00:00Senator Scott. Sure. Thank you. Well, first off, congratulations to each of you.
00:06You're going to really enjoy being ambassadors. It's a wonderful job. You can have a pretty big
00:11influence on what goes on in your area and around the world, so congratulations. First,
00:16Ambassador Buchan, I saw the incredible job you did in Spain during the President's first
00:22administration, and I was encouraged to see your nomination to serve as ambassador to Morocco.
00:26Morocco has served as a reliable security partner in North America and inaugural member of the
00:30Abrahamic Warrens. So what are your priorities? What would you like to accomplish in Morocco after
00:37your success in Spain? Thank you, Senator Scott, for that question. As I alluded to earlier,
00:45Morocco is one of our longest and most enduring partners. They're a partner. They're an ally.
00:52They're great friends. King Mohammed VI does a tremendous job leading his country,
00:59and we're very grateful that they're such great allies. First and foremost, given my experience in
01:06Spain, the primary job of a U.S. ambassador is to really keep U.S. citizens safe and secure.
01:15So that would be a priority. Certainly, my time in Spain over three and a half years,
01:20we focused on that as one of the highest priorities. Things got particularly complex during COVID,
01:27and I think our team did a tremendous job of really keeping those Americans safe and secure,
01:34particularly during COVID. So there's some good lessons learned from that, and I hope to
01:39transfer that knowledge, if confirmed, to Morocco. Advance our economic opportunities would certainly be at the
01:47top of the list. American first policies really focus on things that create jobs and higher wages in the
01:55U.S. and advance our manufacturing base would be a priority. Our security relationship with Morocco,
02:04both on the military side and counterterrorism is tremendous, really would hope to advance that even
02:09further. In addition, advance Morocco's autonomy proposal would be a very high priority. I think
02:19Secretary Rubio came out in April and reiterated that himself. And finally, but as you mentioned,
02:27advance the relationship between Morocco and Israel and really advance the Abraham Accords,
02:34not only between Morocco and Israel, but throughout the region. And there are a lot more other things
02:41to do, but I'll stop at that. Thank you. Ms. Swift, what will be your priorities?
02:49Thank you, Senator. Congratulations, first off. Thank you very much, Senator.
02:52In addition to the commercial diplomacy aspect, which is big with our bilateral relationship with
02:57Kazakhstan, which would include, you know, making sure that there's an even playing field for U.S.
03:01investment in Kazakhstan and that American companies are the partner of choice. I would also want to
03:07support, if confirmed, independence and sovereignty of Kazakhstan. That really relies, it depends on them
03:13having economic diversity and how they can move products in particular. Right now, most goods coming
03:20out of Kazakhstan transit Russia by necessity and would very much like to help them find an alternate route
03:26for that. Also, we'd like to increase defense cooperation with Kazakhstan and make sure that we
03:31have a partner in that region that we can cooperate on defense level and security level with.
03:37Kazakhstan has vast reserves and critical minerals. Is there an opportunity to work with them in that area?
03:43Yes, Senator. There's a very big opportunity. Almost half of the critical minerals deemed by USGS to be
03:49critical to US economic and national security are found in Kazakhstan. And one of my major goals,
03:56as Ambassador confirmed, would be to make sure that US investment in critical minerals can occur
04:01and replace, hopefully, Chinese investment, which is increasing in the region.
04:06Thank you. Mr. Giordano, Namibia stands in a region where communist China is
04:11aggressively expanding its influence. How can we counter their efforts in Namibia?
04:16Thank you for that question, Senator. It's an important question.
04:28One of the main issues here is they were there first and we're playing catch up. But as I mentioned
04:38before, not only commercial diplomacy and connecting US export ready businesses with Namibian businesses
04:51and Namibian government, but promoting our values. And again, China's influence in the region is really
05:01marked by them being exploitative, solely extractive. Whereas, again, ours is, and they can see this,
05:09they can look how we've operated around the world, particularly in the United States, per se, when,
05:15with regard to drilling for our critical mineral resources. We put people, planet, and profit on the
05:23same plane. These things aren't mutually exclusive. So, Senator, our values are what really
05:30is going to win the day. Again, they win every time. And it's promoting those values to the Namibian
05:36government directly to the president, who in fact is a conservationist. Namibia is the first country in
05:44the world to enshrine environmental protection into their constitution. By engaging with them, by using my
05:52background, my experience, to engage with them in depth and also with credibility, it'll help us separate
06:01ourselves and stand shoulders above the Chinese in the area. Thank you. Congratulations to each of you.
06:10You're going to love it.
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