In the last several decades much has been written about the Holy See's diplomatic recognition of the State of Israel. However, there is a story yet to be told—the key role that the United States, and in particular the office of the President, played in making those events happen. As an inside witness to those events, I believe the time is right to share what I saw from my perspective as the US Ambassador to the Holy See to help us all understand how the Vatican recognition came to be.
Over the past several years, the United States has entered a period of sustained progress in our relations with the Americas. The new assertiveness of regional players like Brazil and Mexico, the deepening pace of integration in the Caribbean and Central and South America, and the increasing ties between Latin America and the Asia-Pacific region are all contributing to a dynamic environment that is filled with opportunities for our country. Notwithstanding the institutional and governance challenges that persist in some parts of the region, today many Latin American and Caribbean countries are more confident, capable, and open to partnership with the United States than at any other point in recent memory. This is a positive development for our broader national interests and for the Western Hemisphere as a whole. Our task is to engage our neighbors as equal partners, meeting the common challenge of creating a future in which our societies can thrive together, against the backdrop of the Americas' expanding strategic importance for the United States.
Political Geography:
United States, South America, Latin America, Caribbean, Mexico, and Asia-Pacific
Timor-Leste has stumbled. Today, it is standing again. The recent elections demonstrate that a post-conflict state such as ours can emerge from fragility to achieve peace and stability and serve as a model to other countries.
When I first visited Timor-Leste twenty-two years ago, I witnessed the courage of students demonstrating for independence. Throughout the following years, I joined other Americans in observing with intense interest Timor-Leste's travel along the road to independence, from the exhilarating popular consultation and its tragic aftermath in 1999 to the joyous assumption of sovereignty in 2002. Since then, the government and people of Timor-Leste have met the manifold and complex challenges of establishing an entirely new country from the ground up with courage and dedication. Even as a young nation, Timor-Leste has exhibited a tremendous commitment to the principles of democracy and human rights. The result is a country that counts, in the Asia-Pacific and around the globe.
Nearly three years ago, President Obama met with his ten counterparts at the first US-ASEAN Leaders Meeting, ushering in a renewed US focus on Southeast Asia. Since that important milestone, the United States has moved rapidly to demonstrate the breadth of our commitment to playing an active and supportive role in the region. We have nourished longstanding alliances and strategic partnerships, opened new pathways for cooperation with emerging regional powers, and advanced a respectful and calibrated approach to improving previously problematic relationships.
One's freedom to believe as he or she chooses and to manifest those beliefs is a constitutional right in the United States that is often taken for granted. Not only do we enjoy these freedoms as we adhere to or reject worldviews and religions as we choose; we also enjoy the robust civil society, peaceful political transitions, and economic prosperity that would not be possible were this fundamental freedom not soundly protected in the United States.
The 2011 transition from a US military-centric American presence in Iraq to a diplomatic lead, requiring the build out of already the largest US embassy since Vietnam, was an extraordinary political and logistic al effort, all but unparalleled in State Department history. The transition's success and its many challenges provide lessons for both the upcoming Afghanistan transition and 'expeditionary diplomacy' generally. It provides a model for diploma tic primacy in a conflict environment, but also cautionary lessons on the limits of diplomatic engagement in a war zone.
The United States assumed the year-long Chairmanship of the Kimberley Process—for the first time—on January 1, 2012. Midway through our year as chair, we are committed to building on the successes of an almost decade- old Process, and keeping the Kimberley Process relevant for decades to come for the benefit of all.
Nearly a billion people in the world go hungry on a daily basis. The global population is expected to increase to exceed nine billion by 2050, requiring a 60 percent increase in food production. The consequences are undeniable. Already, undernutrition contributes to the deaths of 2.6 million children every year, and is responsible for a third of all deaths of children under the age of five. An inadequate diet during critical windows of development can cost survivors up to ten percent of their lifetime earnings due to decreased cognitive and physical capacity, and the problem can cost countries up to two to three percent of their GDP annually.