23 February 2009
Clinton: Enhancing Relations with Governments and People
United States is reaching out to the entire world, Clinton says
Washington — A significant part of Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s four-nation trip to East Asia was connecting with people in ways they had not experienced in recent years.
It is, Clinton said in several press conferences and at several stops, an effort to create a common understanding between the United States and audiences abroad.
“I see our job right now, given where we are in the world and what we’ve inherited, as repairing relations, not only with governments but with people,” Clinton said to reporters in Seoul, South Korea. “We are in a time where public opinion influences governmental decisions more so than historically has been the case, even in autocratic and authoritarian regimes.”
“We are reaching out to the entire world. This is a general effort to reengage with the world and to do so in an effective manner.”
The trip included stops in Japan, Indonesia, South Korea and China.
On February 20, she spoke to 3,000 college women at the Ewha Womans University in Seoul. The topics ranged from foreign policy to her professional life and to raising a daughter.
“I had the vantage point of looking out at this very large audience of all these extraordinary young women, and it made me so proud,” Clinton said. “And I know that each one of them has dreams for her life, as we all do, and I’m hopeful that as we move into the future that more and more of those dreams will come true.”
Earlier in Jakarta, Indonesia, Clinton toured health and water-treatment projects financed by the U.S. Agency for International Development. While walking through neighborhoods she drew a crowd of local residents as interested in her as in her interest about their lives and why they matter to the United States.
“It is not just about government-to-government, it has to be ... people-to-people,” Clinton said. “If we talk to one another and we listen to one another, I think that we can further deepen our positive relationship.”
Clinton acknowledged there will be an enormous amount of official exchanges between governments — that is the traditional foreign policy approach — but by itself it is not enough. There will be disagreements, but friends, she said, can disagree and still work together. But she said that reaching out to people is an important element in the smart power tool box that is not traditional and not confined by ministerial meetings and staged events.
“Going into universities where the next generation is going to be thinking about their role and how they see the world and what they think of America, or walking in a neighborhood in Jakarta and talking about bringing clean water and health care thanks to the American people, that is part of the message we’re trying to convey,” Clinton said.
During a press conference with Indonesian Foreign Minister Noer Hassan Wirajuda, Clinton announced that the Peace Corps will be returning to Indonesia. Peace Corps volunteers left Indonesia in 1965 during a period of turmoil in which then-General Suharto eventually came to power in 1968. The Peace Corps is composed of young American volunteers who travel to nations that ask for assistance, and the Peace Corps volunteers live and work alongside local citizens with the goal of helping improve lives and livelihoods.
The United States also will begin the interagency process of signing on to a treaty with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations that would bind it to the 10-member group, known as the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia.
“This is the first time the United States has taken this step,” Clinton said at a press conference in Jakarta with ASEAN Secretary-General Surin Pitsuwan. Indonesia, Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam and Burma are the 10 members.
IN CHINA, WIDE-RANGING DISCUSSIONS
Clinton said that she held wide-ranging discussions with Chinese officials that started from a simple premise: “It is essential that the United States and China have a positive, cooperative relationship.”
The talks focused on matters of bilateral concern, but also broader regional and global issues. “It is important for the global community, which is counting on China and the United States to collaborate, to pursue security, peace and prosperity for all,” Clinton said.
Discussions also turned to North Korea and the need to resume the Six-Party Talks, which involve the Koreas, Japan, Russia, China and the United States, she said. In addition, China and the United States will resume mid-level, military-to-military discussions later in February.
Clinton said the two will also work together on other issues such as Burma and Sudan.
Ask Secretary Clinton a question online about her trip to Asia.
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