But also a very special welcome to our cspan audience who will be following this event on cspan2 today, and were delighted to have you here, if only virtually, and delighted to have everyone who was been ablo participate in this discussion. This i think is going to be one of the most interesting and significant events that weve done here at hudson, particularly given the fact that we are less than a week away from the election when so many of these issues that were going to be talking about today, the question of what america is going to do, where americas going to go from here, those issues are going to be decided very, very soon. And so what happens in our discussion here i think will help us to understand as a guide to what takes place, regardless of who it is who will be sitting in the oval office come january january 21. I want to say a few words about our distinguished guest. Robert obrien was born in los angeles and graduated from the university of california berkeley with a law degree. From there he founded a law firm of Larson Obrien llp. Between 19961998, obrien was a legal officer with the United Nations Security Council Compensation Commission in geneva, switzerland. He served in a number of political positions with the bush and the obama and Trump Administrations, and was civilian observer for the Pacific Council on International Policy at the pretrial hearings for Khalid Sheikh mohammed. That mustve been interesting work. President george w. Bush named him as the u. S. Alternate representative to the 60th 60th session United Nations general assembly, and he was cochairman of united the u. S. Department of states Publicprivate Partnership for Justice Reform in afghanistan, which is where he also served in the same position during obamas president obamas firstterm. Then on may 10, 2019, President Trump appointed ambassador obrien as president ial envoy for Hostage Affairs 2018, not 2019. And one year later he was given the title of ambassador. Ambassador obrien took the office of 28 United States National Security adviser on september 18, 2019. So we spin in that position for just a little bit more than a year. Today he serves as Senior Advisor to the president on international affairs, chairs the national Security Council, and overseas the National Security staff. Ambassador obrien has also done his share of writing. I do it recommend to to you his book published in 2016. The book, while america slept, is in many ways a prescient collection of essays about many of the challenges that america in 2016 entering that period of time were ignoring which have now i think very much come home to roost in the discussion. Its really good book. I particularly Section Three which has the title of im not quite sure i got the title for that book. Anyway, its well worth reading and a good reminder of our guest today someone with a real vision about National Security, about where americas place in the world is and where it should be, and thats why were delighted and as they say also privileged to have him here today. Ambassador obrien. Great, thank you. [applause] so its a pleasure to be with you, socially distance. Im not sure sometimes i think a cough because the mask is on but i but i was one of the early adopters of wearing a mask unfortunate i still came down with covid this summer and was fortunate to get through it. What an honor to be introduced by arthur herman. I have got his books sitting next to rule the waves. I didnt realize i was the title of your book when that chapter was named by the editor so i hope thats great. I dont want to get a letter from your counsel on that one, but hes a great writer, a great historian and Great American and thank you for the generous introduction. Its wonderful to be here at hudson, and thank you to john walters for posting today. Its a privilege. I bring you greetings from a 46 present United States donald trump. Four years ago President Trump was late and had a very different view of a a peaceful prosperity in the world could be achieved 45th resident how the American People could be served in Foreign Policy. President trump at no higher priority than putting the needs, the rights, the safety and the value of the American People first and thats where the term american first comes from. The president also believes as did Ronald Reagan that National Security is best obtained on a piece for strength philosophy and the world, we deal with dictators and authority machines as they are. As we hope them to be in we dont turn a blind eye to the conduct expecting somehow they will change if we ignore the conduct. Hes done the hard work of strengthening our alliances and in doing so is put substance over style and is been criticized for that but we think his actions have demonstrated that the u. S. Will no longer be a party to arrangements, organizations, international conventions, treaties where our sovereignty is not respected but we also think thats better for of the country and world as well. He said to United Nations, the president put America First but he also believes that other countries put the own interest first and thats how it should be. In such a world of approach we think is led to demonstrable results that make the American People safer. So, for example, early on in the administration we took over the white house there was a caliphate the sites of Great Britain and stretching across e spanning across iraq in syria, the isis caliphate, and that caliphate is now destroyed. The lead of isis, albaghdadi, the man who kept and ultimately killed her and killed was removed from the battlefield and Justice Abroad to almost a year ago today, i think a year ago this week. The leaders of alqaeda in north africa and he would have been removed from the battlefield. Over 50 american hostages and detainees from 22 countries around the world have been brought home. Nafta, on the trade front come is been replaced by much improved usmca benefiting American Workers and farmers, and it created and strengthen the most profitable for the nicest but also for foreign partners trade zone in the world. Since march of this or not with any pandemic, the coast guard and the navy have run it at the drug operation in the caribbean and in eastern pacific, the californiamexico border. It sees over 4 billion in cocaine and marijuana and denied those revenues to the traffickers. 4. 7 billion. Working together with leaders of el salvador, guatemala, honduras and ayes President Donald Trump has reduced unpacked unlikely n by 85 . We strengthened the same time our relationship in hemisphere. Were working closely with the hemispheres largest democracy, brazil. In fact, i was just there last week and we signed we deals, to make investment steel and one trade deal and those will be great for brazil, great for the United States and for our Manufacturing Base here. President also confirm major nonnato nonnato ally status on brazil in 2019. With unlike billions of dollars alone to small and midsize enterprise and of Research Projects in the western hemisphere. We call the growth in the americas come strengthening our neighbors and increasing our prosperity here at home but also in our neighborhood. The president maximum Pressure Campaign has brought irans economy to its knees and he has cut off hundreds come well over 150 billion instinctually that feelings were using to help their own people but to spread discord across and warp across the middle of with it was with hezbollah or hamas for the assad regime for the houthis. On the burden sharing for the president the president encourager nato our system up to 400 billion in additional defense spending through 2024. That makes not only our european allies safer but it makes the entire west safer, makes the world safer. That pledge of increased defenseman also accompanied by burden sharing in other places. Today were down to 4502 in afghanistan. There are 6100 Coalition Troops most of them from an aider and abettor in afghanistan so the first time in afghan conflict with more of our partners bearing the burden of the work in afghanistan than the United States and the same things happening in iraq. After years of defense sequestration that was decimating our armed forces under the Obamabiden Administration we had gotten to the point where we had the Smallest Army since military since 1940. We have munition shortages, an urgent need to rebuild our nuclear deterrent. After 2. 5 trillion be spent over the past three of all that is being addressed. The progress is impressive. Munitions are being restarted and readiness of our troops increased with elevated u. S. Cyber command completed the joint Artificial Intelligence center and the saps the u. S. Space command and the space force. The space force is a first new branch of the u. S. Armed forces since 1947 and the services captured the imagination of our young men and women to serve and their signing up and lining up in droves to join the new space force. We accelerate and signed the 2019 missiledefense review and or ensuring a strong Missile Defense will protect our homeland against rogue actors and adversarial states seeking to threat is. When modernizing the Nations Nuclear deterrent which makes foundational element of our countries National Security. In 2018 we converted and appoint a low yield summary of launch warhead and conduct numerous Life Extension Program that Extension Programs offer existing nuclear stockpile. We ventured our test readiness capability remains viable if needed and funded the nnsa appropriate to meet the necessary infrastructure upgrades with billions and billions of dollars in additional funding from the department of energy to make sure we have safe secure and ultimately Deadly Nuclear weapons and thats what insurance fact we will never have to use them. We find it longerrange standoff missiles, the columbia class of me, but the 21 which is being built in florida and other places, the groundbased strategic concerns. Every aspect of our Nuclear Enterprise is under modernization to meet the mans face in our environment. I would fill the new capabilities in space of land and on sea and in the air with hypersonic weapons, direct energy come Artificial Intelligence, autonomous platforms that will ensure American Military superiority against any foe. Under President Trumps leadership is spent on defense and research that we have and 70 years and thats whats required to stay ahead of our competitors today and are adversaries in this, in these critical emerging technologies at lead the way when it comes to new developments of quantum, manufacturing applications for ai Machine Learning. As we build these nextgeneration capabilities its essential to protect our Critical Technology from adversary theft. We cannot spend billions on new weapon systems only have them compromised by the time they are in field. The wars of the future are likely to be radically different than the short conventional wars that we have fought since the collapse of the soviet union. They will be waged not just in the air, on the land and the sea but also in space and cyberspace. Dramatically increasing the complexity as well as the speed and velocity of warfare. Under President Trumps leadership rebuild the military capable of dominating this era of great power competition. One that will deter adversaries by being prepared to fight and win today and in the future. President trump knows the world needs a strong and respected america in order to achieve these we believe President Trump leave weakness is provocative. In the indopacific region the cooperation of american treaty allies has never been better for were working with a stroke and is, philippines and thailand. Our relations with the populous democracy india has never been better. Were working together issues you counter maritime carytown of to Rare Earth Minerals supply chains to freedom of navigation of South China Sea to the East China Sea in the taiwan strait. And afghanistan we signed a Peace Agreement in february with the taliban after 19 years of war and with the start of interest in negotiations last month we hope and expect the Afghan People on a path towards lasting peace. This will not be the easy walk for the afghans but its a necessary one and we will be there to support them both in negotiations and afterwards. President trump is committed to american troops that he would like them to come home as soon as conditions permit. He tweeted recently like many of the past president s sometimes a like to be home by christmas, and whether we get them on by christmas or shortly thereafter american troops are coming home. The good is i have the Peace Agreement with the taliban was signed in february we have not lost american to combat death in afghanistan during this year, since february. Last month President Trump achieved a truly has toward Peace Agreement between 90 nigt and ms, marlene issue. The a miracle drug simple significant step towards peace and no peace in 25 years. I was fortunate to be on the first flight from the airport in tel aviv to the Abu Dhabi International airport and it was an Emotional Experience as we passed into saudi airspace and the captain announced this was the first time an israeli plane had been invited over saudi arabia. It was on its way and we got to abu dhabi the emirates literally laid out the red carpet for us it was in some is almost like being at a Family Reunion that cousins had not been sticking together, hadnt seen each other for many, many years came together. Most recently sudan and israel agreed to make peace and, in fact, into the hot work. There was still a a war between sudan and israel. We now had in just over a month or month and a half weve had three countries normalized relations and make peace with israel. This is a great many of us in Foreign Policy world thought might never happen and as the president stated there are more countries to come. Nations in middle east embrace a Better Future based on shared interest and shared values, and this development was from President Trumps leadership. He did something that was unusual for politicians. The pressure created Political Capital in israel by moving our capital our embassy from tel aviv to jerusalem, the capital of the individual. That something many president s and president ial candidates promised to do in the past but never had. He recognized the golan heights. He pulled us out of the disastrous jcpoa and give us a lot of credibility with her gold allies. Rather than sitting around and look at his capital and maintaining it, protecting it he used it in negotiations and it was through that process is able to bring these parties together and achieve the historic peace. But its not just those conflict in the middle east yerkes also approached republicans with a similar determination. Last month summit chaired by Ambassador Grenell Serbia Kosovo took a huge step forward in normalizing their economic relations. I didnt do something youre been working on for 20 years but to President Trumps dedication and insistence on tough negotiations with both sides we were able to have a major breakthrough. Americas days of leading from nine of the days of strategic patients are over. President trumps bold leadership style is key as a build an International Consensus against china. The president was a first majorly to recognize the old conventional Wisdom Holding it was only a matter of time before china would liberalize first economically and politically was wrong. And instead weve all watched china become more nationalistic, more authoritarian and more committed to marxist, leninism overtime. They havent become more like us. Under this administration the United States be standing up to chinas aggression in all of its forms. President trump refused to accept the status quo on the trade relationship with the drc. He impose tariffs on chinese goods to compensate apart for chinas chinas Course Technology transfer, intellectual property theft, massive subsidies instead of in price and other more control tactics that slant the plainfield dramatically in asians favor when they trade with the United States. The president brought the prc did five january we signed the phase one trade deal that prohibits china from forcing u. S. Companies to transfer the technology, opens Chinese Markets to ten civilians of those to the u. S. Agricultural sales and Financial Services firms and partial addresses chinese currency manipulation and so far china seems to be abiding by the deal. The covid19 pandemic has limited the impact and our enthusiasm for the trade deal but the exercise shows it was only by stand up to the prc that the United States could achieve a real improvement in the trade sphere. The Top Administration is working to prevent companies the answer the Chinese Communist party, intelligence apparatus and secret apparatus such as huawei and zte from stealing americas personal and private data. InterNational Security secrets. The administration has impose restrictions on use semiconducting compass from exporting their highest technology to huawei, cte and others. The doj is investigating and prosecuting chinas economic espionage aggressively. Fbi director wray stated every ten hours the open up a new investigation into chinas economic espionage. The administration is limited the Peoples Liberation army Student Visa Program to support our intellectual property and weapons with that information. For a time we believe there were more Chinese Military officers people Liberation Army officers in america studying for advanced degrees in the stem very then American Military officers and the recovery in through phony claims to be student when the fact there were chinas military officers here to take our innovation, ingenuity, creativity for free to take a back to china so they could both strengthen the National Defense and offense is given those against the United States but also to improve their Industrial Base visavis the u. S. Without doing the right thing. The president strengthen our authority to restrict Foreign Investment the threat u. S. National security and tightened export control of all. Our Democratic Party is now starting to take similar action against taiwan, against china. Sweden removed chinas confucius institutes from its universities, the uk, the czech republic, denmark, estonia, Slovak Republic come bulgari, kosovo and with messaging, taiwan, latvia, romania, sweden have all committed to using trusted providers for their new 5g networks. Carriers such as in korea, japan and others are also proven the use of while we equipment in the networks. Australia has exposed covert and crept influence and interference in its political system and a skull for anything at the station into the origins of the china virus. Australia is bending over 2 of its gdp of National Defense including purchasing the most advanced use weapon systems p. A. Naval control, f18 growler, Electronic Warfare platform and f35 fighter jets. Japan itself is spending more money on defense but also incentivizing its Manufacturing Companies to return to japan from china for two years short of the countries where their supply chain will be more secure. Both of these steps will help deter chinese aggression in the area. Beyond those areas ive noted the u. S. Faces the first and come diverse and concerning National Security challenges russian russia to iran to north korea to venezuela to extremist terrorism and to evermore strengthening transnational criminal organizations. Under President Trumps leadership and we are stand up together with our allies and our country is rising to the occasion and we will meet those challenges and the new ones that emerge with resoluteness and confident in the days ahead. The president s policy speak for themselves and today we are safer and when the president took office. For that i think we can all be grateful to make god bless you. May god bless the United States of america. Thank you. [applause] thank you, mr. Ambassador. Nice tour, look for america is, where it was in terms of National Security but also in terms of its relative military strength. I was thinking about this, the last president ial debate which was supposed to be about Foreign Policy and National Security, editing basically it cleared for like ten minutes to talk about both, and i know it must have been frustrating for the president and for his team because he was a chance to tell a lot of his successes that you just outlined for us. Yet at the scene, thought maybe it was a measure of her success, that there were not these big outstanding problems and issues in Foreign Policy or in National Security, defense posture, that the needy was able to focus on or that the Biden Campaign could really hard on. If youd ask americans now, do you feel safer than you did four years ago, i think the answer would be overwhelmingly yes right now. The issue of islamic terrorist threats seems a more theoretical, fear about car bombs or about random shootings has really diminished a great deal. Worries about whos going to be the next person to be kidnapped by isis, american hostages by the hands of islamic terrorists. All these kinds of things seems to have faded from our minds and just dont occur to us on a daytoday basis. I think a lot of it has to do with the way the Trump Administration has really handled its policy in the middle these. You talked about some of those aspects of it, a few devices, isolation of iran, iran really becoming a pariah state at the end of a very dangerous, in my opinion, very Dangerous Nuclear deal at a a been worked out bye previous administration. But one of the most significant one has to be the way in which the u. S. And israel have really formed a new level of partnership with the opening of the capital in jerusalem, very much President Trumps initiative, but also the normalization of relations with arab states. The question of course in my mind and the mind of a lot of her audience is, lets see, weve got united arab immigrants, weve got bahrain, weve got whos next . Maybe you can give us any indication of that but i think it would be really great to give out real, give the audience a real understanding, which can be has not been come just how important these normalization of relations are for the future of peace in the middle east. Thats a great question, arthur, and again thank you for having me. On your first point about the Foreign Policy not coming up at the bates, its too bad because the president has done just terrific things. The closest in my lifetime is Ronald Reagan. Ronald reagan peace through strength approach to National Security. He refill our military and as result of that, other than grenada which was almost more of a hostage rescue of medical Students Senate armed conflict, there were no new wars started under president reagan. We computed and covert action, computer with the soviet union, across the world but there were no new wars started. That was because of the peace through strength posture. President trump is the first president since Ronald Reagan was not initiated a war, a military conflict in the world. Its a Pretty Amazing record. Not only that, we are ending wars, ending the American Public in iraq, anything american involvement in afghanistan. It doesnt take place overnight but if you look at afghanistan for we are over 15,000 troops were not counted under 4500 troops. We are for allied participation and went on a pathway to get our folks home after two minutes sacrifice of blood and sacrifice the past 19 years. You have a terrific demonstration of the fact hes through strength works. Were rebuilding military. We are deterring our adversaries. We are able bring folks home and that ties into whats happening in the least that goes to the last part of your question. Theres a sea change occurring. Our allies realize we are going to stand behind them so our allies decided really come in issue, uae, allies in bahrain, other nations in the region realized that because america will stand behind them, because President Trump will enforce his red lines if necessary as he with serious and in which the Prior Administration did not, that allows space for them to engage in peace negotiations with israel. Whats really amazing is this is going to be a warm piece. Not cold as we had with israel and egypt or israel and jordan in the past. The uae has banking and finance, is really tech and entrepreneurship, create huge opportunities for young people and as that develops other countries will see it and want to become part of what is happening and it is a very warm peace and so far is going well but it didnt come from nowhere. This was fostered and created by donald trump taking a different approach to peace in the middle east. The old conventional wisdom was if you had to solve the palestinian problem firsthand couldnt have peace until you saw the palestinian problem but palestinians, sometimes never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity. We put out the latest opening peace gambit for the israelis and palestinians, other arab countries, this is big deal, the palestinians should come to the table and negotiate on it but if they are not going to come to the table and stunned our own growth, or deny young people opportunities with all the things available to them, we will make peace with israel so the foundation, iran was a big part of that uad, secure under American Security pledges, we follow through on problems with the embassy, and in the unique set of circumstances we literally have peace breaking out. Another country i mentioned over the microphone and ask a question, coasts of oh, a muslim majority country recognized israel and its First Embassy in jerusalem. There have been three arab muslim majority countries and european muslim majority country that recognized israel in the past two months. The other big area Trump Administration and trump himself brought major is with regard to china and now more than ever americans realize that china represents a real, not just economic but now a real serious geopolitical thread as well as being a human rights violator, intellectual property thief on a global scale not to mention their responsibility for covering up and spreading disinformation about the covid19 outbreak. These things that up to a change with regard to china, i need for a new approach to china in dealing with and confronting the competition. One of the areas i have been writing about is the hightech sector and in the struggle between the us and its allies, China Advanced wireless technology. One of the things i noticed in the time that you have been a National Security adviser is theres been a change in the way in which china, and its agreements to build the networks have huge National Security concerns for those countries and the United States and i am sensing in the struggle over 5g the navy turned the tide and we will see much more of a consolidation against chinas efforts to dominate the future of the digital age. With the internet of things and telecommunications, 5g is critical. The backbone they operate on. If the chinese control 5g networks around the world west to east, the major democracies, they will have access to every bit of personal data, every medical record and financial transaction, every email, every interaction whether it is your dishwasher, refrigerator, security system, the amount of personal private data through the back door is open to huawei is unlimited and they will have that not just every person in china but every person in the world, a huawei backbone in place and that is something to be concerned about. There was a time it wouldnt have mattered, we have these warehouses fool of files, trying to get the information and make it valuable very hard to do. With ai, Machine Learning, all of that data becomes accessible to the chinese as they get access, every chinese person has a credit score, whether they can buy a plane ticket to train ticket to get a job or travel overseas or live in a certain area all of that depends on how high their social Credit Scores are, how reliable, that is something theyve done internally but they are doing that externally on the Washington Post profiles influential americans, hundreds of thousands, millions of people around the world compiling profiles and they will have social Credit Scores for everyone and if you think im an american it doesnt matter, think of the general manager of the Houston Rockets who made the mistake of criticizing the chinese over the way they were handling protesters in hong kong, and you saw how he was canceled, the Houston Rockets were canceled and the nba has had to debase themselves to get their games broadcast in china. Finally a year into this the rockets will finally be on tv again in china. It is a real problem, i feel i am an unpaid spokesman for no kia. But what we have pushed folks to do in countries around the world, they are coming our way and you are 100 right. They realized the threat to National Security and the personal site as proposed by china and yahweh huawei, they are coming along and realizing its not safe to have the chinese backbone in their networks and we are seeing the geopolitical realignment. There was a time when most of us grew up, you had the us and the ussr and the whole nonaligned group of 72 countries and they floated between the 2 and recorded by the two. That has changed. Now we have a group of authoritarian totalitarian countries, russia, iran, china, some others moving in that direction into a group of democracies, the United States, eastern, western europe and the eu, the uk, india, brazil, indonesia, malaysia. We will have a divide in the world between the democracies, countries that share our values, the believe in Democratic Values and human rights and the authoritarian countries that are offering a different approach to the world which may be a pseudodemocracy but is ruled by a party or strongman, where they dont have the rule of law or basic human rights and dont have the ability to petition the government for a redress of grievances so you see a new group of democracies led by countries like brazil, india and the United States and others and a group of authoritarian countries and you see some of that divide with respect to who picks huawei and who doesnt. The other point, china and all that data, all that data no matter how in oculus it may seem to us like ticktock. The Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning will run by Chinese Military and Intelligence Services and others. It helps to feed their larger strategic plan. It is not just a competing business plan, it is a strategic plan. That raises the question. They are doing it with jeans as well. They are offering free genetic testing to countries around the world to try to chain map, get the gene maps of countries all over the globe, to help their pharmaceutical companies and give them an advantage, and tremendous or no various purposes a tremendous database to figure out how to target certain groups, certain countries, certain ethnicities and that sort of thing so thats another thing were looking at that is very concerning. This raises a larger question which is in our competition with china are weaning in a new cold war . Is that a new cold war. It is going to be different from the one with the soviet union or is it going to be in many ways its different. I dont think it is a cold war. What the president said time and again, we want regulations with china. The Chinese People are wonderful people, hundreds of thousands of them study year, Many Americans of chinese descent, china has traditionally been an american ally. We fought together in world war ii, we would love to have a great relationship with china, but probably have, not even the Chinese Communist party but the Chinese Communist partys efforts to spread their tentacles not just across china but across the world and to control is the way they control their own people and steal our intellectual property and christopher ray, director of the fbi, chinese fifth of intellectual property is the greatest wealth transfer in history and they are 100 and is no analog to it anywhere in history. Its not fair. China is a great country with hardworking people, smart people, incredibly capable people, do your own inventions, your own innovation, create your own technology, dont steal it from us without paying for it. Thats not honorable under any system. Dont steal the hard work of the American People, folks in europe or africa or wherever, take it back to china. Didnt pay for it, then use it to create competing projects, subsidize those products from which you sold the technology and put folks out of business who developed the technology to begin with. A horrible cycle, you are getting clobbered twice if you are an inventor, you get your invention stolen with no license fee and no patent fee and compensation and then your market is undercut by state subsidize product that comes back using your own technology and either you put out of business. So that is the sort of thing that has to stop. Great countries dont build themselves on theft. Weve got to put a end to that. Dont you think now American Businesses are more and more realizing this, but doing business in china isnt going to produce that marvelous wide open markets in which you can compete on an even playing field, youre going to be looted in order to support and bolster your domestic chinese competitors. Or they are decided not to do business in china. The whole idea, if i could tell everybody a hamburger once a week thats a lot of hamburgers, you run those sorts of numbers, seems like a great Business Opportunity but you realize its not a great Business Opportunity when you put the investment into china and open all the stores and teach them the skills and develop the Franchise Network and that sort of thing that has taken them. That is the idea. It has been too big of a market not to be involved with but the president and this administration have stood up for americans and American Businesses and i think American Business appreciate it and American Workers appreciate it because we are seeing manufacturer return to this country that they said whenever happen, but that was impossible, people needed to learn to code, to farm arugula instead of corn. We are showing by standing up to the chinese but americans are as competitive as the chinese. Those of you in the audience Live Streaming or on cspan, if you would like to submit a question to the ambassador you can go to the email address, events hudson. Org and we look forward to getting to any questions you might have. Let me ask you about two areas were critics of the Trump Administration have been pointed to as weaknesses and problems. One is north korea, a lot of expectation after Donald Trumps personal meeting with chloroquine with kim jongil and that we would see a real breakthrough. A lot of pledges made by kim about denuclearize in, restarting the process. We seem to have stalled out, doesnt seem to be going anywhere. What is your view on what will happen next in north korea. We have a difficult situation in north korea. It has spanned many administrations, all the way back to the Clinton Administration when the North Koreans made an effort to develop Nuclear Weapons, and the means to deliver them. Wasnt just Nuclear Weapons which were dangerous but the fact that they could potentially deliver them against south korea, us bases and allies in the region and ultimately to the continental us and so this has been a problem that has bedeviled american Foreign Policy professionals for almost 30 years now when the president took Office President obama told them the National Security threat is north korea. There were a number of people who thought we were going to go to war with north korea, there was no other option, the president did two things, he put on a maximum Pressure Campaign. As much as we talk about sanctioning north korea it is in the past, there were some sanctions on north korea in the Prior Administrations both democrat and republican, maximum pressure has been put on north korea so the president has put maximum pressure sanctions regime, rallied our allies and encourage china to respect the regime and that put pressure on north korea. The other thing is he put american merit are military assets in the region. It was a piece or strength approach, that we have aircraft carriers operating in the yellow sea. If you take action against the United States or our allies, south korea, japan we have the means to finish the fight if we get into a fight and their worsens strong rhetoric on both sides, remember rocket man and those sorts of things and to some extent that was derided by the Foreign Policy establishment but what it did is brought the North Koreans to the table for the first time in the president met with kim and as he does with all foreign leaders, was very cordial with him, one of the things about diplomacy, say the nest of all nastiest possible things in the nicest possible way, he took a hard line, the hard line is you have to denuclearize, end your Weapons Program and the Ballistic Missile program and that was something chairman kim agreed to in singapore. There is a long way, we believe in the president believes as Ronald Reagan did in trust but verify. Weve had a tough time since singapore in making progress on the denuclearization of the korean peninsula. There are a lot of concerns on the north korean side that if the fed kim family gives up their Nuclear Weapons that could be the end of the regime so when you are asking a counterpart to do something that could result in their demise that is a difficult negotiation to have. The president is trying to paint an alternative vision, the Nuclear Weapons will not bring prosperity or security, but if you give up the Nuclear Weapons the potential for north korea is limitless. Look at south korea and the amazing economy it has, the same people, the Weapons Program, the sanctions, little money and little trade, they are smart and hardworking and creative, they channel that into a real economy. North korea could be prosperous and chairman kim could be deposed, someone who brought peace and prosperity. That was the vision we attempted to layout. The result of singapore, just like reagan walked away at reykjavik with the soviets, weve not had a longerrange intercontinental Ballistic Missile since singapore, havent had a nuclear test since singapore. Both of those outcomes would have been viewed as wildly successful under past administrations, nobel prizes all around, this would have been a great outcome. Instead the standard the president held to is he didnt get rid of all the Nuclear Weapons in north korea, chairman kim did not live up to his commitment and denuclearize. That hasnt happened for 30 years of president s, h w bush, clinton, w, president obama, didnt happen under any of them and yet the president is being held to the standard even though he accomplished more than any Prior Administration with sanctions, with deterrence, stopping the nuclear tests, Ballistic Missile tests is not given credit for that but it is not surprising. Imagine any other president achieve what the president achieved in the middle east or the balkans, nobel prize nominations would have been coming his way. I think not complaining, we live in a very polarized political world. Historians, the next generation arthur hermans are writing about this administration will look at these accomplishments with a more distanced view and say this was an incredible time in american Foreign Policy. A wider lens and more objective lens, my colleague Rebecca Heinrich has a question. Thanks for giving me the chance. Can you talk about the importance of the decision to pull out of the inf treaty and how we are now exploiting that to produce the kind of weapon systems in the indo Pacific Theater to deter china and where are we now with the russians on new t. A. R. P. The russians have indicated they are interested in some kind of deal. Can you give us any insight where we are on that . Great question. We entered into a treaty with the russians that limit our ability to produce and deploy weapon systems, missiles that travel intermediate range, a range 500 not a call miles. By a few kilometers. We stuck to that. The russians didnt have the russians continue to deploy missiles that violate the treaty. We have violation on the russian side but the chinese use the fact we were not building these missiles to build literally thousands of missiles in china aimed at our allies aimed at our ships in the Indo Pacific Region to create area denial antiaccess strategy to keep our ships and navy away from our allies in the region and out of china, out of the sphere of influence china would like to have but they did that as you know taking advantage of the fact that we were constrained by a treaty with russia the china was not constrained by, china was not part of the treaty so the president decided we cant compromise our National Security any longer with respect to the inf treaty in the Indo Pacific Region or in europe where the russians violate the treaty and the president decided not to be part of treaties any longer where we abide by the treaties but the other side doesnt. Doesnt make any sense but theres a consensus among some foreignpolicy leads that it is good to abide even if the other side doesnt because it shows our commitment to armscontrol. It is almost mindboggling people tell you that with a straight face. We got out of the inf treaty, developing hypersonic weapons, Ballistic Missile Delivery Systems that will keep america safe, navy seals, marines, airmen, soldiers, defend our allies, deter china and will deploy the same Missile Defense if necessary in europe, to deter the Russian Federation and again it is peace through strength. We think by deploying these weapons not only will we deter an attack but also put us in posture to have real armscontrol in the future just like we deploy the pursing missile and cruise missiles in the 80s to europe to get the soviets to come to the table and agreed to the precursor of 0 option precursor to the inf treaty so we are not going to be part of treaties where we abide by them in the other side doesnt and that is the message everyone in the world should understand and number 2 we will always put america and americas defense first. What that does with respect to new start, it sets a new baseline and reorients the russians and chinese, we are in armscontrol talks with the chinese, though they are stiff arming any attempt to do armscontrol but we want to get a good deal with the russians, the new start treaty is not a great deal, a treaty donald trump would never have negotiated. It limits us Russian Strategic Delivery Systems and warheads which is good, that is a good part of the treaty, there is no limit to other Missile Systems or warheads in the russians maintain a massive advantage in Nuclear Warheads over the us. If you are in paris and get blown up by award youre not going to say im glad that was just a tactical nuke as opposed to a strategic nuke. I feel much better about that nuclear blast. What we are attempting to do is show resolved. Weve made an offer to the russians and where there has been progress on this front, my counterpart, had a very businesslike meeting with him and we suggested we renew or extend new start for you and at the same time both parties, russia and the United States cast weapons production during that year and see if it gives time to negotiate a new, terrific, longterm armscontrol deal. I think we are getting close, working on verification procedure for that timeframe, if we get through the verification issues we will get to a deal and we will see how serious the russians are about armscontrol. We think it is in their interests. We will see how that plays out in the next couple days and weeks. Only a couple minutes left. Can we talk for a couple minutes about africa . I have an online question which is about the spread of islamic extremism in various places in west africa particularly nigeria. Isis and al qaeda. Africa also figures into the geopolitical competition with china because china, i have written about this, has been working to establish a neocolonial regime in african countries in order to extract resources and wealth from those countries. Where is the Trump Administration with building that strong us africa relationship Going Forward dealing with the islamic terrorist issue but also counterbalancing china. Guest i am bullish on africa. I think africa has a massive population, young population, you have Tremendous Energy from africa. A lot of entrepreneurs in africa across the whole continent. It is an exciting place to do business and in many ways africa is the future based on the age and use of the population. We are taking a different approach than the chinese. We are encouraging American Businesses to be in africa, investing in africa, the development finance, headed by adam who is very active in africa. A new Pandemic Response program, we are going to build a center of excellence in cape town, south africa to respond to global pandemics, put some of the money we were otherwise spending on programs that were in efficient to direct that money to africa, hundreds of millions of dollars, and then historically black colleges and universities with their med schools. There are 6 historically black colleges and universities, we will pare those med schools with the center in south africa and take us expertise, give their students opportunities, doctors and scientists, opportunities to work abroad and we will have tremendous impact. We expect 10 billion on antiaids, antiretro viral treatments in africa. We have laboratories, weve done great things, we have wonderful friends in africa but we dont get the same publicity the chinese do when they take over an enterprise in africa so we are looking to the private sector, developing more trade and investment and we think there is a strong future in africa but the chinese, the best of the american privatesector to be there. I spent time in niger and molly just before taking this position a week and a half and we have an american hostage and other hostages being held by an offshoot of al qaeda. We are working with the french who have 5000 troops, we have 900 troops with some unique intelligence capabilities so we are working hand in glove with the french, south korean, american and two french hostages, two french marines were killed, two french marines were sadly killed in that raid. I was able to meet with their unit and thank them on behalf of the president for saving our hostages and other nationalities but we are working hard, the al qaeda affiliates, isis affiliate in that region, ultimately the africans have to fight this fight themselves. We will support them and help them and you have islamic terrorism and extremism going down the coast of east africa and outbreak of isis activity. We come together with african partners and friends and allies. This is an area of burden sharing where we think european allies can come to the fight in a big way. It cant just be a us response would have to be in african, European Response supported by the us but overall we are bullish on africa, spending a lot of money and doing it the right way unlike the chinese who are seeking to dominate with enormous debt. Corrupt leaders, that money goes to europe. The chinese then build a boondoggle, chinese workers, not improving the skill set of Indigenous People of those countries, built by Chinese State intern prize, the money never leaves china, the country is saddled with shoddy infrastructure that starts falling apart and huge debt with massive interest payments, several come to us and say have the chinese debt, and the american taxpayers african countries realize what happened to them and in some places, the chinese take collateral for their loans or grants, the chinese, a relies, they collect and take the collateral. It is a nasty business. Mister ambassador, time is up. Thank you for a hugely instructive and very interesting discussion. Hope you will come again. And thank you to everyone here and to our audiences. Live streaming and cspan. Thank you for attending. [applause] we will take you to the economic hub of washington dc to hear from political law experts bob bauer and Benjamin Ginsburg who will discuss potential legal
vimarsana.com © 2020. All Rights Reserved.