>> you're watching c-span2. c-span2 was created by america's cable television companies and they brought to you by these television companies who provide c-span2 to viewers as a public service . >> secretary of state anthony blanton and defense secretary lloyd austin will travel together to japan and south korea next week . first overseas set for senior cabinet officials provided administration . the hill like the trip march 15 18 comes at a time of tense relations between washington and beijing as the bike andadministration reviews its policy towards

north korea . >> .. members asked questions with russia and china and middle east policy at the state department. >> good morning the house was regulation all participants are asked to keep themselves muted when not engaged in the discussion which would limit echoes and other destruction in the instances which members yield back and will do so in a burden audio, and meeting themselves anytime you wish to be heard i may take a few seconds to get back to meal so please keep that in mind.

the task keeper will monitor and if you join virtually you can view the tiber by switching your personal view in the upper right corner of your screen to stage view you can pin the timer by hugging your cursor and pressing icon. for submission please e-mail hvac dark repository at mail.house.gov members must have their videoof recognized with al participants remain muted attributed when they're not speaking with that chair meets please count down so the person recognizes their video. >> three, two, one. >> the committee on foreign affairs will come to order without objection the chair is authorized to declare a recess of the committee and all members will have five days to submit

extraneous materials and questions for the record subject to the list and limitations of the rules to insert something into the record please have your staff e-mail the previously addressed her contact the committee staff for the reminder to members please keep your video function on at all times even when you are not recognize by the chair. members are responsible for meeting themselves and please remember to remake yourself, consistent with house rules staff will only meet members as appropriate when they're not under recognition to eliminate background noise. i see we have a quorum and i now recognize myself for opening

remarks. pursuant to notice to hear from secretary blinking on the biden administration foreign policy priority. i want to thank you secretary for joining necessarily and virtually appreciate this opportunity for dialogue and your testimony today will no doubt expand on this a administration foreign policy strategic priority of the views of the global landscape and how those views inform the diplomacy for approach is also a chance for you to hear our views and concerns as part of the in control role that this committee plays in supporting successful u.s. diplomacy around the world and i trust you appreciate that. from american engagement in the world by rejoining the paris agreement the human rights council and the w.h.o., the biden administration has made one thing clear america is once

again back at the table. however, we do not return to the world as we last left it but one with the united states must rebuild the cut ability and demonstrate once more about the capacity to promote democracy global health and prosperity, it is through these efforts at american leadership at its finest reminder these principles that we can once a build multilateral coalition to address their global challenges america must demonstrate the willingness and capability to build successful coalition that champion these fundamental values and global threats at his best our nation has never shown reluctance for the moral obligation and exert u.s. leadership not only a moral obligation but in our own economic and national security interest to do so whether it's

covid-19 or the climate crisis and the issues of the day show how interconnected we are in independent in-1 america alone n america only has not worked. the state department is not a task for theon department alone congress must resume our duty to regulate past authorization legislation for the state department, with its authorities and the flexibility it means in hesingling congressional intentn a number of state department priorities. that is why at the very first opportunity we had in this congress to advance legislation the committee once again passed a bipartisan management focus state department authorization bill. but of course operation of the department was also a reflection of the personnel and personnel and policy.

mr. secretary i'm pleased to hear you say we are operating in a diverse world and our diversity is a unique source that few countries can match. we don't have a diverse team it's likely the diplomacy with one arm tied behind her back. as chair of this committee i have addressed the lack of diversity at the state department a central focus of ourf word, recent data shows african-american constitute only 3.8% of senior executive service members and 3.1% of hispanics, similarly our senior foreign senior members only 3% of black and 5.9% of hispanics again to use your word we are conducting diplomacy with one arm tied behind her back.

the gao 2020 report on various diversity at the department of state found that minorities in the department are awarded fewer promotion than a white consequence even when education and years served. this is throughout every state of their career increasing the pipeline of minorities and women into the department alone is not enough we must ensure the bias and promotion that we are to retain a reverse workforce at the senior level, these trends may have worsened over the last four years but did not begin in 2017 in many incidents these figures have trended downward and stay relatively unchanged for three decades with this a administration state a priority to build or depleted state department and diversity we have the opportunity to work collaboratively in serving our diplomatic workforce both civil and foreign services.

but the changes that promote diversity equity and inclusion at the state department wouldqu not be measured only in statistics and must be marked by a shift in the culture environment and attitude at the department we perpetuated discrimination, disturbingly you heard the state department employees exposing white nationalist, racist or anti-semitic views, these views don't reflect the vast majority of the dedicated public service at the department. but even isolated instances can have a chilling effect on the students of color who is considering a career in diplomacy or the new calling who comes from a different ethnic of religious background than their coworkers. mr. secretary i look forward to your testimony today and i know a talented colleague on this committee are eager to engage with you and your department so we can work collectively in close collaboration to make progress on her shared

objectives. i now recognize my friend in the ranking member of this committee representative for his remarks. pgh thank you, mr. chairman and think you secretary blinken for joining us today for your early outreach to me as well i look forward to working with you over the next four years and the next leadership of the world has never been more vital let me begin with china as the pandemic continues to rage killing millions worldwide the chinese communist party is using the fear and desperation created by the virus, the virus of the ccpn cover-up allowed to spread this okay ross in their own authoritarian agenda, so many times the ccp poses a generational threat, as we speak the committee genocide against ethnic and the religious minorities aggressively stealing

u.s. intellectual property threatening taiwan, ratcheting up their military aggression in the region and preying on nations with their belton road initiative. we know the ccp wants to reengineer the world and promotes the marxist ideology as a better way and democracy. on the same day you gave your speech last week president xi jinping said the biggest source of chaos in present day world is united states, this is why and i know you treat them seriously we cannot treat them as a normal adversary and i wish you the best of luck in your discussions in alaska that was just announced we are truly an ideological struggle fightingh for democracy against authoritarianism and promoting freedom over oppression for 40 years we turned a blind eye to the ccp nature in the host we can bring them into the community of nations unfortunately it did not work as you said in your speech china is only country with economic

diplomatic military and technological power to seriously challenge the stable and international system and i agree with you i stand ready to work with you and the president to confront them, let me turn to russia, i repeatedly said mr. putin is not a friend and while the sanctions in response to the poisoning and wrongful detention were an important step in this administration was to counter the putin regime, it must ensure the pipeline is never completed i want to be clear if we allow the pipeline coto be completed it would be a tremendous victory for vladimir putin the mandatory sanctions passed with bipartisan support in the last two national defense authorization bills have not been fullyly implemented we are deeply concerned that the administration strong statement opposing the pipeline are not being matched by equally strong actions.

i hope you use the opportunity to explain the sanctions and why they have not been fully implemented their multiple open source reports that worke is esoccurring and detailing your plan to stop the completion of the pipeline. let me turn from russia to another adversarial threat iran, the crippling sanctions gave president biden and gives biden an opportunity that we cannot afford to squander, unfortunately i fear were headed down the path were that may not happen i want to strongly recommend in the strongest terms to commit that any updated deal with i run will include no sunset provisions and require anytime and anywhere inspections by the iaea including military sites address iran's ballistic missile programs, require iran to cease aggression in the

region into stop providing support to terrorist entities and finally demand i runs release of all of our hostages. above all i want to encourage to make sure the deal has a body and of the american people this time around and that means i believe they should be approved by the united states senate as a treaty as we speak those reports of violence against civilians in the region of ethiopia andnd of burma and while we face another border crisis criminal groups continue to transport illegal drugs into the united states while socialist dictators destabilize our own hemisphere here. we are ten years into the civil war in syria with no clear end in sight and the taliban is killing innocent civilians and afghan security forces at unprecedentedsi level. all of this what kobe continues to cause further instability and fragile nations. creating opportunity for terrorist organizations and

other entities. yet many challenges but we face them together as a nation and as republicans and democrats and i look forward to working with you and thank you for being here today and i yield back. >> thank you mr. mccaul, i have the honor of introducing the 71st secretary of state the honorable athlete mr. blinken before i say i introduced him after my introduction i'm going to ask congressman millan asking to share the meeting so i can run the boat at a very significant vote on the floor to benefit the american people and i want to make sure that i get my vote in the because of time i want to make sure we take all the time that we can since we have the available so as many

members have the opportunity to ask you questions that is the reason why were not going to break and i wanted to make sure i gaveled in this committee even though i read your testimony but i would love too hear from all f you that i'm going to make that vote. the honorable anthony j blinking serves as a 70 for secretary of state he served as deputy secretary of state, deputy national security adviser to the president and national security to the president during the obama administration, previously he refers to government as the state department and the national security council during the clinton administration as a democratic staff director of the other body on the other side of the senate foreign relations committee mr. secretary you now have time to deliver your t opening remarks and without objection you are prepared a written statement will be made as part of the record.

>> mr. chairman and ranking member thank you so much for your warm welcome it's good to be back before the committee and back in this room and they really do appreciate the opportunity to, talk today about the foreign policy goals and t priorities of the biden harrison administration and the early work to try to achieve them and i said before i am committed to working with congress on the takeoff and not just the landing i hope the administration recommitment to working with you willhe usher in a new era of trust, cooperation and understanding between the executive and legislative branches i come to this because i work for a president who believes deeply and it and having had the experience of working in a lesser body down the street on the foreigner with

with that in mind we had the following priorities stopping over 19 global health, so crisis like this never happened again. building stable include inclusive gentler security and opportunity for as many americans as possible in democracy at home and abroad because strong democracy is stable, open, committed to human rights less the conflict and more dependable market for goods and services. strong borders are fundamental to our security and walking immigrant is courtwright national identity. revitalizing their ties with

partners because of relationships or multiple partners and unique asset to thi united states, the climate rcrisis the green energy revolution because dealing with climate changen is essential to the health of our people, our economy and planet securing our leadership in technology because it's critical that driving a global economy and we need to strengthen our defenses against bad actors. managing our relationship with china the biggest geopolitical test of that when he first century. with those priorities a in mind here are the actions retaken in the first 50 days of this administration october 19 we reengage the world health organization and contributed $2 million to kovacs to global vaccination initiative on climate we rita joined the climate leadership which will be held on earth day april 22. our allies and partners, we held

the first meeting of the security dialogue between us, japan, australia and india and we will hold a leader level summit this week on friday we halted any troop we drove from germany led by the pentagon and i took my first virtual trip as your next week secretary austin and i will travel to japan and south korea. on immigration we overturned the travel ban we rescinded zero-tolerance executive order on migrant family separation and we sent the u.s. citizenship act of 2021 to the hills to modernize ourur immigration on refugees and asylum policy we rescinded harmful executive orders on refugee resettlement and announced in mission target of 102. we suspended the agreements with the government of el salvador honduras and guatemala and reinstated the departure

integrated tempering status to the venezuelans already in the united states. on human rights and democracy we join the human rights council as an observer we put in the proclamation that u.s. diplomacy protect the human rights of lgbtq worldwide and we released the report and a the band and te people who engage in serious activities on behalf of the s foreign government from entering our country. we imposed russian sanctioned in response to the military and burma on public health we rescinded the mexico city prioritizing sexual and reproductive health for the un population fund and proliferation we stand it the start treaty with russia for 20 years and our european allies to bring armand back into the jcpoa, on conflict diplomacy we

have defensive weapons in saudi arabia and named a special envoy to lead diplomatic efforts to in the war in yemen we revoked who these in the foreign terrorist organization for urgent assistance to the challenge people when it comes to the humanitarian crisis are facing. we boosted diplomatic efforts in afghanistan ahead of the may 1 deadline. on strengthening the state department we invested the has a workforce that reflects the diversity of our country then focus on accountability and transparency when we will modernize and rebuild story team has the tools and support that they need to get the job done. as you can see many of the stepe map directly onto a core priority we can draw a line from each one of them and drove on further to the security, prosperity and well-being of our fellow citizens. the president made it clear we

will leave and diplomacy and above all were determined to hold ourselves accountable to a major success are we delivering results with emergent people that is our mission, opportunity and we will try to do our best to make theri most of it. thank you very much and am very glad to be here and look forward to getting your questions. >> thank you so much mr. secretary it's wonderful and refreshing to have you here before us today. i will recognize members for five minutes each and pursuant to house rules all time yielded is for the purpose of questioning our witnesses.ni i will recognize members by committee sonority alternating between democrats and republicans if you miss your turn letter staff know and we will come back to you. if you seek recognition you must unmute your microphone and adjust the chair verbally and identify yourself so we know who is speaking. i'll start by representing -- recognizing representative

sherman of california. >> thank you mr. secretaryin welcome back. it's almost five years since you were here before i hope you coe back soon in a matter of weeks so all members of this committee will have a chance to have five minutes with you i know you have a hard stop that will prevent our colleagues to address questions. i've a lot of comments that i hope your stopper you can respond to for the record and to shock my colleagues i will have a real question. thank you for focusing on the worldwide effects of covid you should know a number of research projects to speed the production of vaccine or concerned it's a bus can be used for inoculation and a lot of the research is not being done by people who say it won't give results tell me by then americans will bear vaccinated. i hope your department would push for the studies that would help the entire world get out of

the pandemic. the russian state has not been effectively sanctioned for its interference in our elections theld mass hack and working with the taliban to killer troops, one way you can do that is the lasta administration did to a tidy and flawed way to use the chemical weapon statutes to prevent americans from investing in debt issued by the russian government for its state own company. that should increase the cost of borrowing by half a point on that would be a real sanctioned and certainly they earned it. i hope you do what you can to turn down the temperature in the south china sea, we don't need our naval vessels always 13 miles off the chinese coast i

don't want to see theirir vesses 13 miles off the los angeles coast i want to applaud the biden administration for the issue on refugees especially the fact that it includes the wattenberg amendment which is so important for christians, jews from iran to demonstrate what we already know that they face incredible persecution by thepo iranian government. as co-chair of the indian caucus enjoined by my co-chair mr. shalit i am pleased that president biden will be participating in the quad summit this friday with the heads of state of india, extra you in japan. i hope that you will work to free all the captives from the recent armenia azerbaijan more and i hope that your staff would clarify comments made by our ambassador that seem to applaud the success of them until it under military aggression. i hope you will work to turkey

back to some semblance of democracy and free no political prisoner and you will look at the disappearance and extrajudicial killings and pakistan and even before we've cebeen able to rejoin the human rights council i got applaud you for appearing and talking about the lack of accountability for past atrocities in sri lanka. i hope you will seek whatever congressional change that you need and i don't think you need one to reprogram $134 million we appropriated to the burma line mark that needs to be changed especially not for democracy but the working got, now believe it or not, question we are not in compliance with the jcpoa, iran is not in compliance with thein jcpoa, the radiant position that we will make concessions to them

just to get a meeting. it is my understanding our position that we should come into compliance only after they come into compliance with the nuclear safeguard can you assure us that they're not going to make concessions just to get a meeting. >> i can. >> that's a very good answer. >> do we expect before we give them sanctions relief that they will verifiably be in full compliance with the jcpoa or be on a negotiated path towards full compliance? >> yes. >> those are secular answers i'm going to shock my colleagues and yield 14 seconds back. >> and i say as well i would like to make my best efforts to make sure everyone who would like to ask a question or make a

comment have a chance to do so and as long as we can get to the first round of questions. >> they give her that mr. secretary. i now yield five minutes to the ranking member. >> mr. chairman and mr. secretary i have limited time i'm going to get right in we will start with the crisis at the border, recently the biden administration canceled asylum cooperation agreement and remain in mexico, since that time we've seen a massive surgeti of migras crossing and causing a crisis at the southern border why did the president resend these agreements that were supported by her neighbors at the south? >> thank you. >> as a general matter i want to differ to my colleague at dhs to deal with questions on immigration i would just say with a regarding those agreements only one was in effect with guatemala you

correct all three were rescinded but the president is determined that we have a a safe orderly ad humane border there is a lot of work that goes into making aso such, it's going to take time to do that and we pretty much look forward to working with congress to achieve that and have at, rational asylum process to have a refugee program that works to the best traditions of t our country and to make sure that the border is safe and orderly but it's also humane but as i said this takes time to do, in the meantime we've been very clear in saying to people, do not come to the united states, do not attempt irregular migration. >> all questions secretary the messaging has been a little mixed and it appears that we are open and i live in a border state i was a federal prosecutor

when you send that message down there they are going to come it is created a humanitarian crisin down there and so many children that we can even detain rightsi now let me move on i sent you a letter requesting of the 16th entities work and ongoing stream to pipeline and these sanctions are mandatory my question is there ready to complete this project we commit to submitting arnew sanctions on the 15 additional entities as soon as possible? >> on norge stream to a couple things at the onset, president biden thinks it's a bad idea he said so repeatedly i share his view violates the european union energy security principal and jeopardizes the economic and strategic situation for ukraine and poland as well so he opposes it and we will continue to do

so. i have been on the job five weeks the pipeline is 95% complete i started construction in 2018 so i wish we did not find ourselves in a situation with a pipeline that is virtually complete. >> sanctioning 15 entities great and around in the negotiation is always best from a position strength as a diplomat and president trump imposes a maximum pressure campaign and gives us leverage as you go into these discussions, will you commit to me in this committee that you will formally consult with us before lifting any sanctions on iran. >> were determined to consult on the take off and on the landing across-the-board and if there is any movement on this and this further has not been, yes we will do so by the way not just

congress is the first stop but partners including in the region who have their own concern in own interests at stake. >> you have the leverage and we would not let up on it i don't trust ayatollah and i don't know how you could possibly negotiate with ayatollah i commend you for trying as we negotiate with the taliban at the two most difficult organizations to negotiate and i wish you the best on the effort and the big challenge ass you know, on china you testified yourself a genocide occurring in china and i agree with you and so does congress in the previous administration, we labeled a genocidend and put sanctions on individuals and entities responsible for the crimes against humanity, what additional steps are you prepared to stop ofe the genocide.

>> a number of things i shared the view in the deep concern and there's a number of things that we can do, should do and will do first of all is important to speak up and speak out and other countries with the same thing but of course from around the world and the better the chance to get some changes we have a number of steps that we can take to go and include those directly responsible for genocides and gross human rights violation, sanctions, these are restrictions, et cetera. i think could be very important in china claims there is nothing going on that it gives access to the international community and they have nothing to hide and show us the world and these are practical very important and

others are not exporting to china and products that can beti used for the repression of other people and minorities and we should not bring into this country products that are created by force later including president xi and those are things that we should do and can but we will start by speaking out forcefully on this. thank you. >> now i recognize myself for five minutes. >> thinking of china i was running around and i understand this breaking news that you in the national security advisor will conduct an in-person meeting with the chinese next week ins anchorage i welcome the news about engagement can you tell us what you expect to be the agenda of those meetings and what you hope to have an outcome with your engagement of the chinese. >> take youca mr. chairman, as i mentioned a little bit earlier

i'm heading off with lloyd austin to visit two of the most important allies to piano in south korea we leave on sunday and will spend the balance of the week there on the way back i'm stopping off in alaska the national security advisor jake sullivan will come out there and we plan to meet with the director and the state counselor from china following the trip. it's pretty simple this is an important opportunity for us to lay out in frank terms and the concerns with beijing's actions and behavior that are challenging the security prosperity and the values of the united states and our partners and allies. and we will raise in the host of issues in which have been touched on today that concern us and we also explore whether their avenues for the cooperation and the competition that we have in china to make

sure that the united states has a level playing field in our companies and workers benefit from not, this is not a strategic dialogue there is no intent at this point for a series of follow-on engagements those engagements if they are to follow have to be basedth on the proposition that were seen tangible progress in tangible outcomes on the issue of concern with china. this is an opportunity to put on the table. >> let me ask a number of quick questions, limited time you heard my opening statement and i'm very concerned about diversity at the state department and i don't know if you've done a review but i'd like to ask you the racial and ethnic minorities is beyond the establishment of a officer in many may call systemic determination is state

department. >> mr. chairman i share that concern and i said this on several occasions i would consider it a mark of my success are not during my tenure as secretary whether we put in place a much more sustainable foundation for advancing true diversity at the state department for a foreign service and foreign-policy workforce that looks like the country represents, to your point we very soon theting first chief diversity officer and inclusion officer at the department that person report to the secretary of state but beyond that there is a significanton sustained effort that has to take place not just on recruitment although that'sh vitally important but also on retention to make sure once people come through the door and are working there that they feel welcome, they feel included in contributing because they would know they will stay in there has to be accountability starting

with the secretary of the state we will have transparency in what were doing including making available the congress the different numbers of assessments of ourur efforts. one other quick thing as you know very well this effort has to start before the doors at c street they have to be able in the pipeline at least the people have taken cruise and foreign-policy and national security we have to open people's imagination and open their minds to s the prospect tt this would be a wonderful thing to do and a wonderful pursuit to dedicate their lives that means engaging in high schools and colleges across-the-board i think you will see thed state department at all levels spending time in ourur own couny to open people's minds to the prospect and finding ways to support them as they choose to make a career. >> let me thank you for that i'm trying to make sure and as you may know some in the past were

focused on the past we have an oversight responsibility on this committee and to do that correctly we need to have a constructive relationship with the department as congress filled this oversight. my quick question we prepared to have your staff begin the negotiation of documents to make sure congress has information to help restore american diplomacy? >> yes. >> lastly mommy ask a quick question in regards to afghanistan we know ending the war in afghanistan remains a key priority for many members off congress and our constituents, can you quickly explain to us the updated proposal and any feedback that you have received from the afghan government and the taliban on this proposal. >> the president's goal is very clear to in the conflict to bring our troops home and ensure afghanistan does not become a haven for terrorism and ongoing threat to the united states.

were engaged in a diplomatic effort to try to drive the two parties to negotiate and to move forward on commitments that the taliban in the united states a year ago to negotiate meaningfully on a peaceful future for afghanistan. not only are we doing now but as important we are listing other countries the united nations in the effort as many of afghanistan neighbors have a stake in the future and influence with the parties. the diplomatic effort is ongoing meanwhile were reviewing archer posture including the may 1 deadline we haven't made any decisions about that and we want to see where this effort goes to get the parties engaged in a meaningful way the taliban made other commitments when it comes ffto reducing violence and not harboring or supporting terrorist we want to see them

make good on those obligations. >> think of her that my time is expired. let me just say i gave us some extra time but foran the rest of the members i want them to know i'm going to be strict on the five-minute role, the secretary has graciously enough he will stay as long as he can and i want to ask you whenever you have questions and answers within five minutes we can get as many members if not every member an opportunity to ask a question i now recognize the gentleman from new jersey in the ranking member of the subcommittee of africa of global health and global human rights representative chris smith. >> thank you mr. secretary for the past 40 years as a member of congress i've been deeply concerned about chinese communist party's pervasive human rights abuses in addition to several binding chips to a concentration camp have shared over 75 congressional hearings

focus exclusively on ccp human rights violation wipro base of religion, torture, forced abortion, organ harvesting, democracy, suppression, online censorship the dealing of journalists and bloggers and now genocide. your predecessor secretary pompeo concluded the persecution of the uighurs by xi jinping constituted a genocide and there is no worse crime on the face of the earth, last month at a town hall meeting anderson cooper asked president biden about china's treatment to the uighurs president gave a troubling response and say culturally there are different norms that each country are expected to follow an answer that was reminiscent of president obama's chinese president who was criticized and human rights defenders everywhere including genuine 192011 editorial by the washington post, president obama

and you did say again today in her senate testimony out you believe china was committing genocide and that state was asked whether or not it was ongoing and i do believe you think it's ongoing and i'll be able to comment on that and whether or not a real cost for the crimes in the horrific crimes would be imposed. will you retain the entity list for example? we have legislation that is pending that would make it a presumption against any product coming out of she's young that it shouldn't come here because we can't determine the origin was by forced labor like manners yet the house past hong kong human rights and democracy act william poe serious on xi jinping in others for destroying hong kong's democracy dealing great leaders like joshua wong and conducting show trials in the greatest human rights like martin lee and in 1984 and in

many decades to condition population control fund away from organizations that support or comanage coercive population programs now as you said today and we know from the executive order by the president there was an order design to resume foreign aid to organizations like human population fund that have been found repeatedly to be in violation of the non-coercion policy and especially concerned as a senator president biden voted against the resolution of september 2000 criticizing china's barbaric public policy and the vice president he told students in china in 2011 i gave a speech on this and it was empathetic and fully understood and would itd be second guessing the cruel policy that crushes women, also because in china's

limitation policy tens of millions of girls are missing dead, theca girl child simply because of being a a girl and female because of abortion i would hope we would stand with the oppressed i had hearings here with women and i'll go to your answer you have been aborted got here through asylum and they tell their stories it is unbelievable how horrible and that legacy and trauma carries through in their lives for the rest of their lives we should be standing with the oppressed against the oppressor. i appreciate everything that you said, we are determined to put human rightst and democracy back at the center of our foreign policy to make sure we have the tools that we need to be most effective in advancing human rights and democracy one thing i'm grateful for are the tools that congress has given us to do that including a global magnetic

ski which is been helpful in these efforts by other authorities, sanction authorities and so one to penalize those directly responsible for committing human rights abuses and other atrocities as i was saying earlier i think we have to start from the proposition that most important first step is for us to speak up and speak out and we are in we will we want to make sure were building coalition of like-minded countries who share these deep concerns about human rights abuses in china or for that matter or anywhere else but then to your point to actually take action and apply the tools that we have to see if we can make a meaningful difference. >> the gentleman's time has expired into do it more effectively. >> the denman's time has expired i recognize the chair of the subcommittee civilian security

migration international economic policy representative of new jersey for five minutes. >> secretary begin thank you for testifying today and congratulations as chairman of the embassy i look forward to working with you and your staff to deep in the united states and latin america and the caribbean u.s. policy towards cuba is deeply personal to be an kfirsthand experience of wheret is to live under the castro dictatorship i came when i was 11 years old and i thought memories of the military and searching my house and using my father of the merchandise i have all these memories and i made it a priority when i came to congress for democracy and human rights. all over i've been encouraged by the statement of the present invited to the white house

regarding in the human rights at the center of our policy towards cuba and our secretary i was wondering what steps can you take promote a lights, civil liberties and then the attacks on human rights defenders in cuba. >> i think across-the-board we share the same goals when it comes to cuba and that's democracy and freedom for his people, inre particular respect for the views and the experiences of our citizens are cuban-american we not only noah but we lived at how your families have lived it and this is something that resonates for me. we are looking at the entire policy right now and we have haven't come to any conclusion, knowing what the goals are freedom and democracy the people of cuba we start with the

recognition that obviously no policy in the past has fully succeeded in achieving that but working to be reviewing the policy in close consultation with congress and members who know these issues so well as you have seen there is no early policy changes and certainly weu will not make any changes without fully consulting so i look forward to the opportunity to do that. >> take you mr. secretary, on january 1 congresswoman norma and i sent a letter to president biden to prioritize the corruption of the protection of human rights especially central america and i assume we are applying the same democracy and human rights through the region in central america. >> very much so. >> venezuela obviously is going to come up i had a hearing in

venezuela the other day i was very happy to see that the president designated to the venezuelans about 320,000 of them in this country i think that's the rights that they suffer greatly, my concern for venezuela is russia seems to be more engaged with venezuela and i don't think, i know they tried to destabilize the region i spoke to the ambassadornk of columbia in 2019 russia had 6000 people go through columbia and they expelled three russians. for russia columbia is not exactly a beach destination so my concern they are using venezuela toex destabilize

columbia to get involved in other elections in south america and i would hope the administration would focus on russia's efforts to try to destabilize our neighbors in the western hemisphere. >> i share the concern and we see them venezuela and we seen a resurgence of russian and president of activity in cuba the lastse few years and were vy attentive to that across-the-board into the point you made a minute ago i should come back to say your emphasis on spotlighting and combating corruption is absolutely essential and this is something ywe will dedicate more focus, time and resources to because we see it unfortunately is prevalent in so many cases but also a little bit ada's and keeley's heel we could put a spotlight because when people see thet corruption of their

leaders that is a good way to undermine support with the civil leaders. >> the gentleman's time has expired i recognize the ranking member of the subcommittee on asia-pacific and nonproliferation representative from ohio. >> thank you, mr. chairman mr. secretary and it's an important issue that i like to follow up in the border security is in the purview of the department of homeland security is a foreign affairs aspect to the relationship between the united states and central america andnd you're here and what's happening now at our southern a border in my view a national disgrace it's always made sense to me that one answer system in the thai fleeing places like kundera's in guatemala and el salvador in mexico is to help those countries improve the conditions

there, because people want to leave their country in the first place and fight the drug gang that control neighborhoods and pray on people and target the children and improve economic conditions reduce rampant governmental corruption you and i probably agree on those things and i know by the knotting of your head that we do but this administration unfortunately policies towards our southern border since taking office near seven weeks ago has in my view been incompetent the biden administration has a real mess on his hand and ms in its own making this administration has essentially signaled to the world come on in our borders are open you can stay and they are coming unaccompanied minors way up single males way up many with covid and is getting worse former detention centers are now called reception centers the previous administration was criticized for allegedly holding kids in cages and those photos

turned out to be photos that was taken during the obama biden administration but i know that administration are part of is doing worse, the previous administration as mr. mccaul had mentioned has reached agreements with mexico and other countries to give their migrants there, not here pending the resolution of the immigration matters as a resultd illegal immigration ino the country and the accompanying stress on the taxpayers and rather than requiring people to remain outside in this administration i brought back catch and release you are letting people into the u.s. and wait here for their hearings even though the vast majority o them are going to disappear into the interior of the u.s. and never show up for their hearings, this border crisis is real and it's getting worse. don't the american people deserve better than this?

i would agree with the predicates of your statement and this is also foreign policy and i could not agree more and on the northern triangle and i spoke to mckenna prince and president biden has brought a virtual summit meeting we are working closely with mexico on what is a common challenge including in the southern border working to give people incentives to stay in place and come to the united states into your point we agree and i welcome an opportunity to work with you and other members of

the committee, we have to deal with the drivers of migration to your point and i think there is real opportunity to do that when president biden was vice president as youa may remember and he led an effort very successful effort a bipartisan effort with congress to secure resources to help guatemala, honduras andnd el salvador deal with these drivers whether came to security or corruption or economic opportunity and if we did this not be throwing money at the problem but demanding more from concrete reforms from these countries that actually materially improve the situation for people there and took away the incentives for them to come to the united states we now have a proposal with additional resources over four years and to do that in a effective way and we can take the drivers away i welcome an opportunity to talk

to you about that work on that and get support from congress. , i'm almost out of time but i look forward to working with you it's been a longtime member of this committee and there's a a lot of things we can work on and i look forward to doing that. >> the denman yields back i represent and acknowledge president of the nato parliamentarian assembly representative jerry of virginia for five minutes. >> thank you, mr. chairman, and thank you for the title it is so nice to welcome you here secretary lincoln and let me clear one thing up in your very courteous answer to my good friend from ohio surely the absence of your contradicting the idea that the crisis on the border should notot be construed as you arere consenting to the fact that there is a crisis of the border, is there a crisis of the border? >> we have at the border a lot of work to do to make sure it is

safe, orderly and humane we are engaged in doing>> that work. >> mr. secretary the clear narrative that the friends only the other side of the aisle are trying to create is the only sensor president biden took office has a crisis occurred on the border because i don't know switching this or unwillingness to deal with the real problem ic giving you the opportunity to clarify your thinking on that, i for one do not acknowledge the suddenly a crisis materialized overnight on january 20 or 21st but you are the secretary. >> pressure to you and as a diplomat i sure to my colleague i disagree with the factual predicates of this question and what i'm focused on is try to make sure my vantage point in from the responsibilities i have uathat were working with mexico and the countries of the northern triangle to deal with the problem together. if we don't, we won't.

>> it's one thing to acknowledge there are problems there have been problems for a long time at the border and another to manufacture crisis for political partisan gain not that my friend would ever do that but some might. let me ask you in a limited time that i have worried that nato hat, talking to nato allies in the country as well as associated countries at least at the parliamentary level, frankly enormous relief that the new administration in town that recognizes the importance of the transatlantic alliance and the president as well as you in your nomination hearing have acknowledge that . . . as you in your hearing have acknowledged that two things. how concretely can we move to try to reassure allies that we value the alliance and will absolutely commit to it? and secondly, what do we do

about democratic resilience within the alliance? we see backsliding, and there are a number of us who believe we actually have to have, you know, structures within nato that advocate for those values we call democracy, mr. secretary. >> i very much share that view, and first we have in president biden strongly in nato and the alliance and something that he sees as the glue that joins us to europe. i've been working the phones in the absence of being able to travel although that is about to change and i've heard the same thing that your hearing. a desire for the united states to be reengaged and we are.

i think you are exactly right that we are seeing tragically democratic backsliding and many places around the world freedom house puts, out its annual repot in a democratic recession and the president believes very strongly that one, we have to make sure t we are getting our n accounts in order if we are going to lead by the power of our example but we need to work with other countries to strengthen their resilience. one thing we are going to do the doctor talked about this and we are working through it now we will convene a summit probably towards the end of the year to bring together the democratic community to look both at the challenges that we are each facing at home and to see if we can learn lessons from each

other though they are distinct and different, there are common denominators and to look at what the democratic agenda should be to work effectively together. it's not just to divide us from other democracies but the system we all believe in and are dedicating our lives to professionally doesn't work and their systems are better.

i hope we can work on that together because that is the path a ranking member of the subcommittee north africa and global counterterrorism representative joe wilson of south carolina. it leads to the unjustified prosecution of the american and israeli nationalists despite neither country being a member of the court and the war crimes in palestine. i appreciate your statement opposing the recent moves. what are the steps the state department is taking to counter these recent actions and how will you work to prevent the

prosecutions of americans or israelis? >> thank you for the question. i appreciate it. we share the goal of accountability for international atrocity crimes. that's not the issue. it remains our view that the jurisdiction is reserved when a state consents to it or there's a referral by the united nations security council. neither is i true in the case of israel and the palestinian matter that you mentioned. we have the capacity ourselves to provide accountability when those issues arrives so we will continue to make clear our opposition. it's appropriatete how can we mt

effectively do that and that's something we are looking at right now. we will see going forward how we can most effectively engage the icc to avoid these assertions when they are not warranted. >> my youngest son served in afghanistan so i identify as a family member of the threats of the icc and what they could mean to the american people. additionally the past several months we have seen historic efforts being made. paving the way for the recognition andd engagement rather than isolation and boycott provisional. how do you plan on strengthening the relationships between israel and bahrain, morocco and sudan

and are you goingng to encourage another nation to make peace with israel we applaud the steps that have been taken it is a dream come true to see the level of stability in the middle east that many of us thought could never occur. unfortunately then we go to north strum, tomac we oppose yet about this for some time, so have i and the

pipeline as you know is 95% complete but we are making it clear that we stand against this contemplation we continue to review other possibilities for the sanction going forward. >> a reference to the threats to poland this is something i worked on a lot when i was in the obama and biden administration. we strongly stand against the attempted annexation and strongly against its aggression we intend toai strengthen that support whether it's security, economics or its efforts to strengthen its own democracy which are vitally important. one of the things you know is it

has to i face aggression we are determined to work on all of that. >> anotherr would be azerbaijan to bulgaria and i urge you and would yield back. >> the time is expired and i recognize the chair of the subcommittee on north africa and global counterterrorism a rerepresentative from florida. >> thank you mr. chairman and mr. secretary for being here. it's a pleasure to welcome you to the committee today. i thank you for your statement on theei 14th anniversary. thank you for speaking to the family here in this country that he loved so much with his beloved and remarkable family. i'm also appreciative of your commitment to the recovery and

hostage taking accountability act and i look forward to working with you on that. there are at least 45 publicly known cases of americans being held around the world. without the iranian compliance, you also talked about the need to work with our allies to address making the deal stronger and addressing the sunsets and tighten the inspections. some people think we should get back immediately regardless what the iranians are doing. you are not one of them. there's also people that think we have to address everything nuclear and non- nuclear right at the start before returning to

the deal. you've committed to building on the nuclear agreement to address theta non- nuclear issues. we've got to find a path forward for the shared goals as we talked about earlier they said no and proceeded to use the centrifuges for the past levels. the question is can you lay out some thoughts on how to go forward given the refusal to engage what do we do to build upon the gc poa and address these other issues? >> if i could on the question this is something i know you and i feel very strongly, and it is a prayer ready for me to do everything i possibly can to bring home every american who is being held hostage or as otherwise being illegally detained in a foreign country, wherever that is.

one of the first things i did on my first week onn the job was to meet virtually with almost all of the families who have loved ones or are being illegally detained or held hostage a broad. the canadians have launched a significant initiative we should work on together we isolate the countries that continue to engage in these practices. withnt regards to the gc poa, lt me say a couple of things. first we have to t deal with the world as it is now.

i know others disagree but on its own terms in terms of putting the program in a box and cutting off its pathways to produce fissile material for the nuclear weapon on short order was succeeding the intelligence committee said so, the international a inspector said o and whenor we pulled out of the agreement, the iranians then of course had a vote in this, tomac and started too lift the constraints imposed on the agreement.t. to turn on the aspects of the program that they turned off so i think we have an interest in getting back to that nuclear box

because think of it this way. we have fundamental problems with actions across a whole series of things whether it's support for terrorism, whether it's a ballistic missile program or destabilizing actions throughout the region. on iran with a nuclear weapon order the threshold capacity to have one it is likely to act even greater when it comes to those things so we have an incentive to do that. to come and start to talk about whether there was a way back to your non- meeting its obligations we said we would attend and iran who said no. the ball is in their court to see if they are serious about

engaging or not. >> it is good to see you here they will center on the genocide occurring and i think you did say and i don't want to put words in your mouth speaking out forcefully would be part of the answer is that correct? >> that is correct. would you say that it simply reflects a difference in cultural norms between the countries, is that a proper characterization? >> what it reflects is an egregious violation of human rights. >> so it's more than just cultural norms.

would you consider that forceful in 2013, emma riley began to raise concerns that office was fording the names of the dissidents to be just as the dissidents were preparing to testify before the council according to the lives do you

believe that the allegations deserve to be fully and impartially investigated? >> i'm not aware of the case bui based on your description the short answer of itpa is yes. >> you never heard about this at all? >> not that particular case but based on your description i would be concerned about it. >> because if it is true, it would implicate the complicity for the genocide and they are aiding and abetting at that case and if that is the case if there's an investigation even if there's not an investigation but if that is the case given theis severity of the allegations by the administration would you be willing to hold off on joining the council we've had

significant concerns aboute its actions. that is a problem that needs to be corrected. we haveho concerns with the council and its membership it is doing the right thing and focusing on what. we are better off at the table and outside of the room similarly and interesting to your point the council has done a better job than some other institutions andto putting a spotlight on china and human rights abuses.

proposition is we have a much better chance of making sure it's doing what it's supposed to if they are indeed complicit with the genocide occurring -- >> i would appreciate that. knowing that you are looking forward to meeting with the principles regarding china, are you prepared or contemplating secession toe the chinese party, vis-à-vis the paris climate accord or anything else that we might need to know about? no concessions whatsoever to the party or for any other country our job is to make sure that we advance the interest of theun united states and we have to make the best judgment we can about how to do that.

china equally has an ability militarily, diplomatically, economically to the international rules-based system the united states has devoted so much effort to building and does advanced the interest of the people so we will be making it very clear to the counterparts in china the deep concern and objections that we have two some of the things that they are s doing. >> i recognize the chair of the subcommittee on africa, global health and global human rights, the representative of california for five minutes. >> thank you very much mr. chair and ranking member and mr. secretary. i appreciate yourica coming here today and your openness to

engage with us in a dialogue. i hope to get through these questions. one is concerning covid. very excited we are finally getting a handle on it. we are already dealing with the mutation from southnt africa and so my question is how is the department of state working with the administration and other agencies to enhance and access the global vaccine and what role can the state department take in terms of pooling the vaccine technology? beyond that we are looking across the board at ways that we

can lean in to facilitate access around the world because to your point, and i think we all know this, we will never be fully safeu here in the united states until the vast majority of the world is vaccinated because as long as it's replicating somewhere it could be mutating and it could come back to bite us, so this isn't simply the right thing to do. it's the necessary thing to do in terms of national security and we are looking at ways to advance that effort. >> the government was deposed in the military coup and while the transitional government has been formed with the goal of holding elections in 18 months, the security situation both inside and the wider region remains extremely s unstable.

yi know the mandate comes up in june around the security council what role do you see the u.s. playing in assisting the negotiation process regarding the great dam in ethiopia and then maybe you can also comment about the situation after that question. >> with regards, we want to do everything we can to facilitate the country's concern coming together and finding a way forward that meets their interest and avoids conflict. but i think we could use the offices to help do that so that's the way we are approaching it.

it's one thing we are very focused on particularly where we are seeing credible reports on human rights abuses and atrocities that are ongoing. i've talked with other leaders in the region and i very much understand the concerns for example the situation today is unacceptable and has to change it's very important that the government follow through on the commitments thator it's made.

>> do you envision peacekeepers? >> at this point we have two other challenges that go to the security piece in a force that wouldn't abuse the human rights of the people or commit acts that we have seen in western has to stop and we need full accountability for the investigation of what took place and we need some kind of process, reconciliation process to the country can move forward politically. the prime minister was an inspiring leader that won the nobel peace prize and now he needs to step up and make sure that his own people are getting the protections that they need and deserve. >> thank you, mr. chair.

>> thank you, mr. chairman. mr. secretary, it's good to have you here as the chair man said earlier, this is very early and very pleasant to have you and having started in the committee when colin powell was here and then being a freshman, i didn't get to ask a question for the first three times. i had to wait until the chair man went away and grabbed him during a vote so i want to thank you for agreeing to allow everyone to ask a question. all the way back in the old testament the phrase delivered a judge doesn't or can't change its spots unfortunately those thousands of years of history seem to apply to iran. you haven't yet gone to harvard when iran took hostages of our

embassy and blamed it illegally and wrongfully and lied and said athat it was just students. my understanding is that we still don't have that embassy back. so in these decades, iran has never changed its spot and it's continued to any kind of destabilizing activities it can throughoutti the region in shiga and sunni majority and made peace in that region much more difficult if not impossible. >> my question is not on the nuclear question becauseim i thk very consistently you've said to the ambitions are soes they cano what they are already doing with impunity, but t they've done wih impunity for longer than many

people have lived. what are your plans on the areas of their continuing to destabilize their neighbors and support for terrorism around the world but c particularly to the two groups that i mentioned? >> i very much share your concerns about the actions across the board and the question is what can we do about it. part of it is making sure that we are working with and close collaboration with other ecountries that similarly agreed to the actions. we are in close consultation and coordination with others that aree on the receiving end of soe of the actions but also one of the reasons it would be beneficial if there's a way to the nuclear agreement is to find ourselves once again on the same side of our european partners i

think that there is an opportunity there iff that goes forward but if we have all sorts of tools including we will use those tools and do it in coordination with other countries. >> let me give you two more quick questions. one is historically bipartisan support with each administration is continued to support the lebanese institutions in order to be an offset is it your position that he will continue e

to do that? to underscore thatfe commitment your intention is to continue to support for the refugee camps that dominate lebanon almost 50% of the population? >> the burden the countries are taking is extraordinary. >> and last you did mention things that are contrasting you with your predecessor. can you give us a few items that the secretary many of us servedo with that did well that you continue to expand on? >> i had a terrific conversation during the transition we spent time together going through a lot of things about the state department and our foreign policy. more broadly. i think that for one example, he did a very good job in trying to

recover state department in the 21st century and in powering some of our people with technology something that we want to follow through on. as we talked about earlier, the initiatives led to steps with israel the representative of massachusetts for five minutes. >> thank you mr. chairman and mr. secretary. i also want to thank you for your work. paul has been unjustly imprisoned for over two years and your recent meeting not just with their family but all of the families in a similar situation. our greatest adversary is china

and this is a historical contest. it's one beyond our countries. what it's one of authoritarianism and democracy it is the coercive and predatory economic policies that they've undertaken so aggressively but we have one thing china does not have the peace and prosperity in modern times so the efforts to counter china must involve a transatlantic economic partnership that includes shared values, security interest, shared human rights issues. we did have section 232 that

caused some discord with our allies and there are legitimate economic issues and i was pleased to see president biden take action in that regard rescinding the last actions making it clear that whatever we do in these areas, the biden administration is going to act in the interest of all americans, not private interest. that was an important interest. with the manner in which it was done those are the allies that spilled the blood of their children andnd alongside us so there's areas of hope so they can start to work that out but anyway we are going to be

affected must include a way forward and maybe from the free trade agreement with a mutuality of interest and we can work together for both of our benefits of democracy in that respect. it's going to be hard because we have to contend and the uk hasn't made it any easier with its internal market bill or recent action violating the agreement unilaterally. with all these challenges, we must move forward. i think it's one of our most important priorities to deal with our economic vitality going forward with the premise of the

question one way to succeed is if we get a terrific u.s. trade representative on the job, so hopefully that happens very quickly. but beyond that, a couple of things. for example when it comes to dealing with the most egregious practices in the commercial area, we are so much better off and more effective when we are dealing with those then we and we are doing it alone. the united states alone is about 25% of the world gdp. when we work with other democracies and our partners in europe it is 40, 50, 60%. that is a lot harder to ignore so i think we have a found interest in trying to get our own house in order when it comes to some of these trade disputes

as the partners and allies do, not as adversaries and that will give a stronger foundation. having said that, you heard the president speak to this in terms of pursuing new trade agreements we need to invest in our own people so we have the strongest foundation to be competitive in the businesspe of opening more markets to make sure that we are fully competitive. we also want toma make sure as e go about advancing new fagreements, all of the key stakeholders are at the w tableo we are doing these things to the benefit including many who have not benefited unfortunately from some of the trade agreements we've reached in the past and we have to filter that in but the proposition we should be working through these issues in a collaborative way with our partners i couldn't agree more. >> the time is expired.

i now acknowledge the representative foror five minut. >> january 6th was a really bad day but i'vebe always said they are not defined by bad days but how we overcome them and i think your promotion of democracy around the world is going to be very important and to show how we rise above challenges and use that as an example for others and the return to multilateralism is important as well recognizing things like nato. reals quickly i would like to point out and i wouldld encourae you to put a strong ambassador down there that's very focused on america's priorities because there are some challenges within that country in terms of a leader that has crossed the line and there democracy in some areas. after all that i do want to

drill down a little more on the north stream discussions. i was hard on the trump administration for some slow implementation of things and given that we are 90 to 95% of completion i think the time is essential at this moment so given that there is a lot of information out there and open source reporting actively engaged in the construction of the pipeline, it's difficult to believe the department requires more information in the baltic seaa going between the german ports where the materials for the pipeline are being stored and do you not know if those are involved in the project? >> we are looking at that very closely as you know we issued a an initial report that sanctioned the pipeline that was

a good news story but going forward, we are looking at this every single day. the challenge we have is to make sure what looks on the surface, no pun intended, like a clear case really is and that it stands up to the legal scrutiny to build these packages we will continue to do it. just to also mention the maritime authority which is a government agency with official notices and additional russian ships engaging in the pipeline

activities according to north stream website it is the company responsible for the planning construction and eventual operation of the pipeline in fact i saw it discussed and i looked up on the website do we believe that they are engaging in these activities? >> something we will look at very carefully. >> the other thing i will say on that is the l permit for the construction of north stream in the baltic sea requires an active insurance company. they insisted that they have met this requirement and the bipartisan sanctions as amended includes mandatory sanctions on insurers involved in the project. do we know the current insurer? >> i'm sure we are looking at that if we haven't already. we agree we need to look at these to see if they are engaged

in these activities. >> have yous all been engaged n the discussions since taking office? >> i am not aware of that, but i certainly could double check. i'm not aware. >> one thing i will ask if you can commit to consulting with andt, not just notifying allies and partners a lot of times they get left out of this discussion as well as congress and so i would appreciate that commitment to do that as well. >> nothing about you without you and we want to make good on that when it comes to our allies and partners. >> congratulations on the job and thank you for your commitment to come before the committee. i think that is going to be rare so thank you for your service and i will yield back we look

forward to strengthening the national security of the american democracy abroad and around the world. as you know, you assume the role of the secretary of state during uniquely challenging times for four long years the united states disengaged in the community and we now have the corruption human rights abuses to escalate and nearly every corner of the globe. it's filled by those that seek to make the world less free and lessgl vulnerable and freedom house has said that the balance has shifted in favor of global tierney.

my first question is how do you intend to incorporate the approach to the human rights there rather than the recommendations of the previous administration with women, girls, members of theyr communiy and otherun vulnerable populatis essential to the discrimination and violence i know the first step was to reject the recommendations of the commission on the rights but how do you intend to do that important work? >> at the heart of the foreign policy it is in every single thing that we do our diplomats every single day are standing up for these rights when they are being abused and that is front andnd center. when it comes to bleeding international efforts on new

norms i and conventions, flaws, understanding or just groupings can speak outhat together, the united states is in the forefront of those efforts, so this is something that needs to permeate everything we are doing. wes had an opportunity to talka little bit before just about this idea of bringing the world's democracies together in a o summit and what is the commn agenda that we have around the world these rights when they are being challenged. >> they review the diplomacy and negatively impact the national security. does it make sense to consider significant increases in funding for the state department and usaid in order to make the biden administration goal of placing diplomacy at the forefront of

its foreign policy success? >> for the record i didn't ask you to ask that question. >> it's going to require different resources. >> absolutely because look at the challenges the department has to play a lead role dealing with other it is as we've alreadyge discussed, dealing wih covid-19 and in particular, advancing a stronger global health security system. we have a lead role to play when it comes to dealing with challenges with our cyber networks and trying to advance the proposition of the rules and norms and standards that others adhere to, that is the work of the state department so we have to make sure that we are resourced to do that. >> in july it will mark the 47th

anniversary of turkey occupying weather ahead of the talks as committed in april to push back against turkey with security council resolutions and u.s. policy there's a lot of expectation with this administration and we will see a real effort we strongly support a comprehensive settlement the

gentlemen's time has expired and i recognize the representative of new york for five minutes. thank you mr. chairman. mr. secretary, welcome and congratulations. i wish you much success and i hope that you are as good a secretary of state as the representative brags. one of the principles that thee was bipartisan agreement on during the negotiation in the administration would frequently talk about the deal not being built on trust but built on verificationui.

the controversy is what was worked out was placed into an agreement in iran. is that something that you havee seen the text of the agreement between the iaea and iran? >> the terms a were placed in te agreement and at the time i was fully aware of the various processes and procedures that were in place the hearing to vent out the deal and decide what our positions would be on anan upcoming vote we hadn't yet

seen it. i don't know any member of congress that has had the opportunity to read that agreement said something that i and others remain interested in. on the deals putting aside the embargo we have sunset provisions coming up 2023 and beyond the regime would like to enter some members of congress advocating for reentering the nuclear deal speaking to the practical issues with makingti permanent sanctions relief in exchange for provisions that are

a couple of years away. >> i would say a couple of things about that. first, if iran can turn to its compliance having said that they prevent or bar iran and the one that caps its stockpile those expire until 2030 and those are the most critical when it comes to the breakout time. it's not to say they are not an issue that need to be addressed but in terms of the ones that matter most from the breakout capacity they start to expire in

2031 of the reasons why we raise the non- nuclear is because the leverage that brings the iranians to the table they want the sanctions relief when you negotiate the leverage that brings them to the table, what is the leverage left to deal with the other activities you have to deal with, so that's one of the reasons we speak out on it in the sensitivity to losing the leverage. one quick point i want to mention there were officials in the last administration that iran hadn't violated but there are issues with that found them in violation of heavy water producing more testing of

advanced centrifuges. the list goes on. that was before the united states withdrew from the jc poae something important is that the administration doesn't give the iranians, we don't see to that point they were in full compliance one of the strengths of the agreement is we had a mechanism for resolving this one-party was noncompliance they could bring that issue to the joint commission and that is what happened in those instances when we had concerns about the noncompliance and they changed their behavior and that is enforced by something very important and that is the

snapback provision so if iran is brought before the compliance for the lack of a better term it doesn't make good on its requirements and we have the ability with our partners to step back the sanctions. >> thehe time is expired. the committee will stand in a brief recess and reconvene in ten minutes.

>> [inaudible conversations] the committee will reconvene. i want to thank the secretary

for his amount of time with us and trying to get every member to ask a question. we will do former members and try to get other questions in from that point on. we will try to give every member three minutes to ask questions so we can get every member to ask a question at the session without objection. i now recognize the chair of the subcommittee on asia pacific, central asia and

nonproliferation thank you for your service i also appreciate the rapidity by which you've come to the subcommittee. if there's any number of areas we talk about in terms of the region ias do want to point outa few things for quick action resolving the burden sharing and special measures they have an agreement with friends in korea as well asee the quick attempt o

visit our partners in japan and korea and the relationship has been challenging. we need a strong alliance as we address the challenges in the region. and last i want to recognize the importance the administration played on the relationship in the region with japan, australia and india. i am a doctor first, and my interest has always been as a physician on global health, pandemic preparedness and i appreciate your remarks last week as well as your opening comments as you point out we have to stop covid and restore the global health security and as such i would appreciate the early aggressive actions by the president as well as the administration too wrap up the vaccine production here and distribution with the bill that

we passed today. i think that we can beat the president's domestic goals of making sure every american adult that once the vaccine is able to and that we will have enough doses for them. what i would like to talk about is in the global competition that we have withhe in terms of influence and watching china go out to the rest of the world and provide vaccine, watching russia and the middle east and elsewhere and for the lack of a better way of talking about it, vaccine diplomacy, we will find ourselves in a place where i appreciate the robust learning we have given to the facilities re- engaging but i know in my dialogue with others around the world, they understand that the companies are in a transparent way producing some of the best and most effective vaccines coming out of pfizer, moderna and johnson & johnson and others

coming soon. i would be curious as we start to think about once we stop covid domestically or at least have gotten vaccines for the u.s. population how we are going to directly engage and counter some of the ways with china in the course quite frankly with what i think is a worse vaccine. >> i appreciate that. we did join him for a significant resource, $2 billion initially with additional resources. as we are doing that we are looking at ways to accelerate the vaccines around the world as long as the virus is mutating it

could come back to bite us, so we have a strong interest in doing that and if a chunk of the s world is not vaccinated and te economies continue to suffer, there is human suffering that goes along with it but also an economic deficit for us because we lose partners. so i think you will see, including you referenced the united states and india, australia, japan. we have a summit meeting on friday with president biden and i expect we will see something on vaccines coming out of that summit. there are other things we are looking at and working on in the days and weeks and months ahead to make sure that we are a leading international actor.

to what degree are our adversaries coordinating to amplify covid disinformation and how will the state department ensure that u.s. partners receive accurate information regarding vaccinations and other mitigation efforts?

>> thank you very much. this is really one of our most important tasks, and i share your concern about, among other things, misinformation and disinformation that's being put out there, including by russia, regarding vaccines. this is incredibly dangerous, besides being incredibly wrong, and ultimately incredibly self-defeating for the countries that are engaged in this. because as we were discussing, they're not going to be fully safe either until the bulk of the world is vaccinated. if they're undertaking efforts to cast doubt and sow doubt about vaccines, ultimately that's going to harm them as well as everyone else. so we are going to be standing up strongly, speaking out clearly, when we see this. and we're pushing back strongly against it. beyond that, we're trying to make sure that the state department itself is effectively resourced and focused on pushing back against misinformation and disinformation, whatever its

source. we have some tools that we've stood up in recent years, including the global engagement center, that i think are very valuable in undertaking that effort. but we need, i think, additional support, additional resources, and i think we need to have close consultations and conversations with congress. because i think there are lots of good ideas about how we can do this even more effectively, and i'd welcome being able to talk about that with you. >> great. and i'm very interested in visiting with you about that. let me ask another quick question. of the last several months, sir, we've seen an astonishing proliferation of cyber attacks on u.s. systems, particularly those with a nexus to the financial services industry. i serve on the financial services committee also. cyberspace is a key domain for china and russia, states that believe cyber warfare allows them to compete asymmetrically with the u.s. considering the scale and severity of recent attacks how should u.s. policy change to

reverse this trend, sir? >> in the first instance, we have to elevate this as an imperative across the government. and we're working on doing that. we've got to strengthen our capabilities. we have to strengthen our readiness. we have to strengthen our resilience. and there is a lot of work that's going into that. the state department itself needs to be playing a lead role in organizing and galvanizing other countries in terms of their own readiness and resilience, also trying to establish much stronger and enforced norms when it comes to behavior in the cyber realm. this is something we've getting saturday up and resourced to do. >> great, thank you. i appreciate your time. i yield back. >> the lady's timing expired. recognize the chair of the subcommittee on international development and global corporate social impact, representative joaquin castro, for five minutes. >> thank you, mr. chairman. thank you for your testimony

today. the trump administration during its term committed grave human rights abuses by separating young children from their parents at the u.s./mexico border. thousands of children were separated that way, hundreds of children still have not been reunited with their parents. what role is the state department playing or what role will the state department play in helping to reunite those families? >> well, one of the things we're doing is, as i mentioned earlier -- it's very good to see you, by the way -- we're very actively engaged with partner countries in the region, starting with mexico, but also guatemala, honduras, salvador, on all these questions, to make sure to the best of our ability that the message is clear that people should not come to the border, that irregular migration will not be allowed. and we're working with them in close coordination to get the message out. we're working with the mexican government, including on ways to strengthen its own capacities, to deal with those seeking

asylum, to deal with its own capacities on its southern border. so we're in close coordination, cooperation with them as well. as we were talking about earlier, we're looking longer-term at dealing with effectively with some of the drivers of migration to make sure that the conditions that exist in the northern countries, that people don't feel the only choice they have is to put their lives on the line and everything they know that the line to try to make the dangerous journey here. >> no, well thank you, mr. secretary, for that. i think you all have made some very prudent decisions in ending the third-country agreements, in ending the trump mmp policy, for example. and i would just, of course, caution you and the president that there is a permanent class of folks who will always try to convince americans that there are brown immigrants coming to harm them. that is a permanent political argument that is made, unfortunately, by many conservative politicians. let me ask you about something

you mentioned earlier, which is diversity at the state department. for decades the department has struggled to retain a workforce that represents and leverages the talent of our diverse nation. i was pleased to hear your announcement to create a chief diversity and inclusion officer at the department. i believe it's a necessary first step towards laying a foundation for enduring and lasting change. it's important to make sure that the position has the authorities and mandate to make meaningful progress. and in that context, i would mention also that latinos are the most underrepresented group in the federal government. 18.5% of the population, 8.6% of the federal workforce, and 7% of the state department, and an even smaller share of the senior ranks. so my question on this position is, how will you ensure the position is sufficiently resourced, supported, and empowered to be effective? >> thank you. first and foremost, the chief diversity inclusion officer will report directly to the secretary

of state. in and of itself, i think that will give that person in that position significant authority to make sure that we are actually making meaningful progress when it comes to diversity and inclusion. second, that office is going to have a staff. it's not going to be just one person. third, i've insisted on real accountability across the department, including the secretary of state. and so we're going to have transparency on numbers, on assessments of what's working and what's not working. and again, as we were talking about a little bit earlier, we're focused on recruitment, but that is insufficient. we're focused on retention because it's not enough that people come through the doors, we have to make sure we have an environment and a culture that encourages them to stay and make their careers there. we're working on that across the board. as i said earlier, we're also very focused on making sure that well before anyone gets to c street, we've opened eyes to the

possibilities and prospects of having a career at the state department in foreign policy and working for our country. >> well, thank you for creating this new position. and please let us know how we can be helpful and support the department and that person in their work, appreciate it. >> thank you. >> i yield back. >> mr. castro yields back. i now recognize the representative from florida, mr. brian mass, for five minutes. >> thank you, mr. chairman. thank you, mr. secretary, for being here. i want to ask a couple of questions, terrorism related, middle east, israel, a few other things if we get to it. i just want to start with this -- the mic shows on, i'm not sure if it's picking me up, i'll try to speak a little louder for you. >> i've got you, thank you. >> hamas, palestinian islamic jihad, designated terrorist organization. back in '97. safe to assume you plan to

uphold that as a designation? >> yes. >> in that, can you speak to how we might work together -- the state department, congress -- to also remove the material supports for designated terrorist organizations like the palestinian islamic jihad and hamas and others? how might we eliminate that? >> well, first i welcome the opportunity just to work together across the board on those issues, and we're very open to ideas that congress has and trying to work together to make sure we're being as effective as possible in combatting terrorism across the board, and particularly in making sure we're doing everything we can to deny groups the resources that they need to continue doing their work. we have i think some very good authorities given to us over the years by congress, and we'll make sure that we use them. but we also look to other ideas for how we can move forward in upholding that effort. >> good, we'll look forward to

working with you on those fronts. similar conversation, are you familiar with the taylor force act? >> i am. >> you're familiar with the requirements that you have to submit in writing certifying the actions of the palestinian authority and your tracking -- >> we're committed to upholding the taylor force act. by the way, president biden was in israel about a mile and a half away from taylor force when he was murdered, and he spoke out about that immediately. and has been a forceful advocate, obviously, for cog justicedy taylor force and making sure that we are making good on the obligations we have under the taylor force act. >> very good. look forward to seeing those certifications coming through in your next couple of months as well. i want to move to just a couple of things that you've said throughout your testimony with some other questions that have been asked here. at the onset you did speak about the border. you did say three words. safe, orderly, and humane.

currently is the border safe? >> i really want to make sure that when it comes to the border, we obviously have our very significant role to play on the foreign policy side of things, working with other countries. but my colleague, alan mayorkas, and dhs, are the best on the border and the work they're doing. is it safe, orderly, humane? let me add one other thing, you did not mention as one of your priorities it would be secure, without leaks. would you add that? >> i would, yes. >> your analysis of whether it is safe, orderly, and humane? >> the border is a constant work in progress. we have a border that is a living thing that brings countries together, brings our countries together. that is good for -- that is

important economically. but it has to be secure, it has to be orderly, and we are a nation of laws and we have to make sure that we're applying the law. so this is over many years, has been a challenge in different ways at different times, and it's something we're obviously focused on. >> doesn't sound like you're going to answer concretely whether it meets those parameters that you laid out. i'll leave it at that point for now. but i'm glad that you did say that it should be a location of law and order. and i would like to ask this question as a 30,000-foot ideology question about immigration in our country. does anybody have the right to come into the united states of america uninvited? >> no, they have to come -- if they're coming here, it has to be pursuant to the laws of our country. >> i'm glad to hear you say that, mr. secretary. i have no-no further questions at this time and i yield back,

mr. chairman. >> gentleman yields back. i now recognize the vice chair of the full committee, representative tom malinowski of new jersey, for three minutes. >> thank you, mr. chair, mr. secretary. i'll just jump right in with, first, a question about saudi arabia. in my judgment, you and the president have made a series of extremely principled decisions in our national interest to rebalance our relationship with saudi arabia. on the other side, you know there are always people who express concern that if we pushback on the misbehavior of a partner, we'll be pushing them away, hurt our relationship. of course there are those who say, oh, the saudis can turn to the russians or the chinese. i just want to set the record straight on this. if an adversary like iran were to attack saudi arabia or the persian gulf, would russia or china come to their defense? >> unlikely. >> yes. so we are the country that

guarantees security in the persian gulf. and the saudis, the bahrainnys, they know this? >> right. >> that's good. that brings me to the khashoggi case where there's still, i think, a little bit aflac of clarity. section 7031 of the consolidated appropriations act says officials of foreign governments about whom the secretary of state -- you -- has credible information have been involved in a gross violation of human rights, shall ineligible for entry into the united states. and under this have the authority to waive that prohibition to serve the national interest reporting to the u.s. congress. you have credible information with respect to the crown prince being responsible for the murder of mr. khashoggi. have you issued a waiver? >> let me say a couple of

things. first it's important to focus on what we did from thehefi sta. the president was determined to calibrate our relationship with saudi arabia so that it was advancing her interest in values a and we get away from that. that's exactly what we have done. we did that to get out of the campaign in yemen led by the saudi's and we suspended certain armed sales to them and in addition we are now focused on the diplomacy to end the war in yemen with the worst humanitarian crisis in the world.r we've been very clear of

expectations with human rights and also been clear we committed to saudi arabia's defense. that has notau changed. that we will follow the law for privacy reasons and then i think it's fair to say the conference has no plans to come to the united states. >> i recognize the ranking member of the subcommittee on energy and cyber.

>> with accord to working with you you call it the biggest geopolitical test for the nation i cannot agree more and with that aggressive course of behavior to undervalue on - - undermine our values and then going so far to say to stand for democracy in hong kong with the national security strategic report. so what line they need to cross or what does the state department considerg a hotspot? >> we seen actions of deep concern in hong kong by beijing. with that implementation to quash democracy in hong kong and that commitment china made when it was handed over. and those principles and commitments clearly and

egregiously violated and this is something we've not only spoken out about that but are taking action on and there's a series of things that we have done the previous administration s has done that we need to follow through on and sanctions with those responsible and denial of eases to those in those practices and working with like-minded countries it is very important that only the united states but more of the world is speaking out. and those in the g7 the human rights council and others. we need to advise our businesses as well there are sanctions on the books to be

mindful if they arene in hong kong and we will continue to do that and speak out and take action against egregious violation of human rights in hong kong. >> during a press conference on monday the state department acknowledge the genocide. what can the administration do? will you raise these concerns when you meet with chinese officials? >> yes. in fact i have spoken already and raising those concerns with president biden with the conversation and we will raise them again certainly.

>> your time is expired now the representative from nevada for three minutes. >> thank you for giving us more of your time mr. secretary. would like to expand on the question from the eastern mediterranean. how does administration plan to reengage and strengthen our alliance in the eastern mediterranean? what effort will administration take for debt on - - turkey's backsliding and what role can the us play in the bilateral agreement with greece and cyprus and israel when it comes to energy independence? >> thank you very much. may have looked with concern over the last year of course morehe recently as

administration has been in office at some of the actions taken eastern mediterranean particularly by turkey with those claims, whether territory, maritime areas or energy. it's very important the united states stand up and be engaged for the stability and sovereignty s in the eastern mediterranean and insist any disputes that arise as a result peacefully or diplomatically not through provocative actions. we have called out actions by turkey that in our judgment violate international law or commitments as nato ally. that includes provocative actions against greece for violations of airspace.

one of the positive developments in recent weeks a significant diminution the temperature on those issues with turkey engage with the european union and others to move forward in a more productive way. we are veryy supportive of that and will continue to try to help things advance in that direction. >> that euro asia connector are we playing a role? >> we will see if there is a productivea role in that for any other arrangements when it comes to energy diversifying supplies or routes this advances security of other

countries including partner countries looking if we can play a productive role. >>luer thank you. >> the representative from tennessee is recognized for three minutes. >> is it still the biden administration stance to be anti-ch somatic and heinous? >> the president opposes the movement that has not changed and will not change. >> recently you removed from the state department terrorist organization list but will you commit to removing the liberation of power palestine the pflp removed from the list?

>> first of all just to be clear we see them as a bad actor that tried to overrun yemen led by the united nations with an act of aggression against saudi arabia as well as atrocities in yemen and help to create the environment the worst humanitarian crisis in the world right now. that's precisely why we took the action we did of his designation on entity itself to have designations and make sure nothing the united states was doing with humanitarian assistant made it more difficult than it already is that was our judgment those designations had that effect if we stand strongly with the

proposition we have to deal with the duties and with the war in yemen. >> is sent you a letter regarding the jcpoa concerned with the department lack of transparency what is special envoy discuss with china in regards tous iran? >> the special envoy has been engaged with all of the parties to include china and russia and european partners including the european union to get their assessments of thede prospects of a man returning to compliance and urging them to use what influence they have with iran. >> let me move on. >> are there additional conversations with other

foreign diplomats not disclosed to theat public? >> our diplomats are engaged every single day and conversation with counterparts iparound the world. >> mr. o'malley specifically? >> like any other diplomat is responsible. >> my time is up but you're not answering my question. thank you lkci to keep the unitd states with those wars and conflicts. the research and then

to have national security. whether they are jewish-american or hispanic american i met with that asian american foreign affairs and those results are not scientificio but alarming and to promote to senior leadership with those expertise and those that look like me that congress in 2016 ordered the

appealses process and then to have that process for a number of officers on a panel with the bureau of diplomatic security and to review the decision . >> i am well aware of these concerns and something that we

are working on something i'm very concerned about these reports of the asian american and colleagues and this is something i'm looking intont. >> do you know currently have assignment restrictions with racial breakdown? >> i don't. >> at your office provide that. >> you want to make sure we ake available whatever we can. >> we just want to make sure we are vigilant and do not negative community. >> i recognize the ranking member of migration and international policy mr. green from tennessee.

and increasing its muscle o'clock across the globe and the sovereign territory in those regimes to destabilizing the effect across the entire globe and has a ranking member i am concerned of china's engagement in her own hemisphere to prop up the authoritarian regime in mivenezuela. seen an incredible opportunity for a win win win for the first china commodity boom and to make manufacturing very difficult it was cheaper for them to buy from china the economies paid a huge price to the mercantile behavior clearly informed nations china's manufacturing is a security risk in facing a crisis at a southern border

lost jobs in latin america and we can fix all of these by eliminating and redirecting the funds to move manufacturing from china when the business models support that circulating manufacturing jobs with their economic diversity to help stop the migrant caravans and we need to do this as soon as we can also to earn the administration it is situated one of the peerless regions in the world as a soldier and special operator into make them a leader in the region.

i have two questions and then i will give you the rest of my time if your comment on the vision and also it is concerning to me administration talks about regaining the jcpoa and thenil the attacks like to know if you're dropping sanctions for any of those iranians so latin america comments? >> i appreciate both questions the idea you just mentioned is interesting that i have 30 seconds to respond? >> one of the interesting

tools we have things to congress is the development corporation the board and i charity yesterday there are real opportunities to leverage yethe private sector to make those right kinds of investments in infrastructure and in her own hemisphere and there's work to be done. >> your time is's expired. >> thank you mr. chair. >> the representative from pennsylvania for three minutes. >> thank you very much mr. chair and thank you secretary for being here it's a pleasure to be with you even virtually. i have concerns about our relationship with the eu from the state department's

perspective t as you knew administration strengthens the asrelationship with economic areas, do you view the need as a largest trading partner is a priority for national security and what are the main challenges for expanding that relationship over the next at years? >> in short, yes a leading partner of first resort not last resort and across-the-board with trade or security issues or diplomatic issues the engagement with the eu is extremely important in place a real priority on a had an opportunity and was invited to speak to all the foreign

ministers a couple weeks into my tenure as we go forward because we complement each other and are force multipliers. we do need to try our best to get the economic house in order and work in a collegial way with some of those issues and disputes that divide us. i'm very much looking forward to have my colleague on the field hopefully very soon to start working on some of those issues. >> can you identify. >> in the first instance but second the challenges want you alluded to with those

differences of approach with cyberpolicy and taxation but they are workable and necessary for us to work through together. >> the representative yields back another representative from kentucky for three minutes. >> congratulations on your confirmation and service to identify those priorities and dismayed by the president's decision to rejoin the who.

covering up that outbreak in wuhan and that disinformation leading to millions of deaths worldwide. how does rejoining an organization with china's cover-up strengthening global health security and to send the regrettable signal that this administration is not serious? >> our prospects which very much needs it they are much better served when we pull out china pulls in and then who's in a better position to dominate?e with the outbreak of the

pandemic with that human rights council on engagement but it does send a mixed message don't misinterpret that as weakness but to say that could be perceived as a condition of weakness and they will have a difficult time on the human rights council to announce it will be joining the human rights council as you know that you admit as committing genocide with cuba and russia the human rights council hasn't passed a single regulation condemning any country but the result of nineties separate condemnations how does us joining the human rights council and legitimizing the

council a platform for chinese communist party propaganda how does that fold china accountable? >> i share your concerns about the council unfairly singlingon out israel we managed to turn off a lot of those efforts. no one was there to do it so we are more effective i agree with china but it's interesting this is the one area the council has put the spotlight. >> we want to hear the plan i yield back. >> i recognize the representative for three minutes. >> welcome mr. secretary. your support of the creation for the horn of africa i support that as well better than anyone here special

envoys are better when they have a limited mandate and are empowered so with that in mind can you speak how you envision so we need a senior person who will be focused full-time on the challenges that we are seeing in the point of africa when it comes to the challengingrn situation anything of your and also and for that matter when it comes to sudan and ethiopia want to make sure we have our resources dedicated in a sustained way in the weeks ahead. >> talk about misinformation and disinformation many of us in the very room or the house

tnchamber can affect and how susceptible we are and i believe the production and distribution of those maligned actors are threatening to our country and the world and military force. the other end of the spectrum burma and ethiopia are shutting down the internet for that speech and communication we all value so highly so what diplomatic tools will confront these growing challenges? >> one of the responsibilities the department has is leading the effort around the world among other things to set the norms and standards for conduct in cyberspace

including this information and disinformation to augment the efforts with american leadership one of the challenges we face body as his comes into play we see a division and democracy we need to make sure that these are working together and standing together to bed build better defenses and resilience to take on those that are abusing cyberspacenc. >> you said earlier you may need more support. >> your time is expired we hope we get support for it. >> the representative from florida is recognized for three minutes spent south

korean foreign ministry announce seven billion-dollar iranian assets from two south korean banks since september 19 would be eight released through the biden administration and thesa jerusalem post calls it another win for iran they also have confessions as the iaea and then using yemen to attack bloomberg news reported they on freezing additional funds and iran has been suspending incredible amounts of weapons setting up missile launch sites enriching your uranium squandering billions of dollars by the trump administration united states should not be lifting sanctions on the number t one state-sponsored terrorism and

should not be finding out about it before a media outlet instead of our a own government. why with the biden administration release billions of dollars to iran? >> we are not the report is incorrect. >> we are not releasing any money? >> we are not. >> is no intention in the future? >> we said if they come back and compliance with the agreement we would do the same thing if it came to that if it made good on its obligation pursuant to the agreement unless and until they will not be getting that relief and that report is incorrect. >> that's good to hear i hope you stand firm is a number one world sponsor of terror. so with the trump policy with the communist party i would

appreciate it with the actions administration is taking because i find it baffling that in one month they repeal president trumpsps executive order for accepting and rejoin the who refusing to commit to huawei stop the implementation of the chinese military companies operating in the us i appreciate your insight to these policies. >> when it comes to china talk about the who i think getting out open the door opened for china to dominate the organization that's not a way to advance reform. we need to be tough and smart at the same time they are not usually exclusive propositionsa.

>> my time is expired. >> the gentle man from texas is recognized for three minutes. >> thank you mr. chairman for your incredible generosity it says a lot about getting off on the right foot and working with congress and we appreciatewi it. talk about afghanistan i was there the november before last visiting troops over thanksgiving and met with the rising military leaders the afghan military they were doing a good job recognizing the challenges of the government you have course are aware of the 2020 agreement the trump administration put infe place with the taliban with troop withdrawals coming up may of this year. i understand you are doing a

review of that agreement and the compliance on the taliban side. could you give us information on the status of that review were there are changes to the timeline and generally how you see us working to thread the needle given the historic long-standing conflict? >> you are right. it is under review there haven't been any decisions made with that posture but as we do the review we are pressing ahead with the diplomatic effort to drive the two parties to negotiate. and to put in place agreements

that would be the foundation for a just and durable peace in afghanistan and that's a tall order that we are working on and enlisting others into theor effort. neighboring countries have a whuge stake in afghanistan with the terrain the civil war spilling over the borders and influence with various parties we are engaging them in the united nations and others to move the parties to a meaningful negotiation evenga if we look at what the taliban has done to not support terroristt groups and reducing violence. all of that going on at the same time of course we do make decisions following the review we would be in full concentrate on - - consultation with you on that.

>> i appreciate that as well. and we appreciate your efforts of a more bilateral approach and i yield back. >> your time iss expired now the representative from pennsylvania for three minutes. >> thank you mr. secretary i know you had questions related to iran the state largest a sponsor terrorism in the world it is an important issue. now do you plan to have a more holistic approach that the fact with terrorism throughout

the region? >> not only to deal with the nuclear challenge but the ballistic missile program and the nuclear pieces vitally important because potentially that's a poses the greatest threat to the united states and iran with a nuclear weapon that has the threshold to build one in short order even acting with greater impunity but yes it's important to address all of these we find deeply objectionable. >> the development finance corporation created to advance us foreign-policy to develop with alternatives with state backed financing make the road initiative as the chairman of the dfc board, are they engage with a free and fair market or

the name aligned actors? >> it absolutely is and in my capacity i chaired a board meeting yesterday. think i'm the first secretary of state to chair the board meeting. i'm extremely enthusiastic about the finance corporation and the tools that it gives us exactly what you talk about it has done impressive work already this will be sustain focus for me. >> can we get updates along the way? >> with pleasure. >> ethiopia, the conflict is a real humanitarian crisis, look what leverage does the us have?

>> as we have discussed it is a deep concern with credible reports are deeply troubling and disturbing and ongoing. i've been personally engage with the prime minister of ethiopia as well as regional leaders we are very active efforts by our diplomats to try to move this to a better place to get the humanitarian in and accountability andd reinforcements out and the reconciliation process to bring the country together we're working on all of that. >> the gentleman's time is expired t the vice chair and subcommittee of global health and global humani rights the gentle man from minnesota for three minutes.

>> thank you chairman i'm sorry if you are asked this question we been talking about iran quite a lot it seems there is a stalemate with the negotiations both sides are waiting for the other side to make the first move so why should we be the one to make the first move? >> a couple of things. we have been very clear to promisee is open and we are fully prepared to engage the president said repeatedly if iran comes back and compliance we will also women work on the other issues. >> i'm sorry but if we are not entering the deal how do we

expect them to be in compliance? >> the challenges you just cannot reenter by flipping a switch. we pulled out three yearsnge ago iranians unfortunately have moved further and further away from their own compliance there would be challenging issues to work through that require talking about it that are necessary. that's why when the european union invited all the parties to the deal to start having that conversation we said yes no.iranian said the ball is in their court to see if they want to pursue diplomacy. >> i appreciate that. what about the sanctions at the trump administration placed on the staff including theth prosecutor?

>> we are currently reviewing those sanctions. we want to make the best decision on the best way forward in terms of engaging the acc we discussed our concerns some of their efforts to exert restriction in areas where we believe they should not have it but it's also the do have a productive relationship and that is what we are reviewing. >> are you saying there is a legitimacy ofre the sanctions. >> no. i'm saying it's under review that we do have concerns with which we disagree but we share ame common view. >> i appreciate that mr. secretary so why they are not removed having concerns

doesn't say where they are not removed. >> your time is expired. >> just to finish up i would be pleased to talk to you once we complete the review what we agree to. >> i look forward to that. >> thankha you chairman. >> the representative from new york for three minutes. >> thank you mr. chairman and secretary we are so honored to have you here congratulations. we look forward to working with you thank you for being generous with your time restoring america's leadership putting the american people first is the top priority in congress doing what's right for the american people receiving praise but the pundits should not be the success we measure should be judged by how we deliver with the american people.

it's valuable to reflect on the previous four years what works and whatic didn't work and with the marines we are increasing burden sharing and reducing costs of deployments overseas and a stabilizing force and the necessary burden i urge you to continue these efforts. . . . . and the iraniao

behave like a terrorist organization that re- attack our partners in the gulf and proliferate and target civilians. iran has spent hundreds of millions assisting in yemen. the provision of aid has expanded and intensified this conflict. just days ago they claimed another attack on a major port on the persian gulf. can you confirm whether this was launched from yemen or from elsewhere in the region such as may be from iraq or iran? >> i'm not sure i can get into that.fr i would be happy to follow up with you. >> one urgent issue i have is ii represent utica new york which

is home to thousands of refugees but 4,000 burmese refugees and i welcome the administration's sanction measures but recognize the people continue to suffer. we simply must do more to continue to stand with the people in their request for freedom, development, peace. last month i send you a letter and i would love to be able to set up a briefing with you and your staff to talk further about this issue if possible. >> the gentle ladies time is expired. i recognize the vice chair i'm going to jump in and see if we can get to a few questions in

three minutes. i'm terrified by their actions and the trump administration legitimized those actions while doing nothing to ensure they would be free, fair and credible. they cannot oversee incredible elections. it's something we are actively lookinge at and i'm concerned about some of the authoritarian and undemocratic actions that we have seen particularly with a regular rule by the degree we are making it very clear that for now while we have this the

decrees need to be limited to essential functions and to your point, we need to see them organize with international genuinely free and fair this year. on the books at least in the fall and september and november we will focus on doing what we can to make sure they are in fact free and fair but it's something we are actively looking at. i first wentca to haiti in 1980 and i'd love to work with you all to try to come up with a sensible policy. can you tell us what engagement has taken place at the senior level for the state department and white house further ongoing reforms in ukraine the foreign

minister my first week on the job it's something that i am personally committed to and something i spent a lot of time on when i was in the obama mmdeputy administration so we ae very focused on supporting the democracy and fight againstna corruption and of course supporting its efforts to ward off aggression from russia in eastern ukraine and of course the annexation of crimea. you have a lot of bipartisan support here i now recognize the gentleman from texas for three

minutes. >> loved ones that are detained including my constituent and i want to ask are you committed to bringing trevor home and will you discuss these counterparts? >> yes and yes all throughout europe and to the u.s. interest. i believe energy security is national security. i have serious concerns about the paris climate accords and i'm going to move on this is

what north stream will do not having the reliable energy cut at the heart of the security of our allies and partners in eastern europe and the baltic states will you committed to moving swiftly to cut through bureaucratic and unnecessary red tape to impose sanctions on the right actors to do exactly what the 2019 threat of the mandated sanctions would do? >> we've imposed sanctions and we are actively reviewing additional sanctions for anyone in terms of what they are doing to support the pipeline. i've spoken with the baltic state countries this week.

they are very concerned about what this does toro the security in eastern europe and throughout. on the subject of iran, very concerned about rejoining the jcp away and i appreciate your comments on that. i just want to hear your thoughts on strengthening the relationship with israel and makin sure that the relationship throughout the gulf states and israel will continue as the progress was made in the last couple of years. we have an unshakable commitment that starts with the president of the united states who has been a long and strong supporter of israel and its relationship in theri united states including israel and the gulf states and anything that we might do going forward on that agreement we need to be engaged with them

since it affects them, tomac, on the take off, not on the landing and we are committed to doing that. i recognize the vice chair. >> thank you mr. chairman and mr. secretary for joining us today. i look forward to working with you closely. i'd like to focus my questions on the public servants who serve the country at home and abroad. looking out for their safety is absolutely critical. i will be following up with a number of questions but i'd like to run through a couple in the time thatbe we have. i'd like to ask about the mysterious and harmful attacks on u.s. personnel sometimes referred to as havana syndrome though they haven't been limited to occurring only in cuba. the lack of the coordinated approach has been the ability to

receive medical care and management in the pieces of this issue. well the administration and the department under your leadership set up a whole of government approach to make sure we are addressingng these attacks? thank you mr. secretary. if you could share as the government identified the perpetrator or the entities behind these attacks? >> there'snt not much i can sayn this setting but the short answer to t your question is no. >> the department has announced that a senior person would be appointed to manage this issue. i appreciate the stuff to the long-overdue effort to address it. has this person been identified or appointed? >> we have someone who can speak directly to the senior leadership. we are doing that and to your earlier point making sure we have a whole of government approach with a strong process

including working with the other agencies that have been directly affected so many of those that serve in the department are residents in the district or neighboring districts i do want to raise the issue and my hope is that the department is moving expeditiously to ensure the safety of personnel serving overseas and one last point that i wanted to raise in the limited time is our committee was made aware of some allegations of politically motivated or retaliatory behavior towards members you've said being proactive is supporting and assisting the department officials who may have experienced such behavior as a

priority. i hope you will redress these past wrongs with haste so that our career diplomats can be a part of strengthening and rebuilding the career foreign services that they may continue during the good work of the people. i hope that would be a priority. >> both are. covid is a priority and we are working very hard on that. we've allocated about 80% of the vaccines we've gotten to the missions in the field and we want to make sure we cover all ofh the workforce. it was very slow early on. >> the gentle ladies time is expired i recognize the ranking member for the subcommittee on international development organizations for three minutes. >> thank you mr. chairman and mr. sec. it's wonderful to have you here today. congratulations. i look forward to t working with you. i would like toou get more from

your statement and the biden administration regarding the illegal occupation of cyber spiess and also what can be done to help stop the turkish and mediterranean regime? >> we talked about this a little bit earlier and i, just to emphasize a couple ofed points, this is something president biden himself has been engaged on as you know for many years as a senator, vice president and now as president. we strongly support the federation and we will lend our own diplomatic weight to that effort and also support the effort in that direction and as we talked aboutd a little bit earlier as well we've been very concerned about the actions we seen in the eastern mediterranean. we will continue to call them out and one of the positive developments has been turkey is more positive in the recent

weeks and we are hopeful that temperature continues to go down and remain low but i think i can safely say you will see the united states and our diplomats very much involved and engaged trying after too many years to move things forward. >> would the gentle lady yield? >> mr. chair man, are you able to hear me? >> we can hear you now. go right ahead.

>> [inaudible] if she comes back she has one minute and ten seconds left. we will come back to her if you are able to get her voice back. right now i will yield to the representative of new jersey for three minutes. >> thank you for coming here today. i was talking to our commander in korea and i asked a question about whether or not it's time to declare an end to the korean war and whether there was any

military consideration on that he said there was no military concern on his angle so i want to ask you that directly. after 70 years is there time to formally end the korean war? >> we have to make sure we are doing everything we can to advance the security of our allies and partners starting with south korea as well as japan whether that can advance all the things i just talked about, but of course to be engaged in very close consultations with our partners starting with the republic of korea. the policy itself and the approach is something we are

also reviewing to make sure we have the best possible tools to advance denuclearization and in particular to look at the different pressure points we may have as well as the diplomatic opportunities so that we can hopefully make progress on something that has been a very challenging issue for manyss administrations. a. >> i agree with you on that and i believe we will be moving forward on that and i would ask that as we do that we don't always have this shadow hanging over us for the ways we see things. last question here you're going to go meet with the chinese. i heard some of the comments you made earlier today we will probably see tomorrow a ofdevastating blow to the econoy and democracy in hong kong and i will be honest with you i struggle to think about how hong kong is going to recover from

this one. it feels like this is sort of the end of the pursuit for that type of system. how can we recover and what do we do beyond, what else can we do? >> i very much share your concerns and this is something that we are in close consultation with a series of allies and partners first and foremost to speak with one clear voice across the country's and you've seen things that have emerged from the g7. but beyond that, there are specific actions we have taken including visa denials and sanctions and i think that one big question is going to be what is the business environment going forward and how do our own companies operate.

>> ifow the representative is wh us,op she is recognized for a minute and ten seconds. >> thank you mr. chair man. can you hear me now? >> some type of negotiation. we are not happy happy with of the administration trying to bring whether it's democracy or humanev rights or ending the dul citizen. to try to spread this to the cuban people and also as you

look to reenter the united nations security council, i would urge you if you could please use the leverage to try to help people suffering under human rights conditions around the globe. the fact that they were given a platform by the united nations, human rights council and i think that i would like to know some of your thoughts on the entry. >> the gentleman's time is expired. a. >> i'm sure we will find a way to come back on them. >> i represent peter of michigan for three minutes. >> thank you mr. chairman and secretary for being with us here today. and i also want to offer my congratulations on your new role. i appreciate a lot of the questions my colleagues have asked and i'm going to touch on a few of them at first i just wanted to address an issue that was raised around the refugee

population and her district, our district, the third congressional has a large number of burmese refugees in the city of battle creek i know that they are watching with grave concern and disappointment on what has happened in addition to the atattacks on peaceful protester, so i appreciate this is something you are keeping a close eye on and let us know what we can do to support the peaceful transition and a pathwaypi back towards some of e progress being made over the decades. and i'm appreciative that you mentionedme the conflict and the recent massacre shouldn't say recent, but the massacre that was recentlyly made aware of. it is similar to the 2015 massacre in nigeria with these horrific acts of violence and these atrocities.

the suppressed communication links are shut down and we only learned of it later on so anything we can do and i would impress upon you to continue to shed light on those and ensure we do not have repeats of such catastrophes. but i want to touch upon something that was referenced as well specifically around the covid vaccination for state department employees. can you share what geographic regions still require additional vaccines within the broad state department, global s environmen? >> sure. this really is aton the top of y priority list, safety and security of personnel across the board and covid-19 in particular. pras i mentioned earlier, one of the frustrations shared by the administration, because i had conversations with outgoing colleagues about this is that we've received far fewer vaccines at the department back in december than we originally were led to believe and anticipated and we've been playing catch-up ever since.

the good news is we've made tdramatic progress in the last week ass i think i mentioned we have allocated 80% of the vaccines we have received to the field and we have done that on a steady basis, not arbitrarily. we've looked at where the most urgent need was and the different factors involved including where we had the greatest concerns and the greatest risks and we've allocated them accordingly. i'm very hopeful that we will be in a position to get everyone in the very near future. the other thing we've done is made sure that our entire workforce knows what we are doing, that we have transparencw in terms of the policy and getting vaccines and getting people vaccinated so we have been sharing that information on a weekly basis with the entire workforce. >> thank you mr. secretary and i would want to emphasize i think pakistan is the only special incentive yet to receive the vaccinations and i would appreciateze if that could be

prioritized. i will yield back. >> representative chrissy from pennsylvania for three minutes. >> s.thank you. i just want to start by saying before i get to my question i want to correct some of the false information made earlier about the united nations mapopulation fund. it hasn't been evidenced [inaudible] no evidence of these activities in china or elsewhere. in your determination [inaudible] stated the conclusion they may support or partner with the chinese government and grounds for the amendment to withhold

funding. they do not support abortion as a method of family planning or fund therapies and i personally [inaudible] because of the critical role that it plays with women around the world and i know president biden has already been in the process of moving that funding so my question for you is what more can the united states do and how is the state department incorporating this policymaking process? >> this is something that is central to our work and our actions. one of the things we've institutionalized in recent years is a very senior official to advance a global issue and we will be naming someone to that post ior hope shortly. we just celebrated, as you know, international women's day. i was very honored to be able to

help designate awards to extraordinary women around the world with the first lady at the state department, but that also had i think the purpose of shining a strong spotlight on issues of gender particularly when it comes to advancing peace and security as well as of course to protecting the rights of women and girls around the world, so this is central to the state department's mission, andw we have a very senior person and team dedicated to doing that every single day. >> i want to emphasize the importance of women and girls and their livelihoods are certainly dependent they cannot grow and thrive [inaudible]

i will yield back. >> of the gentle lady yields back. i now recognize the representativei from california for three minutes. chairman and secretary lincoln for joining us today. there's a lot of policy issues we can discuss that i'd like to focus on a few priorities in asia. first on taiwan, for decades taiwan has been an invaluable security global health partner r to the united states and given the numerous contributions to the international community and strong democratic system, it should be clear to everyone today that taiwan deserves a seat at the table to share with the rest of the world about its expertise, so i would urge the biden administration to also support taiwan's inclusion in the upcoming democracies summit that i know you will be participating in organizing and begin talks for a free trade

agreement negotiation as well. so, i hope that i can get your commitment to work on thisg issue. >> i'm absolutely committed to working on it and i share your view that taiwan is a strong democracy, a very strong technological power in a country that can contribute to the world, not just its own people. thank you for sharing that. on north korea, 2004, congress passed the north korea act and creative position for special envoy on north korea human rights issues but as you know that position has k been vacant since 2017 and this position is critical for coordinating with south korea on our dealings with north korea and recognizing the promotion of human rights issues to bring it on the side burn and to its very essential for our national interest and to strengthen the american diplomacy globally and our

leadership. so, the appointment also i speak as a korean american myself and speaking on behalf of the korean community, the special envoy is a dire and urgent need given that there are hundreds of korean americans that have yet to reunify with their loved ones long-lost relatives so i hope that we will have someone that will be nominated and appointed to fill the position as quickly as possible. >> i feel strongly and agree. >> also i would like to draw your attention on the trilateral partnership with s japan and soh korea. as you know, this relationship between seoul and tokyo has been sort of at the lowest point in the recent decades. but we need these two allies for strong partners of the united states to work together effectively in order to carry out our critical intelligence

sharing,g, so tokyo and seoul cooperation is essential to promoting the secure and peaceful issues, so i have your consent on that? >> that's something i was very involved in swd secretary. >> the time is expired. >> thank you. >> i now recognize the vice chair of the subcommittee on international development in organizations, representative sara jacobs of california for three minutes. >> thank you mr. chair and mr. sec.or for staying so long it's great to see you and i look forward to working with you. before my question i want to assure my colleagues that have expressed consternation about the southern border that the representatives of the border city we feel very safe and secure a and welcome our immigrt communities. mr. sec., i want to ask your thoughts on what i think is one of the central questions of u.s. foreign policy that often gets

in the way of many of our other priorities that you've so eloquently talked about and that is of intervention. i wondered if you could talk a bit about your thinking on whenn the united states should intervene in humanitarian crises. over the last decade we have seen the cost of action and inaction and under what conditions do you think we should intervene and if we don't intervene in a traditional sense how would you approach the need to the value to protect? >> this is something i wish we had more than two minutes to talk about. it's one of the most challenging questions we face and you've put it very well we've seen the cost of doing too much and the cost of doing too little. here's what i can tell you in the brief time that we have, the president is committed to putting diplomacy first in everything we do and that means having the strongest military in the world because that actually makes our diplomacy more effective but to make sure that that is a tool of last resort

and not first resort. and to use our diplomacy to prevent conflicts and stop them when they've emerged and in particular to mobilize other countries because that's our greatest strength our ability to do that, to deal with these problems and in particular humanitarian crises, so that's the first kind of response. i think when it comes to military interventions, wee have to make sure that again, it is a tool of last resort and that there is a clear and achievable mission thatai we can do it on a informed consent of the american people. that's where it's most vital and of course that's where congress comes in so this is an area we want to work closely with congress going forward because otherwise none of this will really be sustainable, and i think there's a lot of work to do especially on the foundation of the last 20 years. >> thank you. as a millennial who's never known a day in my adult life the

united states hasn't been at war i think you and my last question quickly and the national securityli guidance for the international security guidance, the biden harris administration talks about modernizing the architecture of international cooperation and i wondered if you could talk a bit more about what you envision that to look like. >> just very quickly, this architecture that we helped put in place served us incredibly well over 75 plus years but of course aju lot of it was put in place a long time ago for a very different world and i think that it has to be looked at for the world we live in and not the world we did live in. >> the time is expired. >> the representative of florida for threedy minutes.

>> i represent miami which is the capital of the americans and home too thousands and thousands of exiles from all over latin america and it's great to talk to you i want to talk about columbia, venezuela so that's why i want to use my time effectively i only need a yes or no will you commit to continue implementing the law until the regime opens a democraticye gain in cuba, yes or no? >> forgive me because i didn't hear. >> we are not taking any unilateral actions on cuba in advance of any consultations we have no plans. >> is the way to continue to be implemented? >> we will always implement the law. >> it wasn't for 30 years up until the last administration. >> we will implement the law. >> will you commit to consult with the cuban-american exile community before engaging in any type of economic or political speaking or any type of

engagement with the cuban regime will you commit to engage with my community before you do? >> thank you. with columbia two months ago the colombian media intercepted a dossier coming from cuba which outlines in detail how have and i was plotting to steal columbia's presidential election. were you aware of this? >> i haven't seen this. >> is coming from a reputable publication. maybe you will want to see it. inin one year, columbia eradicad a record of 130,000 taxpayers, 20 times the size of manhattan, ten times more than the administration in four years. do you care with they are doing to eradicate this evil? >> we do and we have to do more and also have to help colombians create alternative livelihoods for people so that they don't

get into --- >> let's go to nicaragua. are you concerned that the opposition will participate in the upcoming presidential election without real guarantees that those are going to be free and fair? >> we have deep concerns about those and the ability to be free and fair. >> will you consider the possibility of breaking diplomatic relations with nicaragua and the regime if that is the case? >> well, we have -- >> will you conside the possibility if they steal the election? >> we will always consider any possibility but our job and our business at the state department is to continue to find ways to engage countries. >> we havens lots of countries e are dealing with around the world that are doing things. >> but not nicaragua. you didn't answer. venezuela, would you consider including venezuela on the list of countries that sponsor terrorism? >> if it meets the requirements of the law, yes. >> they engage with hezbollah --

iran. >> the time is expired. >> yes. >> can i have one more question? >> no, the gentle ladies time is expired. i now recognize -- >> i would love to talk socialism -- the gentle ladies time is expired. i now recognize the vice chair of the subcommittee on the middle east north africa and global counterterrorism, representative of north carolina for three minutes.s. >> thank you mr. chairman. thank you mr. secretary for your patience so that each of us can ask our questions. i also want to thank you for your repeated commitment that he will work not only to make sure that iran doesn't obtain a nuclear weapon but also to address the maligned behavior in sponsoring terrorism in the middle east and around the world. i want to turn to the frightening global rise of white supremacists and anti-semitism and it wasn't lost on many of us

that one of the january 6th insurrectionist's wore ast can f l shorts t-shirt. what role do you see for the united states combating global violence, white supremacists and anti-semitism? >> we have to combat both at home and around the world and we have to make sure that we are organizing with other countries to do that. that's something that i place personal importance on. >> and you will take steps to foster the combating of both of those? >> yes. >> thank you. >> turning to israel. what role do you see for the united states fostering a path ?towards peace between israel ad the palestinians? >> two things. first, we talked a little bit about this earlier, the move towards normalization with israel by a variety of countries including the united arab emirates, a rain we think are very positive and we want to build on those and that's good

for all countries concerned and for the cause ofnk the peace and stability and economic progress as well. having said that, those accords and steps don't mean the challenge goes away. it doesn't. it's still there and i thinks we have an obligation to continue to try to work on it and advance the prospects of the two state solution which is ultimately the only way that israel will truly be secure as a jewish and democratic state and the palestinians will have a state to which they are entitled. >> do you believe the reports are premature? >> i do because at the end of the day, there is not a good i alternative that protects israel's future as a jewish and democratic state and the state that they are entitled to. >> thank you and i will yield back. >> the gentle lady yields back. i now recognize the representative of california for three minutes.

>> thank you mr. chair, mr. sec. for your timenu as well and i ao believe as a part of your overall efforts that restoring morale for the men and women that served the nation in the state department is going to be among your high priorities after the last four years. i want to ask a couple of quick questions. oit's been touched upon earlier, but the efforts with regards to the november 8th reports included resolution of prisoners of war and citizens that are still being withheld by azerbaijan. i would like you to focus time to figure out how we might be able to return to those and if you could let us know a plan for the group that is trying to put pressure to keep that agreement that would be helpful. >> i spoke to the armenian pre- minister a few days ago and this is one of the things we focused

on. >> in addition to that, the strength of the transatlantic relationship withh our allies ad the european union are critical. what are your thoughts about how we can let china and russia know that the allies are more or less trying to get back on the same page? >> i think it starts with the fact that we are and we will be showing up again. we are already engaged virtually ensued in person with our closest partners with the european union and our individual partners there and i think that you will see a very robust agenda when it comes to nato and advancing some of the critical reforms with the challenges ofo this time

including the efforts for the strategic doctrine in the years ahead we are going to be very engaged on that and a full and strong participant in the activities. >> in the commitment to maintain the forces as a part of that effort, this is tied to that. the role obviously would help foster the space by restoring democracy to some of the countries in eastern europe that have drifted back towards russia and have become more authoritarian. any idea how we deal with that? >> one of the things we are doing as you knowec is focusingn democracy and part of that would involve having a summit for the democracy so probably towards the end of theie year and also making sure that all of the members of the alliance are committed or recommitted to

democratic values and we will be engaged with all of them. >> i look forward to working with you mr. sec. >> the time is expired and i recognize the vice chair in the subcommittee on civilian security, migration and international economic policy, representative of california for three minutes. >> thank you very much mr. chair. what an honor to have you here. i'd like to talk about three things, a priest that was arrested october 8th, 2020 on the counterterrorist task force, the issue of the us-mexico border especially the asylum-seekers and iran's nuclear problem, program. the first issue, he was arrested in india and a social action center by the indian counterterrorism task force for

the national investigation agency for instigating the violence in 2017. he's been in prison for i more than 130 days while completely unfounded charges, absolutely ridiculous. he is a malice and former -- incompatible and he's 83-years-old and very sick. i did talk to the indian ambassador looking into that and i hope that you look into that. it's an incredible injustice -- >> share the information if you haven't already and we will look into it. >> thank you very much. second, i live in san diego border.e it's very safe and i can tell you a person that is an emigrat has the right to present themselves at the border and seek asylum so when the children do that, please don't put them in cages, please don't separate them from their families, that isn't what we do as americans. and secondly, taking a look at some of the statistics to see how many people actually show up and this is according to the

u.s. department of justice executive office for immigration review, 92% of individuals who filed asylum claims attended the court hearings between fiscal years 2013 and 2017. asylum-seekers at least to pursue their claims attended immigration hearings nearly 98.5% of the time. when they have a fair shot at a hearing, they show up. when they know it's not fair, they don't show up. give them a fair shot. >> and last, i want to say and i know you talked quite a bit about this, i was against the jcp away and especially because of those clauses. i remember president clinton who i respect very much, he was talking about north korea said it represents the first step on the road to a nuclear free doesn't relyau on trust 1994, of course the weapons, a large country they want to get the bomb, it's hard as hell to stop them and that's why i'm very concerned with the issue again

of iran and us getting back into a deal with those sunset clauses. >> we had an opportunity toce discuss them briefly before and we are very focused on that, but what we do know is that on its foown terms the agreement was working. it wash cutting off the pathway to produce fissile material for the bomb and had the intrusive verification monitoring system of any proxy control agreement we had reached and if we were to get back into it, it would have the same features. >> the time is expired. and last, but not least, i recognize the representative brad schneider of illinois for three minutes. >> thank you mr. chairman. mr. sec., first, congratulations and a>>r. second, thank you forr patience today. we have a wide ranging discussion today on the extraordinary ground of the globalyo challenges and also the global opportunities that face you in your rolefl as a nation d

i'm grateful. i want tolo talk about three things very briefly. iran, the accord with countries and israel and with respect to iran i'm grateful for your position and i appreciate your commitment to ensure thatma your on is able to achieve a nuclear weapon. the government is not reentering the jc poa without first getting its compliance but following up on what my colleague has talked about already, can you touch on was iran not coming to the table for discussions, what are the steps to make sure they can't can havea nuclear weapon? >> thank you. right now of course the challenge is iran has moved out of compliance with a number of key features including enriching uranium to 20%. including using more advanced

centrifuges, including increasing its stockpile of fissile material all of which has cut the so-called breakout time down from past a year under the agreement to a matter of months at least according to public reports, so we have concerns about that. iran is seeping out of the nuclear box it put it into which is why i think we have an interest in getting iran back into the box but as i said right now the ball is in the record and meanwhile of course we have sanctions that remain on the books and that are being implemented and we are at least on the same page with our allies and partners by recommitting to diplomacy and ways we hadn't been in recent years and that will make us more effective in applying pressure on iran. >> with diplomacy is the only way to peacefully get them to give up their nuclear weapons. can i have your commitment that in addition to the jc poa we will work to address the

ballistic missile program and we will work together on that. thank you. to push back on iran is to continue the progress on the accord and the normalization with the state t of israel workg to achieve security as a region it is critical. do you see potential for additional progress made under the agreement? >> i do. we want to build on the foundation that hasas been set d that's something we will work on and we hope that more countries will pursue the path of normalization with israel. >> i have just a few seconds. we need to make sure we address climate change. >> the gentleman's time is expired. mr. sec. >> let me thank you for all of your time today and your willingness to stay to lead every member of the committee

askedd you a question. you are the first confirmed to come beforery the congress and we are so appreciative of the respect that shows for congress as a coequal branch of government and i'm sure that you can see today that there is great interest from all the members on both sides of the aisle to engage with you. you were gracious enough and we had to reduce the time for some of the members, but they all got some questions in. so, you know i can't let you leave without asking you to come back againot at some time in the very near future.

it's a pleasure to be with you and the committee and all of its members. and as i like to say this is hello, not goodbye. >> thank you for your insight. it is invaluable and your expertise, which is clear. i will just say you have also made it absolutely clear that america is back at the table. and so is american diplomacy. because you are the ultimate diplomat. and as the instrument of our foreign policy, diplomacy is how the united states will once again demonstrate leadership on the world stage, champion of our values and the coalitions necessary to address our global threats. one of the committee's mostdr crucial responsibilities is to ensure that our diplomatic both civil and foreign service have what they need to carry out the significant work that you do. to that end, i look forward to

working with you and the administration to make sure that the state department is organized and equipped for today's challenges and that enthere is diversity in the rans across all levels of the department as you have assured us would have been. happen. to all of my colleagues, as you can still hear me if you haven't gone to vote yet, i want to thank you for joining this important conversation and with that, this hearing is now adjourned. [inaudible conversations]

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madeleine albright former secretary of state under the clinton administration joined a former state department official and activist from south sudan, burma and hong kong for a discussion on democracy. this is two hours and 15