US ECONOMICS
50th Anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon Landing
U.S. Department of State. 07/20/2019. On the 50th Anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon Landing
This week the U.S. Department of State joined the world in celebrating one of humanity’s greatest achievements: landing on the moon. The Apollo 11 mission was not just a success for America, but for the entire global community.
To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon landing, the State Department, the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, and George Washington University hosted former Apollo 11 Astronauts Maj. Gen. Michael Collins and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin for panel discussions on the history of space diplomacy. The “One Giant Leap: Space Diplomacy Past, Present, and Future” panel on July 18 also featured U.S. State Department Science Envoy for Space and former NASA Administrator and Astronaut, Maj. Gen. Charles Bolden, Jr., as well as Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum Director and former NASA Chief Scientist Dr. Ellen Stofan. Following the panel discussion, the State Department hosted a reception at the United States Diplomacy Center where astronaut and former commander of the International Space Station Randolph Bresnik was the guest of honor. Under Secretary of State for Economic Growth, Energy, and the Environment Keith Krach, Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs Michelle Giuda, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs Marcia Bernicat, and United States Diplomacy Center Director Mary Kane also spoke at the events.
CHINA
U.S. Department of State. 07/20/2019. Chinese Coercion on Oil and Gas Activity in the South China Sea
The United States is concerned by reports of China’s interference with oil and gas activities in the South China Sea (SCS), including Vietnam’s long-standing exploration and production activities. China’s repeated provocative actions aimed at the offshore oil and gas development of other claimant states threaten regional energy security and undermine the free and open Indo-Pacific energy market.
As Secretary Pompeo noted earlier this year, “by blocking development in the SCS through coercive means, China prevents ASEAN members from accessing more than $2.5 trillion in recoverable energy reserves.”
China’s reclamation and militarization of disputed outposts in the SCS, along with other efforts to assert its unlawful SCS maritime claims, including the use of maritime militia to intimidate, coerce, and threaten other nations, undermine the peace and security of the region.
China’s growing pressure on ASEAN countries to accept Code of Conduct provisions that seek to restrict their right to partner with third party companies or countries further reveal its intent to assert control over oil and gas resources in the South China Sea.
The United States firmly opposes coercion and intimidation by any claimant to assert its territorial or maritime claims.
China should cease its bullying behavior and refrain from engaging in this type of provocative and destabilizing activity.
COLOMBIA
U.S. Department of State. 07/20/2019. Colombia’s Independence Day
On behalf of the people of the United States, I extend congratulations to the government and people of Colombia on your independence day.
Colombia’s leadership in the region as a champion of democracy and rule of law serves as a stabilizing force against those who seek to undermine the region’s economic prosperity and security. I commend Colombia for your continued pursuit of a durable peace, efforts to combat illegal narcotics and transnational criminal groups, and promotion of human rights, accountability, and justice. The commitment of Colombia to supporting the restoration of democracy in Venezuela is remarkable, as is the generosity of the Colombian people in welcoming Venezuelans forced to flee their homes.
Our two nations built our strategic partnership over decades of cooperation. I am certain that our close bond will continue to serve as a foundation of a more stable and prosperous hemisphere.
I congratulate all Colombians as you celebrate the 209th anniversary of your nation’s independence.
ARGENTINA
U.S. Department of State. 07/20/2019. Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo With Larry O’Connor of The Washington Examiner
QUESTION: He is a native of Orange, California, and a graduate of Fountain Valley High School, a congressman from Kansas, former director of the CIA, and now the 70th Secretary of State of the United States. He is Mike Pompeo and he’s our guest today, although I guess I’ve been your guest this jaunt through Latin America, and I appreciate that, sir.
SECRETARY POMPEO: I’m glad you joined us, and by the way, I’m from Kansas. Don’t forget.
QUESTION: Oh, yes. Of course. Congressman from Kansas – that’s very important.
SECRETARY POMPEO: I represent Kansas. Yes, sir.
QUESTION: Well, but we’re on KABC in Los Angeles, so your --
SECRETARY POMPEO: No worries.
QUESTION: Your Orange County creds are very important.
SECRETARY POMPEO: My family still – my family still all lives out in Santa Ana and in Orange.
QUESTION: Oh, great. Well, listen, this is a very big day and I know that things are busy for you, so I do want to talk about what happened today in Buenos Aires, especially that very moving ceremony today commemorating the 25th anniversary of that horrible terror attack. Tell me about how important that was, especially considering what’s going on with the nation of Iran right now.
SECRETARY POMPEO: It was really something. It reminds us all that this threat that we talk about today from the Islamic Republic of Iran has been around for an awfully long time. So we talk about 40 years of terror. Today we commemorated something that happened 25 years ago just yesterday, where 85 people getting on with their lives – and described what a handful of them were doing at the moment that the explosive went off – they woke up that morning planning to go back to their families that night and didn’t because Hizballah and the Islamic Republic of Iran decided that they wanted to blow up a facility that catered to those of the Jewish faith. It reminds us of the hard work we all have in front of us and the importance of pushing back against Iran’s capacity to inflict terror all around the world.
QUESTION: You mentioned a couple of times today that this is not a theoretical threat, this is a real threat, and it suggested to me that sometimes maybe people do think that it’s not real; maybe in your dealings with other nations they don’t take it quite as seriously as you’d like them to.
SECRETARY POMPEO: Well, look, I see that all the time. Most days we go out and everything is fine. Most days nothing bad happens. But this is an intention on the part of the Islamic Republic of Iran. It’s part of their theocracy, their revolutionary design of their theocracy, which says that it’s okay to go out and inflict terror. It’s okay to go out and kill and maim innocent people. And we’re seeing that. We’re here in Argentina where that challenge still exists today. We’re not immune from it in the United States either and our soldiers, our sailors, our airmen and Marines that are all around the world see this threat from Iran and are working diligently to push back on it.
QUESTION: Well, and the latest headlines of course is now Iran has seized two more now British tankers, British-flag tankers in the Straits of Hormuz. The President just moments ago said that Iran is in big trouble. What does he mean by that exactly?
SECRETARY POMPEO: Well, I didn’t see the tweet. I have seen the reports on the two British ships. In fact, I just spoke with Foreign Secretary Hunt, my counterpart from the United Kingdom, and we talked about what they’ve seen, what they know, and how they’re beginning to think about how they will respond. Iran is in a place today that they have taken themselves. They have become a pariah nation and the United States has chosen to try to convince them that you simply can’t have nuclear weapons, you can’t have ballistic missiles that threaten the world and threaten Israel. It’s not okay to conduct assassination campaigns in Europe or -- they tried to assassinate an ambassador in Washington, D.C. That’s not okay. And we’ve used a number of tools because they are so destabilizing in the Middle East. Foremost amongst them is the sanctions that we’ve put in place, which has put Iran in big trouble and the Iranian regime in big trouble because they now have to make some very difficult decisions. Hizballah has less money today because of the good work that America has done pushing back against them.
QUESTION: Is it time to escort those ships through the Straits of Hormuz or flag them with the American flag, as we’ve done in the past?
SECRETARY POMPEO: So we’re working very diligently to put together a maritime security initiative. It will do precisely what you described. It’ll be international. It’ll be countries from all across the world that will participate in this. And its mission set is defensive. It is to protect. It is to keep these international waterways open and reduce the threat that – of the things that we have now seen reported today about the two British tankers. We – that’s not acceptable to take tankers off the high seas in international waterways, if that’s in fact what happened.
QUESTION: You were asked today about Foreign Minister Zarif and especially about him engaging with members of Congress, and you said sure, he can if he wants to. But I drew from that response that Foreign Minister Zarif really isn’t in a decision-making position here. I mean, isn’t it true that it’s really just the President of the United States and the supreme leader of Iran that’s going to hammer this out, if anything gets hammered out?
SECRETARY POMPEO: Oh, I think in the end, it always takes the leaders of nations, of sovereign countries, to make final decisions about this. Who will end up in the negotiations – if it’s a complex set of negotiations, I imagine it will be me. But yes, in the end leaders make hard decisions about how to resolve these problems, not folks from the legislative branch.
QUESTION: It seems like Mr. Zarif has a bit of a fan club, though. I mean, you chuckled a little bit about how the media has some pretty good access to him and everything. Is that appropriate? Is it appropriate for your predecessors to engage with Foreign Minister Zarif?
SECRETARY POMPEO: I’ll allow the media to make their own bad decisions if they choose to do that. But as for former leaders engaging in activities that are trying to – that are aimed at undermining American foreign policy, that’s not okay. That’s not appropriate. And I’ve had conversations with some of them. I’ve urged them at every turn to get off the stage. They had their turn, they had their moment, they made their decision, they did the best they could. I don’t fault them for their efforts. But when you’re done it’s time to let the team that America elected – they elected President Trump and his team.
QUESTION: I’d love to follow up on that a moment because the – former Vice President Biden, part of his campaign speeches, his stump speech, is that he has these conversations with foreign leaders and they’re all really concerned about the United States of America. I’m guessing you’re not having those same conversations with foreign leaders.
SECRETARY POMPEO: He’s politicking. I’m trying to keep Americans safe.
QUESTION: To that end, I would love to talk about other events this week in D.C. Your speech with regard to religious freedom I found incredibly moving and actually very important because I think people are looking beyond. They talk about social justice, they talk about all of the various freedoms that are important, but you reframed this conversation that religious freedom really is the first and most important freedom. The rest come down from there. Expand on that, please.
SECRETARY POMPEO: So what I’ve seen – and it’s more than just my time as Secretary of State; I’ve seen this as a member of Congress and even, frankly, when I was in private life running a small company – I think sometimes in America we take these core rights that we have, that the whole world have, that every human being has by nature of them being a human being – I think we take them for granted here in the United States, and then we start throwing around rights language about things that are rights of ours, and I now have this opportunity to remind people – with respect to religious freedom I have the right – I have the ability to remind them how central that is to every other thing that we do. Without that, without the capacity to believe what you want to believe or choose not to believe in a higher being without government getting in your way and preventing you from doing that – it’s unique. There aren’t many countries that have it in the way the United States do. And every human being ought to be able to have that. Without that freedom, so many of the other freedoms that we count on – freedom of speech, freedom to assemble – all of those can fall away very, very quickly.
QUESTION: Is that part of the sort of larger conversation right now with China? We’re dealing with the trade talks, of course, and that’s paramount and important, but they’re not on the good guys list right now, it appears, with regard to religious freedom.
SECRETARY POMPEO: We talk to every nation – allies, partners, those countries with which we have fundamental disagreements. We always talk about these fundamental rights. And I created an unalienable rights commission. One of its aims is to go back to the grounding, how our founding fathers thought about this, so that when we’re abroad talking about this, sharing with other countries why their behavior doesn’t conform to these understandings about how every human being should be treated, that we can talk about it with clarity and with authority.
QUESTION: I think that that’s obviously something that you care deeply about, and I think it’s been great that you’ve been able to push that forward. In fact, this was the first time we’ve had two ministerials specifically about religious freedom, right? That’s within three years, within two years?
SECRETARY POMPEO: In two years.
QUESTION: That’s amazing.
SECRETARY POMPEO: One year apart exactly.
QUESTION: So it’s – I think people like to look at these things in very stark and broad lines, but this is – it’s a nuanced thing to have to communicate these ideas yet at the same time be partners with countries who don’t have the best record. So, for instance, Saudi Arabia. They have some issues in their past and yet they’re a critically important ally. Talk to me about the challenges of that. Because people I think sometimes are confused. They’re like, listen, why are we friends with Saudi Arabia?
SECRETARY POMPEO: Yeah. So it’s a good question. When our mission set is to keep America safe, we have a number of priorities. One of those priorities is to talk about religious freedom and fundamental rights. Another priority is to make sure that we have partners and allies who will work alongside of us to help push back against those that are trying to do real harm to the United States of America. Saudi Arabia is that. I contrast that. People will say, well, goodness, you go after Iran but not Saudi Arabia. Well, we talk about – we talk about religious freedom and the way human beings ought to be treated in both places, but one country is trying to destroy Israel. One country has said “death to America;” the other is our partner working for security cooperation to make sure that people in California, in Kansas, in New York, in Pennsylvania are safe.
QUESTION: And with some of those --
SECRETARY POMPEO: So those are fundamentally different.
QUESTION: With some of those countries it’s probably easier to actually effect change when you’re engaging with them and actually have a good relationship as well.
SECRETARY POMPEO: I think that’s right. The other thing one learns as a diplomat, very quickly, is that sometimes, too, private messaging is better than beating folks around the head publicly. It depends on the situation.
QUESTION: You just do Twitter direct messages now? Is that how you --
SECRETARY POMPEO: Sometimes quiet is good. Sometimes I think a private conversation can get you more than issuing a press release trying to achieve your end.
QUESTION: One last question with regard to Iran. There are reports now that Senator Rand Paul is really interested in being a special envoy to Iran. Has the President talked to you about that? Do you have any advice on that? Because it doesn’t seem like he really meshes with your approach.
SECRETARY POMPEO: The President always gets to choose who he wants, but my sense is that that’s something the President is probably not likely to do, but I’ll leave that to the President.
QUESTION: All right. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, it’s a big week ahead of us and I’m very interested in what’s going to happen in El Salvador, especially with regard to your relationships there, and hopefully how it influences the crisis we’re seeing at the border.
SECRETARY POMPEO: It’s a great trip, an important trip. I’m glad you could join us.
QUESTION: We will get to that. Thank you for having us.
SECRETARY POMPEO: Thank you very much. Pleasure. Thanks, Larry.
ECUADOR
U.S. Department of State. 07/20/2019. Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo And Ecuadorian President Lenin Moreno At a Press Availability
MODERATOR: (Via interpreter) So we’re thanking all the delegations from the United States and the Republic of Ecuador here with us. And I just wanted to remind you that this declaration has been handled through our presidency of the republic and through Radio Nacional del Ecuador.
We would like to first give the floor to the Secretary of State from the United States, Mr. Mike Pompeo.
SECRETARY POMPEO: Great. Gracias. Thank you. Mr. President, it’s an honor for me to be here in Ecuador for my first visit as Secretary of State, and I want to thank you, President Moreno, and I want to thank Foreign Minister Valencia and the people of Ecuador for their hospitality on this visit. I’ve said this time and time again as Secretary of State: America proves our commitment by showing up, and we will continue to be here and continue to show up. My travels this week continue the Trump administration’s work of strengthening our ties with partner countries in the Western Hemisphere. That work wouldn’t be complete without a visit here to Ecuador, where our bilateral relationship is coming back to life thanks to some extraordinary leadership on both sides. We commend Ecuador’s renewed embrace under President Moreno of free markets, of robust security, and of democracy. It’s what the Trump administration hopes from all of our friends and we see it here every day.
Before President Trump and President Moreno entered office in 2017, there hadn’t been a bilateral dialogue between our two countries in eight years. In May we formally launched expanded bilateral political dialogue to strengthen operations on areas ranging from counternarcotics to anticorruption to economic development.
This cooperation is bearing fruit for each of our two countries already. Take – a good example is narcotrafficking. Through the maritime patrol aircraft partnership launched in September, our authorities have jointly seized more than 24 tons of drugs in the Eastern Pacific. That’s 24 tons that can’t be used to poison our peoples and finance criminal behavior. We’ve also worked closely together through our container security initiative to exchange information about illicit shipments transporting the port in this very city. We’re working to starve these criminal gangs of their illicit income and promote prosperity.
As another sign of our continued good work together, just in a handful of weeks now, Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Kevin McAleenan plans to visit Ecuador to deepen our border security cooperation. And we’re also working together in the cyber realm. In just a few days the U.S. will send cybersecurity experts to Ecuador to help defend its networks against intrusion.
We had a great visit here today. President Moreno and I had a chance to talk about a wide variety of topics, from the crisis in Venezuela to many others. Ecuador, like many of its Latin American peers, are standing for democracy and unalienable rights in our hemisphere. I expressed my personal appreciation, President Moreno, for your country’s support of Interim President Guaido and your leadership in addressing the Venezuelan humanitarian crisis. I know that Ecuador is bearing a burden here and has hosted more than 350,000 Venezuelan migrants and refugees. This is a truly heroic number. We’re proud that the United States so far has provided more than $30 million in humanitarian assistance and then an additional 5 million to help with the influx of Colombian refugees that you’re also welcoming.
Further, just a few weeks – a few weeks ago, for the second time in just nine months, we sent a U.S. Navy hospital ship to visit Ecuador to provide medical care to over 8,000 patients, Ecuadorians and Venezuelans alike.
This only scratches the surface of what we’ve achieved over these past two years and it’s a preview, I know, of what we will continue to do together. The Trump administration is grateful to have a friend, President Moreno, like you in Ecuador. You have helped this nation turn a corner towards greater security, prosperity, and indeed, to a stronger democracy. We look forward to a bright future and an enduring partnership. Gracias.
MODERATOR: (Via interpreter) Thank you very much for the Secretary of State, Mr. Mike Pompeo.
Next, the president – the constitutional president of Ecuador will take the floor. Thank you.
PRESIDENT MORENO: (Via interpreter) Well, good afternoon, everyone. We have received the pleasant trip by the Secretary of State from the United States and his distinguished delegation, who we have done it the Ecuadorian style and given them the most heartfelt welcome. We’ve spoken with Mr. Pompeo regarding the appreciation that the U.S. Government has concerning what is happening in Ecuador, and he has expressed all of his support on behalf of the U.S. Government to what is being done here in Ecuador concerning the changes that Ecuador is doing concerning security and economy and the fight against drug trafficking and regarding democracy.
I just wanted to give you an idea of all the topics that we have addressed, and we have addressed some deeply and some maybe not so much, but I just wanted to state that concerning the fight against corruption, we have spoken with Mr. Pompeo and his delegation regarding the recovery of assets and the extradition of people who have been judged and condemned for corruption practices in Ecuador.
Concerning the economy, trade, and exports to the U.S., we are always at the expectation that the U.S. Government will help us so all investors would come here to this very important country that is very much developed in the scientific area and technology and of course many of which we have to – a lot to learn from. So we’ve talked about the maintenance of the general preference issues and a possible commercial trade agreement that we would have to address. And furthermore, that it’s also important to strengthen the meeting that will be held in a few months of that investment council and trade that was not in force for quite some time now.
Concerning human mobility, we have spoken about the need that we be supported to fully comply with the rights that our migrant brothers and sisters have, and also to foster recognition of the academic titles of Ecuador in the United States.
Now, concerning security and defense, we have stated that Ecuador has consolidated a tenacious fight against drug trafficking. It’s not an easy task, we all know, but we’re nevertheless doing it. And we have stated the need of the support that we require in technology and that – and the knowledge that our U.S. brothers and sisters have regarding the fight against drug trafficking and organized crime.
Now, furthermore, we know that the world is turning more virtual evermore, and we require having mechanisms that are more efficient to be able to maintain security, and advice on cybersecurity is going to be very important, my dear friend Mr. Pompeo, Secretary Pompeo, because in Ecuador we don’t have development concerning cybersecurity. So we do need to be consulted on this.
And concerning cooperation on development, let’s recall that we have also renewed our relationship with USAID and we’re expectant of all the support that they can give us concerning so that we can strengthen the exercise of rights of our citizens in programs such as Las Manuelas and House for All, Casa para Todos.
So thank you very much, Mike. Thank you very much, all the delegation. And thank you, Mr. Ambassador, who has always been attentive to help us and give us a hand, just as he did with the previous ambassador with whom we created a great friendship that without a doubt we’re going to continue with you, Mike.
So I thank everyone for having been present here today and, Mike and your delegation, please, always welcome to Ecuador.
MODERATOR: (Via interpreter) I would like to give the spokesperson from the United States, Ms. Morgan Ortagus, and Mr. Felipe Espinosa, director of public relations of the press secretary of Ecuador, who will give us a Q&A session.
MS ORTAGUS: Thanks. We’ll start with Karen DeYoung, Washington Post.
QUESTION: Thank you, Mr. Secretary and Mr. President. Mr. Secretary, to start, you said yesterday that in Venezuela Nicolas Maduro was never going to govern again in Venezuela. There have been some reports of progress in the Oslo negotiating process and particularly in the negotiations that have been underway in Barbados, and there seems to be discussions of Maduro remaining in the country at least during a transition period. If the opposition agrees to that, would the United States accept it, that he would be allowed to stay in the country perhaps as a figurehead role, or does he have to leave the country as you’ve often said in the past?
And on Iran, despite the events of the past few days in the Straits of Hormuz, last week brought some glimmers of a possible U.S.-Iran talks. Yesterday you said that Iran continues to say it wants to talk, but only if the United States does something. Is there anything the administration can or will do as a gesture to get Iran to come to the table?
And I have a question for the president. Should I say that now? Mr. President, you mentioned USAID and other forms of assistance that would be welcome here. Obviously Ecuador has had an extensive economic relationship with China, as do many in the region, both in terms of investment and in loans. I wonder to what extent you discussed that and the United States expressed concern about this and offered to help Ecuador in changing the balance of its economic posture vis-a-vis China, and also whether the United States offered any additional assistance to care for the rising number of Venezuelan refugees here. Thank you.
SECRETARY POMPEO: Karen, thank you. With respect to Maduro staying, it seems incomprehensible that you could have a free and fair election with Maduro still in Venezuela on the ground. I don’t want to rule out the possibility that someone could find a clever way to do that, but it seems that to the extent that you have the Cubans protecting Maduro, they would not be able to deliver a free and fair election. So without prejudice to what’s taking place in Barbados or Oslo or whatever discussions may be – may have been held, the United States has been very clear it is inconceivable that you could have an election that would truly represent the Venezuelan people with Maduro still present inside of the country.
And then your second question was a bit of a hypothetical about could one dream up something that one might do in order for the Iranians to engage with the United States. In the end, the Iranians have to – the Iranian regime has to make a decision that it wants to behave like a normal nation, and if they do that we’re prepared to negotiate across a broad spectrum of issues with no preconditions. And I hope that they will do that. We’ve done everything we can to create the space for this, to continue to take actions that are deterrents and de-escalation so we can have this opportunity. But to date we have seen no indications that the Iranians are prepared to fundamentally change the direction of their nation, to do the things we’ve asked them to do on their nuclear program, their missile program, their malign behavior around the world. I mean, you can just watch their actions. These are actions that threaten. We saw the statements of Foreign Minister Hunt. I spoke to him yesterday. We saw their actions. These are not the actions of a country that looks like it’s headed in the right direction, but we hope, as President Trump has said, that they will sit down and discuss each of these items with us.
Thank you, Karen.
PRESIDENT MORENO: (Via interpreter) Madam journalist, thank you very much for your question. I wasn’t very equal with you because you’re making a question to Mr. Pompeo and you made four to me. (Laughter.)
All right. I just wanted to begin with the issue of Venezuela. We have spoken with Mr. Pompeo and his delegation concerning this exodus, this diaspora that leads to catastrophe and the social apocalypse that this brethren country is undergoing. We cannot remain without being affected by it. Five hundred thousand Venezuelans have gone out Venezuela and they have been treated as brothers and sisters. Now, you may understand that to provide schooling and healthcare, employment and nutrition to 500 new brothers and sisters is difficult to do, and we’ve required and we will require the help of all the world powers like the U.S. to give us a hand, and they are doing so. The only thing that we’re waiting for is a greater support to help us to overcome this issue.
Now, I spoke with Mr. Pompeo how difficult it is for democracy in Venezuela the fact that 5 million Venezuelans have chosen to leave the country, and that without a doubt helps the consolidation in power of the gang, if you will, that is leading Venezuela. It helps them. I will never refer to Mr. Maduro as a president because he’s not. He is a person that he stopped being the president of Venezuela, and we have recognized as such as Mr. Juan Guaido. He is the president. The other one is exercising authoritarianly and dictatorially the power there, but at a given point he’s going to have to leave and the very Venezuelan people will find the way to do so.
So concerning the organizations and institutions such as USAID, it’s difficult for me to think that we could have done away with the help that these organizations are lending for the development of the country.
Now, you were also asking, madam journalist, if we have spoken about our relationship with China. Yes, we have. Before, unfortunately, the relations began to be established as directed by ideologies that we called 21st century socialism, that out of social didn’t really – didn’t have anything and out of modernity or development as would a century like the 21st century demand. There is nothing to it. And we have refreshed the relations with the countries, with all of them. We are friendly with all of the countries in the world, but of course we will prefer those countries with whom we have a better relationship, many other things in common, as we have spoken with the distinguished delegation of the United States who has arrived here. We have spoken of the amount of things that we have in common.
Now, we think a little more and they also think about more as the people from the U.S., because with them concerning our thoughts, we don’t only have the continuity of having them as neighbors to which Ecuadorians travel to frequently – let’s not forget that in the U.S. we have to have maybe 2-3 million Ecuadorians or descendants thereof there – and so given continuity and being close by, we are definitely destined to become countries that are working together as brothers and sisters.
Now, of course the relationship with China is a very good one. China is our greatest lender and he is the – it’s the country that has delivered more money and funds to Ecuador. We don’t have a lot of agreement concerning the terms or the interest rates that for a country as Ecuador would receive interest, financing for its development with very high interest rates and very short terms for facilities. It really squeezes us concerning the issue that we have at hand, as Mr. Pompeo says, to progress our country and to go back to institutionality and democracy. In other words, relations with China are very good ones but we will always be depending, as with all the countries in the world, on having a cordial, friendly relationship, but at the same time to state our differences, our divergences concerning how we hold international relations.
We hope that the U.S. and China, the greatest powers in the world now, will find agreement easily because, unfortunately, when the big ones are discussing or fighting and have conflicts, the ones that are paying for all of that are the smaller countries. Now, when two elephants fight, the ones who lose are the insects who are of course being crushed by the elephants in the attempt to evade them. So we’re hoping that relationship to be cordial once again, just as we have gone back to cordiality with this, our brethren country of the U.S.
MR ESPINOSA: (Via interpreter) Last question on behalf of the Ecuadorian press, Yury Garcia from Reuters.
QUESTION: (Via interpreter) Good afternoon, Mr. Secretary. My question is directed to you regarding the topic of what is the interest that the U.S. will have with Ecuador with the Galapagos Islands to combat the issue of drug trafficking, and furthermore, the issue of corruption. What regulations or shall we say recommendations would the U.S. give to Ecuador to combat the corruption acts in Ecuador? And what degrees of information do you have that an espionage center was being handled in the embassy of Ecuador in London?
SECRETARY POMPEO: Thank you for that question. With respect to counter – well, with respect to the Galapagos Islands, the president invited me there and I took him up on it immediately.
With respect to narcotics, the United States has a deep interest in this as do the people of Ecuador. This drug trafficking leads to corruption, it leads to crime. There’s no good that can come from that. Many of these drugs end up in the United States of America in the hands of our citizens and wreak devastation across the United States of America. So we have a shared interest in pushing back against it and finding ways to reduce the narcotics trafficking that comes through the waters off the coast of Ecuador and indeed through the country itself.
And second, with respect to corruption, President Moreno has made enormous strides and we credit him for that. Our mission is to where – your country requested to provide assistance so that we can help use tools that we have developed that can assist Ecuador and the Ecuadorian people so that the level of corruption here can go down. Every citizen across the world, and certainly here in Ecuador, deserves to know that their government is operating in a fair and transparent and reasonable way without corruption, without government leaders taking money. And so we’ll do our best. We’ll work best – we’ll work with your department of interior to identify those who have engaged in corruption and help return those moneys to the citizens of Ecuador to whom they rightfully belong.
PRESIDENT MORENO: (Via interpreter) Thank you. We really need that. I don’t know if we need to add anything about this madam journalist’s question from Reuters. I wanted to say yes, that yes, in truth we have been working with the U.S. Government and their representatives regarding the drug trafficking fight, and we’ve requested further help, more effectiveness. Let’s recall that in the U.S. there are many people that have been sentenced here in corruption cases, and nevertheless we haven’t been able to extradite them given the particular characteristics that the U.S. justice has. We’re going to try to improve upon that relationship and those decisions.
Now, erroneously some journalists have stated that in the Galapagos there is a new base is being set up for the U.S., a U.S. base there. That’s not true. That’s not true. But we will consider that the fight against drug trafficking that is done essentially at sea, it’s necessary for the aircraft that the U.S. Government has provided to Ecuador to be able to detect the drug trafficking loads. It’s important for them to have a place to land and to of course fuel up, and that’s the only thing that is happening. The only thing that those planes are doing is to land and to reload fuel, et cetera, to continue flying and nothing else at all.
Now, concerning this espionage center that you asked something that perhaps our dear colleague, Secretary Pompeo, maybe was interested about. Now, there was somebody who was making fun of the country. It’s very decisive about what he was thinking about the government in our country and, moreover, it was providing, was welcoming, he was supporting, and nevertheless at a particular moment he had even smeared the walls with human feces in the Ecuadorian embassy. I’m sorry to say this but – and this unwillingness to stay in an embassy that is Ecuadorian territory being of course welcome and tolerated, excessively at a moment.
The Ecuadorian Government decided to leave aside that welcome, that refuge that we had provided to him, and Mr. Assange now is responding at this moment before justice. And so we have all the necessary evidence that the room where he was living, Mr. Assange, was become – had become a center for espionage to be able to observe, to be able to detect through hacking some defense elements of the economy, politics, on behalf of our brother and sister countries. And we know that in our rules to provide refuge is the rule against being able to intervene in neighboring countries’ policies, and intervening and providing information that was really distorted and even directed elsewhere. Because you know it’s so strange, there are some countries and politicians to which Mr. Assange, a supposed journalist, was – a journalist he never was. He was just a hacker. Mr. Assange would provide information directed, once again, from politicians in other countries, and he never wanted to give that information about the previous president. Isn’t that strange? But of the current president of course he is going all out to provide all kinds of information, even hurting any basic principle that the family of the politicians, especially his wife and children, are to be left outside of this political struggle.
So all of this made the Ecuadorian Government decide to end, conclude with that asylum, and Mr. Assange now is responding before British justice who gave us the guarantee that at no time will they extradite Mr. Assange to a country where his life would be in jeopardy. That is the only thing. That is the only condition we set forth, and at this moment this has allowed the relationship with the United States and the UK to become much more fluid and improved.
MODERATOR: (Via interpreter) Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, Mr. Secretary. Then this joint press conference is concluded. Everyone, thank you very much.
MEXICO
U.S. Department of State. 07/21/2019. Secretary Pompeo’s Meeting with Mexican Foreign Secretary Marcelo Ebrard
The below is attributable to Spokesperson Morgan Ortagus:
Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo met today with Mexican Foreign Secretary Marcelo Luis Ebrard Casaubon in Mexico City. The two discussed shared efforts to stop illegal immigration, the status of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, and our joint commitment to promote opportunity and economic prosperity in southern Mexico. Secretary Pompeo thanked Foreign Secretary Ebrard for Mexico’s increased immigration enforcement efforts, which initial indications suggest is leading to reduced flows of illegal immigrants arriving at the U.S. southern border.
EL SALVADOR
U.S. Department of State. 07/21/2019. Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo And Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele At a Press Availability
PRESIDENT BUKELE: Muchos gracias. Thank you very much. I will say my remarks in English so I – so we make our guests feel more comfortable. You have translation? Oh yeah, that’s right. Perfect.
So we had a – quite a good conversation with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. He was with his team, with the commander of the Southern Command of the United States. Also we had our ambassador – well, the United States Ambassador to El Salvador, Jean Manes. Sorry to have said you’re our ambassador like 30 times. We also had Kimberly Breier, which is the secretary for the Western Hemisphere, part of her – part of Secretary Pompeo’s team. And I was really happy in that – about that conversation. We talk about ways – long sort of issues concerning counternarcotics, crime, immigration, our bilateral relationship with the United States, and I think it was a very, very fruitful conversation.
We had – I think we have now a new chapter in the relationship with the United States. El Salvador and the United States, as you know, before with the previous government was eroding the relationship with our most important ally. In the United States we have a huge chunk of our population. The majority of our exports go to the United States, the majority of our imports come from the United States; our economy is dollarized. We are so close to the United States. Really, our relationship with the United States is the most important one we have in the world, and before it was eroded by the previous administration, but right now I think it’s quite clear that the new administration of El Salvador is willing to work 100 percent with the United States Government and with the United States people.
And we wanted to say that very clearly, for us, this is our most important relationship, and we want to work and we want to strengthen that relationship in all of the areas. We’re – not only by creating a better economy, better exports, better imports, but fighting crime together. We talk about fighting the gangs together, we talk about interdicting narcotics together, we talk about reducing immigration together. So I think this was a very, very important meeting. I think that it’s a game changer, and from now on we will have a – we’ll work like this, because remember, Secretary Pompeo is the top U.S. diplomatic official. So – and our conversation was so good, so nice, and first of all, I really enjoyed it.
So I am very sure that the relationship will be better, will be strengthened, and we’ll work together to fix our problems and to fix the common problems that the United States and we have, like fighting gangs. Remember, MS-13 is here, but it’s also in the United States, and we’ll fight them. Immigration is a problem that we have, but it’s a problem that ends at the southern border of the United States, so we have to solve the immigration problem together. And the United States sees El Salvador as a partner and as an ally even though we’re a very small country. But they see us as a partner, and they took the time to come. Remember, there was – this was a trip of only four countries out of the United States – Mexico, Argentina, Ecuador, and El Salvador. So we were – they took the time to come here. This is the first time in 10 years that a secretary of state has come to El Salvador.
So I really think that the United States has been clear and showed the signs that they want to work with us, and they have – find here partners that are willing and with open arms to work together to solve the problems that we together face. And, of course, they are also interested in the problems that we faced and trying to help us in those. So we’re very thankful for the visit, we’re very thankful for the conversation, we’re very thankful for the things that we will start working together from starting right now, and we see a bright future in what we will be able to achieve. Thank you.
SECRETARY POMPEO: President Bukele, thank you so much. I want to thank you for taking the time -- Foreign Minister Hill, great to see you. I’m delighted to be here. Thank you for giving so much time to me, especially that I know you’re expecting your first child any day now. (Laughter.) Buena suerte.
PRESIDENT BUKELE: Gracias.
SECRETARY POMPEO: Look forward to many sleepless nights, yes.
Look, President Bukele made very clear his commitment to be a great partner of the United States, and we’ve seen that in the first 50 days already, and we are deeply appreciative of that. We want tighter partnerships all throughout the Western Hemisphere. It’s why we’re redoubling American engagement in the region. A few months ago, I visited Chile and Peru, Colombia, Paraguay. I was in Buenos Aires yesterday. These strong relationships will build out democracies throughout this region, and that’s good for all of us who live in the Western Hemisphere.
In the last fiscal year alone, operations launched from this location disrupted more than $4 billion worth of contraband. We should all be very happy about that. Just weeks ago on June 17th, we seized a vessel carrying 7,600 kilograms of cocaine, and I am confident that our good work together will allow this progress to continue, thanks in part to the agreement that we signed today, but more importantly thanks to all the good work that our two teams are doing together.
So too will the work more broadly against the – to combat the deadly gangs like MS-13, which has left a trail of death and destruction throughout El Salvador and spread violence throughout the United States, where it has a presence in over 40 of 50 American states. And since 2017, the State Department and the Government of El Salvador have shared information and collaborated to solve these kind of criminal and gang-related challenges. This impacts our shared security enormously, and each of our two countries and our citizens are better off for that.
The plague of gangs and drug traffickers in the region is a major contributing factor too to another of our shared security concerns, that of illegal immigration. Ending illegal immigration requires lots of hard work strengthening border security at the U.S. southern border and throughout Central America. The Trump administration is determined to achieve this. We are a champion of sovereign rights for every nation, but we’ve got to address the challenges that cause this migration. We want people to want to stay in their own countries. Gang violence and poverty are two amongst them, and we want to be a good partner to assist you in reducing these causes for this migration.
You’re leading the way here in El Salvador, creating literally hundreds of thousands of jobs. The United States is proud to be a partner of choice in your effort to do this. What we call the Overseas Private Investment Corporation – it’s a government entity – committed over $350 million for a liquefied natural gas facility and power plant here in El Salvador as part of the largest foreign investment in your country’s history. It’s a vote of confidence in your potential, and it happened because of fantastic leadership here in your country.
Eliminating corruption and combating impunity will pave a path for economic success too. When you have responsible democratic governments guided by the rule of law, people want to invest. They like free economies with the rule of law, where they can have confidence that if they do well and they do the right thing, that they can be successful and hire more people.
This risk to the region also exists in Venezuela today. It’s important that when our shared values come under attack, likeminded democratic countries stand shoulder-to-shoulder in support of the oppressed. Foreign Minister Hill put El Salvador on the right side of history when she declared at the OAS General Assembly last month that El Salvador does not recognize the corrupt Maduro regime as the legitimate government of Venezuela.
This is all great news, great cooperation, and I am convinced this is just the beginning. El Salvador and its new leadership has made a clear choice to fight corruption, promote justice, and partner with the United States, and together both of our peoples will reap these benefits. Mr. President, I look forward to strengthening our relationship in the days and months and years ahead. Thank you, sir.
PRESIDENT BUKELE: Thank you. Thank you very much.
MODERATOR: (In Spanish.)
QUESTION: (In Spanish.)
PRESIDENT BUKELE: Well, I think – I think it’s very important that when we focus on a cause, we fight for what we can achieve to better that cause. So what we really – what do we really want to do in El Salvador? We want to get more free money? We want to get more blank checks? No. What we really want is to improve the conditions Salvadorans live here and abroad. So when the U.S. top diplomatic official comes, first we have to make our guests feel at home, not tell him, “Why are they not giving us more free money or handouts?”
Second, we have to acknowledge every penny the United States Government has is their money, not ours. We have our own money. We may be a poor country, but we have our own money, and they have their own money. Whatever aid or program the United States Government wants to do in El Salvador will be, of course, welcome, and they are doing many programs with us and collaborating with us in many of the things we wanted to achieve. But we cannot force them to give us free money.
So I don’t think it would be quite – I don’t know, it sounds tacky to have the top U.S. official and ask him for free money. What we said is that we want to work together with them in solving the problems that we both have. For example, they have gangs in the U.S. They have MS-13 over there, and we have MS-13 here, so of course, it’s of common interest to fight MS-13 and the other gangs. And we will have and we already have the United States help in that, but of course, they might be able to increase that help because we’re sharing a common interest and want to work together because we’re partners, we’re friends.
So we want to reduce migration. We want to – and like the Secretary said, we want to reduce migration also with the – and better the conditions here so that people don’t have to migrate, so that people have a decent job, security, and they want – they will prefer to stay at their home with their families in their land, and not crossing three borders, desert, rivers, and look – go into a dangerous path to try to cross into a country with – that is not their country, is not their own country. For us, we want people to stay here. That should be our goal. And they like that goal, and they want to help us in that goal.
So I really think that, like I said – like I said before when some media company asked me, I said immigration – the problem starts with us because we are sending the migrants. People flee El Salvador because we do not have good-paying jobs, because we don’t have security. So if you live in fear with no jobs, not being able to sustain your – feed your family, of course you may want to try to migrate to another country that you think you’re going to get those things over there.
But our works as a government is to get our people to have those things here, to have security. That is why we’re working so hard on security. That’s why we’re working so hard on getting jobs for our people. And we’ll be receiving the help. He just mentioned a project that the United States Government is financing $350 million, but the project is a billion dollars. So – and that is the biggest investment, foreign investment, our country has had in our history, and that will create a lot of jobs and a lot of growth in the economy, and that’s not the only project. We’re looking in a wide set of projects, including towards and including investment from the U.S. companies.
I said something – I don’t know if – may I say something I told you inside? (Laughter.) I said --
SECRETARY POMPEO: You’re the president. (Laughter.)
PRESIDENT BUKELE: I said to the Secretary – he told me – he told me, “What would you ask from us?” And I said, “I would rather ask for you to put on” – like he just said right here – “is a time to invest in El Salvador, is the time, El Salvador is in the right path.” That will cause more benefit for our people because investment will come, because companies that might be doubtful of investing in El Salvador will say, “Hey, the United States Government is saying that it’s – El Salvador is in the right path. The United States Government is saying that El Salvador is doing the right things.”
So that might create billions of dollars of investment, and I rather prefer that than the U.S. Government sending us a check of a hundred million dollars. I mean, what can we do with a hundred million dollars? The United States have sent us in the last 20 or 30 years, they have sent us over $4 billion in aid, and what did we do with it? We’re done with it. I mean, is the country better now?
So the problem is that rather to be looking for handouts, we should be looking for partnership. And I think that we had a long conversation and a very, very nice conversation, and I am sure that it’s going to translate into results, and we’re committed to translate that into results. So I think that will improve more the life of our people than getting some check with free money.
And also, it’s tacky to ask for money when it’s their money. But I’m sure that all the things we’re going to do together in fighting crime, in fighting corruption, in strengthening our institutions, in countering narcotics, in reducing immigration with – by embettering the conditions of the people here, that’s huge, and that’s going to – of course, that’s going to cost – that’s – you have to use resources to do that.
But let’s focus first on what we want to achieve, and then that will probably have a price tag, but I felt that the most important thing were – was to bind together our goals and what we want to achieve, and if we have a partner as big and as powerful and as important to us and to the world as the United States, of course, the end result will be great for us.
Thank you.
MS ORTAGUS: We’ll have Cindy Spang from Voice of America.
QUESTION: Thank you. I was going to ask a tacky free money question, but I think I’ll ask something else. (Laughter.)
First of all for President Bukele, it is clear that this issue of both countries want to stem the flow of migration and it’s a regional issue with your other neighboring countries. Did you discuss the issue of safe third-country status and the whole – as a regional issue?
PRESIDENT BUKELE: No, no, we didn’t discuss that exact issue. But we focused on – that’s why I’m really happy about this meeting for several reasons. First because the meeting took place, right? That’s very important. But not only that, also we – everything that we spoke in the whole meeting, the whole time we were on the same page, the whole time. And that says tons of what we can achieve, because in every topic we were on the same page. I think probably and also – subconsciously we didn’t raise issues that will probably erode the conversation, because we are trying to seek a partnership and a friendship here, and we’re trying to strengthen our ties with our ally.
So we focused more on what we can achieve together, and rather in things that might – we might not be 100 percent – 100 percent on the same page. So the whole meeting was things that were 100 percent on the same page, so I think, like I said before, if you focus on the results and what we can achieve, we want to reduce migration – both of us. We want to reduce migration. We want is people not to die in the deserts or being kidnapped for their – selling their organs or little girls being kidnapped to sell – being sold as sex slaves. I mean, we want to end this. And the United States is willing to help us to end this, and we want to counter narcotics, and the United States is willing to help us, and the United States wants us to combat narcotics, and we are willing to help them in that. We want to combat illegal smuggling of people and contraband, and we’re working that together. We want to embetter the conditions here so people don’t have to flee their homes and their country because they are afraid the gangs will kill them or because they cannot find a job. We both want to promote investment in El Salvador and creating jobs and economic growth.
So there is so much things we think 100 percent alike that I think probably subconsciously we tried to keep the meeting in trying to focus on those things. And at the end of the time – I mean, I’m not here to posture. I mean, I’m not here to – like some people have asked me, “Why do you posture in that, and this and that?” I say, “Look, I don’t – if you want to posture, fine,” I said to those people – to those people. I really don’t want to posture. I really want to do the best for my people, and Secretary Pompeo wants to do the best for his people. And if we can put those interests – align and put those interests together, we can achieve a couple of things, several of things, and in this case many things. That’s a huge – it’s a huge success. And why don’t we just keep the success and be happy that we would achieve a lot of things for our people and will embetter all of the conditions that create all those problems in the first place.
QUESTION: Thank you. And Mr. Secretary, as you know, the 45-day deadline for a decision on tariffs for Mexico is Monday. Has Mexico done enough to take that issue off the table? And one quick follow-up, if I could, on Iran. Another deadline is approaching to renew a 90-day waiver on Iran’s civilian nuclear program. What are your thoughts on whether this should be renewed at this time in light of the recent activity from Iran? Thank you.
SECRETARY POMPEO: So I’m going to take the question you didn’t ask first. I just want to add to what President Bukele said. This is a country that can be a model on immigration, that we can really get it right, and we can get it right in multiple dimensions. We’ll do enforcement. We’ll do criminal gang activity. We’ll invite private American investment to come down here and be part of the fiber of El Salvador. The people of El Salvador made an important decision when they changed the nature of the government. It’s now a government that wants to work alongside the United States and shares our objective. It’s why I wanted to travel here today to thank the people of El Salvador for having headed in the right direction. And now it requires hard work by the leadership team here and hard work by our team to make sure we stay the course and get this right. When we do that, I am confident that we can deliver the American objective, which is protecting our southern border and having sovereignty for our country along that southern border.
Look, I spoke to Foreign Minister Ebrard just before I came here. We talked about the progress we’ve made on migration with them too. It’s been good. We’re now day 44, day 45. They’ve made real progress. Importantly, they’ve made a real commitment towards that progress. So the numbers are good. You can see the data. It’s public data. There are fewer apprehensions taking place today along our southern border, but we’ve got a long way to go yet. There is still much more work to do.
I wanted to talk today about the tools that we have available and how we can achieve getting to a place where each of our two countries understands the requirements and we can get to the right place. As for the next set of actions, I’ll talk with the President and the teams back in Washington, and we’ll decide exactly which tools and exactly how to proceed so that we can get to the shared mutual goal between President Obrador and President Trump, which is reducing the illegal migrant flow across our southern border. They have made real progress in ways that they were not prepared to do or weren’t capable of doing before, and we’re very pleased at the commitment they have made since June 7th since we signed that agreement.
And I appreciate the question on waivers with respect to Iran. I never get out in front of sanctions or sanctions decisions before we’re prepared to make the announcement. We’re just a few days away from that 90-day time limit, and I’m confident that on day 90 you’ll know the answer.
________________
LGCJ.:
