Good morning. Welcome to the hudson institute. We are honored and privileged to be hosting this event and conversation with Robert Obrien assistant to the president on the National Security affairs otherwise known as National Security advisor. Of youto welcome all here that are able to join us and the audience watching live stream from the website but also a very special welcome to the cspan audience who will be following this event on cspan2 today we are delighted to have you here if only virtually and delighted to have everyone that has been able to participate in this discussion. This is going to be one of the most interesting and significant events that weve done here at hudson given the fact we are less than a week away from the election. The question of what america is going to do and where america is going to go from here those are going toil be decided very soon and so what happens in our discussion here i think will help us to w understand what tas place regardless of who it is and who will be sitting in the oval office come january 201st. I want to say a few words about our distinguished guest. Between 1996 and 1998, obrien was a legal officer with the United NationsSecurity Council commission in geneva switzerland. He served in a number of political positions for bush and obama and the Trump Administration and was a civilian observer for the Pacific Council on International Policy at the pretrial hearings for Khalid Shaikh mohammed. President george w. Bush named him as the u. S. Alternate representative to the United Nations general assembly. And he was cochairman of the united u. S. Department of states Publicprivate Partnership fors Justice Reform in afghanistan which is where he also served in the same position during president obamas first term. Then 29, President Trump appointed ambassador obrien as the president ial envoy for d stage affairs in 2019 and one year later he was given the title of ambassador. Ambassador obrien took the office of 28 United States advisor ambassador obrien has done his share of writing its a collection of essays about the challenges in 2016 that were ignored and very much come home to roost. And the title of to rule the waves. Im not quite sure how you got the title for that. But it is worth reading and a good reminder of our guest someone with a vision about National Security and where americas place in the world is and where it should be and that is why we are delighted and also privileged to have him here today. Ambassador. [applause] its a pleasure to be with you and i think we are socially distanced enough im going to take the mask off. Sometimes i think i cough because the mask is on. I was one of the early adopters of the mask. I came down with covid and was fortunate to get through it. What an honor to be introduced by arthur herman. Ive got his book to rule the waves. [inaudible] i dont want toto get a letter from your counsel on that one. But hes a great writer and historiant and american. Thank you for that introduction. Its great to be here at hudson and thank you to john walters for hosting today. Its a privilege. Four years ago President Trump waser elected and had a differet view of how peace and prosperity in the world could be achieved and how the American People could p be served like in the Foreign Policy. President trump had no higher priority than putting the needs rights, the safety and the values of the American People first and that is where the term America First comes from. The press also believes the National Security is best obtained on the piece or strength philosophy and so the president deals with the world as it is. We deal with dictators and authoritarian regimes and not as we hope them to be. We dont turn a blind eye to the conduct expecting somehow they will change. Hes done the hard work of strengthening the alliances and doing so has put a substance over style and hes been criticized for that but we think that the actions have demonstrated the u. S. Will no longer be a party to the International Conventions sovereignty but we also think thats better for other countries intt the world as wel. The president puts America First but also believes other countries their own interest first and that is how it should be. Our approach has led to demonstrable results that have led to the American People savor. Early on in the administration we took over the white house there was a caliphate the size across iraq and syria and that caliphate is now destroyed. The leaders of al qaeda in north africa and yemen have been removed from the battlefield. Over 50 from across the world have been brought home. Nafta has been replaced by the much improved u. S. Mca and its created and strengthened the most profitable. Since march of this year notwithstanding the pandemic the coast guard, the navy have run an antidrug operation in the caribbean and n eastern pacific. And they denied those revenues to the traffickers. 4. 7 billion. Working together with the leaders reduced by 85 . But atat the same time we have e relationship in the hemisphere and we are working very closely with the largest democracy, brazil. We signed three deals, to investment deals and one trade deal and those are great for brazil and the United States and the manufacturing base. The president also confirmed the allies status 2019. We unlocked billions of dollars of loans and the Infrastructure Projects in the western hemisphere and after that initiative the maximum Pressure Campaign has brought the economy to its knees and he has cut off spread discord whether it was from hezbollah or hamas or the regime in iraq. On the burden sharing front they stood up to 400 billion in additional defense spending through 2024. That makes not only the european allies saver but it makes the entire t west safer and the word safer there are 6100 Coalition Troops most from nato so for the first time we have more of our partnerswe bearing the burden of the work in afghanistan in the United States and the same thing is happening in iraq. After years of the defense sequestration decimating the forces and the Obama Biden Administration weve gotten to the point we have the Smallest Army military since 1940 and the shortages and readiness ratings and urgent need to rebuild the deterrent. All of that is being addressed and the progress is impressive. The young men and women who serve and line up in droves to join the space force. Weve accelerated the missiledefense review and the insurance will protect the homeland against the actors and adversary states in 2018, we converted and deployed the summary launch conducting the life Extension Programs on the existing nuclear stockpile. We are funding appropriately to meet the necessary upgrades has billions of dollars and additional funding has gone to the department of energy to make sure we have a safe, secure and ultimately Deadly Nuclear weapons and that ensures the fact we will never have to use them. We also funded longrange standoff missiles, the b21 that is being built in florida and other places into the groundbased strategic insurance and to maintain a credible deterrent for years to come for the next generation. Finally we are developing new capabilities onn land and sea ad Hypersonic Weapons directed energy, artificial intelligence, enhanced weapons platforms that will ensure the American Military superiority against. Under the leadership, we have spent more on defense and research than we have in 70 years and that is what is required to stay ahead of get the competitors i today and to lead the way when it comes to the developments as we built these nextgeneration capabilities it is essential to protect the Critical Technology from adversary theft. We cannot spend billions on the new weapon systems only to have them compromised by the time that they are actually fielded. So its likely to be radically different from the short conventional war and Counterterrorism Operations since the collapse of the soviet union. Not just in the air, on the land and sea bed space and cyberspace. Increasing the complexity as well as the speed and the velocity of warfare. Under President Trumps leadership we are building this era and power competition. One that will detour the series weby being prepared to fight and win today and in the future. President trump knows the world needs a Strong America to achieve peace. We believe the weakness is provocative. In the Indo Pacific Region the cooperation of the ally is never better we are working with australia, new zealand, thailand. Relations with the most populous democracy, india has never been better. We are working on issues to count the counterterrorism to the security, to the Rare Earth Minerals supply chains to the freedom of navigation of the South China Sea and the taiwan strait. In afghanistan we signed a Peace Agreement in february with television after 19 years of war and with the start of the negotiations last month, we expect the Afghan People are on a path to lasting peace. This will not be easy but it is necessary and we will be there to support them on the negotiations and afterwards. President trump is committed and he would like them to come home like many other. Whether we get them home by christmas or shortly thereafter, american troops are coming home. We have not lost in american to a combat deaths in afghanistan during this year, since february. La last month President Trump achieved a truly historic Peace Agreement between the arab emirates iran and israel. The courts represented the most significant step towards peace and 25 years. To be on thate flightun from the airport in tel aviv to the Abu Dhabi International airport and it was a moving Emotional Experience for the colleagues as we passed the airspace and the captain of the plane announced it. Thisd was the first time that they had been invited over saudi arabia. It was on its way and when we got there, they literally laid out the red carpet for us and it was in some ways almost like being at a Family Reunion of cousins that havent been speaking together and hadnt seen each other c c for many yes came together. Most recently sudan and israel agreed to make peace and ended a war. There was still the state of war between sudan and israel, so we have now had in just over a month or a month and a half we have had three countries normalize relations. This is a dream many of us thought might never happen and there are more to come. Based on the shared interest in shared values this development he did something unusual for politicians. He createdns the political capil by moving the embassy from tel aviv to jerusalem. Thats something many of these president ial candidates have promised to do in the past. He recognized the go on the heights and pulled us after the disaster in the jcp away and gave credibility. Residents sitting around and looking at the capital maintaining it and protecting it he used a negotiation and it was through that process he was able to bring these parties together and achieve peace. But its not just those conflicts in the middle east. Hes also approach to the balkans with a similar determination so last month with the ambassador, which i participated, they took a huge step forward in normalizing their economic relations. Again this is something theyve been working on for 20 years but for the dedication and insistence on negotiations we were able to have a major breakthrough. So as demonstrated, and americas days of leading from behind are the days of strategie patients are over. The bold leadership style is key as we build the new consensus against china. The first leader to recognize the conventional Wisdom Holding that it was only a matter of time before china would liberalize economically than politically was wrong and instead, we have watched china become one nationalistic, authoritarian and committed to the marxism and leninism over time. Standing up to china and its forms. President trump refused and instead imposed tariffs on the chinese goods to compensate in part for the course of technology transfer, intellectual property theft, massive subsidies on state owned enterprises and other tactics that slant the Playing Field dramatically when they trade with the United States. The president brought up to the table in january and we signed a phase one trade deal that prohibits china from forcing u. S. Companies to transfer their ugtechnology. It opens up to tens of billions in agricultural sales and Financial Services and partially addresses the chinese manipulation. So far, china seems to be abiding by the deal. Now the pandemic is limiting the impact and enthusiasm for the trade deal but the exercise shows that it was only byta standing up to the prc that the United States could achieve a improvement in this sphere. The administration is working to prevent companies to answer the Chinese Communist party and intelligence apparatus and Security Apparatus from stealing americas personal and private data, interNational Security secrets. The administration imposed restrictions on the Semi Conductor companies from exporting their technology to others. The doj is actively investigating and prosecuting the chinese economic espionageg aggressively. Theve fbi director stated every ten hours they open up a new investigation on the chinese economic espionage. Ch the uk and the Czech Republic in the Slovak Republic slovenia, taiwan, latvia, polany have all committed using trusted providers for the t file a network. And japan and others also prohibit the use of the wall one day shortly equipment and the networks. With the interference of the political system and calling for the independent investigation into the china virus. That spending 2 percent of gdp and National Defense with an evil patrol with Electronic Warfare platform and the fighter jets. Japan itself incentivized Manufacturing Companies to return to japan from china or to nearshore to other countries with both of these steps will help suppression in the area. So beyond these areas and with the russia and iran and venezuela to extremist terrorism and under President Trumps leadership and are country is rising to the occasion we will meet those with resoluteness in the days ahead. Also principles and policies to save it for when the president took office and we can be thankful. God bless the United States of america. Thank you. [applause] thank you mr. Ambassador. Looking ahead in terms of National Security but also in terms of the relative military strength. I have been thinking about this which is supposed to be about foreignpolicy and National Security and basically it cleared it like ten minutes to talk about both and it must have been frustrating for the president and his team because here is a chance for those successes that you have just outlined for us but at the same time thinking there wasnt a big outstanding problem and issues of Foreign Policy and National Security and defense posture that the media was able to focus on with that the campaign could harp on. And if you were to ask americans now do you feel safer than you did four years ago, i think the answer would be overwhelmingly yes right now. Is the islamic terrorist threat more theoretical . And the random shootings and worries about will be the next person to be kidnapped by isys and american and hostages and islamic terrorist. These things dont just occur to us on a daytoday basis its the way the Trump Administration has handled this policy in the middle east talking about those key aspects of the isis and into becoming a pariah stay at the end in my opinion a very dangerous deal worked out by that Previous Administration the us and israel with the point of capital in jerusalem but in my mind. And you cannot give us any indication of tha