Burns - Remarks to the Council of the Americas

Remarks to the Council of the Americas

R. Nicholas Burns, Under Secretary for Political Affairs

Washington, DC
March 22, 2007

UNDER SECRETARY BURNS: All right. Thank you very much. It's a pleasure to be back here at the Council of the Americas and with you. And thank you, Eric, for your leadership of the Council and what you do to draw attention here in Washington, D.C. to our relations with our fellow members of this hemisphere and we're very proud of all the work you've been doing.

I also want to welcome all the ambassadors who are here today. Thank you for coming. I know you're all very busy. Thank you for taking the time to come out and see me. Ambassador Charles Shapiro, my friend, is here with us, our Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for the Western Hemisphere Affairs. And I think I should single out Ambassador Patriota, since he's the newest member of this ambassadorial core. And he's a good friend of mine. We got to know each other over the last few years. Both of us were, in essence, the political directors of our respective countries and I have found him to be someone, a very serious accomplished diplomat and we're looking forward to working with Antonio here in Washington, D.C. and to join this very distinguished group of ambassadors who have preceded him to this country.

And I should also say, Mr. Ambassador, the Secretary of State looks forward to going to your residence tomorrow to meet with the ambassadors of all the countries of the hemisphere. I can't remember the last time the Secretary did something like this. Usually she invites ambassadors into the State Department, now she's going to your house. (Laughter.) So I'm sure the hospitality is going to be first-rate. I can assure you that your guest is going to be -- your guest is going to be motivated to talk about the President's trip. She was with the President throughout those seven days in Latin America and to talk about what that trip means for our relations and of the fact that we're convinced in our country that 2007 has to be the year of engagement between the United States and Latin America. So thank you for your invitation. And Condoleezza Rice has gladly accepted it. We look forward to a productive meeting tomorrow.

I know that this a very knowledgeable group. Looking out in the audience, I see people like ambassador -- many of -- many ambassadors from Latin countries, as I said, but Ambassador Hattie Babbitt is here and she's someone with whom I worked in the Clinton Administration. And when Secretary Warren Christopher went on a similar trip, a week-long trip to Latin America back in 1996, Hattie and I sat beside each other on an airplane for that whole week, as we went from one end of the continent to the other -- one end of the hemisphere to the other. And so thank you, Hattie, for coming and thanks to all of you.

I want to offer a few thoughts about how the United States Governments looks at this hemisphere, at the progress that we think we're making in establishing good relations with the great majority of countries in this hemisphere. And then with Eric's permission, we'll go to a conversation and then have a chance to hear your views and have a chance to receive some of the questions that I'm sure you'll have about what we're trying to do.

I went to -- I preceded the President to Latin America. I was in Brazil and Argentina in February with my very close friend Tom Shannon. And first of all, I guess I should say to all of you, I can't remember an Assistant Secretary of State who's made a greater positive difference in our relations with the hemisphere than Tom has made and I think he's been a great success for our country.

When Tom came in as Assistant Secretary, I remember Secretary Rice saying to him and saying to the rest of us, we've got to work on changing the tone in the way we talk about -- we talk in this hemisphere, in the way that Americans speak to the people in the hemisphere and to respective governments. It can't be the case that the United States only talks to some countries and not to others. And we understand that in this remarkable year of elections in 2006 when 17 countries in the hemisphere elected either national governments or national parliaments. The great majority of those countries voted for democracy. They voted for trade, they voted for social justice, they voted for poverty alleviation. And all these elections were just like our election here in the U.S. They were particular to that country, but there is a trend and that is that the great majority of us believe in democratic systems and people ruling.

And Secretary Rice believe, and I know Tom Shannon has now carried out, the following philosophy that we should talk to governments throughout the political spectrum because there are center-right governments and there are centrist governments and there are center-left governments and all of them are legitimate and all of them can be friends of the United States. And I think we've been able to over the last two years, have an American foreign policy in the hemisphere that does reach out to that broad political spectrum. And perhaps there was a time when that was not the case, but that's the case now.

And it's very important because respect for other countries, sovereignty, dignity, independence and their political choices is -- that's the foundation of a modern, broadminded diplomatic approach not only to the rest of the hemisphere, but to the rest of the world. And so I want to start there. And I would just say -- I mean, here we have two leaders, two great leaders in the hemisphere, President Lula and President Bush, very different people from different parts of the political spectrum, from different political traditions and yet they find a way to create a bridge and they've found some common ground between them and therefore between their governments

And that's a very interesting example of what we need in this hemisphere, broadminded engagement, not narrow minded engagement. And I think we've been able to achieve that, not only in their relations with Brazil, but in relations with many of the other countries -- most of the other countries of the hemisphere.

So 2006 was a remarkable year in a lot of ways. If you look at all those elections and what they mean for the future of our hemisphere and we think that 2007 can be a similar year now of engagement and we think we've started off on a good footing, I think you'll see lots of senior American officials traveling to the hemisphere this year. Our Secretary of Health Mike Leavitt is going to be doing that. In fact, he's responsible for one of the programs that the President announced during his trip. We certainly intend to have an active engagement at the Organization of American States with lots of bilateral visits to countries, all of which are represented in this room, to build the type of relationship that we all need to have and we're proud of that.

And the United States also I think needed to send a message in the President's trip. I think the President surprised a lot of reporters traveling with him that we're interested in democracy because democracy is the foundation of our own national life and system. We're interested in trade because we truly believe that trade can lift people out of poverty. We've seen it happen in India where in a nation of 1.1 billion people there's now a middle class of 350 million people that did not exist in that size, even a generation ago. And a nation of 1.3 billion people in China, trade has lifted several hundred million people out of poverty. So we believe deeply in trade -- free trade -- and you can see that in our policies and the Free Trade Agreements that the President has put forth for Peru and for Colombia and for Panama, as well as the existing ones that we have. But we also have to believe and we have to believe it and act on it, we Americans, in social justice and in poverty alleviation, we have gone through that in our own 234-year history.

We went through a period of time throughout most of our history where a certain number of our fellow citizens, African Americans, were not considered to be at the beginning of our national history, even fully people, three-fourths of a man, that horrible, shameful part of the founding documentation of our country, which was only overcome 40 years ago with the great civil rights legislation in our own country.

Condoleezza Rice is fond of saying that when the Founding Fathers said, "All men are created equal," they didn't mean her relatives. And so we've had to go through this wrenching experience. We fought a civil war over it of trying to deliver from bondage a significant part of our own population. We've also had to face massive poverty in our own country, in our national history in the 19th century certainly and the 1930s when a lot of our parents were young people living in poverty. My parents were, I'm sure a lot of the parents of Americans here were, during the Great Depression. So if any country should be sympathetic and should identify with a hemispheric focus on social justice and poverty, it should be the American people and we think we are.

And so when the President went to Latin America and said, social justice and poverty have to be the concerns of the United States of America, he meant it. And I think it was a welcome message, as I lead the press in the countries which he visited and have read some of the commentary and have talked to some of the ambassadors here today about the meaning of that trip. And I think that message is an important one because as we perceive the politics of South America, and of Central America and of the Caribbean region, we know that these are active dynamic issues and that an American focus on them is in the best bipartisan tradition of our foreign policy.

And if you look at some of the programs that the President articulated in his speech just before he left and in his deliberations with some of the leaders, programs that try to bring poor kids from South and Central America to our country on scholarships or programs that try to help deliver basic health services to people or programs that are designed to focus on the indigenous population and the misfortunes that they have had to live through in many countries in our hemisphere. What the President is articulating is an American national strategy I think speaks to these goals in the region. And so we're proud of that shift in American policy and we think it's the right shift for us for the years ahead.

I thought one of the highlights of the trip was the first visit -- stop and that was in Brazil. There's no question given Brazil's size and economic capacity, given the richness of its country, given its global vision that the United States should be a natural partner with Brazil. And when Tom and I visited Sao Paulo in Brasilia that is the kind of conversation that we had with our partners in the Brazilian Government and in the Brazilian private sector. And we're so proud of the memorandum of understanding that was signed between our two governments that will create a future of biofuels cooperation between our two countries.

If energy is becoming a defining international issue, it certainly is, and it's redefined in the global power landscape, it is raising the power of energy producers, sometimes in very unhelpful ways. We look at countries like Iran, an adversary of the United States, and see the outsized importance of that country because of its oil well or look at what we see in the United States as the wrongheaded policies of Hugo Chavez and what he's doing we think in sometimes very negative ways with his oil well.

It's important that we all have energy independence. And if there's one country in the entire world that's been a leader in the drive towards energy independence is Brazil. The remarkable statistic -- I think I'm right, Antonio -- that 82 percent of the cars in the country are now flex fuel. There's no other country in the world that even approaches that, especially a large country like Brazil.

And so the two world leaders in the ethanol market, Brazil and the United States, have now joined forces to say three things through this memorandum of understanding. One is we should collaborate together. Our scientific and our cultural institutes and our governments to see if we can proceed further in research and development to make further progress on biofuels research because the promise is real, especially if we look at cellulose technology and what we can do with all parts of our agricultural industry to produce biofuels.

First, we should be partners in research and development and I visited with some experts in the scientific community in Sao Paulo, Tom and I did, just to get a sense of what the opportunities might be for both of our countries in that region. Second, both of us have a self-interest in creating a regional market -- a growing and larger regional market for ethanol production, and we've seen that in the Caribbean of late, growing production in the Caribbean which is welcome and also the use of ethanol because it is a -- sometimes cheaper, but not in all cases cheaper, but always more environmentally friendly, energy source at a time when global climate change is a problem for all of us and we all recognize that.

And third, can we see the development of a global market with ethanol as a global commodity so that we might fuel a revolution around the world in alternative fuels that will help with the global problem of fossil fuel production and use which is harmful to the environment over the long term. Those are three -- three -- very specific and very ambitious goals for the Brazilian and U.S. Governments and we think that this has become in some ways a symbolic centerpiece of this new relationship between Brazil and the United States, its renewed relationship and partnership between us.

Now, I think everybody understands that no two countries is great, powerful and large, as multidimensional as Brazil and the United States are always going to agree on any issue --we don't, we won't. But a mature partnership would be one where we take advantage of our comparative -- the foundation of our comparative advantage to work together bilaterally in the region and globally so that we can do some good in the world and bring stability to the world.

I will give you one example. I don't think Brazil and the United States see eye-to-eye always on the question of Iran. But we have sent the same signal to Iran through the International Atomic Energy Agency Board of Governors where both of us sit and Argentina has sent the same signal as well, ambassador, that Iran should not be disregarding the wishes of Mohamed ElBaradei and the IAEA and that it should make sure that it's abiding by the regulations of that agency and that's a very powerful signal that India and Egypt and Japan and all of Europe and Russia and China and the United States and Argentina and Brazil have sent together.

So the development of this partnership with Brazil is going to be singularly important for the United States. I would also say that on the President's trip to Colombia, he reaffirmed the great partnership between Colombia and the United States and we've been very privileged to have the Foreign Minister here today. As Eric said, he's a remarkable man. He just spent six years in captivity as a prisoner, as a hostage of the FARC guerillas. And I was amazed when I saw the announcement that he'd been made the Foreign Minister. I thought, my goodness, he's only been out of captivity for 30 days. And now he has to become a foreign minister. If any of you know about the schedules for foreign ministers, you know, they never stop and they work seven days a week and they travel all over the world. And I thought he really deserves to be on beach someplace for at least 60 days. (Laughter.) But he came to the United States this week we think -- and Charles was with him and he saw Secretary Rice last evening -- and we think he made a very powerful case on Capitol Hill for what the Bush Administration has put forward, the extension of Plan Colombia.

So the fact that the United States should be spending about $600 million in the next two years and a great deal of money in the following four years. So a five-year plan that would extend where President Clinton started and where President Bush has continued our assistance to the Colombian people so they can win the war against the FARC and rid the country of that extremist terrorist group, frankly win the war against the right-wing paramilitary groups which have also been a scourge on Colombia and try to bring 30, 40, perhaps 50,000 people -- fighters -- out of the fighting forces and bring them back into civil society as the Colombian program is trying to do.

And so that Colombia might also overcome the problem of coca production and trafficking, which is also our problem here in the United States because we consume this as a demand here that draws those drugs to our country and our kids on every street in this country and every city in this country are the victims of heroine and cocaine addiction. And we see the incredibly devastating effects that has here in our own society.

So this program of Colombia, the extension of Plan Colombia, I know it's going to be controversial in some parts of Congress. I was listening to Congressman McGovern. I greatly respect him. He's from my home state of Massachusetts. I was listening to him this morning and he has questions about whether the Government of Colombia has done the right thing on human rights, whether they've done the right thing in the demobilization.

I think the Foreign Minister answered a lot of those questions this week. And we hope that Colombia will accelerate the justice systems and that those people who are accused of extra judicial crimes are put on trial, given a fair trial and if they're guilty convicted and that people -- and that the human -- the people who've been the victims of human rights abuses be given some measure of social justice. We need to ask Colombia to do that. But Colombia is our friend and they do need our support. And if I look all around the world at all of the countries of the world that have to try to deal with this problem of both terrorism and narcotics addiction, is there one country in the world that's been made greater progress than Colombia under President Uribe? I don't think so. And so Colombia is a true friend of the United States.

The President had a remarkably positive visit to Montevideo. And I think with the passage over the last week or two, it's very much eclipsed that rally that was held in a football stadium in Buenos Aires. And I'm sorry that that rally was held there on the same day that our President was in Montevideo. I didn't think that was the right thing to do and I'm sorry to say that, Mr. Ambassador, but that's the feelings of everyone in our government about that.

But Chavez showed that he can give speeches, he can try to follow the President around Latin America. And yet the real story is, what are we all going to do in a productive, positive way to try to build bridges and not tear bridges down among the countries of this hemisphere. The President of the United States did not tear a single bridge down during his trip. He tried to build them up. He tried to reinforce them. He tried to say whether it's with indigenous people or whether it's with center-right countries, the governments or centrist governments or center-left governments, we want to be a friend to everybody. He didn't go around saying, ethanol production and biofuels agreements are a problem as Chavez did. He didn't go around with a negative message. He went around with a positive message.

And I think the President found in Uruguay, in Montevideo, a real friend and a relationship that's working in trade and in policy terms for our country. And I know in the visit to Guatemala whether it was to see the problems of the indigenous community of that country, to see the promise of our Free Trade Agreement with Central America, the Dominican Republic, that we have made the right choices in Central America and with our great friend, the Dominican Republic and that we're going to continue that in the period ahead.

And in Mexico, of course, you know we have this unique, huge, expansive relationship with the Mexican people, the Mexican Government. You know, sometimes we talk about American foreign policy and we talk about problems and opportunities in Asia and Africa, Europe and the Middle East, but there are no two more important relationships to us than the ones with Canada and Mexico. They're our neighbors. We share successful largely undefended borders between the two countries and yet we have problems on both borders, too, with both countries.

And we're all in this together. We've had this remarkably successful experiment called NAFTA which all of us have profited from and there's no question that with the new President of Mexico we have a partnership. We have a shared vision of where the bilateral relationship should be going. There's no question the United States of America could not function without Mexican citizens in our country and that we're facing an immigration debate. This year in our country which is singularly important for our future as an inclusive country, as a country that has always welcomed people to our shores and through our -- across our borders, that's going to be important for the future of our country as well as for Mexico itself.

A little later on this year, Secretary of State is going to host the members of the CARICOM, the Caribbean countries in a summit meeting here in Washington -- in D.C. We look forward to that. The countries of the Caribbean are our partners in the hemisphere and they are important to us and we are connected symbiotically to them, through our trade investment relationships and through the human bonds between us. In that respect, I think both in Argentina and in Brazil and certainly with Chile and we've had some very, very good meetings. My colleague the Under Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Chile was here last week. We're so proud of what our hemispheric partners are doing with us in Haiti. And I think Chile and Argentina and Brazil and all the other countries contributing to the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Haiti deserve the credit.

Over half of the troops of this peacekeeping mission of the United Nations come from this hemisphere. It is the only UN peacekeeping effort in the world that is dominated by the countries of this hemisphere and I think it's working. We've seen the arrests over the last two weeks of some important criminal leaders in Cite Soleil and some of the other more difficult neighborhoods in Port-au-Prince.

We've seen the United Nations force in a very strong and assertive way maintain law and order in Haiti, not in a perfect way because that would be too much to ask, but in a way that brings honor to the United Nations. And we see President Preval stepping forward to -- with a positive vision for where his own country should go and where the United States has a very deep interest: four hundred million dollars of American economic assistance; contributions from all over the hemisphere, political, economic, military to help Haiti, the poorest country in our hemisphere, and all of us have a stake in its success. And I just wanted to congratulate again the three countries here today, but all the other Latin countries that are contributing both from Central America as well as South America to the United Nations force in Haiti itself.

There is so much business that we have to do and the President's trip gives you a sense of his broad agenda among the countries of our hemisphere. We're very hopeful and we're very positive about where we're going.

I would conclude, Eric, on this note. I'm intrigued always by the press and how the press tries to -- it does its job. It tries to define the health of a relationship among countries at any one point in time. And if you look at the conventional wisdom that a lot of people have had about our relationships here in the Americas over the last year or so, here is the conventional wisdom.

While populism is on the rise and governments are heading leftwards and Hugo Chavez is on the rise and the Castro brothers are still in charge in Havana and somehow the United States is on the defensive. That's the conventional wisdom of the press. Maybe I'm wearing rose-colored glasses, because I'm a diplomat and because I work for a particular government, but I don't think so.

I think an objective view, professional diplomatic view would be the following. I actually see despite all the problems that we have in our own hemisphere and sometimes the differences of opinion among governments that are friendly to each other. I see a lot of positive forces at work. And I see more at work here in our hemisphere than I see in the Middle East or in South Asia. And fewer problems here than I see in Africa.

In our own hemisphere, despite the massive problems that we have, all of us including our own country, the great majority of us believe in democracy and free elections. The great majority of us believe in some type of free market system. We all put different colorations on it and we all have our -- we all invest in different ways in that. The great majority of us believe that drug trafficking has to stop and drug production; that international crime has to be combated; that global warming is a problem that we all are responsible for and have to do something about, so we have to invest in clean energy technologies. And we also believe that the United States has a place in this hemisphere that is vital. And I only see two leaders in the hemisphere who reject that framework, Chavez and Castro.

We've opened up relations with Evo Morales. We've opened up relations with President Carrera. We've welcomed them into a partnership with the United States. And if that record is only two countries are denying a relationship between the United States and the rest of our partners, that's not a bad record. So I actually am more optimistic than most. I think that the United States is reaching out to their countries of the Hemisphere in a positive way. I think the President's trip is a manifestation of that policy and we're proud of it. But we're not satisfied or self-satisfied. We understand that there's a lot of work that needs to be done and a lot of problems that need to be overcome. And we're ready to sit down and do that work with the ambassadors in this room and with the countries of the region. So thank you very much, Eric, for giving me this platform and thank you, ladies and gentlemen for coming to listen to me. And I'm happy now to sit down and listen to you and to respond to whatever questions you have. Thank you very much. (Applause.)

MODERATOR: Well, ladies and gentlemen, as promised, a thoughtful tour de raison, if you will, of foreign policy based on the President's trip. And we got what we were promised. So thank you, Nick. That was really, really terrific. This is on the record, so the questions are yours. The comments that you would like to make are yours. Any responses, any issues that you would like to raise, we have a terrific opportunity. We have circulating mikes. I would ask after you're recognized, then we’ll go first to Ambassador Babbitt here. After you're recognized, please wait for the microphone and then identify yourself by name and organization and we'll take it from there.

QUESTION: Hi. My name is Hattie Babbitt. I'm with Jennings Strouss. And I wanted to ask you to elaborate a little bit more on the agreement with Brazil. I've sat around in meetings with diplomats -- probably with you -- lamenting that the urgent overwhelms the important. We never got a chance to really focus on the important. The Administration has been woefully neglectful. Some would say criminally neglectful, criminally negligent in ignoring climate change. The President made a very hopeful step forward and is making the ethanol agreement with Brazil a big part of this trip. And can we be hopeful that that's a first step forward in a new legacy for the Bush Administration and that the President will now be stepping forward to be -- to bring the United States into a leadership position on climate chance?

UNDER SECRETARY BURNS: Hattie, thank you and thank you for the question. You understand that I think that the President in his State of the Union Address mentioned the climate change as a global concern. I think all of us who look out ahead and look at, you know, what are the big problem that the world's going to face the next generation would list climate change among the handful of problems that everyone around the globe is going to have to contend with and do something about. In our own country and in our government, of course, we have invested several billion dollars a year -- several -- since 2001 in clean energy research, particularly clean coal research, biofuels research and nuclear power research. I think the President's view is that we ought to go back to civil nuclear power in the United States. A lot of countries around the world are making that decision. It's clean and it's conducive to what a lot of people want to see as carbon emissions reducing around the world.

We know that the United States as a leader in R&D in clean energy and needs to continue to invest government funds in research. And I believe we've invested around $29 billion in U.S. Government funds in clean energy research since 2001.

We also know that if we're going to be successful in combating global climate change, it's going to have to be a global effort and right now China and India are not part of the global effort. And so the post-Kyoto debate is going to be interesting and important for all of us.

You asked about the biofuels agreement, and I'm particularly -- we're proud of that. And when Tom and I -- Tom Shannon and I -- went to Brazil, prior to the President's trip, we spent a lot of time talking to Dilma Rousseff, of course who was a leader in Brazilian Government on energy issues. We talked to the Minister of Energy, we talked to Antonio, we talked to Foreign Minister Amorim about this. And the result is this, I would say, historic memorandum of understanding between our two countries that will position Brazil and the United States to be global leaders, not just regional leaders, on biofuels. Now, biofuels is not the one answer to combat fossil fuel production -- the problem of fossil fuel production -- but it is part of the answer. And the fact that Brazil and the United States are now together on it gives me some hope that we're going to see a ripple effect in the hemisphere that would be beneficial from a energy and also from an environmental point of view for all of us.

So I think that -- I'm intrigued just as a citizen by the greening of America. I mean, whenever you see the Governor of the State of California, the Governor of the State of Massachusetts -- one Republican, one Democrat -- saying that global climate change is a concern for two great states -- California and Massachusetts. When you see our former Vice President Al Gore win the Academy Award, there's no question that the American people I think feel environmentally conscious and concerned about the environment. I'd say this as a citizen, just as someone who's also concerned about the environment myself. So I think global climate change is an enormously important issue and that we Americans have to deal with it. And I think our government, in terms of its investment and what President Bush did in Brazil with President Lula, that's a good start for us as we begin -- as we recommence this effort that all of us need to make.

MODERATOR: Carl Meechem (ph) here and then we'll go to Juan Carlos Iturregui and then the Ambassador of Argentina, please.

QUESTION: Mr. Secretary, I work for Senator Lugar on the Foreign Relations Committee. We can't offer you enough praise for your trip and for what we consider a very positive step in deepening relationships with Brazil with the MOU. Nevertheless, we think we can do more. We are going to be offering legislation pretty soon to broaden this -- I guess, approach regarding ethanol and biofuels in the hemisphere.

I was hoping that you could give me a sense of what efforts you foresee the United States and Brazil specifically working on with other countries in the hemisphere. As you know, there are so many countries in the region that are so dependent on foreign forms of fuel. You have Chile that depends on so many foreign forms of fuel, Panama and there's a long list. There's other countries that have a lot of potential with regards to biofuel, like Argentina with the soya in the north. I'm just trying to get a sense of what should we be expecting in the future as a next step with regards to biofuels and renewables?

UNDER SECRETARY BURNS: Thank you very much. I had a chance to brief Senator Lugar when Tom and I came back from our visit to Brazil and I was so impressed. I think Senator Lugar is one of two people in the U.S Congress who owns a farm that is producing for the ethanol industry. And so he's someone who's on the frontlines of this revolution in our country. It's incredible what's happening in the Midwest, the expansion of land devoted to corn production for ethanol, which in our country is the way we produce ethanol as you know. And it's so hopeful for the future energy independence of our own country and it's a way to get to the President's target. And I should have mentioned this when I responded to Hattie's question of a 20 percent reduction in gasoline usage by the American people over the next ten years. That's a really ambitious bar -- goal to meet. And I think the President's given us a good goal to shoot for that will have benefits to the environment.

Senator Lugar's also been a leader, I should say this, in trying to convince NATO that energy ought to be the focus of a NATO alliance given the energy dependence of most of our NATO allies on Gazprom and Russian oil and gas, which is not healthy from a security perspective. We're beginning to see countries like Azerbaijan and Georgia take steps to diversify oil and gas production and pipelines in the Caucuses and to the Anatolian mainland. Turkey's been a leader in this. And so we very support what Senator Lugar's doing as a champion of energy really on a global basis.

But you've asked a good question. I think I've said pretty much what I can about the biofuels agreement. We're now going to put together a working group in the U.S. Government that will look at these three areas that we've agreed on with the Brazilian Government and will be coming -- President Lula, by the way, is coming to Camp David next weekend -- the 31st. And Foreign Minister Amorim and Secretary Rice will be meeting together on the margins of that. And I think the future for us is to decide how can we help the countries of the Caribbean and of Central America and those in South America that are interested to become biofuels producers because this is a democratic energy forum. It's not sole preserve of just two countries in the hemisphere.

How can we create the demand for it? Now that's difficult. As President Bush is fond of saying, you know, the challenge in our country with ethanol reflects the challenge in the Caribbean and South America. You have to have the ability to distribute this to consumers. In our country the problem is there are -- you can drive up to the pump in Kansas and in Iowa and Nebraska and get ethanol. You can't do that in Vienna, Virginia or Washington, DC or Boston, Massachusetts, so we need to expand the distribution networks for biofuels.

Now, Brazil is, of course, way ahead of us in distribution. I'm talking about challenges for our own country. But if we expand the demand and expand the production centers, you should see some improvement in our own country and other countries for distribution across countries like our own and that's a real challenge ahead of the American people. And if we can make it a global commodity then we truly can send the right kind of signals to the production markets in each of our countries. This is a long-term enterprise with long-term benefits for it, so the major capital investments that only come with long-term certainty will then be realized. That's our hope. This is a very ambitious memorandum of understanding. The title is quite banal, the hopes are big, and so -- and I think that in many ways it will define much of the cooperation between Brazil and the United States in the period ahead.

MODERATOR: Juan Carlos, please.

QUESTION: Good afternoon, Juan Carlos Iturregui, Foundation for InterAmerican Development and congratulations for a very successful trip. I just came back from Guatemala where the InterAmerican Development Bank was holding its annual meeting and Secretary Paulson was there and it set quite a good precedent.

One of the things he mentioned is that the region needs over 200 -- $250 billion in basic infrastructure and more advanced infrastructure. And I'd like to comment specifically on Guatemala because it was an eye-opener for me. I haven't been there in a long time -- a very difficult transition from a civil war ten years ago. And in speaking with the President of FedEx he told me that the DR-CAFTA has brought an incredible revolution in transparency and efficiency in the Guatemalan customs, for example. But then I also learned that Guatemala is not eligible for MCC assistance and other things -- security assistance and so forth. So I'm hoping as a U.S. taxpayer and a citizen that you will take a look at that and I have no doubts in this fight.

But I also wanted to congratulate you for the -- and the Administration for the public health initiative. I think that training center in Panama will do a lot of good and the U.S. naval ship Comfort making the rounds is just astoundingly good.

One more comment, I think Washington is full of resources, meaning U.S. Administration and the multilaterals, but the frustration from the people down there is that they don't -- they see the announcements but they don’t see the projects. It's taking too long. And the President went to great project called (inaudible) and I visited that town and it's an amazing thing. And that is -- the seed for that money, for that project, it empowered hundreds of people -- a great USAID technical assistance grant. So if we can replicate those projects in the years to come I think that we will have a much better neighborhood. Thank you.

UNDER SECRETARY BURNS: Thank you very much. Well, we feel very good about the series of initiatives the President announced just before his visit because they do speak to the real problems of the people of Latin America. There was some criticism from some of the press and I think from Chavez, well, this is really just a series of small agreements. What do they amount to? The agreements are specifically, as you correctly stated, specifically designed to target the problems that people in the hemisphere are articulating of health and access to healthcare, of energy, of social justice and poverty. And so they're specifically designed to speak to the agenda that we see the rest of the hemisphere talking about. And I think it's a fundamental truth about diplomacy and relations among countries that it can't just be about your agenda. Every country has an agenda. It's called our national security strategy. Every country has one.

But to be successful in terms of hemispheric cooperation, you have to understand what's in the other person's agenda and then try to build a bridge to it. And all those initiatives announced by the President are little bridges being built to different agendas of different peoples throughout the hemisphere. And so thank you for the nice things you said. We hope that these can be, you know, meaningful and successful in making a difference in people's lives. That's the whole point of this.

MODERATOR: Ambassador Bordon of Argentina. Here in the front row.

AMBASSADOR BORDON: One recognition, one comment and one request and one question and one question. The recognition: thank you, Ambassador Burns, for your very clear, intelligent and frank comments about not only the visit but the relation between the United States and our countries.

I think it is very important that the feeling that we have in the last time that we have more dialogue, we have a better understanding and we share the recognition for the incredible job of Tom Shannon and his activity. I remember only two or three days ago the meeting that we had, the Ecuadorian Embassy with Secretary Gutierrez of Commerce. And it was important because he said that some of the countries that were there, all the Latin American countries, some of them had a very positive free trade agreement with the United States for a long time, like Chile or Mexico, other countries. Some of them are fighting now to arrive at a free trade agreement like Panama and Colombia and Peru. But at the same time, he recognized that they could partner some friends, some countries like Brazil and Argentina that hopefully we recognize now -- now we have, we have (inaudible) ideological difference about who have free trade agreements. When (inaudible) for different situation, we need to work in Doha to arrive at the possibility to have a balance between industrial service and agricultural issue because the subsidies are (inaudible). And I know that was part of your conversation in Buenos Aires and part of the conversation that you had and President Bush and many people had in Brazil. For the reason, I think it's a good way. It's a good way.

The comment -- now to my friend, Ambassador Nicholas Burns because he and Tom Shannon they have known perfect what's happening in the region, but* for other people that are here. The meeting in Buenos Aires is the same day that President Bush was in Montevideo. We had three meetings that day. The first meeting we seen in our Camp David (inaudible) that we sign agreement between the President of Venezuela and the President of Argentina about (inaudible) and economic and investment issue that's very positive for both countries.

The agreement between two sister countries historically to centennial and secondly, between two democratic elected presidents. And the second day we had the meeting with Ambassador Wayne, your Ambassador in Argentina. I was there. The new President of the investment agency in Argentina and more than 20 presidents and CEOs of the most important American companies to work together here to increase American investment in my country. And the third meeting was organizing in a (inaudible), NGOs and political party -- no official parties -- with President Chavez. The government -- the official party we didn't participate at that meeting.

President Chavez exercised the freedom that we live in Argentina. We want to recognize that we didn't have a limit when we visited my President or tomorrow First Lady Senator Christina Kirchner, who has meeting in Minnesota with the opposition and tomorrow with the U.S. community.

And finally (inaudible) the assumption* day of President (inaudible) when Mr. Fidel Castro organized with the opposition parties to my government and meeting there. I believe it would be very difficult to have the same possibility for us in Cuba today and I'm very proud to that they exercise these freedom, use the freedom of life and the freedom (inaudible) is today Argentina. And finally the question: I'm taking my recognition because you recognize the compromise and the commitment Argentina have in nonproliferation to fight against terrorism, to work together in many levels. This is the maturity of the bilateral basis I think.

Finally, the question is we had in this -- the same room, two days ago, the (inaudible) and (inaudible) from the new federation of Colombia, emotional but with balance, no freedom, human rights, and to fight against the terrorism altogether. I agree with your statement about it. What is the possibility that your cooperation with the Congress the next time to obtain the approval of the Free Trade Agreement of Colombia and other countries?

UNDER SECRETARY BURNS: Ambassador, thank you. You're a good friend to us. We have great respect for you and so thank you for your comments. Now, I think it is very important these free trade agreements. It is so difficult, this vote in Congress on CAFTA in the Dominican Republic, so difficult to get the vote that we did, but it was so obvious at least to us it was the right decision. And it's had such a great impact -- a beneficial impact for the United States, a beneficial impact for our friends in the DR and in Central America. So we hope that as Congress looks at Colombia and Peru and Panama, they see three friends of the United States. What is the message if we reject free trade with three friendly partner countries of the United States, what is the message in this hemispheric debate that Chavez has launched? Chavez says that there is no good that comes from a relationship with the United States, that people -- average people aren't helped by -- this is the Chavez line -- and that trade with the United States does not produce the kind of economic growth and social justice that comes from that, that people want and people need.

Our message has to be we don't need soccer -- football stadiums. We don't need bombastic speeches that really are quite negative. Everything he says is -- tends to be negative, not positive. We need -- just facts on the ground and the creation of human trade relations that benefit people in both countries. And so we have got to answer the Chavez challenge by approving the free trade agreements with Colombia and Peru and Panama.

It's critical for the United States to take the step. It would almost be like we were saying we're willing to abandon a full American relationship with this hemisphere and turn the microphone over to this figure from the past who's own policies are going to lead to failure for his country, not success. We know our policies lead to success because we've seen it all and will. We've seen it in this hemisphere. And so that's the challenge that I know our President feels strongly about, that the FTA is the right thing to do. He spoke about it on his trip and that I certainly do as a professional diplomat.

I think you're right to say we need to find a way towards progress in Doha and Ambassador Sue Schwab is trying very hard to do that with all of her colleagues. And I would just like to say when I was in Buenos Aires with Tom, we visited the Jewish community Center, the AMIA Center and to see the -- those people who survived the bombings in 1994 and to see that Argentina survived two bombings in '92 and '94 by Hezbollah, supported by the Iranian Government is to see that people can triumph over terrorism. And we were very pleased to see the decision by the Interpol Board of Governors that those red notices should be issued for five Iranian officials for complicity in the murder of citizens from your country.

And when the Attorney General went there and I went there two days later to lay a wreath and to meet in the community center, we went there really to say that we are with the people, the Jewish community of Argentina and with the Argentine Government in this struggle against Hezbollah and the Iranian Government that has backed it for so many years. And we hope the Interpol process now will lead to justice, many, many years after these crimes were committed.

But thank you for -- Ambassador, for your remarks. You're a good friend. And we would just hope that the agenda that Tom and I brought to Buenos Aires is can we have a more consistent and a more consistently friendly relationship with Argentina. And we would hope that more consistently friendly acts by both of us would underwrite that future relationship. But you're a good friend and thank you for the comments you've made.

MODERATOR: Well, I think on that note, that's a very effective and powerful message, I think, for all of us, so we appreciate your comments along those lines. Ladies and gentlemen, one of the benefits of working in the Latin American space is the -- one comes into contact with the culture and the people and the history of the region. And for those of you who know the Council of Americas, you also know our sister organization, the American Society which is also an organization dedicated to the culture and people of Latin America.

For over 40 years, we've been doing that and we just came out with a retrospective, Nick, of some of our best -- greatest hits, if you would and published in conjunction with the David Rockefeller Center at Harvard, ourselves and the Cisneros Foundation, we've just come up with this weighty tone that we've been given. And so I'd like to make the presentation to you and thanks for your time, for your wonderful comments. And ladies and gentlemen, I would ask that all of you please join me in thanking the Under Secretary for his really wonderful -- (Applause.)

Released on April 12, 2007

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