U.S. Views on the Outcomes of the G8 Summit

DCM John M. Koenig

 

Berlin, August 28, 2007.

 

As prepared for delivery.

 

Thank you very much for the invitation to join you today.  You asked me to give you a read out on the impact of Germany's G8 presidency.  One of the immediate results of the summit was that the world got to see how beautiful it is along Germany’s Baltic coast.  Before going any further I would like to take this opportunity to thank all those here who are residents of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern for their hospitality.  I myself was up in Rostock and Heiligendamm for the summit.  I also attended a number of pre-G8 planning meetings and got to know the area first hand.  Hosting an international meeting of the importance of a G8 is a complicated task.  As representatives of the insurance industry, I am sure some of your customers might have had some concerns about the complexity of the task.  Many people saw not only the potential opportunities to publicize the region but also the potential challenges.  The state and local governments did an excellent job in coordinating and hosting summit. 

I would also like to highlight the involvement of one specific resident, or at least part-time resident, of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern – Chancellor Angela Merkel.  Chancellor Merkel put forward an ambitious agenda for the G8 presidency.  Due in large part to her commitment, the G8 provided the momentum for the United States and the members of the G8 to move forward as partners on a number of concrete initiatives.  The next G8 will be held in Japan.  Political transition has taken place in both France and the United Kingdom.  Further changes are imminent.   During 2009, the U.S. will inaugurate a new administration.  Germany will hold national elections.  While these changes will not alter our common strategic agenda, they will present new opportunities and challenges for maintaining effective partnership. The United States will remain focused on effective partnerships to advance peace, democratic values, and free market prosperity around the world.  The G8 is an important forum for this work.  The United States needs strong global partners.  We appreciate and look for opportunities to engage in constructive discussion with global partners on the vital issues that affect regional stability and international security, as well as global issues that affect the day-to-day lives of all of our citizens.  

Afghanistan 

Afghanistan is one example of how international partners have come together in support of a long-term comprehensive strategy.  In Heiligendamm, G8 leaders expressed continued support for Afghanistan in achieving its security, governance and development goals.  The UN-mandated International Security Assistance Force or ISAF is an international force of 30,000 troops.  Led by NATO, it is a key component of the international community’s engagement in Afghanistan.  NATO military action there is being conducted against a small minority of hard-core insurgents in conjunction with activities to spur economic development, re-construction, and the emergence of a vital civil society.  There is no more dramatic example of the transformation of NATO from a Cold War institution into an effective 21st century security alliance than the mission in Afghanistan.  

Major progress has been made but we are not there yet. We face a tough enemy – an enemy that cannot stand the thought of a free society.  Permit me to take this opportunity to express my sorrow at the underhanded killing earlier this month of three BKA employees, and to extend my sympathies to their families and friends. Sad to say, they were not the first victims of terrorism in Afghanistan, nor will they be the last.  I would also like to express my appreciation for the way in which Germany’s leaders reaffirmed their determination to remain engaged in Afghanistan in defiance of the terrorists.   

In exactly two weeks, we will observe the sixth anniversary of the attacks of the 11th of September. One of the lessons learned from 9/11 is that we cannot allow terrorists to gain sanctuary anywhere.  Success in Afghanistan is vital.   We are appreciative of Germany's support for Afghanistan and the Afghan people.  With more than 3,000 Bundeswehr soldiers deployed in the north of Afghanistan, Germany is the third largest contributor to the ISAF mission.  The deployment of German Air Force Tornados to Afghanistan a few months ago gave ISAF a significant reconnaissance capability.   In order to complete the mission as soon as possible, we need to strengthen NATO forces.   It is important that NATO commanders on the ground have the flexibility and the resources they need to finish the job of establishing a stable, moderate, and democratic state in Afghanistan.  At the same time, we need to redouble our efforts to train the Afghan security forces, both military and police, to take over greater responsibility, and also to help Afghans to create the institutions needed to strengthen the rule of law.  Simply put, the job is to help the people of Afghanistan help themselves. 

Development & Foreign Aid

That ties in with another important theme at the G8.  I am talking about development cooperation.  This year, following up on recent summits in the U.S. and the UK, the G8 leaders agreed on a core set of development principles to allow donors to better coordinate and focus assistance.  They also stood by their commitments to considerably increase their official development assistance.  Ending global poverty is at the top of the international agenda.  

This does not just apply to G8 leaders.  It also holds true for the large number of demonstrators who – for the most part peacefully – emphasize their views on global poverty at large international gatherings like the G8.   In Heiligendamm, President Bush met with Bono and Sir Bob Geldof, the two rock star who are perhaps the most well-known celebrity activists in the cause to alleviate global poverty.  Both Bono and Geldof have praised President Bush for using the power of his presidency to aid Africans beset by the challenges of poverty and disease. Since President Bush took office, the United States has more than doubled U.S. development spending. Approximately one-quarter of the official development assistance from the 30 industrialized member countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development now comes from the United States. The United States is also the world leader in the fight against HIV/AIDS and malaria.  Altogether, these initiatives by the Bush Administration represent the largest increase in development assistance since the Marshall Plan. 

History has shown, however, that the amount of development assistance is as important as the uses to which it is put.  Looking at Europe today, it is hard to recapture what it looked and felt like when the Marshall Plan offered concrete measures to move past fear despair to hope and recovery.  Not giving up in despair at the immensity of the tasks to be accomplished was perhaps the hardest task of all in 1947.  That still holds true sixty years later.  The essential function of development and foreign aid is to create among people the confidence to build a better future.  Looking at Europe today, it is hard to recapture what it looked and felt like sixty years ago when the Marshall Plan offered concrete measures to move past fear despair to hope and recovery.  Indeed not giving up in despair at the immensity of the tasks to be accomplished was perhaps the hardest task of all in 1947.  That still holds true sixty years later.  The essential function of development and foreign aid is to create among people the confidence to build a better future.

Climate Change 

Climate change and clean energy decisions also play an important role on the international stage.   One of the major achievements of Heiligendamm was the consensus reached on the need for a truly global framework to combat  climate change. There was agreement that the world’s major economies must work together to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions and increase energy security and efficiency, at the same time while sustaining economic growth.  

The G8 leaders welcomed the proposal made by President Bush to establish a long-term goal for reducing greenhouse gases as well as near- to mid-term national emissions roadmaps and commitments.   At the end of September, the United States will host a meeting of the world’s major established and emerging economies – the 15 countries that altogether account for 85 to 90 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions.  The EU UN and the UN will also be represented.  The conference will give each country the opportunity to describe its national plans, policies and objectives regarding climate and energy security, including policies for the deployment of clean energy technology.  We will be looking at these approaches across different sectors to identify areas of commonality as well as potential gaps.  We will also be looking at the best accounting methods and metrics to measure progress.  This conference will be the first of a series of meetings.  The results of these targeted discussions among the world’s major economies will be designed to complement and accelerate the UN process.

The world's understanding of climate science has advanced enormously in recent years.  The United States has been a leading contributor to that process.   Since 2001, the United States has devoted about $37 billion to studying ways to address climate change. That’s more than any other country in the world.  We have learned that efforts to address climate change can indeed be undertaken in ways consistent with economic development.   The United States has taken many steps to advance this approach.  We are on track to meet the goal of reducing greenhouse gas intensity by 18 percent from 2002 to 2012 – despite the fact that both our population and our GDP is growing.   Greenhouse gas intensity – or greenhouse emissions per unit of GDP – is the best indicator of progress on climate change.  Any post-Kyoto solution to climate change will have to include strategies to lower emissions intensity while encouraging economic growth.   

Both Germany and the United States are leaders in the fields of renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies – for good reason.  Both of our countries have emphasized partnership initiatives. A perfect example of this is the American company, First Solar.  In July, First Solar opened a plant for the production of state-of-the-art solar cells near Frankfurt an der Oder.  First Solar  developed the technology in collaboration with researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Government labs like this work directly with companies to help develop technologies. Companies benefit.  But so do the research labs.  Bringing technology to the point of commercialization is difficult.  Only private companies with real customers can do that.    By the same token, this plant would not have been possible without the support of the German federal government, the state of Brandenburg, and the city of Frankfurt an der Oder.   It’s that kind of effective, well thought out private-public cooperation that is bringing alternative energy mainstream in Germany and in the U.S.  

That model of cooperation and support is obviously not reproducible in all countries but both the United States and Germany are working with both emerging and developing nations to find ways to address their energy needs and the challenge of global climate change.  One way to increase implementation of clean energy technologies and services would be to eliminate tariffs and non-tariff barriers to trade in that sector. We impose billions and billions of dollars of tariffs on each other globally. They're an impediment to investment in these technologies. It's time to remove those barriers. 

Doha  

More generally, for the United States, there is no higher international trade priority than a successful conclusion of an ambitious Doha Round.  We believe that the Doha Round has the potential to generate the economic growth and job creation that can lift people out of poverty.

The G8 called on all WTO members to demonstrate the flexibility needed to conclude the Doha Round negotiations by the end of 2007.  After the G8 meeting in Heiligendamm, a so-called G4 meeting including the United States, the European Union, Brazil and India convened in Potsdam to try to resolve the differences that led to the suspension of talks last year.  Both the United States and the EU made good faith efforts to find convergence on outstanding trade issues.  Unfortunately India and Brazil were unwilling or unable to budge on their high industrial and agricultural tariffs. Their participation in the Potsdam meeting signaled the welcome role that emerging markets play in the international trading system. However, it’s clear we need to continue working together to bridge the gap in perception that trade is a zero sum game.     

Recent market developments due to worries about the U.S subprime mortgage market show how inter-related markets are and underline the need for open dialogue about regulation.  In talks leading up to the G8, the treasury ministers discussed hedge fund regulations.  More recently, Chancellor Merkel has raised some legitimate concerns about boosting transparency for hedge funds.  We agree that every effort needs to be undertaken to keep our markets functioning efficiently and to strengthen the markets—for investors, consumers, and businesses.

These are just a few examples of the enormous common agenda ahead of us that the G8 Summit addressed. It is clear that, alone, one country simply cannot tackle huge transnational challenges like terrorism, economic development, disease, climate change, energy security, or the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.  The transatlantic community has a special role to play in addressing these challenges. We share common values.  We have common concerns.  It is appropriate that we work together to tackle these shared global priorities.  

We saw what seemed impossible happen in Germany.  Today, our alliance is being tested in ways that its founders – and most of us here today – would have found unbelievable just twenty years ago when President Reagan called upon President Gorbachev to tear down the wall that divided Germany.   When the first President Bush, President George H. W. Bush, visited Germany in May 1989, as the structures of the Cold War were beginning to crumble, he described the German-American relationship as a partnership in leadership. As the President said at the time, and I quote, “Leadership has a constant companion: responsibility. Our responsibility is to look ahead and grasp the promise of the future." Together Americans and Europeans are working together to do just that. Our goal is to make the world more just, more free, more prosperous, and more peaceful. That is the vital challenge for our time.

Thank you.