To our viewers the most prominent voices and decisionmakers shaping the National Conversation over key issues of world affairs, including the rise of china and reemergence of great power competition, energy security, cyber warfare, the global economy, and the collision between democracy and autocracy, to name just a few. Our viewers can find the latest lineup of speakers and sign up for each of them on the Atlantic Councils website, follow us on nticcouncil, and engage in this conversation. We are truly delighted to have with us Robert Obrien from National Security advisor to u. S. President donald trump. He has in this capacity since september 2019. Prior to holding is important position, ambassador obrien served on the front lines of u. S. Diplomacy as President Trumps special envoy for hostage affairs. Ambassador obrien, thank you so much for joining us today. We are delighted to have you here. Let me start with a question. According to news reports, china has protested and alleged incursion of the u. S. Spy plane into a nofly zone imposed during a military exercise. Also according to the same report, it was stated that fired 2ly beijing had missile shots that were reportedly fired as a warning to the u. S. Military. Could you please comment on that event . Mr. Obrien thank you for having me come and thank you to the Atlantic Council for hosting again. Always great to be back with such a Distinct Group of policymakers and academics and public intellectuals. It is nice to be here with you, and especially with you, a former colleague. Look, what we have seen with china over many years now, something i have been writing about for well over a decade, is an increasing assertiveness and aggressiveness in the world. Some of it is very malign. You talk about the South China Sea. China has made the decision with annex a vastine to swath of the western Pacific Ocean and claim as chinese territorial waters, almost like it was talking like lake tahoe was there, internal waterways or something. It is ridiculous. It has been rejected by all which are countries, seafaring countries. And now china is engaged in military exercises in these waters that they consider domestic, whichof the i death noe stretch of the which stretch of the imagination or domestic. We do it in a safe manner, we do it in a professional manner, our soldiers and sailors and marines always participate in their ensuresn a manner that their safety and the safety of others. We certainly reject any chinese claims that flights over the South China Sea and are manufactured claims constitute some breach of a norm or rule. This is typical chinese behavior that was here recently. Use other recent brutal attack you saw the recent brutal attack on the indian control. The chinese brutally killed almost two dozen indian soldiers. We asking the crackdown in hong kong. We have seen the crackdown in hong kong. The longterm efforts to bully taiwan and undermine its democracy. We are seeing a very assertive, very aggressive china, and the United States is not going to back down from its longheld principles that the worlds ocean waste and International Waters should be free for navigation, in the same way with space and air rights, international airspace. We are not going to back down from that. It is too bad the chinese have decided to engage in further assertiveness or aggressiveness in this circumstance. Ms. Dobriansky ambassador, let me ask you a related question. The Trump Administration has identified the competition as the defining challenge of our day. What will it take for the United States to prevail in this competition with china . Could you articulate some of the core policy thats that it policy paths that the administration has pursued and will continue to pursue . Mr. Obrien its a great question, paula. Pointed the impressive things one of the impressive things the Trump Administration did in the initial years was put out a defense strategy, and we have nearpeer competitors, russia and china, that are trying to reshape the global commons, trying to change the global norms and rules of the road, so to speak, we have all operated under the second world war. With china, we have unique challenges. You have a communist party of china that is an heir to china stalins russian communist party, marxistleninist party. They have total control over their people. The control is becoming orwell would have imagined when he wrote 1984 with mass surveillance. They are exploiting that control , the National Security law and a democracy in hong kong. They are bullying republic of china, taiwan. The indians are not going to take it. They are going to stand up for their own sovereign rights. Number one, we have to embrace what Ronald Reagan talked about, which is peace through strength. That is what President Trump did. He has rebuild our military and ended defense sequestration. We have to stand up to chinas unfair trade practices. We were running a 5 billion year deficit to china, much of that because of dumping and currency manipulation and intellectual property theft. Intellectual property theft on its own is a major factor we have to address. Fbi director chris wray spoke about the theft of American Intellectual property and trade as the by the prc biggest wealth transfer in human history, which is an amazing, astounding fact. Wray said they are opening a new case on espionage with regard to security secrets but also industrial espionage every 10 hours. The fbi is overwhelmed by the number of chinese espionage cases. Third, we have got to be very concerned about chinese access to our Capital Markets, where they participate, our Capital Markets that are not required to have audited financials, thats what thing, and secretary mnuchin and the sec with the new rules of the Public Companies have taken steps there. We have to confront the chinese across all spectrums. They are a very very dedicated competitor, adversary. They work in every spectrum from diplomacy to the military to their economic efforts, and many of the things they do, to make it simple, they just dont follow the rules. I am convinced that the u. S. Is, as it always has been, up to the challenge. President trump as certainly shown the way. Successor ins a a few months or a few years from we are leading the way to meeting our way of life and defend against these pernicious of axle attacks. Ms. Dobriansky likes take this a little broader. What are the primary challenges that you believe are confronting the United States over the next four years, and how should we be preparing for it . Maybe at the same time, what about the opportunities that you see that we all should see . Mr. Obrien another great question, paula, thank you. Look, im optimistic about the future. We have had a tough 2020, and there are a lot of people who are ready for 2020 to be over and move on. We faced this covid virus that came out of china, the economic harm that has come along with that. We have hotspots around the world, a lot of iran, theivity from poor people of lebanon, the terrible explosion in beirut. We have got renewed tension between greece and turkey in the mediterranean. We have all the challenges we have with china. We havent even talked about russia what looks like a poisoning of the leading dissident in russia. We have had other we have the russians involved in syria, got them involved in libya. They remain in ukraine. There are a number of challenges around the world. Afghanistan is one that we have been fighting for almost 20 years now. We have a pathway to get our troops home from afghanistan and hopefully to have a draft and these and have the Afghan People come together to govern themselves. We have got some difficulties in venezuela, cuba, nicaragua. There are plenty of challenges around the world. People,ne, the american and our continued ingenuity, creativity, innovation. We have been having a tough time in space prior to the president taking office because of cuts to nasa and lack of commitment to space. What happened during that time period . All of these Great American private sector committees, whether it was bezoss company, together with, our traditional defense contractors, and our private sector has led the way in space. We recently celebrate it the first celebrated the first launch of a space capsule from american soil and a market american astronauts with its recovery here and bring those astronauts back to the United States. That is exciting. I returned from a trip to latin america. We have a tremendous renaissance going on in the western hemisphere. The countries in the western hemisphere are struggling with covid, but with the exception of the countries i mentioned, nicaragua, venezuela, cuba, we have a hemisphere. Marcus is committed to the rule of law. They have challenges but they also have tremendous talented populations that want to work hard and are innovative. When you look at space when you look at what the American People are doing, with respect to innovation here, when you look at what is happening in our hemisphere, i think there are tremendous opportunities, notwithstanding the challenges we have to manage around the world. Ms. Dobriansky thats true, thats terrific. It is good to hear, not only the at the same time the opportunities. Let me also without backup ask you a question that many in the thinktank community preoccupy themselves with and follow very closely, and that is the question of americas role in the world, what it should be. Can you comment on what you see [indiscernible] that are guiding u. S. Engagement in the rest of the world . What matters here . Mattersien what is that america leads. President trump talks about America First but he also makes it clear that that doesnt mean america alone. One of the great strategic advantages we have as we look out across the world and a rising china, as we look at a more assertive russia, especially in eastern europe, china and russia as allies that they rent or buy. They have a very future allies. We have countries that share our values and way of life all around the world and a very strong system of alliances. That doesnt mean that everythings perfect between us all the time, but we have great partners, and a very unique position to lead. Did, thinkingyou that the president of the United States is the leader of the free world and america is the last best hope, shining city on the hill, all the things we believe in. President trump believes the same thing. At the same time we want to make sure that our allies pay their fair share when it comes to defending the global commons, defending the alliance. It cannot just be the u. S. Anymore. One of the things that the president has been criticized for, i think very unfairly, is our nato alliance. Nato has been the most successful alliance in history going all the way back to rome. We have a Great Alliance with nato. The president was tough on nato coming into office because the nonus nato members for the most part let defense spending fall to record low levels, they had no readiness, they werent maintaining platforms, they didnt have enough troops. The president said this doesnt work. We cannot continue to be the only party seriously committed to defense. You have got to raise your game. Thereprivileged to be with the president and we had a lot of cooperation with secretarygeneral stoltenberg and we have commitments of 400 billion of additional spending by nonus nato countries to defense. That is fantastic for the United States, fantastic for the western alliance, and great for nato. Every president i can remember since president nixon has been asking at european allies to pay their fair share and to increase their spending to protect against russia and it now china and other threats, iran. It has always fallen on deaf ears with the idea that, well, america will come through in the end. President trump got it done. A lot of people didnt like the rhetoric used, but he got it done in a way that no one in my lifetime has. I look at our roles as being the one indispensable country still that can bring peace to the world, peace to regions. You look at what we did, whether president did in bringing crown yednce mohammed bin salmasa and Bibi Netanyahu and achieving a Peace Agreement between an arab country and israel. I will be heading to the region on saturday, the privilege of flying on the first direct flight from bengurion airport in tel aviv to abu dhabi. What a great thing to have the uae, a finance center in the middle east, a great partner of the United States, and the center of innovation in the middle east, israel, come together. Those are the sorts of things that the United States can do to bring our friends and allies together. Ms. Dobriansky let me pick up on this team, because it is an important one, and thank you for your articulation of the importance of allies and alliances. Lets go to the indo pacific. The Trump Administration has certainly emphasized the importance, economically, militarily, politically, of the indopacific. You have the quadrilateral Security Dialogue with japan, australia, india, and the United States. Can you talk a bit about how you see alliances and allies playing an Important Role in that arena . We were discussing china earlier. Us whats share with the importance of this issue has been for the administration. Mr. Obrien paula, as you know, norew up in california knock on the Atlantic Council, but i consider the United States a pacific power. A lot of our glorious naval and military history place in the pacific, predating world war ii by far. I think we have a window on the pacific that provides us with tremendous opportunities. Let me start on the economic front. I went to represent the president at the east asian asean u. S. Summit last fall. There was a lot of talk about how much investment china was making in the region and how little invest there was five United States. I asked our team to put together some numbers and the United States through the private sector, through our great companies, Oil Companies or Tech Companies or auto companies, pharmaceutical companies, we have put together investment in the indopacific of over 1 trillion, private sector investment. Twice as much as china and japan combined. Wewe like a major role play a major role in an economic front, but some of that is ignored because it is through microsofts, and airlines and the Car Companies and Oil Companies, all these Great American investors, the Financial Services companies, the law firms. It is an amazing amount of stake we have in the indopacific, the engine of the World Economy going forward, and america is going to play a big role there. One of the ways we can do that is defense partnerships and diplomatic partnerships with allies. I think the quad, which is really coming into its own, the relationship between japan, india, and australia, and the United States, is one of the most exciting diplomatic one of the areas most likely to succeed and they use dividends in the futurek huge dividends in the future. I will be meeting with my october in hawaii in of thosensas countries. Secretary pompeo will be meeting with the Foreign Ministers of those countries in september and october. We are committed to those alliances. There are many other likeminded countries there. We have great relationships with singapore, terrific relationship with our longtime friends in taiwan. Malaysia, indonesia are coming into the road. Zealand has reemerged they have always been a partner, but we had difficulties, as you remember from your work in the bush administration, with worship business. We have gotten over most of those issues with new zealand and we have american destroyers and cruisers visiting the great parts of new zealand. We have tremendous partnerships, tremendous opportunities. We have great partnerships with our friends the Second Island chain. Tohave delivered ventilators congo and to pollute and alu and kiribati, papa new guinea, east timor. Were doing a lot in the indo pacific. We are doing on a defense bases and security bases, on a defense basis and security basis, humanitarian basis. We are doing it through investment and trade in the region, and it is one of the places the old theme of go ,est, young woman, go west young man, i think we will have a great future in the pacific region. Ms. Dobriansky i wanted to ask you about general scowcroft. Sadly this month we lost general scowcroft, a giant of National Security. You have certainly been handson at the National Security council, and in terms of shaping and general scowcroft is constantly cited as the gold standard. R goalsith us what youre and objective