02 June 2010

Ambassador Robert Blake Discusses U.S.-India Strategic Dialogue

CO.NX webchat transcript, June 2

In a June 2 CO.NX webchat, Ambassador Robert O. Blake Jr., assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asian affairs, answered questions on U.S.-India relations, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Following is the transcript:

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
Bureau of International Information Programs
Webchat Transcript

Guest:            Ambassador Robert O. Blake, Jr., Assistant Secretary of State
Date:             June 2, 2010
Time:             7:30 a.m. EDT (11:30 GMT)

Video Recording: https://statedept.connectsolutions.com/p97188087/

Karlygash Faillace, Moderator:  Well, good evening in India and good morning in Washington. Welcome. This is CO.NX chat with the State Department in Washington, D.C. and we have with us Assistant Secretary Blake, who previously served as our Ambassador to Sri Lanka.  We're very happy to have you here today. Welcome.

Assistant Secretary Robert Blake:  Thanks, and let me add my warm words of welcome to all of our participants in today's dialogue. Today is a very exciting day in Indo-U.S. relations. It marks the beginning of the first strategic dialogue between the United States and India. President Obama has said India is going to be one of the indispensable partners of the United States in the 21st century and we think that it's very much in our own strategic interests to help advance the growth of India on the world stage. So over the next two days, our business people but also our two governments, will have our first whole of government dialogue, during which many, many different ministers of both sides will come together to discuss how to take our relations to the next strategic level in preparation for what we think will be President Obama's trip this fall to India. So, again, a very warm welcome to all of you and I’ll be happy to take your questions.

Question [Amala]: Can you give us an update on what's going on in Washington with the Strategic Dialogue? How does this matter to the people in India or the United States?

Assistant Secretary Robert Blake:  Thank you very much for that question. It matters to the people of India and the people of the United States because we're going to be focusing not only on important bilateral issues that directly affect your security and prosperity, things like counterterrorism, which is so important to the security of both Americans and Indians. But also very important issues like developing crop and weather forecasting. We're looking at ways to improve the supply chain in agriculture. We're looking at ways we can participate in improving agriculture in other countries. We're looking at ways to improve trade and investment, which already has doubled over the last five years. But we have great optimism that we can do much more in the years to come. So all of those will bring concrete and immediate benefits to the people of India and the United States. And also I think we'll be looking at these important global issues as well. About how the United States will cooperate on the global stage on important matters like climate change, food security, and nonproliferation.

Question [Trithesh Nandan, Governance Now Magazine]:  What are the major policies that India and the U.S. are focusing on? Can you elaborate?

Assistant Secretary Robert Blake:  Well, I think I mentioned some of those. Let me talk about the economic part of it. Jobs are a very important part of the future both for the United States and for India. There are a number of very important milestones, I think, that will be coming up in our relations. One is the pending civil nuclear legislation, liability legislation, in the Lok Sabha which would open up the possibility of American companies exporting reactors and other civil nuclear technology to India to help meet India's very fast-rising energy needs.

Another important growth area is education where there's another bill pending that will open up India's education sector for the first time and allow American universities to come in and offer degrees to Indian students. That will be in addition to the 100,000 India students already here in the United States. So those are just two of the very promising areas of new cooperation between the United States and India.

Question [Dr. Debajyoti Das Gupta]:  Do the U.S. and India consider women central to their strategic relationship?  And, would you please explain India's role as strategic partner in the international arena?

Assistant Secretary Robert Blake:  Certainly we think that the role of women has to underline everything that we do and can really inform all of our efforts across the board. Our Women's Coordinator, Ambassador Melanne Verveer, just had a women's empowerment dialogue last week with her counterpart, the Secretary of the Ministry of Women and Child Development, and they discussed a wide range of areas in which the United States and India can cooperate to promote the role of women – not only in India but working together in places like Afghanistan. So we are very optimistic about the prospects for greater cooperation in this area.

On the question of India's role as a strategic partner in the international arena, I think this is a new and very promising area of our cooperation. President Obama welcomed very much Prime Minister Singh's important role that he played in help to broker an agreement in Copenhagen last fall that set the stage for what we hope will be an agreement that will take place later this year in Mexico City. President Obama was very pleased to welcome Prime Minister Singh in April to the global Nuclear Security Summit here in Washington in which Prime Minister Singh announced that India will be establishing a center for nuclear security that will provide training for countries around the world. So these are just a few of the examples in which India is now working very closely with the United States on the major global issues of the day.

Question [Rajiv]:  Assistant Secretary Blake, one of the topics of the Strategic Dialogue is counterterrorism. While I assume this refers to Pakistan and Kashmir-based groups like LeT, Prime Minister Singh has called the Naxals the greatest internal security threat. Do you agree with this assessment? Would you call the Maoists terrorists or just insurgents? The train attack last week killed around 100 civilians and was extremely deadly, and the Indian government at both the center and state levels seems unable to cope with the growing Naxal menace. Has the United States offered any sort of assistance in terms of funding for better police training or the provision of advisors? How would you say the Maoist threat affects U.S. interests in India?

Assistant Secretary Robert Blake:  Well, thank you very much for that important question. I think that counterterrorism cooperation is one of the fastest-growing and most important areas of our cooperation now. All of America was horrified to see the attacks that took place in Mumbai in November of 2008, and I think that was really a turning point in many ways for what became much closer counterterrorism and intelligence cooperation between our two countries to help counter this threat. Not only from Lashkar e Taiba, as you mentioned, but from many other groups that are targeting India and the United States. So I’m very pleased with the cooperation to-date. Our Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Mr. Robert Mueller will be part participating in our dialogue tomorrow with Secretary Clinton and other cabinet ministers, and I’m sure there will be more to say on that subject.

With respect to the Naxal threat, certainly that’s one of the primary threats facing India right now and I know it's a very, very high priority for Prime Minister Singh and Home Minister Chidambaram. At this point, the India government has not requested any assistance from the United States, but certainly we would be prepared to entertain any requests for any assistance, given our fast-rising cooperation on counterterrorism.

Question [Setu]:  Is there any education policy being discussed in the Strategic Dialogue?

Assistant Secretary Robert Blake:  Setu, thank you very much. Yes, as I said earlier, education is going to be one of the primary areas of discussion in the next several days. We're very pleased that the Minister for Human Resources Development Kapil Sibal is here in Washington for this dialogue. He as you know has been a real champion of reforming India's educational policy at all levels to make sure that there is education access for all. A particular interest of ours is in encouraging higher education cooperation. As I said earlier, we are very happy that 100,000 India students now study in the United States, which is the largest single group of foreign students in America. And they perform a very important function, not only in terms of coming here to study but then bringing back a lot of the ideas and bringing back an understanding of the United States that helps to serve as a bridge between our two great democracies. We hope to be able to do more in terms of providing American students going to India where so far the flow has really been quite small compared to that of Indians in the United States. As I said earlier, this education bill that is now pending would allow American universities to invest in India for the first time and to offer degrees to Indian students. And that will be a very important development, because it will help India to maintain its edge as a knowledge economy and as an innovation economy just like the United States.

Question [Trithesh Nandan, Governance Now Magazine]:  India is facing a growing burden of non-communicable diseases and it is way behind in tackling it. Do we see any assistance from the U.S. in the area of health?

Assistant Secretary Robert Blake:  Thank you very much, Trithesh. Health has been one of the long standing areas of cooperation between the United States and India. The United States still has an assistance program in India devoted primarily to helping in the area of health. Not only with some of the communicable diseases that you talked about, but important new challenges like HIV/AIDS. And, again, we think that there's been very strong cooperation to date. We now want to take that to the global level as well. So that's why our two leaders -- Prime Minister Singh and President Obama-- agreed to establish a global disease detection center in India where our scientists will be able to work together to look for the cures to some of these most deadly diseases and look at ways that, again, we can work together to not only address some of the challenges inside India, but also some of the challenges like polio in other countries. One of the areas of responsibility of mine is Central Asia. Tajikistan has just experienced a polio outbreak. So there are many other countries that could benefit from this close level of cooperation between the U.S. and India in this important area.

Question [Ranjit Kumar, Navbharat Times]:  There is a big concern in India over the Afghan exit strategy of the Obama administration. I am told that this issue will figure prominently during the Strategic Dialogue. The intelligence agents of the Pakistani Army continue to harm not only Indian interests but also U.S. interests. How do you view Pakistan’s role in Afghanistan, and do you think that the Pakistanis are honestly assisting the international community in fighting the terrorist elements? Is the U.S. administration convinced that sidelining India from forums relating to Afghanistan and appeasing Pakistan will help stabilize the situation in Afghanistan?

Assistant Secretary Robert Blake:  Well, that's a lot of questions there, Ranjit. Let me see if I can do justice with those many questions.

First of all, with respect to the situation in Afghanistan, President Obama and Secretary Clinton were very pleased to welcome President Karzai of Afghanistan to Washington several weeks ago in which they had a very wide-ranging discussion with President Karzai and several members of his cabinet, who were here for their own strategic dialogue with the United States. And I think one of the most important results of those discussions was the pledge by President Obama that the United States will remain committed to the future stability and prosperity of Afghanistan for years to come. We are involved now in a very important mission with many of our NATO partners to help train up the Afghan security forces and the Afghan police so that they can begin to take responsibility for their own security. But even after our own forces begin to transition away as Afghan forces begin to take charge of their own security, we will have a long-term development assistance strategy in place for many years to come to help the Afghan economy develop and provide opportunities for young Afghans to work in agriculture and increasingly in other areas of the Afghan economy.

That is very, very important, because it sends a strong message to the Taliban and to other extremists who might think that they can simply wait for the United States to exit. That is not something that's going to happen any time soon, and therefore it's in their interest to engage in this very important process now of reintegration and reconciliation that President Karzai has described and is now going to be hosting a very important jirga and then following that will be hosting a Kabul conference for, again, many of the international partners of Afghanistan.

In terms of India's role, we have strongly welcomed the important role that India has played in Afghanistan through its various reconstruction and assistance programs which we believe have had a very salutary effect on the situation in Afghanistan.

With respect to Pakistan's role, we think Pakistan also has a very important role to play in the security and the stability of Afghanistan. That's why President Obama established an integrated strategy at the beginning of his administration. Because we understood that we were not going to be able to succeed in Afghanistan without the active support of our friends in Pakistan. As you mentioned, Pakistan has made important progress in addressing some of the terrorism that is emanating from its soil. They have taken important steps in the Swat, in South Waziristan, and I think that they will continue to make progress in that area as their military forces can be mobilized to address this threat. But this is something that remains a very high priority for the United States. It remains a very high priority for Pakistan, itself, because all of these groups that are based in Pakistan pose a threat not only to India and Afghanistan but also to Pakistan itself. It's easy to forget that Pakistan is the country that has suffered most from terrorism and therefore it is in their interests. And one of the points that President Obama and Secretary Clinton and many others have made is that increasingly these groups operate as a syndicate. They work together. And therefore, again, it's in Pakistan's own interests to address some of these groups like LeT, Jaish-e-Mohammed, and others who are targeting our countries.

Question [chheri]:  Is cyber security cooperation on the agenda of the Strategic Dialogue? If so, could you further elaborate on how exactly such cooperation could be enacted?

Assistant Secretary Robert Blake:  Thank you, Chheri. I think we will be discussing cyber security. I don't want to preview right now what that conversation will be, but I think this is going to be a new and emerging area of cooperation for both of our countries. In part because both of our countries place such an importance on various kinds of high technology cooperation, but also in terms of developing information technology. India has a knowledge economy; the United States has a knowledge economy. And information technology is a very important part of the growth of our economies. And, therefore, cyber security cooperation is vital to ensuring not only the security of our two countries but also the security of that information technology cooperation going forward.

Question [Ramesh Ramachandran, The Asian Age]:  When will the U.S. Government remove the remaining Indian organizations from the U.S. Department of Commerce's Entity List?

Assistant Secretary Robert Blake:  Well, thank you very much, Ramesh. I think that, too, will be an area of conversation over the next several days. We have already made a great deal of progress in removing export controls on India. Now less than 1% of our trade is subject to any kind of export control and there's a presumption that such exports will be approved. But as you say, there are still entities on our Entities List like the India Space Research Organization and the Defense Research and Development Organizations.  As Undersecretary Burns said in his very important speech yesterday to the Council on Foreign Relations, we think that we need to continue this process of expanding high technology cooperation between the United States. Because we do see that this is going to be one of the most important areas of cooperation between our two countries. So I expect there to be progress in the coming months on this important issue and we'll probably have more to say about this at the end of the dialogue. Thank you.

Question [Dipanjan Roy Chaudhury, Mail Today]:  Ambassador Blake, India has been concerned with repeated involvement of the Pakistan Army regulars, and particularly the ISI's involvement, in terror attacks against India. How can India and the U.S. work together to address this long-standing worry?

Assistant Secretary Robert Blake:  Dipanjan, thank you very much. I don't think it's so much that the Pakistan Army is involved in terror attacks; it's more that it is terrorist organizations inside Pakistan who have been involved in attacks, not only against India, but against the United States. As I said earlier, as a result of that, counterterrorism cooperation has been one of the fastest-growing areas of our cooperation. It's not something that gets a great deal of attention for obvious reasons. But it is important, and I think it's important to our common security. I think the Headley case, that many people in India particularly are very aware of, illustrated the growing global scope and ambition of groups like Lashkar e Taiba and, therefore, the critical need for the United States and India and Pakistan and other countries to cooperate to address this growing threat. And we are encouraged that the Pakistani government has said that it will not allow Pakistani soil to be used by extremist groups like LeT to attack India or the United States, and we hope that they will make progress to stop that because such progress would be very important in helping to reestablish a positive dynamic in relations between our two close friends, the government of India and the government of Pakistan.

Question [Pranay Upadhyaya]:  India has serious concerns about U.S. military aid to Pakistan being misused. How would the U.S. administration like to assure India in this regard?

Assistant Secretary Robert Blake:  Well, thank you, Pranay. This is a question I often receive, and I’d like to reassure all of our friends in India that whatever military assistance we are providing to Pakistan is to be used in its fight against terrorism - particularly in its border areas with Afghanistan. That is really the primary mission in front of the Pakistani army and the Pakistani military - to, again, continue the progress that they have made against these militants who are based in the border areas between Pakistan and Afghanistan. We are very encouraged that the Pakistani army has redeployed troops away from the Indian border. We do not see India as a threat to Pakistan and so we would encourage that process to continue. And that's why we attached such great importance to improved relations between India and Pakistan. But this is something that we will continue to work hard on and will continue to remain a very high priority and we will also ensure that through end-use monitoring that whatever weapons are transferred to Pakistan are used for the purposes for which they were sold.

Question [Ranjit Kumar, Navbharat Times]:  The transfer of high-tech U.S. arms to Pakistan has also been a cause of big concern to India. Since I work with a Hindi language newspaper which is read by the common masses, I often get queries from readers doubting the credibility of the U.S.-India strategic partnership. This issue has also been raised by Indian officials but the U.S. side is not listening. Why does the U.S. supply high-tech arms to Pakistan when it calls India a strategic partner?

Assistant Secretary Robert Blake:  Well, again, thank you for that question. Again, we're providing a range of counterterrorism platforms and counterinsurgency platforms to Pakistan. And these are things, really, that are going to be used against the militants who are based in these border areas of Afghanistan and Pakistan. They are not to be used against India in any way. So, again, I’d like to reassure all of our participants in this dialogue that that is the purpose for which we are transferring arms to Pakistan. But I’d also like to reassure them that the overall character of our assistance program to Pakistan is changing very rapidly, and I really don't think that I would put the emphasis on the military side. The far greater amount of our assistance, in fact, goes for economic assistance. And that is the new area of our cooperation where through the famous Kerry-Lugar legislation we are providing $1.5 billion a year in economic assistance to Pakistan to help that country to meet its economic and energy challenges of its fast-growing population. So I think that is really the area that I would put the most emphasis on, and that is an area I think that the India government has welcomed, and that they, too, see the stabilization of Pakistan as being in their interests. So, that’s really where I would put the focus. Not so much on the military side.

Question [Setu]:  Can we expect any sort of help from U.S. in ensuring safety of India students in the United States?

Assistant Secretary Robert Blake:  Well, Setu, thank you. I think you're referring to some of the attacks that have taken place against Indian students in Australia. To my knowledge, I’m not aware of any attacks against Indian students in the United States. On the contrary, Indian students are very, very welcome in America. That's why we have 100,000 Indian students here. Indian students tend to integrate extremely well into the college campus life of the United States. And we expect to see continued growth in the number of students coming here, and this is a very important priority of ours, not only to help ensure that growth, but also increasingly, as I said earlier, to encourage more American students to study in India, which will be made possible once this important bill is passed in the Lok Sahba.

Question [Satyendra Pandey]:  How serious is the United States in favoring India's bid for a permanent seat in the U.N. Security Council?

Assistant Secretary Robert Blake:  Well, again, we have a process under way now where we're looking at the entire issue of the U.N. Security Council reform. But as a general rule, our leaders have said that we see a growing role for India on the world stage, and as a result of that, India's role in many different multilateral organizations should also grow. But I’m not a position to be able to comment specifically about the U.N. Security Council at this stage. Thank you.

Question [prashanth]:  Pakistan proved its credibility in nuclear proliferation. How would this help in believing that the U.S.-supplied arms would not be misused?

Assistant Secretary Robert Blake:  Prashanth, thank you. I guess I would just answer that question with what I said earlier. Which is that for every U.S. arm that is transferred over to Pakistan and to many other countries, we have end-use monitoring provisions where we are able to satisfy ourselves that the arms are being used for the purposes for which they were approved. So we will continue to make use of that. But we are confident that Pakistan is going to use these arms for the counterinsurgency purposes for which they have been approved and not to attack India.

Question [Veronika]:  What exactly can the collaboration bring to the USA? How can the USA or India profit from it?

Assistant Secretary Robert Blake:  Well, when you say "profitable," if you're talking about the economic side of things, I think it's very profitable. I think that there are really tremendous opportunities now for the United States in India and, indeed, for India in the United States. And that's why we've established a forum of our top CEOs, our top Chief Executive Officers on both sides to advise our two governments about how we can continue to make progress to lower trade and investment barriers between our two countries and capitalize on these very, very important opportunities that exist now in our two countries. One of the very interesting trends is not only the fast-rising investment of the United States in India, but also investment by India private sector companies in the United States which almost equals that of U.S. investment in India. So that's a very encouraging sign and also an encouraging sign of the growth of our relations.

In terms of what's happening in India, I think there are going to be tremendous opportunities in infrastructure development, in energy development, in the nuclear area I talked about earlier, and then services area like insurance, banking, and retail. All of which we think has tremendous opportunities on, and we're encouraging our friends in the Indian government to raise system of the caps on foreign and direct investment in those areas that would enable American companies to significantly increase their investment in India.

Question [Seema Guha]:  India's presence in Afghanistan is worrying Pakistan. They have made it very clear; there is talk of an old style proxy war in Afghanistan between India and Pakistan. How does the U.S. view this, especially when Pakistan's cooperation is crucial at the moment? How will the U.S. balance the interests of India and Pakistan in Afghanistan?

Assistant Secretary Robert Blake:  Seema, thank you very much for that important question. This is something that we will be talking about in our dialogue over the next two days. Because we think both India and Pakistan have very important strategic interests in Afghanistan. I think the focus of dialogue these days is about this very important question of reintegration and reconciliation that will be taking place in Afghanistan. We have said to everyone that we believe that this process needs to be led by the government of Afghanistan and that there must be several criteria that govern the participation of those who can participate in reconciliation, including that they must renounce violence, they must renounce ties with Al Qaeda, and they must announce that they are willing to abide by the provisions of the current Afghan constitution, including particularly the role of women. So we think this is going to be a very important process and it will help to weaken the Taliban and bring about the peaceful outcome that we all seek for that important country.

Question [Ajai Shukla]:  The political leadership makes policy, but bureaucrats implement it. While the U.S.-India relationship is extremely warm at the political level, it would appear that the U.S. bureaucracy, especially within the State Department, has not absorbed the message that India is an important U.S. partner. There are continuing problems in obtaining clearances for technology transfers, etc. under the ITAR, and Indian space and defense establishments remain on U.S. Entity Lists. Is there a disconnect at Foggy Bottom between the top floor and the ground floor?

Assistant Secretary Robert Blake:  (laughs) Thank you very much far question and, no, there's no disconnect. As I said earlier, I think that we can anticipate that there will be progress in this area over the next six months or so, hopefully earlier than that, on these important questions of export controls. Because I think both of our countries see this as in our strategic interests, to continue to expand high technology trade and cooperation between our two countries and, again, to capitalize on some of the new opportunities that exist in space cooperation, for example, but also in defense cooperation. India has a number of important defense sales that will be coming up, including the multirole combat aircraft that two American companies are submitting bids on. And I think that sales like that will be the opportunity to look at the next generation of defense cooperation, which will be in areas like co-production and co-development. And so it's very much in both of our interests, I think, to continue to expand high technology trade cooperation and again, I think this is an area where you'll see further progress in the months to come.

Question [Suhasini Haidar, CNN-IBN TV]:  President Bush made the Nuclear Deal the big ticket item that drove Indo-U.S. relations for his term in office. What can we expect will drive relations, especially with a view to President Obama's visit to India later this year?

Assistant Secretary Robert Blake:  That's a very good question, Suhasini, and I think that's really the question that we will be focusing our strategic dialogue on over the next two days is to get the advice of all of our cabinet ministers on both sides about what can be the next big thing in our relations. Certainly there are a number of different areas to look at. As I’ve said earlier, I think education is certainly going to be one of those. Another will be in the nuclear area where we'll continue to provide opportunities for American companies once that legislation is passed. Health, global health, climate change cooperation, I think what's notable about our relations is the vast breadth and scope of our cooperation. Not just on bilateral issues but on global issues. And so I think you're going to see a number of important initiatives that will take place in those areas as we look ahead to the President's important visit in the fall.

Question [Amol Sharma]:  How concerned is the U.S. about India's inability thus far to pass a nuclear liability bill - a crucial element of the bilateral civil nuclear deal, without which firms say they won't make major investments?

Assistant Secretary Robert Blake:  Thank you. The United States was very encouraged that in his recent press conference, Prime Minister Singh mentioned the civil liability bill and mentioned what a priority this is for the Indian government. So we trust Prime Minister Singh about this and our only interest is in seeing that whatever bill is passed is consistent with the international standard in this area, which is the Convention on Supplementary Compensation which governs liability in many, many different countries in which American companies operate and provide civil nuclear technology. But the timing of that bill and how it's managed within the Indian system and within the Indian parliament is something that is completely up to the Indian government to manage and decide. Again, we respect very much the judgment of Prime Minister Singh on how to conduct that.

Question [chheri]:  The two countries are supposed to be partners but the dialogue seems to be all about helping India in improving the health of its citizens, opening up India's economy, etc. The partnership seems to be increasingly lopsided. What about Indian concerns such as a “Totalization agreement” (which the Indian government seems least interested in pushing)?

Assistant Secretary Robert Blake:  Well, let me defend our Indian friends. I think that they are pushing things like Totalization, and they had a very high level delegation that was here not long ago for talks with our Social Security Administration about that important issue. So I think progress is being made on that issue. And, again, I think a lot of what we've been talking about over the last 45 minutes are things that are going to directly benefit India and the Indian people in areas liking agriculture, in terms of new investments by American companies that will open up significant new job opportunities. But also help to meet the energy needs of the Indian people as the Indian economy continues to rise. And will open up new opportunities for India in terms of continuing its knowledge economy and continuing to provide those crucial job opportunities for India's young population. So again, this is a win-win for both of our countries and, again, I think that's why we're so optimistic about the future course of this dialogue. And that's why we feel that this is very much in both of our interests now to pursue such a dialogue and to chart a way forward about how our two governments, working closely with our private sectors and with our students and our scientists and so many others who have a stake in this, to ensure the success of this dialogue and ensure the success of this partnership in the 21st century.

So let me, again, just conclude by what I started with, which is President Obama says that our relations with India are really going to be one of the defining partnerships of the 21st century and that is why we're having this dialogue today is to discuss, in a strategic way, how we can elevate our partnership to capitalize on all of those opportunities.

And I’d just like to say that all of you who are participating as web chat participants are very important parts of that. Because one of the most important parts and underlying strengths of our partnership are the people-to-people ties. It's the three million Indian-Americans who live in the United States. It's the 100,000 Indian students who are here. It's all of the former Indian students who were here who have gone back and now started up high technology ventures in Bangalore, in Hyderabad, in Gurgaon, outside Delhi. All of those people really provide the ballast and the strength for our relationship. And that's all of you out there. So I want to thank all of you for your interests and your engagement and I really hope that you will continue to give us your advice as we move forward. Thank you again for participating.

Karlygash Faillace, Moderator:  To all of the participants, thank you for submitting your questions today. Also I would like to thank Assistant Secretary Blake for participating in this web chat. In addition, I would like to thank the IIP team for supporting this CO.NX chat. We'll look forward to this dialogue that has already started this week and congratulations, Assistant Secretary Blake. We hope you all succeed.

Assistant Secretary Robert Blake:  Thank you very much.

(Distributed by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://www.america.gov)