speeches by amb. coats

Well, thank you all very much for making this evening possible, Chairman Brandmayr and Minister Schill, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen. It is a great pleasure to be here with you this evening. This is my third Thanksgiving dinner. And that is as you know a very special holiday in the United States. We had the opportunity to travel back for consultations in Washington but also to take the opportunity to share Thanksgiving Dinner with our three children and three grandchildren. We had to do it on two different occasions because we could not get all the family together in one place at one time so we had two Thanksgiving Dinners there. But it is very appropriate to be back in Germany among Americans and our new German friends and share Thanksgiving one more time. So it is a pleasure for us to be here and we are honored to be here.

Marsha Coats is accompanying me and is very much part of the team that the President asked to serve as the next ambassador to Germany. We have been here about three months but I would like to have Marsha step forward and at least acknowledge her. This is our first trip to Hamburg and I guarantee it will not be our last trip to Hamburg. You have a beautiful city. And, if I can describe it as beautiful in weather like this, it is truly beautiful. Some cities shine in the sunshine but are not so much in the dark gray. You shine in both. So it is a pleasure to be here. We had the opportunity to meet this morning with the Mayor and with Senator Schill and to meet with some journalists. We had a cordial luncheon, which sometimes is difficult with journalists, but this was very cordial. And they were very kind. And then we had the opportunity in a boat to tour your harbor and see the dynamic of what makes this part of Germany such an important city, and also to view the plans for the development of the harbor, which are ambitious but extraordinary and, I think, a great challenge and a great vision for the city. And now we are spending this evening with all of you.

Now, I know the custom in Germany is to deliver longer rather than shorter speeches. I have sat through several of those. But, having served in politics for nearly twenty-two years, I also learned some good lessons along the way. One of which was: If you speak before dinner be brief. The second of which is: If you are speaking to people who are standing before dinner be even briefer. So, I will be brief and dispense with my formal remarks but give you hopefully the essence of what I wanted to convey to you this evening. Even though my topic was future challenges for our joint economic interests and the future of the economy for Germany and America in the twenty-first century, I would like to comment on the events of September 11 and the consequences that have resulted from that. First, let me say that there has been no stronger and more appreciated friend to the United States since September 11 than the Federal Republic of Germany. The condolences and sympathy and offers of support and friendship that have poured into our embassy and its consulates and to Americans abroad has been nothing short of extraordinary.

Susan Elbow, our very capable Consul General here in Hamburg, showed us the room where the consulate has received and keeps and displays the condolences that have been provided just by people from this particular area. We have duplicated that in all of our consulates across this country and in Berlin, where I serve, to such a degree that it's almost impossible to explain fully to you how overwhelming and how appreciated this friendship and solidarity is. It has reaffirmed long-standing and deep ties between Germans and Americans, ties that are forged out of adversity and success, a relationship that exists because we share a common heritage--a significant number of citizens of the United States are of German heritage--but also because we have shared common values, a belief that democracy is the fairest and best way to provide benefits for the broadest number of people, a shared belief in the value of each individual human life, of freedom of speech, of religious liberty, a whole range of values that I think make this a civilized society, seeking to provide the best for the people that inhabit our lands and to model, what we believe is the system that provides the best opportunities for people to prosper and to live in peace and safety.

Those values were tested on September 11, as we were introduced to a new threat of the 21st Century, one of significant dimension because it was not defined in the way threats were in the past, where it was identified as a particular state and it could be addressed in a specific way. Terrorism exists, as you know, in dozens of countries, a network that has spread not just from groups like al-Qaida but from others that are bent on destroying the very values that many of us hold dear and imposing upon Western civilization, in particular, a way of life and means of viewing life that we find abhorrent. And, the means that they use, suicidal attacks and mass attacks against innocent human life are nothing short of being described as evil. And so, the evil must be addressed and the United States, originally with patience and careful planning, has defined ways in which we do that. And, we are engaged in that, as we speak, in Afghanistan to establish there a stable government, that does not harbor terrorists and does not condone the kind of things that have taken place, centered and emanating out of that country. But we know that that will not be the limit to what we must do, and while the second stage of that effort has not been defined, we know that we cannot rest in the assurance that terrorism no longer is a threat simply because we have dealt with the problem in Afghanistan.

I can't define for you how we will proceed, but we need to proceed and we need to identify those terrorist groups that exist outside of Afghanistan. We need the support of a coalition of nations, that has been patiently built and put together, including Muslim nations that do not support terrorism, in a worldwide effort to condemn this, to root it out, and to achieve a safer and more stable society. That can be done in a number of ways. Many people, of course, think only of force and some of that is necessary. But, there are many other aspects of the war on terrorism that have to be employed and are being employed, identifying the sources of the funds and targeting those funds, the use of law enforcement, intelligence gathering, diplomatic means and political means, a whole range of efforts that go together to combine in a way that can bring us success in this war on terrorism. It is important to understand that the banker who identifies a source of funds that are used to sponsor and support terrorism is just as much a soldier in this fight as those, wearing a helmet and carrying a rifle today in Afghanistan, that the law enforcement official or the border guard, that identifies someone coming into our respective nations with evil intent is just as much a soldier in this effort as someone fighting in Afghanistan, that the intelligence gatherer or the law enforcement official or the judges who hand out sentences, and individual citizens performing a number of tasks are all important to our success. And so, we go forward knowing that this is necessary because there, literally, is no other alternative and to turn our back on this and to think that this won't happen again is something that is very dangerous, particularly at a time when we know that terrorists are attempting to acquire--if they haven't already--weapons of mass destruction. As horrendous as the attack in New York was, if those planes had carried radioactive material or weapons of mass destruction, we wouldn't be talking just about the collapse of the two World Trade Towers, we would be talking about the annihilation of the entire city of New York. That can happen anywhere very easily, unfortunately, today in a time when the proliferation of materials for making weapons of mass destruction and delivery vehicles for delivering weapons of mass destruction are available to many nations, including terrorist groups.

Let me briefly turn to our commercial challenges that lie ahead. We have a long history of cooperation between Germany and America in terms of cross-Atlantic investment. We appreciate German investment in America as I know you do American investment in Germany. And one of the primary missions of our Embassy and Consulates is to foster that type of development and growth. The American Chamber is one of the groups, among many, that help in that effort. And so it's a pleasure to associate with the American Chamber in Germany and the many people that provide the basis for its operations in cities all across Germany and work together to find additional ways to promote that type of cross-investment, jobs provided by American companies for Germans in Germany and jobs provided for Americans by German companies in America. It is to our mutual benefit to support and enhance this type of cross-fertilization of economic investment and job opportunities.

We have challenges. Today's particular and most primary challenge is that we have an economy that is slowing and in some cases teetering on the verge of recession. It is important that our respective governments, the United States, the leading economic power in the world, and Germany, the third leading economic power in the world, take steps to provide leadership at a time when fiscal stimulus and monetary response are needed to lead the world out of this economic slowdown. We have taken some extraordinary steps in the United States and I know that, working with Germany and other European nations, we can together provide the way to greater prosperity and greater growth for the future. There are other challenges, of course, environmental, a whole range of issues regarding the commercial practices...

The World Trade Organization efforts in Doha recently were very promising in that it set the stage for the next round of agreement on a whole range of issues, that will be important to both of our countries. The United States is committed to advancing the ideals of free trade, to reducing barriers to trade because we believe it is in our mutual interests. That it's not a zero-sum game, but it can be of mutual benefit for both the countries, as well as to all the countries participating, if we can have free trade and liberalization of trade back and forth. It's not a zero-sum game, as I said, the gain of one is not the loss of the other. And there is plenty of justification for that, which I won't go into for two reasons: One, I am not an Economist, thank goodness--but being a lawyer is not held in much higher esteem either--but secondly, I had promised I would be brief.

But I want to end by saying, how much we appreciate your invitation, how much we appreciate the opportunity to come, to see your city, to learn about your city, to meet your citizens, and to share in the promise that is the very bright future of Germany and very bright future of America. I said in my confirmation hearing that when Germany and America stand together, they are a powerful voice for peace and prosperity and I deeply believe that. So, it's a great privilege for us to be asked by the President to serve in this capacity and a great privilege to be here with you this evening. Thank you very much.

Question: What do you most look forward to about your tour?

Answer: I know the official answer that the State Department, the President and Colin Powell would like me to give is all the officialdom of enhancing our bilateral relations, promoting economic growth. But, to be honest with you, what Marsha and I both look forward to most is this extraordinary experience to learn about a new country, to learn about the people, to become just involved and engaged in your culture, enjoy the richness of this country in terms of its cultural heritage, its cultural opportunities, its people, its beautiful scenery, just involving ourselves in that in a way that we can better understand who you are and better convey that back to Americans and to our officials as to what Germany is, and who they are, and what they think, and what they believe and why they believe it and, at the same time, convey to you a little bit of who we are in America, and what we think and believe, and why we think that way. And if we can do that, we will feel that it's been a successful tour.