00:00I thought I would talk a little bit about our foreign policy vision in the Trump administration generally
00:08and then pivot to the U.S.-India relationship specifically as an example of some of the points that I made
00:20in the more general presentation.
00:22You know, one of the things that President Trump has done, whether you like President Trump or do not like
00:31President Trump,
00:32is that he has empowered those of us in the U.S. government to think about some fundamental assumptions about
00:42foreign policy
00:43that honestly had not been subject to much debate or dialogue for many decades.
00:52If you think about it, the world that emerged after World War II had a very clear vision for American
01:07foreign policy.
01:08You know, around the world, whether you're talking about, you know, Malaysia or Montevideo, Uruguay or Malawi,
01:22we were seeking to contain the spread of communism and the Soviet Union.
01:28And that was the unifying principle in American foreign policy.
01:35India had obviously adopted a pretty clear position in that of trying to balance between East and West
01:45and really fomenting the non-aligned movement to try to avoid taking sides in that conflict.
01:54And then, of course, as we know, in the early 1990s, almost overnight, the Soviet Union vanished.
02:02And somewhat strangely, there was never an assessment at that point in time of the purposes of U.S. foreign
02:11policy
02:12in the post-Cold War world.
02:14The United States, you know, had this massive military and diplomatic footprint that it never had historically,
02:24again, all around the world.
02:26And instead of coming up with or really having an important national or international debate
02:33about what the purpose of U.S. foreign policy was post-Cold War,
02:41we just kind of let it all happen by default.
02:45There was never a moment of reckoning to say, what is the point of U.S. foreign policy now?
02:50Right?
02:51Ever since Pearl Harbor, really, when we got wound up for World War II
02:56and then went right into the Cold War, so from the early 1940s really through the early 1990s
03:01for a period of 50 years, you know, we had a very clear understanding of what we were doing around
03:09the world.
03:10In the last 35 years, really almost as long as the original 50 years,
03:17we really have not had any kind of vision about what we're doing in the world
03:23and what the point of U.S. foreign policy is.
03:26And President Trump, with his America First foreign policy,
03:31has made it very clear that our objectives are to make our country safer, stronger, and more prosperous.
03:43Now, that doesn't mean that we don't want to do things that also advance the interests of other countries,
03:50but it recognizes that we in the American government, the purpose of foreign policy,
03:56of United States foreign policy, is to advance our national interests.
04:01You know, we are not a charity organization.
04:06We are not the United Nations.
04:09And it is important, I think, the work of diplomacy is to find the win-win situations.
04:18We say this is one country's interest.
04:21Here's another country's interest.
04:23We have to find the area in which those two circles converge.
04:27And, you know, that, it seems to me, is a very important point that we have been, you know,
04:37lost in terms of what is even the basic objective of foreign policy in our country.
04:41And so we have made this very, very clear that this is the goal.
04:46And America First obviously does not mean America alone,
04:50because some of the ways that you can accomplish those objectives are through cooperation with other countries.
04:57So, you know, I think some people have kind of very superficially said,
05:03oh, well, this is an isolationist foreign policy.
05:05Not at all.
05:06Again, our country is not safer and stronger and more prosperous walling itself off from the world.
05:13But if we, insofar as we are engaging with the world, we have to be able to explain to our
05:18own people
05:19how we are making our country stronger again through those kinds of engagements.
05:25And, frankly, we expect other countries to be pursuing their interests.
05:30You know, so if, just as President Trump wants to make America great again,
05:35he would expect the Prime Minister of India or other leaders to want to make their countries great again.
05:40Though, you know, national sovereignty is ultimately the basis of the international system,
05:49although many people have, you know, declared the death of the Westphalian system for many years now,
05:55you know, we very much, we are organized as a nation state, we have a constitution,
06:00and we expect other nations to behave the same.
06:04You know, concurrently with the drift in the substantive objectives in American foreign policy,
06:10in the last several decades, our foreign policy had become increasingly bureaucratic
06:16and no longer subject to the desires of the President,
06:22who is, after all, the elected representative of our people
06:25and who has the control over foreign policy under Article II of our Constitution.
06:32We have seen that, basically, our whole foreign policy process was really more concerned with the process itself
06:44rather than the results it would yield.
06:46And so we had, for many years, you know, high-level dialogues and summits,
06:52and everybody would give themselves awards and say how great it was and congratulate each other
06:58without actually looking to how are we serving the interests of our people.
07:04Ultimately, we have to be able to go to our people and say this is what our foreign policy has
07:09achieved for you.
07:10This is how it makes your life better.
07:13And, frankly, this is not something that President Trump came up with on his own.
07:17This is what, frankly, goes back to the earliest days of our country.
07:21If you read what the founders of our country wrote about foreign policy,
07:26they talked primarily about the importance of commercial intercourse with other countries
07:31and how that was important to foment our own prosperity.
07:36You know, the United States has been blessed by geography with, you know,
07:41relatively few neighbors compared to many other countries,
07:47and we have less concerns about land invasions from our neighbors in other parts of the world.
07:55So, you know, we can really focus on economic diplomacy and commercial diplomacy
08:02as a key objective of our foreign policy.
08:05And President Trump has brought that back to the fore of U.S. foreign policy
08:09in, you know, a return to our first principles.
08:14And he personally has taken on a key leadership role in foreign policy,
08:23so it is not some anonymous desk in the State Department that is making the important decisions,
08:30but they're really coming out of the President and the White House
08:34and reflect the President's own political agenda rather than a, let's say,
08:41a deep state agenda that kind of remains the same regardless of who is in the White House.
08:47So, you know, I think that my thesis here is that over the last several decades,
08:56American foreign policy had kind of descended into a kind of a toxic,
09:05into a toxic brew of moralism and impotence when we felt that we would go around the world
09:16lecturing people about values, but then, frankly, when other countries would do things
09:26that were very much against our interests, we would just, you know, express concern
09:32or issue a strongly worded letter, and, you know, President Trump has made it clear
09:38that, you know, he wants to be the President of Peace.
09:43He has made it a real priority and a point of pride that he has gone out of his way
09:49to help resolve many conflicts around the world, frankly,
09:52because the international system that we inherited had not been up to the task.
09:58And so he is personally doing that.
10:03And I think a lot of this is just, you know, going back to, you know,
10:10very basic common sense of just what is the challenge and how do we get things done.
10:16And I think it is an indictment, in a sense, of the foreign policy establishment
10:24of the last several decades, that there's been a lot of talk about problems,
10:30but, frankly, not a lot of solutions.
10:33And we've kind of fallen into a trap of if a country does something we don't like,
10:37well, we'll issue sanctions and then everybody can feel virtuous about that
10:42without any real discussion as to whether the sanctions were appropriate
10:47and whether they were having their intended effect.
10:49So he has given us, in a sense, the freedom to reassess our relations with many countries
10:56and see, you know, how do we advance our interests in a way that also advances
11:03those countries' interests.
11:04So what does that mean with respect to a relationship like India?
11:09I think one of the things that is undeniable is that this century is going to be,
11:18in many ways, a century that we expect to see the rise of India.
11:24And we, it's in our interest, and we think it's also in India's interest,
11:29to be partner with India's interest.
11:31You know, this is a country of almost unlimited potential.
11:35It's now the world's most populous country.
11:38It has incredible economic, you know, human resources,
11:45other resources that make it one of the countries that's going to decide
11:49the future of this century.
11:51The United States very much wants to be part of that
11:53and think that we have many, many win-win situations with India.
11:58And so, you know, there's a reason that I am here today,
12:02which is I want to highlight the importance of India as we look around the world
12:09in the 21st century and see, you know, what are the relationships that we really want to cultivate.
12:17And again, I'm not here, you know, to do social work or charity.
12:22I'm here because it's in the interest of our country and we think it's in the interest of India
12:26to deepen our partnership.
12:31And it has to be obviously based on reciprocity and mutual respect.
12:35We are very excited about the trade deal that is almost at the finish line now
12:43and, you know, think that that can be the basis for really unlocking almost limitless potential.
12:54And so we are very much excited on focusing with India on these economic and commercial opportunities.
13:05And so, but again, India should understand that we're not going to make the same mistakes with India
13:10that we made with China 20 years ago in terms of saying,
13:13oh, you know, we're going to let you, you know, be able to develop all these markets
13:22and then, you know, the next thing we know, you know, you're beating us in a lot of commercial things.
13:28We're going to make sure that whatever we do, it's fair to our people
13:31because ultimately we have to be accountable to our own people
13:34just as the government of India has to be accountable to its people.
13:38So, again, I think on the commercial economic front, it's incredibly bright.
13:44I think, you know, at a more general political level,
13:49we have two leaders in our two countries who have forged a great relationship.
13:55I think they really think the same way about putting their country's interests first
13:59and it just seems very logical that we are going to be deepening our cooperation
14:05and it's very important that, you know, our two countries can build on this personal bond.
14:12I think in these next few years, we can really set the stage for decades of very close India-U
14:21.S. cooperation.
14:21I hope we can kind of move beyond the Cold War model where, you know, India, you know,
14:29feels compelled to kind of keep the United States at arm's length.
14:34I think we can, again, cooperate very, very forthrightly in areas where we are –
14:42we have very many common interests, which are many.
14:44I mean, you know, I will briefly just mention the security area.
14:49I think the United States and India have, you know, very co-extensive interests
14:57when it comes to preventing terrorism, when it comes to ensuring freedom of navigation
15:05on the high seas and elsewhere.
15:08And so I think that, you know, we are seeing some changes in the U.S.-India relationship,
15:14cooperation and defense in other areas that I think would have been impossible
15:20some years ago.
15:21And I hope that that's an area that we can continue to lean into.
15:26I think the energy cooperation possibilities, again, are limitless.
15:31So I think it is no accident that the President sent really one of his very closest advisors,
15:39Ambassador Gore, as ambassador here.
15:42The President really understands the value of this relationship
15:48and, again, I am here – I'm delighted to be here today to celebrate this relationship.
15:53I am here – move to the 같.
15:55For me here – history –
15:57And this is what makes me sad and thisつene of the world,
15:59So what happened is, is Layla is качеそれでは to make an plate upon this hip
16:00anddoors – if they believe you will need it.
16:00My suggestion is to be as we can refer to this relationship with it together –
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