Hillary Clinton speech at the Asia meeting.............

[biopowertoday]

There is a video at the link also.
Enjoy.


http://www.state.gov/secretary/rm/2009a/02/117333.htm


U.S. and Asia: Two Transatlantic and Transpacific Powers

Hillary Rodham Clinton
Secretary of State
Remarks at the Asia Society
New York, New York
February 13, 2009


SECRETARY CLINTON: .........
...........
MS. DESAI: My goodness...........

SECRETARY CLINTON: Thank you. (Applause.)

MS. DESAI: Please stay seated for a little while longer. First of all, thank you so much for such an amazing, encompassing speech that I know is going to be heard around the world, as it is being heard now.

The Secretary has actually agreed to take a few questions. I want to just remind you all that we really want to focus on East Asia. So those of who say, “How come she didn’t say anything about India,” we’re not doing it now – (laughter) – just so you know. Because there’s another time. And the fact is that the Special Representative Richard Holbrooke is actually in South Asia now, and we don’t want all of our heavy power all to be in the same place at the same time. So do not ask those questions. And what I’m going to do is that we actually have questions from online audience, as well as here, and we have selected a few to see if you would give some answers.

The first one is very simple, but we would love to hear from you about what you think is the significance of having your first trip as Secretary of State to Asia and not somewhere else?

SECRETARY CLINTON: Well, I believe it demonstrates clearly that our new Administration wants to focus a lot of time and energy in working with Asian partners and all the nations in the Pacific region because we know that so much of our future depends upon our relationships there. And we equally know that our capacity to solve a lot of the global challenges that we’re confronting depends upon decisions that are made there. So it was an easy choice for me to make. Obviously, we are focused on the many problems that exist today that we’re confronting.

Right off the bat, actually, the very first day I walked into the State Department and the second day of his Administration, both President Obama and Vice President Biden came to the State Department to make the announcements that I had asked them to do, naming George Mitchell as our Special Envoy to the Middle East and Richard Holbrooke as our Special Representative to Afghanistan and Pakistan.So clearly, we are focused on many parts of the world.

We are in preparation right now for the NATO Summit that will be coming up in Europe. I will be going to Cairo on March the 2nd for the Donors Conference that Egypt is hosting on humanitarian aid for the people of Gaza. I will be helping to tee up what we do with the Summit of Americas that is coming in April that will be very important for our neighbors to the south, as well as ourself. We have a lot of challenges in Africa that we are working hard to address.

So it’s a big world, and we have a lot of work to do. And I think there has been a general feeling that perhaps we didn’t pay an appropriate amount of attention to Asia over the last years, being very preoccupied with other parts of the world, so I wanted to start at the very beginning demonstrating our commitment there.

MS. DESAI: Thank you. That was from Robert Kindle of ARD German Broadcasting from Washington, D.C.

The next question is from our own Vice Chair sitting in San Francisco, Jack Wadsworth....................

[Captain Hilts]

1. How refreshing not to be hated. nt

[biopowertoday]

2. :-)

[Captain Hilts]

3. Here you go...

[Beacool]

4. Thank you

She seems to have been received very well in Japan.

:D