Transcripts For CSPAN2 Capital News Today 20130713

World bank, others, obviously china, but the u. S. Government can have a major, major impact in this sector, supporting those countries and businesses. I can emphasize supporting the countrys own strategies is that or it that as word has to start. Figuring out a way to plug into thoses participating. And there are a number of plans that have come forward on this. So power africa in our view is a fantastic start. Fantastic start. Able to announcement, but also what can only be a start. So it is very ambitious in its scale and scope, but compared to the need, the demand, it remains a very small piece of what has happened. Abuse in their many players in the space. Everyone has a role to play. But as of the actors and participants choose to up our africa focus on the execution of the next 18 months. You heard in the city that making sure that they have some wins under their belt is absolutely usage of golf course. So while the u. S. Government and others move to execution mode to make sure that this announcement actually has real, tangible impact on the ground not just my not just the next year, but sustainability and commercial viability. Thinking about how to scale even more. This announcement is quite interesting compared to previous u. S. Government announcements. I spent a number of years in the government and been a part of some of these announcements. The transaction specific focus is really refreshing. And it has to be challenging over the medium term. Al it continues to harness and focus of the different peoples within the u. S. Government to hear he if you take a look at a pet farm. The flood threat the u. S. Government everyone knows what their targets are. Some of that is there, some of it is not. Which is going to need to be addressed as we go to scale and continue to ratchet up ambition of the medium term. That is read the electrifying act was introduced in congress a couple of weeks ago. And the one campaign, its absolutely critical. Everything that we do come over talking about the u. S. Is bipartisan. It has to have support from the right in the left because we know from painful practice over years but that is the only way that policies, programs, or whenever kind of action is going to have staying power. All indications point toward behalf of very bipartisan model done this particular issue. Hit the electrify african actors on political vehicle to drive the ford. Whoever follows, the democratic republican will also have the rope, the support was to continue the efforts. African people, businesses, what are some of the impediments to the fully harnessing the assets of the u. S. Government . And a number have already been mentioned, so i wont touch on the. Some of the things that chris just mentioned. The feasibility studies for project preparation which is a very highrisk part of the deal. A number of those kinds of things. A couple of additional pieces relate to the overseas private investment which was a modest part of the announcement from president obama and cape town and then some subsequent some subsequent remarks in tanzania. If you look et across a number of Different Reasons i will try and be quick and wrap it up. The public needs to play a significant part of any effort. Very important parts to play. There are couple of thinghat a very unique for this space. One is in terms of the financing. A match with the requirements for the medium to longterm and chairs of the financing. The Risk Mitigation is very important in the space. In addition, an austere budgets, there is no way in hell that you would say idea will be allowed to give billions of dollars out of congress and the foreseeable future to be able to support this. Frankly in many ways outside of the critic guarantees i dont think you want credit space to go baby is a nest of a commercial liability. The private sector will have to be essential if there will be sustainability. Painful practice of lessons that have come from that. There may be some cases where subsidies in the median in near term may be required, but if your talking about big scale, its not going to be your leading to a. An organization like opec is. Sitting and 15 billion of deployable capital. The upside to scale in the space is going to have to be very heavily reliant on opec. What are the constraints . One is just a small agency. Doesnt have enough teams to try some of these. Dennis to be addressed. The second thing is so was brought up before. The scale of magnitude is the city will take a makes to hit with the demand is on the content. Its going to take a makes of renewals, a mix of nonrenewable. And when there is an environment where renewals of a commercially best solution, viable and resources are there absolutely at think everyone would waste that is the preferred model of generation and then feeding into transmission. There are going to be some cases where that might not be the case. Whether its natural gas or basically calling to need to be a part of the makes. He looked at what the u. N. Says, Un Sustainable Energy for all and other actors that have opined on this from an authoritative stands to marilyn calls from makes. In this case having a opec be able to support the mix of solutions that african governments are themselves asking for in trying to pursue is important. Within that is strong emphasis on the renewable aspect, wherever possible, wherever appropriate will be really important. So whenever the type of approach to address this constraint at the end of the day i think there are many ways to do it, many ways that can be winwin. And bring all parties to the table, whether the environmental groups, businesses, there is a way to skin that cat and we hope that will be able to bring that to fruition. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you to jennifer and the rest of the group for allowing me to be on the panel was such an Amazing Group of people doing inre wt i do. One of the things i want to do in answering the question of why im appear in what this us to do with energy and Climate Change, its interesting for me because i feel like while most of what we heard about the Power African Initiative so far has to do with being transactional. Its very sexy and sells electric going to do stuff. I think thats something that we see as being politically palatable for most of the big initiatives that we see glenn forward. I think what people really wonder about the initiative is is a strategic. Does it have staying power . Is something we will do for a while . I actually we were talking about this internally, i actually think there are a number of ways in which power africa makes a lot of sense, not only with what we see in terms of the energy and Climate Change rules of this of ministration, but also in terms of how they have adjusted to a changing energy landscape. What i thought i would do is maybe at some food for thought to the conversation. I cant do la these guys did. That operate in that business and that think that all of the comments were tremendously insightful. We will go back up to the 30,000 you. Why does this match with what the Obama Administration is trying to do. From my perspective are watched the of ministers in for a long time basically trying to look go world where youre trying to find places where transformative change can happen both from an Economic Perspective and a technology perspective. A lot of that is low carbon driven, but it is not on pragmatic. So when you see what the Obama Administration announced within their own Climate Change strategy you see a world in which they definitely believe in trying. But there are also aware of the fact that there is a lot of conventional oil and Gas Resources out there and hydrocarbon based resources that they need to be able to compete with. How can we look at this as being a strategy that makes sense with some intellectual underpinning that gives people some confidence that may be is a good idea for us to be spending a large amount in u. S. Dollar terms government money at a time when that is not a round to be spent and how it may leverage additional funds. A lot to touch on a few key issues. Why he robbed banks . Thats where the money is. You look at the big global issues up there to be tackled, Power Generation issues, this may be a time where things are different. There is an exuberance out there in terms of the Economic Growth to your starting to see in different parts of africa. I dont fundamentally think that a transaction based approach purses Regulatory Reform approach, we oscillate between those throughout the history of u. S. Development, but that is not to mean that one is right and what is wrong. We never tried it this way before in 2013 during this time in africas development cycle. Theyre is a lot of hope that you can potentially be predicated. Of the billion people are around the world that dont have access to electricity, 47 percent are in africa. If he lifted most of the literature, its in a small number of countries within africa. Youre actually seeing a good deal of progress in terms of connecting more people to modern electricity to more resources, but a lot of that even though there is an aggregate terms progress being made, lot of that is not actually happening in africa. So if youre going to pick a problem to put a show libya and then pushed, this isnt a bad one. The other things that is often a criticism of the strategy which are potentially be the brilliance behind it in for a will to do it is 7 billion, 9 billion, does not a lot of money. You know what is to make 16 trillion. As the amount of money that will go into the Energy Sector for the electrical Power Supply Services side between l and 2030 according to a normal reference case you. The one thing that is not determined inside those stellar figures is how much of that comes from Different Companies or governments, of the money gets spent, how does divided. The point is that there is a lot of money out there in the Energy Sector. And you start to look at where the competition for who will be spending that money is broken down, all lot of that money will get spent in rapidly emerging developing economies in developing economies. The question is how they use spend small amounts of money which in the Power African Initiative is a comparison between the 7 billion youre putting on the table to the 300 billion that might eventually be needed to achieve universal access within the region. How they use the combination of the private sector and the Public Sector within the u. S. Perspective. Remarks for u. S. Companies have a competitive advantage. People were talking abut tully partner with other places by the African Development bank or china or other countries with specific interests in getting a foothold in those markets, instead of thinking about it as a small amount of mind that doesnt really match up to the need, think about it in terms of what you would do and what u. S. Companies would do to try and get a foothold in some of those emerging markets and how you make that possible. At think thats actually a real exciting part of the initiative. The other thing is its not necessarily bad. Theres a lot of subtexts here about this Power African Initiative because is derived from the Obama Administration only means that it can be clean energy based because the obama of masters and cares what jury something about Climate Change and they basically said they dont want to finance a coalfired Power Generation units in countries other than the recent developed countries and only when there is not an economic disadvantage subduing an alternative. Well, the intellectual underpinning actually looks at the vast majority of the places where you might spend that money being of application. All of those remote and rural applications paper places where maybe the alternative technologies a more competitive. Think thats the case that has to be proven in progress on the ground. A lot of people say that but it is to be proven in practice. You actually have to go and do that. If you look at the basic assumptions behind what it would take to achieve universal of education and around the world and not only in africa. Youre reducing the Sustainable Energy for all initiative. Basically is less than a 1 increase from where we would be in 2030. The presumption is that that case of a lot of this coming from Energy Sources is actually proven to be true. I think that the really important part about that may be giving this initiative staying power as if a going to do something about Climate Change a going to have to prove those cases. Thats not here. Thats a lot of other places around the world. Rather than looking at that as being an ideologically driven exercise is to be like that as a way of trying to categorize some of this new innovation. The last month was going to make , taking advantage of Energy Resources and is shifting energy landscape, one of the least mentioned within development circles if its a lot of attention tomorrow a places pay use appropriately, develop the electricity infrastructure within those countries and then places were new signs of been discovered, especially natural gas and figuring out ways to use that as a catalytic effort for development within those countries. Act fast. Theres a lot of gas out there. Think that one of the really important things to do is to make sure you keep some of these development prospects, especially within the oil and gas side in context. The oil and gas to landscape is changing dramatically. The Competitive Landscape is changing. Getting that makes between what governments can require of companies to of the bill that that infrastructure and utilize resources now is not the same conversation as it has always been. Its a Competitive Landscape. Talking more about that, but does well one of the sec. Great. Thank you. Again, lots of food for thought and a lot of different perspectives on that. I think we have about 35 minutes for questions and answers. We will take rounds of questions once again and again with the gentleman here. If you could wait for the white can identify yourselves. Yes. I teach government at georgetown. Im going to ask a question that i was going to ask earlier which is, where is the 7 billion coming from . And is it likely to detract from other programs such as humanitarian perrins in africa . I can add to that or perhaps been. Let me ask sarah. The fact is half but my question is, if i get in a right, mentioned that compared to china and other actors the u. S. Tends to add to little late. Im wondering, could you tell me from a business perspective, d. C. But competition from china . This is gene a car with national electric. I was wondering, let us know. If there is interesting portfolio projects that these countries have identified. Work has been done that they know what they need. Thank you. Here with the strategy and advisers. With a couple of exceptions like here from the panel is unbridled optimism about this initiative. Did you have any doubt or fears about unintended consequences of failure . Not yet. Why dont we go down the panel. If you want a pass just say so. Tackle the question. Okay. Good. Says ten power plants, the july 19th deadline, existing plants, some of which have been updated. Government policies privatized. Companies consortiums are looking for u. S. Partners. Thats the only situation where i know something immediate coming up. Imagine there are other opportunities in other countries also. Thank you. Tackle the ones youve seen. I think just a response to your question, my understanding is that the power africa team, theyre focused on a number of projects that theyre trying to push forward. I would expect that things are as transparent as possible. There is certainly an andre there to say to my where the guns are talking to . Everybody if youre looking at financing your going to need to source a lot of materials. Those opportunities. The two questions that were directed toward me, competition from china to my dulces competition. We obviously compete with Chinese Companies and have. In fact we submitted a bid today for contract. Im sure the chinese contractors north. What we are more expensive at the end of the date and will we also tend to use equipment which is more reliable. Have to pay for that. Overall dulces competition. The Chinese Companies and a Chinese Government is to Amazing Things. There is some much work to be done to that it is not really a matter of competition. The fact is, you know, we have cali to the game away because as everybody knows, the Development Projects and the Infrastructure Projects in africa have been an element of chinese foreignpolicy. They have been able to provide very low interest loans to get this stuff done by chinese contractors. We just dont have that system, so we are more expensive. Its harder. Its just a different kind of approach to doing development in africa. Overall would not college competition. Theres so much work to be done that there is certainly an opportunity for partnerships. Everybody can pull off a piece. I give you an example. In tanzania right now the chinese are constructing a gas pipeline. Well, everybody who owns a power plan is looking forward to that because it will be more gas to really dont have to run them off of jet fuel. That is an elements they have not necessarily cooperation but shared infrastructure that everyone will benefit from. Doubts are fears about unintended consequences are failures, absolutely not. [laughter] of course. Yap. In an airboat familiar with this from our careers in government. He even mentioned it. There are a lot of initiatives. We have been involved in the. There is always a danger. It was a great initiative. Everyone got excited. The money just as a show of such a signature initiative. This is the right way to do it, and it has the support of african governments and Civil Society. In its continuing to go for a strong. Most of the key points have been hit on. Wondered to additional. Terms of where the moneys coming from, the organization, work on many different issues. Global health, a number of other things. The priorities. In this case of kind of see how it plays out over time. How it gets in alan transforms overtime. Most of the resources that were announced still require congressional appropriations. Of that announcement i would suspect that knowing the Financial Engineering for all the commitments, this will be net positive to the deficit. Profits coming in. A very modest portions coming from usaid, the african build a foundation a couple of others, which is actually quite an interesting model in the austere and burma. That feeds into some of the bipartisan support the policy on this. So i dont see any risk right now, but its something to whats Going Forward in subsequent stages. On the chinese competition, the one thing that i just think chris said on adequately, the one thing would say is i did not necessarily think that the u. S. Government comes to this particular issue. So many other issues. Behind the power curve on the sector. Unintended. In terms of the unintended consequences, one of the things that challenges are risks, theres so many risks on some of these projects from 01 Campaign Perspective where word about. Of this mission wondered to. First is now that this issue has gained so much prominence in this country, the development context, it has been in the space of germany and france and japan and other places, but not so much in america. There are some successes and that this continues to go forward and to be incorporated into the core sessions of how this place develops. For all the reasons i mentioned before, responding to what everyone wants, this is the center of the diagram. How could you not be working on this issue. If there are a couple of projects that dont hit the mark, fail for whatever reason, very wary develop the consequences could mean. The five seemed really excited, but likelihood, the other one of these alysian. And so that they gets a really good analogy project based funding. Picked upon in this town. The r d spending. Its always a really dicey thing to do from that perspective. The thing and get worried about, my government background come a time you make of the Focal Points Initiative to my usually is connected with the trip to such energy away from of the people in the been doing this. Or does it actually did people a round of this sort of direction and a new way of thinking about doing something. Its really cure really important to not always say im having a meeting every single week to make sure were all talking to each other which is fantastic, but the vast majority of the American Public will be shocked you were doing that the first place. Talk to people who have money that they want to invest in large Climate Change. Have no doubt thats happening. And also just been transparent about the future thinking in the creative thinking. Its not like Anyone Initiative is going to crack the development. You have to keep working on a. Being transparent about the intellectual discourse the story behind these things is actually are really helpful thing for everyone to get involved in. Unless they respond really, really badly you have to choose one of those. Im going to vote for really well. We should figure out what the competitive advantages and go for it. Just on the wrist side, i mean, so much of this relies as the ambassador said that the start from the response from the african government. You have to wonder why they have not gone the act together on the power sector for decades when for decades it has been this monumental obstacle. Some countries, working incrementally. Stake in a good tenant 15 years for them to get the regulatory structure a place. Its taken some hard decisions. That tariff is politically difficult. Nigeria, every nigerian president comes in and makes power. One of the big race is the ambition of putting a transactional adviser into one of these ministries and expecting the energetic american to turn massive bureaucracy around. Project from project to purchase imported. It ultimately hanks together. You need a sector where performance. You can see kendis on the energy licking of this. Kind of the good feeling a momentum thats happening right now. I think what is it that will make this work african partners to my and african governments and african constituencies. Engaging Civil Society the opportunity and how to file what the importance of holding your government to account to make this work. The sic another round of questions. Wriggling to go. You have an advocate. I find the most enthusiastic and realistic. In africa and their world countries. But going everywhere. The quality of work. And then the sharpen their skills. Everywhere in the world. In the countries in dealing with , howd you mitigate the competing . And because your quality is superior, because of that the contract is a high price. Thank you. Thank you so much. And from tanzania. Of volunteer for east african communities. The mystique of international relations. My question goes. Talking about electricity in tanzanian. And then in tanzania for almost five years. The issue of electricity is critical. What strategies have you laydown . Because today the daily cry is electricity. The government has failed. If been to working cal was strategies to make the focusing on chinese projects. They dont talk. They give the work. He sees something happening. Now people in thinking of suggesting the government to privatize the company. Theres been an issue with the parliament, the private companies. Obama coming to the tanzanian, i was privileged to see really america is going to help africa over just having another talk show. Your skepticism. And the lady and the child. And the. , a reporter with climb a wire. I have another question from 30,000 feet. Something of so kind of unclear about. Talk about the importance of the portfolio. How much of the portfolio is going to be loyal and gas. You look at the white house. A fairly small portion of that money is specifically earmarked for renewals. Renewals as we go forward. Thank you. I am associated with Contour Global corporation. Primary investor in power in africa. Regenerative power and selling in five african countries, extracting gas. New technologies. Currently looking at the gasification of lng as a local way of getting rid. Very active. I seriously doubt. The volume of including ethiopia. We been there for five years. Investing in private Power Generations. We have been refused these time. Its a regime that has no interest in private investment our power. Why does the United States cheese that company . I hereby make a motion that we switch by the way. You want to start. Sure. Ethiopia. Move the board. Weve both been hearing for years now thats going to change. The ethiopian governments navy booktv im just guessing. The ada is to try to incentivize them. The money is there. Instead of trying to do projects get down the list. How do we deal with the issues raised by competition with china . Of leave it at that. You know were u. S. Company we can do things that others can do where the chinese are rarer they are. Essentially will we have to do is develop relationships and maintain those relationships. You know, we also do it through how we do business. That has real value. I think it is in stark contrast. A responsible business, investing back incudes in doing things make no mistake, it does take longer. As another company it we cant do, the logistics a long time. To get our envoys to the top of the stack we just have to be in their nonstop. Others dont have to. Where we doing . , the strategy, we are continuing to do everything to keep the lights on. We will be in a position where we have not for all the reasons the youre very well familiar with. The privatisation. And its difficult to read i mean, the Organization Needs serious reform. People within will tell you that. There are great people of that organization. It hasnt been up to par. This issue that we talked about, costs reflected tears, thats an important element in cash flow. And so will we do, we made a commitment to the president and will keep the lights turning. We had to manage it off our Balance Sheet to put fuel, by. And we have kept them running, you know we havent been paid. And again, that goes to the point which is sort of foul where we are staying in there. As a result of the way we of the business we signed in and buy you with the government to develop a 400megawatt plan. Theres a lot of gas. We wanted to give vantage of that. Part of that project is to build over 650 kilometers of transmission lines. So thats a strategy to try to the push it in. Theyre for a long term. That has been a strategy as an investor. We keep the lights on. As much as 1 3 some time. I just want to jump into a question on the portfolio above renewals just to stress the point that there has to be a makes. I went down this list. Just average tariff spirit of retail tariff. And this is the real challenge with renewals. Went down this list and said, okay. How many countries have a tariff which is over 0. 17 . Temple in and out of the air. Its pretty hard to do our renewal project for a tariff less than 0. 17. Its a trick. Only six out of 26 countries. So how do you make a Renewable Energy product commercially viable whenas of the retail tariff is. Its way lower than what is going to cause me to develop a project and sell electricity a rate that makes it commercially viable. Lsu subsidized heavily, and there are a lot of instruments out the that enable us to, others to the afg bier the ifc or whoever it is, these projects relieve our renewal projects. You have they are uncertain to file certain circumstances your makes is going to be low. And that leads to a point that ben was making. We started talking about opec. A very important issue is carbon cap. Its controversial. This enormous amount of debt that is their that we could take advantage of the we want to take advantage of. But a fire of a 6,700,000,000 project, whenever it is and it runs off gas, and all have access because of the current cap. So ask this question. Will this fail. Thats a real wisc. Theres a major commitment your. As we have been saying, the gas is there. There is gas and a lot of these countries and we have to find a way to be a will to take advantage of that in a way that is commercially viable or able to finance it through power africa. Its possible. It will take work, with these of the challenging issues. All shut up now. I want to give you an example of something that worked without too much u. S. Government support multi country project. That was a type plan from bolivia taking natural gas to sell apollo. It worked through three countries. They figured out how to mobilize private capital to get a project on. But working with governments to get the Regulatory Framework right addressing Environmental Concerns to run a pipeline through, but it got done and its making money. I think you can find similar situations in africa if you have a market that is willing to pay. Then Investment Bankers could come in and do things that may be u. S. Agencies cant. But there has to be demand and a market price for. One quick thing. You either believe that in some of these places where access to electricity and what is your definition is really important. Commercially competitive through nonprofit Energy Sources are you dont. And so some policies allow you to test that theory while others is make it more difficult for people to access money in the other side. One of the Big Questions here is is this a vestige of a different time when we were basically looking at building of support within various u. S. Government agencies . Doing it in a lot of different ways. It was applauded as of the as it is being derided right now for exactly this cap. And so the question is, how to you sensibly try and incentivize low Carbon Energy technologies. Is that necessarily something that makes sense in this new framework that were seeing rolled up . Is this something this is making a problematic . Is an ongoing debate. We go back and forth between his were where we believe that some of these technologies and these sources are cost competitive some arent. I think we need to prove that on a case by case basis. Thats what competition in the private sector is about. I think that the role for government is to figure out the best player in that. One are two sentences. In terms of what were talking about, its complicated are complex sort never. Its also urban. So does when youre talking about. It might be in a stopgap. If you talk to the people of villages, thank you. Thats not enough. Its a cellphone from the furlough the time. So what we should be focusing on, help axises to find is really important. When i said a makes at the very top, i was also intimating a makes. The issue, being allowed to push on certain issues. Its appropriate and customize. Charter fees across countries across market dynamics. Start to require a lot of creativity. Thank you all so much for joining us. I do hope suggestion we can take a look back. I hope will look in the interim. [applause] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] coming up next on cspan2, the foreign minister talks about security concerns in the african sahara region. In a preview. The ambassador to the u. S. After that another chance to see the discussion on president obamas recent trip to africa in this proposal wishes of the region. Is it is White House Briefing press secretary jay carney took questions about proposed changes to senate rules. This after majority leader harry reid announced thursday that he would consider using the socalled Nuclear Option in voting on executive branch nominees that have been awaiting confirmation. The option would allow nominees to be confirmed by a simple majority votes. Its eight to five years with the press secretary had to send the matter. We have made clear that the president is frustrated with will be a scene from republicans when it comes to the confirmation process. Not only to he make it clear that he include sections about it 80s to the Union Addresses including 2012. So we share the frustration. The nominations up on the hill today the continue to be instructed, have been held up for over a hundred days. And thats not how. When it comes to necs steps we defer to the senator. Varia pursue overall he is done and is doing and will do to be sure that the president s qualified nominees are confirmed. To see believe that they should go through with them a clear option . Senator obama, he once said the roles were reversed and the majority was turning to use that option, he said the fear the partisan atmosphere will be closing to the poor were no one will agree on anything. Does not what the Founding Fathers had in mind. Given his previous statement, he would agree with senator mcconnell. I think you would agree with the statement. I think the president is entitled to an up or down, a simple majority vote both to his cabinet and the executive branch and also the judiciary. The fact is, the situation has done exponentially worse since republicans to 0. 5 the last several years under senator mccalls lead the obstructionism has doubled. The number of days that nominees have to wait, the kinds of obstacles and gridlock created by his refusal to take up and consider and confirmed highly qualified nominees. Look at jim mccarthy. There is no question about her qualifications. She is by any measure enormously qualified for the position. Very similar to the ones yield the set of massachusetts won a 100 days her nomination as impending for florida. Richard cordray carrier somebody would support from republicans and democrats, someone who has republican state attorney generals who support him, someone who about him not a single or broken senator has had a bad thing to say when it comes as qualifications for the job to run this very important agency, Consumer Financial protection bureau. He is ten Amazing Things statices of the position and waited for actual confirmation from the senate. Its been two years. Why has it been blocked . Republicans in the senates simply dont like the fact that the cfp be in existence is the law of the land. President insisted that it be created and that it has a strong power to protect consumers and it comes to their rights, using credit cards, a Student Loans and mortgages and just enormous numbers of examples that demonstrate how effective already that has been in protecting consumer rights. Be cautious here because exercising that option would potentially fundamentally changed the nature of the senate. Essentially like the house. Kind of playing with fire. The president said in 2012 and the state of the Union Address the law was broken has to do with the way congress does business. A simple majority is no longer enough to get anything passed to the senate. Neither party has been blameless in this tactics. Now both party should put an end to it. For starters i ask the senate about the simple rule little judicial on publicservice commissions received a simple upper down vote. Unfortunately that recommendation has not been taken up by Republican Leaders in the senate. And contained within that, those remarks that the president made in the will of the house, the state of the addresses and the acknowledgement that this is a problem there has been a says a billion. The world today is quite different than it was in 2005. Republican leaders in the senate it is not the same and is a real problem. When it comes to the senator reid, we defer to him once in a procedure but we appreciate the support he is given and will give to the confirmation of the presence qualified nominees. On that next washington journal we will continue the conversation on senate rules and the proposed Nuclear Option with the Brookings Institution sarah bender. After that we sit down with Foreign Affairs magazine Senior Editor stuart reed to discuss his highlighting of the gop shift in Foreign Policy issues. One president ial historian Richard Norton smith discusses the taped phone calls made by president Richard Nixon in the summer of 1972 it looks like the Political Climate of the time. The goal of islamic domination, and the murder of free, innocent people whom they regard as infidels in order to accomplish that gold. Let me speak about social media and the adage you cant establish a relationship during a crisis. We have a significant presence on social media where we have engaged in juanway communication but in a dialogue with the people in the community about issues day in and day out. We were able to use social media effectively in the minutes after the blast to inform people where to go, what happened, where they could meet loved ones. An enormous amount of upset, and we used social media to tamp that down. A representative look at american life, so i needed politics, business, entertainment, food, finance, art, i also was interested in this recuring pattern which you see with gingrich, open practice, jayz, people who really begin in very humble places, and are not unlike the main characters, dean, tammy, but who sort of reinvent themselves as something new, and find a new language and a new idea that is visiting to americans, and through that they build an empire, and they cant stop building it. Almost like an imperative, like a corporation, you have to keep growing, as a person, a brand you have to keep growing, but eventually a sort of decadence sets in and they no longer produce something good. They are just they just continue to produce given gingrich writing book are book. Oprah is on every cover of her magazine. So they become the celebrities were familiar with who just dominate our imaginations and in a way have come to replace the institutions that have faltered in this period of time. Next, the Wilson Center hosts the foreign minister in a discussion on security concerns in the african sahel region which stretches across countries including mali, ivory coast, and sudan. This is an hour and 20 minutes. [inaudible conversations] okay. Please be seated. Good morning. Let me welcome you to the woodrow Wilson Center, and to this presentation by the foreign ministers. Its a rainy morning, not an easy morning to be out so we appreciate your attendance your loyalty. This should be a very, very interesting session. The foreign minister will speak for ten minutes. We want to have a dialogue. Theres a great deal of interest in what is happening in the sahel and northern mali, and the preparations for the election. And so hell be speaking to those subjects. I do want to make a special welcome to our ambassador who is here, who else is in senegal. I dont see your name. And then i see from mali, all coming in, and then from guinea. Welcome to our ambassadorial corps. Welcome to you all. Thank you. Well, again, this is of course youre at the woodrow Wilson Center, established by congress in 1968 for this very purpose, of bringing together the people who are involved in the making of policy, and those who are experts around those policy issues. And in that regard were extremely happy to have with us a foreign minister who im sure you all know, and i wont do a long introduction. He and i had the pleasure of first meeting long ago over a lunch with professor charles field when we were talking about the situation in mirandi and how that might apply to efforts on the ivory coast, and we know of course he is foreign minister and then became special envoy to darfur, and then back to the foreign ministry, and very, very involved in conflict resolution and peacebuildings efforts across the continent, and were very happy to have a capable man of this caliber and stature who is involved in the critical efforts around the peace settlements were seeking in the sahel, and niger, and northern mali. So, with no further adieu, let me invite the foreign minister to the podium to speak, and then well have time for dialogue with him. Thank you very much. Good morning, everybody. Ladies and gentlemen, the friends of mali and sahel, my dear friend from darfur. First of all, i would like to express my gratitude to mr. Steve for giving me the opportunity to address you on the security situation and the president ial election in mali. You will recall in this very room in march 2012 we shared views on the situation in mali in the context, at that time, by the lunch, in july 17th, 2012, and the military coup detat, which followed. Head of state of mali. We were all worried by the future of mali, and we hoped that this brotherly country will recover its stability, as soon as possible. From this perspective, heads of states, during their meeting held on march 2012, appointed his excellencey, as mediator for mali, with for the following missions. Through dialogue, find a way to return to normal Constitutional Order. Achieve normalization of the security situation in the northern mali. I will be presenting these two points. The Current Situation in mali, and finally, the way forward with your contribution. First, return to normal Constitutional Order. The coup detat, the activities of armed groups in northern mali, had weakened the republican institutions of mali and had put its territory and security to a severe test. Thus we undertook with malian political organizations and the military junta, actions in order to restore and to stabilize institutions for all the republic. To Constitutional Order. The mediation also secure from a declaration and commitment to restore social order. Consequently, on april 6, 2012, he signed the agreement with the mediation to the modality of return to Constitutional Order, highlighted by the nation of president turin. Appointment of National Assembly speaker, interim leader. Provision of a traditional government with a mission of securing a sustainable solution to the crisis in mali and president ial elections on all the national territories. The implementation of the agreement encounters some obstacles, of course. And these obstacles, including the duration over the transitional period limited to 40 days. Characterized aggression of the interim president by demonstrators on may 21st, 2012. Attempt the condra coup detat, to former president against those involved in the push. Fourth, resignation of the Prime Minister and so forth. The spirit of dialogue which prevailed among stakeholders, as well as support of International Community, made it possible to restore Constitutional Order and to get traditional government to adopt a road map, implementation of which should lead, i hope, to organization of president ial election in july 28 of this year. We will talk about, of course, the role of the captain later on. Second, normalization of security situation in northern mali. As for the normalization of the situation in northern mali, mediation, as part of actions undertaken, established contact with movement, which claim as a word independence, and which promoted sharia law application. Taking into account the presence of terrorist groups and Extremist Groups, consisted in combining a military outpost and diplomatic approach, with a view to establishing dialogue with identity groups. Continuing our efforts of mediation, we secure on december 4th, a joint statement to which these movements dropped their independence claim, known no sharia law by force, and respect human rights and fundamental freedoms, to promote Human Dignity and equality among citizens. Unfortunately, the fundamentalist groups, the Extremist Groups, which did not have an interest in the reunification, launched an attack against the town and progress toward the south. , with the aim to strengthen their position and to prevent the troop to be deployed. Faced with this danger, and at the request of interim president , the french army launch a military offensive against these extremists and terrorist armed groups. Concomitantly, was accelerated the deployment of its troops in northern mali. The groups having been forward, it appears necessary to establish dialogue between nonterrorrist armed groups and the traditional government. With a view to creating conditions favorable for the organization of the president ial election on all malian territory, including in kidal, occupied by groups. Thus, on july 18, we started direct on 8th of july, we started talks between the functional government of mali, the coordination of the National Movement of liberation, and the high council of the unity. These direct talks were marked by participation of the representative, and the mediator African Union, the u. N. , the special representative of the european union, the representative of oic, as well as partners and friends, countries of mali. This dialogue led to the signing of preliminary agreement to the president ial elections and including these talks in mali on june 18th, by Arab Movement and other armed groups, and the coordination of the movement and forces of resistance to the joint statement issue the same day. On the agreements to the president ial elections and they included peace talks in mali, the signing parties committed themself to a dialogue process to end the crisis in northern mali in two phases. Before the elections of the president of the republic, and after the elections. Before the president ial election, the party create the security conditions required for holding the president ial election on all the territory of mali, and particularly in the kibel region. From this perspective, the agreement provides with conditions on facilities, laying the foundation for a normalization and measures of implementation, accompaniment and confidence. Ladies and gentlemen, after the president ial elections, provide that 60 days after the installation, the new government of mali, in collaboration with commission for die explosion reconciliation with the dialogue and reconciliation, will engage peace talks with all community in the north, signing parties as well as signatory armed groups, in order to establish a comprehensive, definitive peace. These peace talks will focus on administrative and Institutional Organization of mali, in particular the region of mali indicated by some as integrated strategy of the local government of mali. The organization of the defense and Security Forces as well as problem of disarmament, demobilization, and social economy integration, of armed groups in northern mali. Improved administrative, economic, and political governance. Return of refugees and displaced persons and their reintegration. Protection and promotion of human rights in mali. Justice and reconciliation. The implementation of the agreement continues under good conditions despite fictions which are in this implementation of an agreement of this kind. Although the security situation in the northern sahel, the situation in the sahel region remains much by assistance of factor of trade, including weak presence of government and lack of basic social services in some places, as well as the social economic problems and precarious ness. Interference among terrorist groups, all kind of trafficking, presence of terrorist attacks, taking of hostage, instability in northern libya. Daily threat of the terrorist group in nye nigeria, all of which show security still remains a challenge in the sahel. The way forward. Of course, on these i rely on you, on your contribution. One cannot say well find the way forward only within one organization or one group. We have to share ideas. Nevertheless, i try to give some ideas. First, i think we have to help mali. To successfully hold president ial elections on july 29th. I hope. July 29th. Of 28th of 2013. To establish authorities and meet institutions in the country towards a sustainable situation in this region. Promote an International Cooperation with technical and financial partners, for an improved democracy gonance toward social and economic development. And this not only for mali but also for all the countries in the sahel region. For all this countries, we need to avoid frustrations and exclusions. To involve all the components of communities in social political and economical life to a especially the youth to join extremist and terrorist group. To conclude, i wish to welcome the involvement of the International Community which made it possible, the signing of the preliminary agreement. This conferred an International Dimension to the fight against terrorism and sustainable peace. I thank you all for your presence and paying attention, and i look forward to your contribution, comments and questions to find together nonnable solutions to our concerns. Thank you very much. [applause] thank you so much, your excellency. Well now open the floor for questions and comments. Let me remind you that we are both being webcast live and this morning televised live on cspan, so well take two or three questions at a time. Please wait for the microphone to be delivered to you and give your name and your association, and make your comments and questions short so we can get through as much as we can. We have about a little over 45 minutes for this session, and the minister has been very kind to invite your input. So, i open the floor. Right here in front. I have the first one. And then the second one. Lawrence freeman from executive intelligence review, the african thank you very much for your comments. I think in terms approach, youre absolutely right. We have to think about the entire sahel. I just came back from mali and had the great opportunity to discover the inland mali delta, and this is an area of potential Enormous Development for Food Production. Two million acres to be developed and irrigated by the group, and i think if we use this as a centerpoint, mali can become a food exporter to the entire sahel. So we need water management, a lot more energy than obama promised last month. We need rail transportation. And i think we should look at this Regional Development approach of the sahel as a way of providing security, because the military counterterrorism approach has failed in these areas in the desert where people have no opportunity no future no jobs. So i wanted your comments on this kind of regional effort. Thank you. Lets take one right there. Sure. My question is, how much of the Peace Process is new and how much of it is business as usual in the sahel and mali, for instance. Okay. Do we have one more i see one right down here. Dane smith, american university. Mr. Minister, pleasure to see you again. I wonder if you could tell us a little bit about progress and Security Sector reform and in particular how the reform of the malian military is going. Seems to me thats pretty critical to success in this endeavor. Thank you. Mr. Foreign minister, those three questions we, the first on development in a regional sense, the Food Production security. The second one on how much of the process, Peace Process is new and building on old efforts, and then Security Sector reform with the malian army. Thank you. Of course i do agree that we need the original approach, especially in the sector of Food Production. For the peace to be sustainable, definitely we need to back it by very strong commitment to develop our region. Not only within mali but within so that could be integrated development, but most importantly, i think that the people of the north of mali should feel themself half of this National Efforts for development. And this is what we are all looking for. How to create this feeling of national cohesion, and otherwise you can produce whatever you want in the south part of the country, which is very, very rich. But if the arab people, the suedanees from the north are not part of it, that will not work. I agree, and this is part of the policy. How to promote this integrated development. Under i dont understand this second question. Im not sure i do, either. Would you give him the microphone again and redevelop that question. Sure. What i meant is, is how much of the new process is actually new in the sense that its not what has been happening since the malian civil war, coop cooptation of the rebel groups. You are talking about the negotiations aspect. The negotiations, okay. Lets say, what we reach now is just an interim agreement. We are looking for more comprehensive agreement, but traditional government cannot, cannot establish a lasting peace. Thats why we are all insisting now to have the elections at the end of july, so that the new authorities can promote and include a dialogue and reach a comprehensive. I hope that this time it will be the comprehensive and lasting peace. Of course, it is not new that the people in the north raise arms to fight against the central government. On this, if you allow me, we should find a way to talk this repeated rebellion in the north. This rebellion is the force since the independence, and we all have seen what was the consequences, and start a war against the government of mali, but definitely the terrorist group take over the control of everything. And even at that time had lost the control so we should not allow any groups to start again war, knowing that the consequences of this kind of rebellion will bring terrorist activities and so on. So thats why i think that the International Community and all the partners should focus their efforts so that this negotiations be the last one. And for it to be good enough, of course, its hard to be serious. And on the issue of security, two aspects. The first is that in mali, part of the army, led by captain, a coup detat. An army in our country should not, should not interfere in the political process. Especially with arms. This is the first thing we have to thought. How to keep the army, how to make sure that the army will not interfere in the political go government. So the first reform should aim at adhering the military peoe the best training so they can focus on their task instead of interfering in the political process. The second type of reform is how to make the army operational, so the so that they can fight efficiently against the new threats we know in our region, which is the terrorist activity. Our armies, not only mali, but all our countries, they should focus their new organization and training on the capacity to stop the terrorist activities. I think that in mali, the start of the reform of finance by the european union, and it is going well. I dont know the precise details but i think that things are improving in mali. May i use the prerogative of the chair and follow up on dean smiths question. You mentioned when you were talking about activities to be undertaken after the electionsor, you would look at the ddr project. That could imply youre looking at the formation of a new national army, bringing in some of the elements from the rebel forces, and others. As has been done in countries where theres integration of armed forces. Is this part of the reform that will take place . Im very cautious about talking about integration of former combatants in the national army. It didnt work in mali. We have to be cautious. But definitely when were talking about ddr, the reintegration is the social economic integration, definitely. Of course, in the agreement, the disarmament should be finalized after the signing of the comprehensive more comprehensive agreement. We will start with and we all know that the combatants are not all of them all of them cannot be part of the national army. But i know, i know for peace and reconciliation, of course we have to do something in this area, but in this the malians will discuss, of course, try to provide good opportunities for them in order to reconcile themselves and of course to build a new, strong army. I agree also with participation of the north people in this national army, it could be difficult to counter the terrorist activity because they know more than the south people the region of the north. But all this issues will be discussed within the comprehensive talks. Okay. Understood. Okay. We have one right in front. And then down here for the next question. And back up there for the third question. Thank you very much. Can only command and salute patience of the president and your own position in supporting to come back to normalcy, and also face the issues regarding terrorism. Sometimes here we talk and i see people smile when i mention martial plan, marshal plan, and i also ask, and have the partners support the idea. You have to include people. Somebody said on planet you really need resources. Secondly, would say that Marshall Plan would also lets gift an african name. I dont know which one but i was wondering how much of that conversation are you having at your level, the u. S. And then yes. Here. My name is mohammed from the library or congress. I am my question is on the question of the excellency. I want to get back to the security issue, and i know that you have these very close to these groups and negotiating with them, and i think personally know, for example, the leader, and my question is, from your capacity, what do you think remains for most on the fact that a lot of parties had current process, Peace Process, and my second question also, how wise do you think is the fact that we kind of is that going to have any effect on how the process, the Peace Process, evolve in future . Thank you. Thank you very much. Good morning. Thank you for admitting. My concern is about identify yourself, please. Paul. My concern is about the common causes that can lead to this type of crisis. Malis crisis has specific causes. Yes, but in bukina we have a blood regime since 1987. The lack of alternates. Cut up the power. The implication of the government in the crisis in africa, and ang gore a ang gore a, ivory coast, the gold issue, revving to a french newspaper, said that 25 members of the government are stealing there the gold, and knows what im talking about. So the question is, how can the government be able to talk about peace, government, in mali, knowing that with the struggle against corruption was the lack of alternates, its open to many kinds of situations like in mali. Thanks. Thank you very much. Okay, the three questions that well deal with. First of all, the plan. Anyway, bringing the bearer of International Resources on the situation, and then the second one, mohammeds question on sardine, and actually broader question of when people go on a terrorist list, how do you deal with them . And then the issue about the role and legitimacy in this context. Good. On the former, i fully agree with you. We need a plan. But for there to be a good plan for development, we have to prepare our people for that. We have been talking about the theyre the construction, which means there was something before, of course, that had been destroyed by war. In sahel region, you know this issue better than i do theres nothing. There is no administration. No states. No good organization, so we need more than my brother. We need, first of all, to promote, as i said, the national cohesion, in all our countries. The full cooperation of all communities and second, i agree we need our partner, financial and Technical Partners to help us. One country cannot meet the expectation of the people in sahel. We have to combine our efforts. Certainly the next summit will focus more attention on this particular issue of sahel. The second question concerning yet again i understand my brother, i understand you the issue you want to raise. I agree that galy n is the link between between the Armed Movement and some of the terrorist group. But he was involved, of course, in the discussions last year. Unfortunately, the attack launched by the Extremist Group was a certain point led by degel. Now he disappear. I dont know exactly where he is, but what i want to emphasize here is the need for the groups, the known terrorist Armed Movement, to dispense themselves from the terrorist activity if they want to make peace with mali and all the countries of the area. We didnt want the group to be divided. Thats why we called for talks, even we know that the sardine was buying its own ideology close to the terrorists and islamist group. They commit themselves to be part of a normal process of normalization, so, lets go with them. And thats why i am insisting on taking our people from the terrori activities. Otherwise, they will still have this kind of complicity with the outside world. So i think that the remaining of sardin was movement of islamic. They combine the efforts so that we discuss with one entity. In addition to that, the arab groups, and all the france groups, they join this agreement. We are now implementing this agreement with the known terrorist armed groups in the northern of mali. In the third question, your name is sankara. Yes. I understand your question. Thank you very much. And this will be a national debate. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Well take another round of questions. The first hand i seive is right here. I see is right here, and then down in front, and in front here. Good morning. I am amir from liberia here at the institute for policy studies. Thank you to steve and team for creating the space for this conversation. Thanks also to cspan for coverage this. We encourage you to cover more on africa. I guess i have two questions. The first is templar, if you can give us an update on the rev fujiis and the International Communitys response, and the second is more complicated, on the questions of the Security Sector. You mentioned getting the best training for the military. I guess i wonder if there is critique within the region of particularly the u. S. Initiative focused on counterterrorism that the captain and others in his cohort participated in there is a critique of this strategy . Because for many of us that is the core of the problem. Dont encourage that two question example you set. Thats okay, amir. Right here. Second row. My name is im the president of in washington, dc. Excellency, my question is this. Following the events in mali, the president mentioned about the needs of creating an army for africa, and my question is very simple. Can you please comment on that, knowing that you also have the area and what is the thinking of the different government regard to this army . The. Okay. Thank you very much. The question here. Thank you very much. My name is abdou, ambassador of nigeria. Without sounding to repeat the Marshall Plan, i think the terrorism is at the core of the problem. At the core or all these problems in the sahel is the issue of poverty, Climate Changes and all those challenges that seem insurmountable and i think africa leaders, have the responsibility to address that. If we dont address that, we leave that gap to be filled by terrorists and insurgents and that is exactly what has been happening. All of us are related one way or the other, through economic and other direction. This same problems will continue to resonate to nigeria, just as you highlighted, your excellency, in your book. I recall very well, very small Regional Group in the sunset, the sahel sahara group, instituted a small volunteer and other economic assistance program, and there is assisting countries, mauritania, chad, economic development, even at that level, and so i think the ambassador is right, this is should be top on agenda in africa. We must address our own brother. We cannot continue to rely on other partners. And if you look at, like, larry rightly pointed out, the counterterrorism and other initiatives have failed. Everytime we have problem, the west are quick to rush in arms, heavy military equipment, quick intervention, but when they leave the problem still remain with us. So the issue is to address the economic problem, the key issue, unless we address that, well committed to having more malis and more more chads and all this conflict will continue to remain in the continent. Thank you. Thank you, ambassador. All right. That gives us a lot to address. Thirst the refugee question, and the question on military training. I agree. Certainly the west and the work we have done with drc, the transsahel work does not seem to have the answer to the right kind of military training for africa. The africa army question, francois suggestion, and then a further plea. On the refugees, now i think of 400,000 people from niger, and looking at nigeria, and i think some of them in mauritania. Of course, we host them, but definitely we need to bring them back home. We need to create conducive environment so they can go back. Unfortunately, this refugee will not be able to vote within mali. This is unfortunate. Because even it would have been better to get them back home, but since they are part of it, i think we can deal with it. I would like to express my gratitude to the interNational Partners, really. They support our effort. You know that from the time the entering burkina faso, we were facing food crisis. Despite all these difficulttives we managed to take care of them with the support, of course, of our partners. There was a really good spirit of solidarity, i may say so the agreement will the implementation of this agreement will allow all of them to go back home very soon. I hope. Now on the training, only two aspect. The first aspect is the spirit. The good army should have a good spirit as we say, a republican spirit. This is the first thing to do. A good army should not be allowed to make coup detat, of course. My brother. [laughter] we have to train to train our young officers on that. Concerning sanogu. I am not defending it but what i can say, implemented what he committed for, what he sign. We sign the agreement on the 6th and sanogu implemented. Im not advocating for sanogu, of course, but as far as the mediation is concerned, i have to tell the truth. There is no obstacle from the side of the junta regarding the process, the electoral process. And even the minister in charge of interior is member of the junta. And he is performing very well, and he is the one who is doing everything so that on the 28th 28th of july, this elections in mali be possible. So, of course, of course, we should now avoid any kind of conflictive situation between the armed in the army and the political leaders. We have to clarify things. Everybody should play its own role properly. Even behind the sign, of course. That should be really clear. The the second question, youre talking about the next meeting in france regarding the security in sahel. I not very comfortable saying that well create a west african army. No. No. We talk about in general terms. We talk about how we can increase the security in the region of sahel. Now the creation of army, how we want to defend our territory. This is really the question of sovereignty. I think that is the head of the should now find the way to properly, by themself, what the french did for us. I thank the french for responding positively, but it should be our own hand, but we should not dream. We cannot. Now it is almost impossible. Thats why i think we need to call for the International Cooperation. We need to call our friends, first United States and to help us, putting in place the right forces, the good armies, disciplined armies, when create armies with good intelligence so that they can protect us from terrorist activities. Well be part of it, of course, all the countries, ail the sahel countries part of the meeting in december. Probably talk about bilateral and midlateral Cooperation Among the interNational Partners. May i before you go to the last comment or comments by our nigerian colleague, is there not already a mechanism, at least in principle, within the African Union in terms of Rapid Response . Is that something you can build on in this case . Yes. Yes, the African Union yes, i mentioned they are working on how they call it the troop but the problem is the same. Our countries do not have the capacity to create this standby force, but we have to think about it. We have to think seriously about how in the sahel region we our northern partners, especially algeria, and morocco and libya, how we can create this kind of Standby Forces in africa. I agree. Poverty is not the only cause but is part of the root cause of the security situation. Having said that, yes, what should we do . I agree also that we should not wait for the western countries to make the developments for our countries and our region. We should first do something. And that is why i think that the african countries, especially our area and the north africa, should come together with a strong plan of development. The problems are so complex, the traits are so high, we cannot we cannot address properly all these issue, but i agree. But we need something. We need to do something first before asking others to help, to help us. Definitely is right, we need a plan. We need a plan, we need a plan marshall. Lets start by doing something first within our countries. Lets create conducive environment, good governance, peace, stability, and internal cohesion, and before talking about sustainable development. Okay. I think we have time for another round of questions. The federal hand right up there, and the second one just behind. Just to the side. And the young lady here. Thank you very much mr. Steve for giving me the opportunity to my name is im not from i do not want to come back to the question of the legitimacy of burkina faso. They were involved in a civil wars in the eyes of millions of africans, burkinea faso does not have legitimacy to talk about peace in africa. The second thing, i was killed and then i remember in my country, that when you lose somebody deer to you, you shave, but i did that because at millions of africans, we have we admire and was sincere for what he want to do for africa, but i had the prayer if he dies and the cannot bring stability. 26 years after the death of ankara we see that spain is the leading nation trying to promote power, and theres more in spain, and poor and underdevelopment. What have you done in those 26 years,; thats my question . Okay. Thank you very much. Next question, right in the middle there. Yes. My name is abdul and im from the global civil initiative. My question is simple. I dont think we should be talking about this situation because people who are Northern Africa issue saw this coming five, ten years ago. So, mr. Prime minister, what can we do to not get ourself no more in this situation in the region, from burk aye na faso, from mali, from ivory coast, to nigeria, because we saw institution coming again with burkina and the group, and everyone is learning from what happening to mali, and seeing they can do it again in another country. So, what the plan for from our government in both region to stop that happen again. And how can we avoid it. Let think. The Better Future for our region and for africa. Not such a simple question after all. Im emily from usip. I was wondering if you could comment on how successful you think the elections will be at the end of the month, given the issue width voter i. D. Card distribution and refugees. Brilliant. Okay. Mr. Foreign minister, ill let you handle the first question. The but theres a developmental issue here. Which abduls question. I think basically on the lessons learned, very, very important question, and then what about the elections . What do you think is going to happen . Okay. On the first question is not really a question. I took notes on what you said, and we are in the Free Exchange of ideas. I took notes. Thank you very much. We. [inaudible] we are talking about mali, sahel, and stability of other regions. So thank you very much for your remarks. I took note of it. On the overall situation, i think we are not trying as burkina faso to contribute to peace and stability in all the neighboring countries. On the prevention to stop what happen in mali to happen again, this is a program and this is why we are here, trying to exchange idea. Im so glad that you raise the issue like this. It is our responsibility to do something. We have been talking mali about the coup detat. And a rebellion. Armed Group Activities in the north. And these two threats bring us to where we are now. So, we have to the youth for not make using of violence to pull their demands. This is the first thing i think. Because on the northern part of mali, as we said, the mmnr is the fourth in this region of mali. Niger, did the same but fortunately for niger, i think they managed to solve the problem to integrate all the armed groups properly, to make peace and reconciliation, and i think that today the Prime Minister is i dent know i am not saying he is former rebel. [laughter] that means clearly that they finally achieve the good integration and the can reconciliation in niger. We hope the same happen in mine. And more generally, i think that the our countries should focus efforts on this. We should be united. We should be Strong Enough and we should be able this time, all that we face in the past. Despite all the critical and political situation we have to preserve the stability and the internal cohesion. And, finally, we need to think about prevention. We, of course, as the mediation, we try to solve the problem of the crisis in mali. Thank god we managed to bring peace. We managed to reach an agreement. In mali, in niger. But this is the physician after the death. Now we need a strong policy of prevention. It is a youth program, of course, and im glad that you raise this issue, and it is likely that the head of state will react on the same week, how we can prevent all this to happen again. On the elections, you are right, i was in favor of delaying the elections in mali for two reasons. First, we are now in the rainy season, and for those who knows africa, the rainy season really is first of all for people to go to the polling stations, especially in rural areas, and second, because of the activities, to go to farm and they dont have time, even one day is very important for them. They dont have time to go for elections. And the second reason is the ramadan period. For country with 90 of muslims, of course, this is a problem. But clearly, the participation will not be very high. But now the question is, to delay for what . And i think it is better to have these elections on time, to get from them a legitimate president and government so that they can take care of the issue of mali, the issue of security, and the issue of social economic development, the issue of reconciliation. But if technically there is a need to do something, yes, they can delay, but it should be a consensus among all the people. Otherwise, if the government of mali, the junta take the decision to delay, certainly that will create more difficulties. So that what i can ask for is International Communities to prod the malines to get the election on time. We still have two weeks to make it perfect. And, and, it is likely that well go for a second round. I think, with 28 candidates. It is likely im not sure but its likely that will go for a second round of elections. So, lets do everything we can so that the first round and the second round be as perfect as we can for the stability of the country. I think that question was partly on the technical preparations for the elections as well. Because of the registration problem. Are they going along well enough that well be able to meet the deadline . Yes. Since the government of mali itself is seeing that everything is okay. [laughter] okay. Fair enough. I think we have time for two more questions, which ill take, and the first is here, and the second hand back there. Well give you a chance, ambassador. Well take three questions. My name is from new york city. Its known that people use mali from libya, and even the rebel come from libya, and after ran from the country, went become over there again. South libya. And what at your level, what do you have in plan to avoid those people to come back and attack the next the very next target. Thats my first question. Well stay with one question. We dont have time for i warned people about the education and very important. Okay, okay. Okay. The second part is, how to prevent those kind of we know that main core of the problem is education. People are not educated. When youre not educated and when youre angry, you need food. You are available for any kind of problem that people may bring to you. Even sometime you not agree but a bus you need to eat, you agree. Young people who doesnt have any job will do that. So what do you have in plan for that . Okay. So educate thank you very much. Second to last question. Penultimate. Your excellency can thank you for being here. Im from the United States African Development foundation, and im curious a little bit, maybe a followon question to the gentleman before me. He mentioned libya. You spoke about the states but seeing as how algeria and mauritania have the larger borders involved in this conflict area, and they have slightly different approaches to the conflict and mediation efforts, and theyre also very heavily affected by. I remember when the crisis broke out in our region or the northern part of mali. We thought now the issue was behind us and fortunately that crisis broke out with the government. My president and his colleagues. [inaudible] i know personally. I told myself. It is difficult to bring peace and why we are really upset and not doing with this solution and where we come from to contribute to have peace in my country. So before we said the president would help bring the nigerian people to peace. Now the responsibility has been given to me i cannot let it go. Beaches east to be a country of peace before concluding concluding, when you are working hard in their region your representatives the ambassador here we meet regularly. We are very worried about this issue and most of the time. [speaking french] [inaudible] so these two issues should be addressed together in order to make our region safe again of prosperity. To support the people in major in nature and i want to thank you for the presentation you have made. Thank you very much. [applause] mr. Minister and i think those questions could be hill together with people coming from the north and how you dealing with that . Then the issue of education. Okay. But say the groups coming from libya, of course, we know what happened there and what created this situation. We should help the new libyan authorities to put things in order in their country. Because the four received of gadaffi feld to the militia. Of these people coming from niger and mali. From their country of libya libya, some of them came to the northern part of mali so they could have their own country, their own space. It did not work of course. And they went back home. But to develop this corporation is not easy to do with the original organization. [inaudible] of the area, and niger we involve them in the Peace Process. As well as the implementation process. The sizzle the information created by the women. Immediately after he talks about the new agreement and the next ups. Steps. Thank you very much. Figure for the kind words. The only thing that i want to correct with my capacity is we should not talk about geodesy and islamist but chocolatiers the incurable groups book led to hottest. [laughter] i am not promoting jihad but these groups should not be called jihad. It is our policy because as the Islamic Organization should be finding a way to solve the cyprus problem as one. All of the groups acting on behalf of as long and is not good for is, the muslim people. That is why the oic members find a way to help. I am happy to present the secretary general of oic and we focus on specific issue of how to separate theparate ths group from the religion of islam. Is very important. Some people even now in west africa are beekeeping this official. It is very negative and a bad message. This is the only thing i want to correct. True is rob is not terrorist activity true islam is promoting reconciliation, peace. That is all. Before we close the legislature remarks this has been an amazingly rich session and discussion i have been pleased. I think looking at issues like the fact you dont get to sustainable peace without addressing the core causes of the conflict to look at Climate Change and poverty and education of course, asserts of which is said about the african responsibility obviously National Partners like the United States stand ready to be of assistance but it is so encouraging to see you take such a strong lead and the governments with these core causes of conflict. So this has been a pleasure. We like the message that you send a and we absolutely agree we have to learn because this is a problem in the United States as well that terrorism and islam is the same thing but it could be hamas and learned by american citizens. Thank you again. [applause] [inaudible conversations] earlier someone touched upon the idea that women could not predict their roles to enter into the white house but i did find one observer said the 1860s election mary was no more a night knowing about calling to the presidency than a campbell campbell. She would not have let human sacrifice come between her and her goal because she was very determined she would talk about mr. Lincolns role snowshoes someone who was a true political partner good morning were delighted to welcome you here. Thank you for paddling here this morning of the recognized our audience we have a strong online audience for your welcome to fall less on twitter. Please turn off all your noisemakers and other devices so we do not disrupt the speakers. We have a tradition to do we bins like this ahead of the summit the teetwenty is the biggest in the world and it will be held just after labor day in st. Petersburg russia normally to three weeks out but because of the Summer Holiday we thought we would get the early start so were delighted to have a terrific lineup of speakers today which we will get started just one second. After the two keynote speakers we will have two panels an expert panel and a very short break then we will have a perspective on the teetwenty summit. So with no further ado. Fet for coming. Glad to have you here. That is the very important dialogue. There are two forms of internationalism. Structural and consensus. We all know about structural International Like united nations, imf those that spend time to develop a framework it is one of the dominant characteristics of the last 50 years but the advantage is that the next generation knows the things that are important because they have grown up with institutions that shaped the debate but these also become brittle over time and they dont work as well over time. So there is a preference often for countries to you consensus based with coalition of the willing finds a way to agree with you but it is efficient but not normative it really doesnt carry over. This is what the International World community has been wrestling with and with the impulse to create the g20. The imf, world bank, for us to keep up with a crisis unfolding when the recession was unfolding, but what are the institutions . Fiftyeight is a bunch of rich white guy is not certainly to be representative caddie bring a Big Community together . The International Community chose to create the teetwenty. It was important to help the crucial time to give a sense of direction that there needed to be a forum or method of coherence. That is the foundation and now we ask the question where is the g20 going . Willoughbys structure over time . It is not clear. Part of this is the backdrop how refined shared purpose with such a complex problem . In not falling into the trap of a structure that becomes brittle over time. Is there a legitimacy in the configuration . It is more broadly based than the g8 does it have command power . These of the questions we have one of the most skilled diplomats the longstanding friends obviously because russia will be the host for this g20 summit but also because his personal talent as a diplomat. These have not been the easiest times to be an ambassador in washington by he handles it with skill area of enormous strategic insight and we are very fortunate. But it is made dramatically better because of his presence so please welcome with your plautus. [applause] the key for that kind presentation but i almost feel that i am little oversold. I was invited to make it welcoming banal i give the keynote speaker but i was thinking how different my speech would be in what is the difference between welcoming a end keynote . The both have something this is one of the of guests of the multilateral mechanisms. And probably one of the institutions very much with the crisis with United States and other countries through as together into a mechanism to b. A. Directive to form a and reconcile in the multilateral world of the intertwined economy. And as far as theyre understand it i am not suggesting were able to resolve all these issues of the crisis but being upbraided it did exist but in 2008 in order to have a of the level of the leaders and that creates the with the country that has integrated its end it wants to come back but over the years we have integrated with the relations in the world were interested in these conditions to be favorable as well. Research and lee also depend the markets up side of russia, and for us, being given the chair of Louis Organization is a great opportunity to help others to form a consensus. But also to be able to contribute to look through our own problems. The main subject is sustain gross but the focus on this is very important because the specialists are focusing on how best to achieve that. Certainly the National Solutions will be decided by each and every country but to reconcile is to talk about these issues but currently you cannot find another to take into economic of the composition. Also i would like to say but with the solid Economic Situation . But it was an extra for intricate bone negative inches we would have it and we could start in the future of. Indri hope will not be an increase in years to come and were also increasing our base we have the ambitious plan to create an additional 25 million jobs. Restructuring old jobs and making new ones for all of this requires a lot of investment so the creation of the environment for the investment is one of national priorities. According to the International Ratings i wish we had the same chance in five years ago we are working hard to create conditions in russia that would be considered mundorf other outside investors. With 20 of the best countries in the world but we are very much underrated also, when it comes with the russian economy we have ben pretty stable. We have significant reserves so we will have 84 billion in the reserve fund. The National Reserve is 500 plus the 1 billion as well. We were almost debtfree because it is more than 2. 5 it is now around 11 . If you compare it with 58 countries erwin that process today i think were doing in relative terms significant. So first, g20 is an important mechanism but burkina man to this is what with the International Economic because any other g20 but we like it because it is good in bet of the economic of the situation become offended joe, but then we will have a unique form we must predator cells of labor. And to understand this would give a chance to discuss what can be done to have the priorities we can have. It was going to be a significant event in the discussions in its own right to that will be an important event for us because from our enrollment and i hope it will be another confirmation we all stephen to benefit more working together rather than working against each other. Thank you. [applause] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] yes it does require a little bit of explanation to show up that president obama is with the g8 David Cameron said i have been wondering whose side youre really on. Anyway it is a pleasure to be here this morning and just as i was explaining to russian colleague i was beating with their russian counterpart Committee Said that is where she is not here and i said that is why i am late. But i think the echoes to part of what is sold valuable about the g20 i should declare an interest because when max and i were working together at the Treasury Department it was the birth of what became the g20 with the asian crisis in the early 90s, it was clear there really wasnt a grouping of countries to discuss the issues that that crisis reveals. The traditional g7 in those days just consisted of big industrialized countries but it was under represented in those groupings. I think it was singapore whoever suggested to president clinton there should be a meeting of officials and ministers to discuss these issues in a more global context. President clinton charged bob rubin and Larry Summers you charge me with putting together good g22 it was called the willis group. In those days it was extremely difficult the with their counterparts that we were in contact with. We begin to build up a network and i will fight to hold those on a regular basis with the 33 than the 20. I felt very pleased when the g20 came into a self came into its own and in 2008 and nine with the Global Financial crisis we thought that was the worst thing that could happen but we discovered it could be worse we realized that g20 brought together the countrys that needed to be at the table when you have a Global Economic problem that requires coordinated action. Meeting at the leaders level really hopes to promote the breakthrough in london 2009. That was so important to help to pull the Global Economy back from the brink of the worst recession since the second report it could have been the worst depression. So at that stage the g20 proved itself early as a way you could get the focus to dry economic institutions to take the kind of action that was needed and to understand the spillover from one country to another. Since then things have changed a lot. Said g that g20 has the complex challenge how to deal with more chronic issues the views of my people in the president is about the economics for Global Economic coordination and debate. But the problems that we now face are not the key ones but it of the to slow recovery from the crisis crisis, height unemployment including here and we still steve the issues of how we can Work Together within the framework of sustained balance of strong growth. That way we can understand each other. The past couple of years these summits have been dominated by the acute crisis again. But this time the European Crisis and by first g20 completely dominated with what was happening with the referendum and so on. It was in interesting moment because with the emerging markets sometimes they feel we dont get to discuss what the big countries do and we will have a voice because they affect us. I think that really happened in mexico to see that the europeans to at that stage put together some important steps but there were steps taken bayou lower the temperature to help to provide financial healing. As we lifted the agenda this year we have the imf in my former colleague is coming later, we have the imf telling us the Global Outlook in the latest releases is worse than what they expected. Or what we expected just recently. If i think we are finding that we still recognize we have work to do. Almost everywhere but japan the outlook is more disappointing and maybe not the big Downside Risk but then what was expected a few weeks ago. So the focus that leaders will once again focus on how we can really get this recovery on a steady and strong pass. That is the big challenge and i think what has been happening with the emerging markets recently, will also put in extra interest from the whole group i aid and not sure how quickly we were getting out of our recovery but europe was still struggling with a lot of difficult issues. The emerging markets looked as if they could decouple and we have seen recently as a lot of the emerging markets remain concerned not for the industrialized countries to have that discussion that includes the major economy hallow the different policies affect each other. That is not an easy conversation to have but it is critical how things seen from other parts of the world and it is true from everybody else is plain to of view. But the colleagues were saying we should do the back to basics and only worry about the Global Economy debate but but part if you make policy commitments but to have the Global Economy the tests the fiscal area but when the actions taken in recent years that may not seem to the global macro debate the next they will have the export bans for food products. That helps a lot of countries their domestic guidances but think of researching to the x box but what is needed to guests can have a quick and immediate impact. But next there is more a transparency . And to talk about it promotes that but that is not the position to be trade associations for aaron fact we dont know a great deal about anything but we try to get the leaders to know each other but we could give a political push. Two years ago it was quite important after years and years we would complete the doha around very quickly come leaders agreed it was time to look at fresh incredible approaches in order to revive the multilateral trading round and also had agreed to a standstill on protectionist measures. There is a piece yesterday about call protection is echoed that did not bark but the fact leaders were there that were able to come to an agreement they could resist the temptation despite the enormous challenges faced. What is one important element to help preserve the open trading system . This year has been focused especially on the u. S. And my predecessor with the Trans Pacific partnership and the launch of the Transatlantic Partnership and there is a question where is this system going . I thank you could also send an important signal about the main ince and revitalization of the wto and the multilateral trading we you think it would be impossible to what would be the people may be go a little further van that good news there a sketch for word . They do seem to be getting anywhere much