{"id":32685,"date":"2021-03-10T13:36:02","date_gmt":"2021-03-10T21:36:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=32685"},"modified":"2021-03-10T13:36:02","modified_gmt":"2021-03-10T21:36:02","slug":"opening-remarks-by-secretary-of-state-antony-j-blinken-before-the-house-committee-on-foreign-affairs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=32685","title":{"rendered":"Opening Remarks by Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken Before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs"},"content":{"rendered":"
03\/10\/2021 03:58 PM EST<\/div>\n
\n

Antony J. Blinken, Secretary of State<\/p>\n

Washington, D.C.<\/p>\n

SECRETARY BLINKEN:<\/strong>\u00a0 Mr. Chairman, Ranking Member McCaul, thank you so much for your warm welcome.\u00a0 It\u2019s very, very good to be back before this committee, to be back in this room.\u00a0 And I really do appreciate the opportunity to talk today about the foreign policy goals and priorities of the Biden-Harris administration and some of the early work that we\u2019ve done to try to achieve them.<\/p>\n

As I have said before, I am committed to working with Congress \u2013 on the takeoff, and not just the landing.\u00a0 I hope the administration\u2019s recommitment to working with you will usher in a new era of trust, cooperation, and understanding between the Executive and Legislative branches.\u00a0 And I come to this because I work for a president who believes deeply in it; and having had the experience of working in that lesser body down the street on the Foreign Relations Committee, it\u2019s something that I feel personally myself.<\/p>\n

The Biden-Harris administration has set out foreign policy priorities by asking a simple question, and it\u2019s one that motivates us every single day:\u00a0 What will this policy mean for American workers and American families?<\/p>\n

And with that in mind, we set out the following priorities.<\/p>\n

Stopping COVID-19 and strengthening global health security, so a crisis like this never happens again.<\/p>\n

Building a more stable and inclusive global economy that delivers security and opportunity for as many Americans as possible.<\/p>\n

Renewing democracy at home and abroad, because strong democracies are more stable, more open, more committed to human rights, less prone to conflict, and a more dependable market for our goods and services.<\/p>\n

Working to create a humane and effective immigration system, because strong borders are fundamental to our national security and welcoming immigrants is core to our national identity.<\/p>\n

Revitalizing our ties with allies and partners, because these relationships really are force multipliers and a unique asset to the United States.<\/p>\n

Tackling the climate crisis and driving a green energy revolution, because effectively dealing with climate change is essential to the health of our people, our economy, our security, and our planet.<\/p>\n

Securing our leadership in technology, because it\u2019s critical to thriving in the global economy \u2013 and because we need to strengthen our defenses against bad actors.<\/p>\n

And managing our relationship with China, the biggest geopolitical test of the 21st century.<\/p>\n

With those priorities in mind, here are some of the actions we\u2019ve taken in the first 50 days of this administration.<\/p>\n

On COVID-19:\u00a0 We re-engaged the World Health Organization and contributed an initial $2 billion to COVAX, the global vaccination initiative.<\/p>\n

On climate:\u00a0 We rejoined the Paris Agreement and announced a Climate Leaders Summit, which will be held on Earth Day, April 22nd.<\/p>\n

On our allies and partners:\u00a0 We held the first ministerial meeting of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue between us, Japan, Australia, and India, and we will hold a leader-level summit this week on Friday.\u00a0 We halted any planned troop withdrawals from Germany pending a Global Posture Review led by the Pentagon.\u00a0 And I took my first virtual trip as Secretary to Canada and to Mexico, and next week, Secretary Austin and I will travel to Japan and to South Korea.<\/p>\n

On immigration:\u00a0 We overturned the discriminatory Muslim and Africa travel bans.\u00a0 We rescinded the zero tolerance Executive Order on migrant family separation.\u00a0 And we sent the U.S. Citizenship Act of 2021 to the Hill to modernize our immigration system.<\/p>\n

On refugees and asylum policies:\u00a0 We rescinded harmful executive orders on refugee resettlement and announced a new refugee admissions target of 125,000 people for Fiscal Year 2022.\u00a0 We suspended the Asylum Cooperative Agreements with the governments of El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala.\u00a0 We reinstated Deferred Enforced Departure to Liberians and granted temporary protected status to Venezuelans already in the United States.<\/p>\n

On democracy and human rights:\u00a0 We joined the UN Human Rights Council as an observer.\u00a0 We put into effect the presidential proclamation that U.S. diplomacy protect the human rights of LGBTQI people worldwide.\u00a0 We released the Khashoggi report and announced the Khashoggi Ban to stop people who engaged in serious, extraterritorial counter-dissident activities on behalf of a foreign government from entering our country.\u00a0 We imposed Russia sanctions on Alexei Navalny\u2019s poisoning and detention.\u00a0 And we imposed sanctions in response to the military coup in Burma.<\/p>\n

On public health:\u00a0 We rescinded the Mexico City Policy, prioritizing sexual and reproductive health, including funding for the UN Population Fund.<\/p>\n

On nonproliferation:\u00a0 We extended the New START Treaty with Russia for five years and relaunched diplomacy with our closest European allies to bring Iran back into compliance with the JCPOA.<\/p>\n

On conflict diplomacy:\u00a0 We suspended the sale of offensive weapons to Saudi Arabia and named a special envoy to lead diplomatic efforts to end the war in Yemen.\u00a0 We revoked designations of Houthis as a Foreign Terrorist Organization to enable urgent assistance to the world\u2019s most challenged people when it comes to the humanitarian crisis they\u2019re facing.\u00a0 And we boosted diplomatic efforts in Afghanistan ahead of the May 1st deadline.<\/p>\n

And on strengthening the State Department:\u00a0 We\u2019ve invested in diversity and inclusion to have a diplomatic workforce that reflects the diversity of our country.\u00a0 We\u2019re focused on accountability and transparency.\u00a0 And we will modernize and rebuild, so our team around the world has the tools and the support they need to get the job done.<\/p>\n

So, as you can see, many of these steps map directly onto our core priorities.\u00a0 We can draw a line from each one of them and draw a line further to the security, prosperity, and well-being of our fellow citizens.<\/p>\n

The President has made it clear that we will lead with diplomacy, because it\u2019s the best way to deal with today\u2019s challenges.<\/p>\n

Above all, we are determined to hold ourselves accountable to a single, overarching measure of success:\u00a0 Are we delivering results for the American people?<\/p>\n

That\u2019s our mission.\u00a0 It\u2019s our opportunity.\u00a0 We\u2019ll try to do our best to make the most of it.<\/p>\n

Thank you very much.\u00a0 I\u2019m very glad to be here, and I look forward to getting your questions.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

03\/10\/2021 03:58 PM EST Antony J....<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32685","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-opinion","category-u-s-a"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32685","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=32685"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32685\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32686,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32685\/revisions\/32686"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=32685"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=32685"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=32685"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}