Good afternoon. Welcome to everyone here as well as our audience online. For those online, welcome to the eighth see csis strategic fn korea. My name is victor cha, Senior Vice President for asia and korea chair at csis, and professor at georgetown. And it is indeed my distinct privilege to introduce our keynote speaker, senator chris van hollen. Senator van hollen was elected to the u. S. Senate representing the great state of maryland in november 2016. 2016. A previous he served in the house of representatives representing marylands eighth congressional district. He currently serves as chairman of the Senate Foreign relations subcommittee on east asia, the pacific and at a National Cybersecurity policy. Senator van hollen has been a tireless advocate of a strong u. S. Korea alliance initial on the korea caucus. In the senate ds cosponsored important legislation can didnt north korean human rights abuses and imposing sanctions and banking restrictions on north korea for its proliferation behavior and human rights abuses. Abuses. This past april and defense of President Bidens state visit welcoming the south korean president senator van hollen introduced a bipartisan resolution recognizing the 70th anniversary of the u. S. Korea alliance. The senator said quote over the last 70 years a strong bonds that are built, and built between the United States and the republic of korea have resulted in countless economic diplomatic and Strategic Benefits to our two nations. On this anniversary celebrate our common values and the progress we made together, and we recommit to this partnership between our countries that serves as the linchpin for peace and prosperity in the region. Ladies and gentlemen, there is no stronger support of the u. S. Korea alliance. Please welcome senator chris van hollen. [applause] good afternoon, everybody. And let me start by thanking you, dr. Cha, for moderating a discussion that we will have shortly, and to csis and the Korea Foundation for bringing us together today for this important conversation. Let me say at the start that im sure many of you are wondering whether congress will avoid a shameful and unnecessary Government Shutdown starting october 1, and a happy to discuss that during the question period if there are any questions on that. I will say that even more important from a global perspective is whether the United States will continue to provide ukraine with the Material Support it needs to defend itself against putins war. Our friends, like south korea, and our foes are all certain watching the strength and consistency of our commitment. The alliance between the republic of korea and the United States was forged in mutual sacrifice seven days ago, seven decades ago. And we are celebrating it over the next week, and remains the linchpin for peace and prosperity in east asia our partnership as those gathered in this room know is based not only on mutual security interests but also on robust trade relations, deep people to people ties and our shared values anchored in freedom, democracy, and the rule of law. As dr. Cha said i have been a good friend of south korea about my time in public service. My state of maryland is home to tens of thousands of korean americans who contribute to our communities in every dimension of life and work. In 2011 when when i serve in the house of representatives i cast my vote in support of the koreau. S. Free trade agreement, and now in the senate i am a member of the korea caucus. The first trip i took after being elected to the senate included a stop in south korea where in august 2017 i met with american and Korean Forces along the 38th parallel to thank them for being on the front lines of the defense of democracy. The u. S. Commitment to this alliance is ironclad, and we have reaffirmed it in recent months. In april President Biden and president yoon unveiled the washington declaration to reinforce extended deterrence and respond to north koreas growing nuclear threats. That same month my colleagues and i passed a Bipartisan Senate resolution to honor the 70th anniversary of our alliance and most president yoon as he addressed a joint session of congress. Although i have to say i was a little, a little disappointed that he did not sing american pie during that joint session of congress. Please let president yoon note that with coequal branches of government. But that was an important touch and its one of my favorite songs. Over the past year ive also been encouraged by the efforts of the leaders of korea and japan to heal old wounds, look to the future, and address shared challenges. I was able to participate in this first hand in may when i met a joint delegation of the Korean National assembly and japanese networks. This was facility by the United States, culminate in the historic summit hosted by President Biden at camp david with president yoon and Prime Minister to deepen our trilateral relations and bring greater peace, prosperity and security to the indopacific region. I want to salute president yoon for the politically courageous steps he took to embark on that effort. This partnership will help counter the Nuclear Saber rattling from north korea as our nations have committed to share Realtime Data on north Korean Missile launches by the end of this year. I also commend the Strong Language the latest issued in response to prcs mounting aggression in the south china sea. We must build on this system work momentum in the u. S. Rok alliance to confront a range of pressing Global Security and economic challenges. One of those global challenges is of course putins war in ukraine, which has shaken the International Order not only in europe but around the world. Autocrats across the globe, including xi jinping in china and kim jongun in north korea, are paying close attention to the collective response of the United States and our allies, and will draw lessons based on that response. As we have seen, kim jongun has gone all in with putin and is seeking to leverage russias need for supply of basic munitions to gain access to russias advanced missile technology. At the u. N. This week president yoon vowed to south korea and our allies will not, go, stand idly by, unquote. Indeed, it is important to ensure that there is a cost to the dprk refueling putins war of ms. Shaheen. Among the steps we should take is to better enforce existing u. S. And other sanctions against the dprk. I am the author of what is known as the Otto Warmbier at, tighten sanctions is north korea by applying secondary sanctions against foreign banks and entities that violate them. The United Nations has it in the fight of schemes the dprk is using to evade those sanctions in some of the firms that are aiding and abetting in that effort. Ive spoken to the department of the treasury is department of treasury about this and we need to do more to plug the gaps in the enforcement regime, including cracking down the north koreas use of crypto to evade sanctions to fund its illegal weapons program. We should also shine a brighter light on the horrendous human rights abuses in north korea. As chairman of the Senate Foreign relations subcommittee on east asia and pacific i will be exploring these questions more deeply at the upcoming hearing that im holding on the korean peninsula, and getting what i know will be good advice from dr. Cha who will be one of the witnesses at that hearing. Of course it is not only kim jongun was watching r response to putins aggression in ukraine, so is president xi, especially as he weighs his options in taiwan. By all accounts, she has taken note of unity of the Nato Alliance as well as south koreajapan and other democratic partners in the face of that aggression. In fact, our comparative advantage in meeting the challenges posed by russia, the prc, or other authoritarian regimes has been the strength of our alliances, and the ability to mobilize those alliances to face common threats last week ukrainian president zelensky delivered a clear message when we met in the old senate chamber. The message that this is no time to waver in our support for ukraine. President biden has proposed a supplemental request of 24 billion for ukraine, and we must make at least a down payment on that amount as part of any shortterm continuing resolution. I know there is broad bipartisan support in the United States senate for ukraine, and sufficient bipartisan support in the house to get it passed. It is no secret that Speaker Mccarthy is scared of his extreme right wing, including a vocal faction that opposes continued support for ukraine. But he must put the interests of our country and the defense of our democracy about his personal political interests. No one can say they are tough on china if theyre willing to sell out ukraine. We must use our alliances and partnerships not only to determine military aggression, but to confront economic coercion and prevent key sectors of our economies from becoming over reliant on the winds of autocrats. As you know, economic intimidation is a weapon at the prc has wielded more and more against other countries to influence their political decisions. I remember china using those tactics when i was in south korea in 2017. At that time the prc was trying to discourage south korea from deploying the thaad Missile Defense system, by banning chinese tour groups from visiting south korea and forcing nearly all of south koreas conglomerate stores in china to close. I salute south korea for its resilience in the face of these punitive measures which still have not been fully lifted, as the thaad system moves closer to full operation. It was good to see those intimidation tactics, tactics of economic coercion fail. South korea of course is not alone. Australia, between the coming of the countries have been subject to these tactics. That is why at the recent g7 summit in hiroshima were south korea was invited as a special guest, they announced the creation of the coordination platform on economic coercion so we can better Work Together to address that issue. Europe learned the hard way, that it was a mistake to become over reliant on russian oil and gas. It is a lesson we all must take to heart when it comes to the importance of diversifying critical supply chains and ensuring we are working with trusted partners when it comes to essential technologies. Whether they be advanced semiconductors or Critical Minerals for batteries and dvds. That is what it is been important that the United States and south korea Work Together as part of the Mineral Security Partnership and ship four. We must ensure that the prc does not have chokehold over the industries that will define the economy of the future. We must also Work Together to present the export of advanced cuttingedge technologies that can be used to significantly enhance the prcs military capabilities, and adopt rules to limit the deployment of capital for such limited purposes. The department of the treasury recently issued Outbound Investment guidelines for u. S. Companies, but the success of the strategies ultimately depends on very close cooperation and coordination among friends and allies, including south korea. Finally, the United States and the republic of korea have a strong mutual interest in working with other countries throughout east asia and the pacific as well as with regional organizations like asean to promote a free and open indopacific that respects the sovereignty of all its members. We have an important stake in helping countries establish transparent rules and governance structures that help attract the private investments that can generate greater prosperity, opportunity, and stability for their peoples. These efforts are important in their own right as well is to provide viable alternatives to the debt traps and authoritarian models being promoted by others. But you cant beat something with nothing. That is why working with our partners like south korea, the United States must provide tangible benefits to our initiatives like the indopacific Economic Framework for prosperity, the partnership for Global Infrastructure and investment, and the Just Energy Transition partnership known as jet p. The upcoming asiapacific Economic Cooperation leaders meeting in San Francisco this november will give the United States an opportunity to advance our vision for the region. As we do, the relationship between the United States and south korea stands out as a leading example of the benefits and opportunities that flow from a Partnership Like ours. Thank you to csis. Thank you to the Korea Foundation for convening this discussion on how that partnership can help promote democracy, freedom and security in east asia and indeed around the world. Thank you all for being part of this important gathering. [applause] well, thank you very much, senator, for those remarks. There were really terrific, quite substantive and quite broad in scope. First, first let me thank you for joining us. This year is a very special conversation because it is the 70th anniversary and we are really grateful that you could join us. I am just speaking personally. I will say that your role and those of your colleagues when it comes to relationships like the u. S. Korea reliance are so important because you represent continuity in our policies at a time when our politics are a bit unpredictable. The main question many of us get when you go to korea is not about north korea or even about supply chains. Its always about our elections. So your role and those of your colleagues when you travel to the region are very important in terms of instilling confidence in the stability of a relationship, so thank you. Thank you for that. You opened the door in your initial remarks so im going to step through it and ask you, first of all, where do we stand in terms of this potential Government Shutdown . And what does mean for Foreign Policy . You mention the cr and ukraine, the down payment on ukraine. But what generally does this mean for our Foreign Policy and how should our allies be thinking about this . Sure. Youre right, i opened the door. So look, we have just a matter of days now to try to avoid a Government Shutdown. I think all of you have probably been following this quite closely. The challenge has been in the house of representatives which traditionally goes first on appropriation bills and continuing resolutions. But they havent been able to get a bill out the pages have been able to pass any bill, even measures that i would consider totally unacceptable and extreme. We want them to get something over to the United States senate where we do have bipartisan agreement on the contours of a continuing resolution, and where we have also passed out of the Senate Appropriations committee every one of the individual appropriation bills on an overwhelmingly bipartisan basis. We are united in terms of getting a continuing resolution passed to avoid a Government Shutdown, but also we have a path forward in the senate to pass bipartisan appropriation bills. The problem as us it is in the house and we just dont know if they would get it together. Now, if they dont get it together there is a process we can use in the senate to initiate something. We have identified a bill that did start in the house that could be used for that purpose and in the question is what goes into it. We were in the middle of those discussions right now. But i will say that the spectacle of a Government Shutdown hurts us at home of course but also hurts us around the world in two ways. One is a sign at the dysfunction in the operation of the u. S. Government which obviously is something that would worry our allies and be seized upon by our adversaries. Certainly a prolonged Government Shutdown would have a very negative effect here at home. And around the world. And that feeds into your broader question in your introduction of the impact of polarization of american politics. And as you said in the Previous Administration we did have a Bipartisan Group in the senate that was very focused on maintaining our alliances and sending a signal of stability and endurance, part of something called native Observer Group that we resuscitated after itd been dormant for a long time something to send that message. And as you know, knowing south korea there were lots of questions and we tried to overcome those on a bipartisan basis. Let me say that is where the ukraine piece does come into play. Its going to be very important that we pass that supplemental request, the 24 billion request, when we do it all at once or in stages, thats a separate issue but it is important that we get it done. There are strong bipartisan majorities in the house, im actually convinced if you put that up for the vote, the 24 billion, it passes the house and the senate has indicated the challenge is the speaker is one who controls ultimately what gets put up for a vote, and he sees what is going to lose his speakership he may have to make a tough decision and put his personal politics aside for the good of the country. So it is very important that we have, that we continue to show the world that this bipartisan support for the u. S. Rok alliance, and other alliances. Thanks. Let me shift to Something Else you mentioned in your remarks. You talked about how the u. S. Sorry, the dprk and russia are all in with each other now. And we were talking this morning about how just when we thought things couldnt get any worse with russia or north korea, they can, because the two of them can start working together, cooperating not just on arms but also potentially other sorts of technologies that might be helpful to north korea. I guess the question i have, and you played this instrumental role in the Otto Warmbiers act and in particular from the perspective of experts like us was important about that legislation was a focus on secondary sanctioning. And so i guess the question is how to look at what is happening between dprk and russia . What are your thoughts about, and you cant obvious talk about what your thoughts about legislation, what can be done to sort of deal with this new challenge . Well, we have a hearing on october 1 in my subcommittee where im going to ask you that question laugh negatively am looking forward to hearing from experts pick because as you will know the challenge weve got right now, for example, with respect to russia, is we together with many of our allies have only a post very tough sanctions on russia. And same is true with respect to the dprk, which is what in my remarks i focus on if limiting those sanctions. If there are things we can be doing to exact a price from north korea for its help to putins war machine, i am very interested in hearing about it. Until we sort of find that additional pain point, it is important that we Work Together to make sure that existing sanctions are applied. And the u. N. Has on an annual basis issued a report that identifies a lot of gaps in that sanctions regime. So i have been working with the Treasury Department for some time now to help identify those gaps. As you know for our sanctions we had to have a certain standard of proof in order to make sure that we move forward with due diligence. But in my view the evidence in many cases is very strong and warrants additional action there. Also in looking for to you, its really at the hearing, assuming we dont have a a Government Shutdown because it is october 4. On what more we can do to highlight north koreas atrocious human rights record, and do more to transmit within north korea the truth about they are living it but i think hearing that the outside world recognizes whats happening there would be very important. Thanks for that. The legislation youve been a part of both of the banking restrictions side as well as the secondary sanctions i think it been very important in terms of helping to close some of those gaps. Let me just ask you one of the question. You mentioned chinese economic coercion in your remarks. And i guess the question there is how important is it for u. S. Partners to play a role in whether were talking about countering chinese economic coercion or dealing with technology and investment when it comes to china . Right. So there are two pieces to this, right . One is trying to diversify our own supply chain so that were less vulnerable ourselves to chinas economic coercion. Especially when it comes to very vital supply chains like highend semiconductors, like Critical Minerals and processing, which is why i think these efforts are so important. Its why we passed the chips and science act in the Congress Last session. Its why we passed the inflation reduction act, the components that delve with improving and sort of accelerating our deployment of clean energy here in the United States. Obviously we want to work with our partners around the world, south korea has benefited from the fact that free trade country officially. I do think that we have to Work Together closely, and that according our efforts really around the world including the region. A lot of other countries in the region earlier this year i visited vietnam and indonesia, and we are working to try to make sure that reintegrate them into some of these supply chains as alternatives to reliant on the prc. Now, on the issue of export of sensitive technologies to china. We really need to Work Together. There was a very good recent example as you probably know when it came to some of the very high end equipment is used to manufacture semiconductors, u. S. Copies, Japanese Company at a Dutch Company where the Key Manufacturers of that and were able to reach agreement. I remember when both leaders from both the netherlands and japan where. Prime minister kishida with your. A number of us raised within us was the former dutch Prime Minister when he was here on this issue. That kind of coronation it was important but that agreement between three countries only works of course all the other alis, whether sterman or south korea are part of this. At again and i think secretary yellen and others and Jake Sullivan have made clear, our goal is not to hurt chinas economy here but our goal is to restrict the flow of very high in technologies that can enhance their military. I think theyve described it as a small but a high wall. That has to be our focus. Thats on export side as well as Outbound Investment which we call reverse cfius. Need to produce or so we have to agree among ourselves and know how big the garden should be a walk. I think we have time for one or two questions from. Is a microphone behind. This is wildcard but we talked about sanctions and restrictions particularly in technology. We have this you little giant elephant in the corner called Artificial Intelligence and the europeans as you know have gone ahead and found quite a few things on this. Safe to say most americans want to take a balance but im wondering since we are here, one of the discussions, are there going to be with the koreans and japanese and the senate itself . Thank you for raising that and a. I. Is one of the huge, quantum computing is another but the i is one of those transformative technologies that can be used for good and in the United States senate we convened a series of partisan sessions, im impressed with the turnout. We recently convened a panel where we had the whos who giants in the United States as well as sedatives organizations, labor organizations so we are trying to get me on this in terms of the rules of the road to ensure safe a. I. And trusted a. I. The challenges take those concepts boil them down to proper ratio rules of the road, i guess the good news is there does seem to be a consensus that this is an important goal for the u. S. Government to try to establish those. As you say, theres the International Court to this. I think it is important career, we try to move together in terms of establishing the rules of the road and International Standards to get out of the hole effort. The United States benefited over decades for being one of those standards on key technologies. Its been talked about as a potential place for you test for a. I. Programs see how they operate before you let them out into the wild. Right now, its discussion but the good news is its very active. Getting back to the question on political horizon, challenge will come together on Something Like this which is paramount national interest. The game here at home but also bring in our allies and friends around the world so it is a tall order. Good news, theres a lot of attention focused on this right now, serious attention. Challenge in this environment, how we boil it down. In your answer, you used the phrase we need to go together, the slowing of the language. Thank you for joining us and thank you for all of your work. It is a pleasure to have with us. [applause]