we see how investment and rules of the road and belief in the possibilities of that investment to turn a corner, in fact, produces transformation. And the same is true for Japan. Now all of those places are not just donor countries, but they’re vibrant democracies in places that are contributing to a set of values that the world really respects and admires.
I think that if you look in other places – I was privileged to lead the effort over 10 years to open up our new economic relationship with Vietnam. Back in 1990, when we began that effort, nobody believed it was possible. Now Vietnam is one of the economic powerhouses of the world. We have vibrant investment, and it is a vibrant marketplace, a capitalist marketplace, which is very different from the place it was envisioned to be when I was there in the late 1960s.
So right now, right here in Europe, we believe we’re on the doorstep of another great transformation that could actually make trade more open, make markets more free, make competition stronger, and create more opportunity for jobs. And it even can make a broader base of economic prosperity the hallmark of the next generation in the way that we want it to be.
And of course, I’m talking about the possibilities of TTIP, the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership. Now, it’s ambitious, but its potential benefits are enormous. I talked this morning with the Prime Minister and the Foreign Minister about it. This market could integrate the world’s largest market, the EU, and the single largest economy, the United States, and create a consortium, if you will, of nations all adhering to the highest standards, not the lowest, creating a race to the top, not a race to the bottom.
And a market of that size can have a profound impact on the choices that other countries must begin to make with respect to transparency, accountability, corruption, all of the things that are really the key to attracting investment with the kind of confidence that money seeks, as it has many choices around this planet as to where to go and where to invest. TTIP will improve the rules that govern trade and it will level the playing field.
And by strengthening the rules-based trading and promoting greater transparency and regulations and standards that become more compatible, we will break some of the resistance to trade that exists and encourage this very, very important standardization, which is, in the end, I think, in the interest of everybody. If you know what the rules of the road are and you know the rules of the road are top level, you are much more prone to invest and locate and do business than you are at a place where you know you can’t get a decision from the government because they don’t have those rules or getting that decision from the government may require all kinds of hoops you have to jump through. And for our companies that adhere to the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, that can be a particular challenge against countries where they don’t.
So this is a chance to really even the scale, and I’ll give you a few examples of why it’s important to try to do this, leaving out the question of corruption practices. One of Poland’s most successful retailers in the United States is a company called Inglot Cosmetics. And it has a successful brand of breathable nail polish, something I don’t know anything about, folks. (Laughter.) But I am told that while cosmetic regulations between the EU and the U.S. are similar, they’re still just different enough in order to raise production and administrative costs that make it more difficult for people to be able to sell or compete. In TTIP, we actually save this cosmetic company time and money so that it could focus on developing more innovative products and actually engage more in selling and sales, rather than reacting to a regulative marketplace.
You can take Poland’s famous hams, which are enjoyed at dinner tables all across the United States, or you can look at Massachusetts cranberries and California grapes, which have found a growing market here in this country. These foods could be traded much more easily and cheaply than they are today, and that’s if we ease the tariffs and ease the barriers that make it harder to be able to trade. TTIP will do exactly that.
So more compatible standards could also help auto manufacturers, like General Motors, which produces more than 2 million cars a year in the southern city of Gliwice. And these companies and others like them here in Poland would greatly benefit from an increased, two-way transatlantic capacity.
So bottom line, this really is an historic opportunity. And as you come here today and you break bread in a few minutes and have a chance to talk with each other and everything, think about what you can do to help us energize this process across Europe. For those of you who travel, and most of you do, those of you who engage in a daily basis here, get people excited about this possibility, because TTIP is a political and strategic bet that we’re willing to place on one another.
And more and more – I said this during my nomination hearings, and I believe it to the core, and I’ve watched this evolution over the years in terms of foreign policy – more and more foreign policy is economic policy. And more and more, as countries have less and less cash that they’re throwing around, we will need to partner with the private sector in order to leverage change in countries. And if we can help create the framework by which countries invite companies to come and invest and be involved and streamline decision making, and help with economic zones, qualified economic zones, tax incentive, whatever it takes to create fast decisions, effective availability of workforce, all those kinds of things, that will be the greatest development to policy that there will be.
In the absence of an age when hundreds of billions of dollars would be thrown into a Marshall Plan, the new plan is really the private sector and its investment as people are competing globally to create more middle class. And as more middle class are created, more people will travel, more people will share the purchasing of goods, and more people will, in the end, have a stake in their communities that will lower the threshold of terrorism and the option that people take to choose to be violent in the choices that they make with respect to how they can define their future.
I’m telling you folks, that food vendor in Tunisia who burned himself to death was not part of a religious extremist group. He was not part of any ideology. He wanted to be able to sell his fruit without corruption, without government interference. He wanted to touch his own sense of what the brass ring was. And the same thing in Tahrir Square. Those Egyptian kids, none of them were members of the Muslim Brotherhood, none of them came there with any ideology. They were texting each other and Googling, and using FaceTime and tweet and talking and trying to figure out how to really have part of the future. The same thing in Syria: It began as an effort by young people to be able to touch the future, and then it was co-opted by others with other intent.
So building these bridges of opportunity for people is going to define the future. And I believe that the private sector, business, chambers of commerce, and others are vital instruments of global policy, not American policy, that have ways in which we will reach global aspirations and be able to meet this growing demand by unbelievable numbers of young people bursting, a new baby boom generation, that are going to demand part of that future. Sixty five percent of many countries are under the age of 40, in some countries 60 percent under the age of 25. And if we don’t educate them and provide jobs for them and opportunities, we’re going to have great difficulties.
So I thank you for the privilege of being here with you today. We’ve come a long way in one generation. And for the sake of the next generation, we clearly cannot be satisfied. There’s a huge task ahead of us. Poland is really helping, and you – all of you in this Chamber – are helping to define that road ahead. And we look not just to lecture you or to talk at you, but to partner with you in the effort to make sure that we meet your needs, and through that together meet our needs as global citizens.
Thank you all for the privilege of being with you today. Thank you. (Applause.)
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