speeches by amb. coats

Herr Berg, Ms. Brady, Dr. Schäuble,

Since 1984, 300 Americans have received Robert Bosch Foundation Fellowships. Her Berg, on behalf of the Embassy, please accept our sincere appreciation for this important contribution to German-American relations.

Today, more than ever before, we are all students of the world we live in. International education and cooperation promotes the free exchange of ideas, allows us to seek joint solutions to problems, and helps create lasting partnerships to meet our shared concerns. Those kinds of relationships create win-win situations – for both America and Germany.

In preparing for this event, I went back and looked at the foundation website. The testimonials from the Robert Bosch Foundation Alumni showed how much the participants – who have come from the fields of business administration, economics, journalism and mass communications, law, political science and public affairs/public policy – have profited from this year of professional and personal development.

But the German-American and transatlantic relationship has also profited. Programs like this increase the transatlantic network exponentially as participants go out into their professional lives. Many of the 300 fellows that have participated in this program have gone on to careers that touch on some sphere of transatlantic relations. That is very impressive.

It is impossible to describe the past half-century of German-American relations without talking about the person-to-person foundation of the partnership. The relationships that have been established through programs like the Bosch fellowships provide the basis for the kind of strategic partnerships that have served us well in the past and that will serve us well in the years ahead.

At the dawn of the new century, we find ourselves living in an age of unprecedented promise made possible by political liberty and free markets, technology and trade, and peaceful relations among the great powers. But we also face new and difficult challenges to our collective securities. Our common task now is to build a new strategic agenda centered on new 21st century challenges. The transatlantic alliance has risen to major challenges before, and it must be our goal to ensure that it will do so again.

We will not always see eye-to-eye but partnerships based on exchange and dialogue strengthen the bonds between nations, even when there are disagreements. As Secretary of State Powell said recently, "The worst thing about a disagreement is that it's a disagreement when it occurs. The best thing about it is, you get over disagreements. You move forward … and make sure that the values that hold us together always remain stronger than the disagreements and the differences that come along."

Thank you again. To the Bosch Foundation, for your support of this important program. And to the alumni and fellows, for your commitment to the German-American partnership.