Blinken is going to be his secretary of state in january. Of course i know tony blinken, i also know very well sullivan, who is going to be the National Security advisor because i work with someone i was in the government, theyre both very, very sensible, knowledgeable people with a great deal of international experience. So i think its a, its a very good side. Tony monken always, they supported wars in syria, libya, afghanistan, and iraq. Did you send this book . Because i dont know if this isnt a policy recommendation book about afghanistan, i dont know what it is. We sent this to move might bump a 0 and tony blinken. Oh i havent. I havent sent the book to either of them, but attorney blinken is quite familiar with my views and even more familiar with my views is jake solvent because he was working directly for secretary of state Hillary Clinton, when i was in the state department and we worked together on this quite a bit. So they, they know very well that i was a strong advocate of
I think what biden has said is just a repetition of long term or long time u. S. Policy about wanting to have a counterterrorism presence in afghanistan. But once he examines the current situation, he will see that there is a choice between maintaining the agreement with the taleban and keeping those troops there. So i think when he realised when you evaluates everything, if there is reasonable progress in the negotiations and support for it from the regional countries including russia, then im sure that he will go ahead with a troop withdrawal. I would assume that he will advocate the same thing and 2020 that he did in 2000 because he did support the original war famously. Joe joe biden. Well, they have been rocket attacks scores injured or dead in kabul in just the past few days. A horrific inquiry in australia of showing the torture and killing by australias Defense Forces of farmers and prisoners and civilians. Yes, we just, i know the book starts with the ancient afghanistan. Remi
We use form policy tools to support stability and Economic Development in africa by increasing access to electricity to lay the groundwork for a stable and Prosperous Energy sector. Im here representing the bureau for Energy Resources to focus on Energy Equities around the world to see to elevate their broader foreign policy. Firstever like to a knowledge of house for paying attention for poverty in africa through the power aftertax. Clearly africa it goes through historic transformation of the bureau for Energy Resources is working hard to help governments responsive lee developed their Energy Resources to accelerate the reform of the electricity system that will then encourage private investment and support Economic Growth to support access. With the Interagency Team and we have one of the strongest in my 40 years of government, within the framework it is focused on three main areas, and promoting Good Governance to oil and Gas Resources but also for into the Energy Sector as well in
Out of. If you could perhaps speak to that issue, protecting and hardening it to our terrorisms. Thank you for the question, chairman smith. I will defer to my colleagues specifically in relation to power africa and those engagements. I can tell you the recognition that we encounter from Energy Companies and energy agencies, ministries in our International Engagements to an everincreasing degree recognize the importance of protecting infrastructure. One of the things the department of energy does is to enter into cooperative engagements with Key International partners. We do this at their expense, at the expense of the host country to help them identify older abilities, vulnerabilities. Plan their systems so there is resilience to in the threats, at all hazards approach whether one is talking about severe weather, cyber attack or physical attack. We have found that this is an area where the United States is in a position to add tremendous amount of value from our experience. I will hav
Like you were at some of these meetings where some of these things were discussed no, the nsa was there, i just got the tapes. Im sorry. So we dont have a public listing, per se, but in the first phase of power africa, we did very carefully, through a rigorous interagency process, discuss which would be the six focus countries. And the factors that you describe are, indeed, many of the things that we looked at, to try to assess who would be the good partners. And we will go through a similar process as we think about the expansion. One of the ones that i theres plenty to say about all of them, but one of the ones that ill just spend a moment on is the host countrys commitment. Because as some of the other testimony alluded to, if youre trying to have viable electric utilities, if youre trying to solve some of the problems that are private sector, investors have encountered, in trying to do viable deals, youve got to have a commitment to do things differently. So that was a very one of