'Undermines Our Interests Everyday': Chris Van Hollen Sounds Alarm On Ambassador Vacancies

2 months ago

Prior to the Congressional recess, during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing, Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) questioned Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell about efforts to fill vacant ambassador roles.

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Transcript

00:00Senator Van Hollen.

00:01Thank you, Mr. Chairman, Secretary, thank you for your service.

00:05Thank you for your strong backing for the men and women of the Foreign Service and for

00:10the entire State Department team.

00:14Appreciate all that you're doing on their behalf.

00:17And I do want to just second the remarks made by some of my colleagues, which you've underscored,

00:22which is we need all our players on the playing field.

00:25It makes no sense and undermines our interests every day that we do not have ambassadors

00:30on post at places around the world, over 20 of them where China has an ambassador.

00:37We don't.

00:38But just in general, to represent the values and interests of the United States.

00:43So it is it's a dereliction of duty, in my view, that we're not moving these men and

00:48women through the process.

00:50You mentioned our ambassador in Gabon, and I think she's representative of the great

00:54ambassadors that we have around the world.

00:57Just to underscore a couple of points that you've made and my my colleagues have made.

01:02First of all, in terms of engaging our NATO and European partners and East Asian partners

01:07in support of both our efforts to defend Ukraine against Putin, but also to counter China's

01:16efforts to support Russia and Putin in the war machine, not with direct arms transfers,

01:21but supporting the military industrial base.

01:23Thank you for your efforts to have a collective initiative with our European partners.

01:30I know we need to do more, and I know you're working on that in terms of sanctions on Chinese

01:34firms there.

01:36Finally, across the global south, you can't beat something with nothing.

01:41As you say, you know, we don't ask everybody to choose between the United States and China.

01:48We ask them to look at what we both have to offer.

01:51We have a lot to offer in terms of our open system, transparency, accountability, investment,

01:56but we are not fully engaging in terms of the economic front.

02:01DFC is a critical tool.

02:03Look, I support our military efforts in Africa, China, but my view is that we're probably

02:10overweighted there and underweighted when it comes to these other areas of competition.

02:16Now some parts of the world don't need our direct public investment.

02:20They don't need a subsidy.

02:22They don't need the DFC.

02:24And that includes Saudi Arabia, some of the Gulf countries like the UAE.

02:27And I just was two weeks ago on a trip that included stops in Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

02:35In Saudi Arabia, I met with the Crown Prince.

02:36I also met with the Minister of Communications, Abdullah al-Swawa.

02:42He mentioned that he'd had a very productive meeting with you.

02:46And then in the UAE, you know, lots of interest in moving forward in this partnership with

02:53between G42 and Microsoft.

02:55So I want to go back a little bit to the question that Senator Murphy raised, Senator Booker

03:01really alluded to.

03:03On the one hand, we definitely want to be the players of choice when it comes to investment

03:11in high tech, right?

03:13It was very clear, both the Saudis and the folks in the UAE, they want to engage first

03:18and foremost with U.S. companies because of U.S. technological expertise.

03:25On the other hand, we do want to make sure that our partners are not, you know, transferring

03:31important technological secrets to China and others.

03:37Can you, you know, look through that lens a little bit, Saudi Arabia and UAE, and tell

03:42me how we would balance those competing interests?

03:47First of all, thank you, Senator.

03:51I agree with the value proposition.

03:55And I think in many respects, it really comes down, if I can be so direct, to the nature

04:00of the negotiation.

04:02And we need to understand that what we are putting on the table in each of these relationships

04:08is extraordinarily valuable.

04:11It is our technological prowess, which is unmatched in most of these areas in AI and

04:17the like.

04:18We are the leader, and we will continue to be.

04:22And there is a huge advantage to work more closely with an American firm.

04:27Secondly, our security engagement is stabilizing and important to a number of these countries.

04:36And so recognizing that in any set of engagements that are around the future of our relationship,

04:44we probably have the ability to be quite direct about what our expectations are, and then

04:51follow through on that.

04:52And so I'm very much of the view to explore and deepen these partnerships.

04:58But yes, there has been a tendency in the past to basically seek to have it both ways

05:04in certain circumstances.

05:05When it comes to these fundamental issues that are so important to American strategic

05:11purpose, we have to be unambiguous about this.

05:15They're going to have to make some choices.

05:17I appreciate it.

05:18Thank you, Mr. Secretary.

'Undermines Our Interests Everyday': Chris Van Hollen Sounds Alarm On Ambassador Vacancies

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