National security advisor. I want to welcome all of you here who are able to join us and our audience watching on livestream. Welcome toy special our very special cspan audience who be following this event on cspan2 today. We are delighted to have you here if only virtually, and delighted to have everyone who has been able to participate. This will be one of the most interesting events we have done here at hudson, particularly that we are less than one week and some the election of these issues we are talking about today, questions about what america will do and where it will go from your these issues will be decided very soon so what happens here will help us to understand what takes place regardless of who it is who will be sitting in the world in the oval office. Want to say a few words about our distinguished guest. Robert obrien graduated from the university of california berkeley. From there, he founded a law and between 19961998, officer with legal the United Nations compensation commercial and served in a number of clinical positions for the bush, obama and Trump Administrations and was a civilian observer for the council on international ill policy. Bush namedeorge w. Him as the u. S. Alternate representative to the 60th session of the United States nations General Assembly and he was cochairman of the department of states Publicprivate Partnership for Justice Reform in afghanistan, is he also served on that position during obamas first term. 10 2019 President Trump appointed ambassador obrien especial president ial on , and onestage affairs year later he was given title of ambassador. The investor took the office of the 28th United StatesNational Security advisor on september 18 2019, so he has been in that position for just a little bit more than one year. Today, he serves as a Senior Advisor on international affairs, chairs the National Security council and overseas the National Security staff. Ambassador brian has also done his share of writing and i do want to recommend to you his book published in 2019. Prescientany ways a collection of essays that many that many innges america were ignoring but have now very much come home to roost. I particularly like section three, which has the title of to rule the waves. It is well worth reading and a good reminder that our guest today is someone with a real vision about National Security and where americas place in the world is and where it should and that is why we are delighted and privileged to have him here today. [applause] it is a pleasure to be with you. We are socially distanced enough and i take this mask up. Sometimes i think i cough because the mask is on. Adopters ofarly masks, still came down with covid the summer and i was fortunate to get through it. I have got this book, to rule the waves. The chapter was named by the editor. I dont want to get a letter from your counsel. But he is a great writer and great story and and Great American so thank you for that generous introduction. Thank you john walters for hosting today. Bring you greetings from the 45th president of the United States donald trump. Four years ago he was elected and he had a very different view of how peace and prosperity in the world could be achieved and how the American People be served by the president President Trump had no higher priority than putting the needs, safety of the american first and thats where the term America First comes from. That nationales has been obtained on a piece the strength loss for so the president deals with the world as it is. We deal with dictators and regimes as they are not as we hope that. Got turn a blind eye to their conduct expecting them to change we do the hard work of strengthening their alliances and he has been criticized for that but we think that his thatns have demonstrated we will no longer be party treaties where our sovereignty is not affected but we also think that its better for other countries in the world as well. As he said to the United Nations, the president puts America First also believes other countries put their own interests first and thats how it should be. World, our approach has led to demonstrable results that have made the American People safer. For example early on in the administration, there was caliphate the size of Great Britain spanning across iraq and syria. That caliphate is now destroyed. Isis, the man who kept a slave the man who ultimately killed her, he was removed from the battlefield and justice was brought him almost one year ago today. The leaders of al qaeda, theft and human been removed. Over 50 american hostages and detainees around the world have been brought home. Replaced by the and it hased usmca created and strengthened the most profitable the United States and our partners trade zone in the entire world. Year theh of this coast guard and navy have run antidrug in the eastern pacific and over 4 billion in cocaine and marijuana and deny those revenues to the traffickers. 4. 7 billion. Working together with the leaders of el salvador, President Trump has reduced undocumented immigration by 85 . We are working very closely with the hemispheres largest democracy, purcell. Ands just there this week we signed deals that will be great for brazil and the United States and our manufacturing base. The president also confirmed major ally status of the so. Millions in loans throughout the western hemisphere under an initiative we call growth the american. We are strengthening our neighbors and increasing prosperity here at home and our neighborhood. The Pressure Campaign has brought irans economy to its knees and cut off over 150 billion in section really the iranians were using not to help their own people but to spread this court and war across the. Iddle east front, heden sharing encouraged our nato allies to spend 400 billion dollars in additional defense spending 32024. 2024. Ough that makes the world safer and that pledge of increased spending was also accompanied by burden sharing and other places. Troopsre 6100 coalition most of them in nato. So for the first time we have more of our partners bearing the burden of the work afghanistan and say things happening in iraq. After years of piquant of defense sequestration, we had gotten to the point we had the point we had the smallest military since 1940. Need to rebuild our Nuclear Deterrent. Spent over the last few years, all of it has been addressed. The progress is impressive. We elevated u. S. Cyber command crated the joint Artificial Intelligence center and established space command. The first new branch of the u. S. Armed forces since 1947 and it has captured the imagination of our young men and women who serve in their lining up in droves joint space force. We are ensuring a Strong Defense will protect our homeland against actors and adam mosseri straights states that threaten us. Modernizing our Nuclear Deterrent remains a foundation moment of our National Security. We deployed a low yield warhead and numerous Extension Programs on our existing nuclear stockpile. Capabilitiese test remain viable and funded the nsa to appropriately meet the necessary infrastructure operations. Making sure that we actually have safe, secure and ultimately Deadly Nuclear weapons and ensures the fact we never have to use the. We have also funded longrange , theoff missiles groundbased strategic deterrence. Every aspect of our Nuclear Enterprise is under modernization and maintains a credible deterrent for years to come. Finally, we are developing new in hypersonic weapons, directed energy, Artificial Intelligence and others that will ensure american superiority against any for. Under President Trumps leadership, we have spent more on Defense Research that we have at 70 years and that is what is required to stay ahead of our enters is critical and emerging technologies and to lead the way when it comes to new developments, manufacturing and manufacturing. As we built these next capabilities, it is essential to protect our Critical Technology from adversary theft. We cannot spend billions only to have them copied or compromised by the time theyre actually fielded. Theyll be waged just in the air but in space and cyberspace, dramatically increasing the. Omplexity and speed of warfare we are building one that will deter our adversaries by the pair to fight today and in the future. President trump knows the world needs a strong respected and wen to achieve these know President Trump believes weakness is provocative. In the region, the cooperation of allies has never been we are working with Australia New Zealand philippines and thailand. Our relation with india has never been better we are working on issues to counter maritime security, freedoms of navigation in the south and east tennessee. In afghanistan, we peace warement after 19 years of and at the start of the negotiations last month we asked put the Afghan People on a path towards lasting. Thats lasting peace. President trump has committed to american troops they would like him to come home soon as conditions permit, tweeting he would like them home by christmas and whether we get the home by christmas shortly thereafter american troops are coming home. We have not lost american to combat death in afghanistan during this year since february. Last month President Trump achieved a truly historic Peace Agreement for the emirates, bahrain and israel and represents the most important step towards peace in years is fortunate to be on the flight from the airport and it was a moving and Emotional Experience as we passed to saudi airspace and the captain announced that this was the first time an israeli plan has been invited over saudi arabia, and what we got to abu dhabi, the amorites literally it out the red carpet. It was in some ways like being at a Family Reunion for cousins who had not been speaking together and had not seen each other for years. Israelcently, sudan and made peace and was recently war between sudan and israel. In just over a month and a half we have had three countries normalize relations. This is dream many of us thought might never happen and is the president stated recently there thisore countries to come development was spurred by President Trumps leadership. He did something that was unusual for politicians, he created Political Capital in israel by moving our embassy from tel aviv to jerusalem. Something many president ial candidates have problems to do the past never actually done. He recognized the Golan Heights jcpoa. About a disastrous it is not just those contract conflicts for the middle east is just approached to the balkans with similar determination. Last month, serbia and kosovo took a huge step forward in normalizing economic relations this is something europe had been working on for 20 years srough President Trump determination and insistence we were able to have a major breakthrough. Americas days of leading from behind strategic patients are over. His bold leadership style has proven key as we build consensus against china. He was the first major leader to recognize that was only a matter of time for china would liberalize was wrong and we have watched them become warm mercantilist, authoritarian emitted marxism and leninism. They have to become more like us. The free world is standing up to chinese aggression in all of its forms. Present trump refused to except the status quo on the trip trip bedroom imposed tariffs to compensate for their forced technology transfers, intellectual property theft massive subsidies and other mercantilist tactics. They brought the the president brought the prc did five january we signed the phase one trade deal that prohibits china from forcing u. S. Companies to transfer the technology, opens Chinese Markets to ten civilians of those to the u. S. Agricultural sales and Financial Services firms and partial addresses chinese currency manipulation and so far china seems to be abiding by the deal. The covid19 pandemic has limited the impact and our enthusiasm for the trade deal but the exercise shows it was only by stand up to the prc that the United States could achieve a real improvement in the trade sphere. The Top Administration is working to prevent companies the answer the Chinese Communist party, intelligence apparatus and secret apparatus such as huawei and zte from stealing americas personal and private data. InterNational Security secrets. The administration has impose restrictions on use semiconducting compass from exporting their highest technology to huawei, cte and others. The doj is investigating and prosecuting chinas economic espionage aggressively. Fbi director wray stated every ten hours the open up a new investigation into chinas economic espionage. The administration is limited the Peoples Liberation army Student Visa Program to support our intellectual property and weapons with that information. For a time we believe there were more Chinese Military officers people Liberation Army officers in america studying for advanced degrees in the stem very then American Military officers and the recovery in through phony claims to be student when the fact there were chinas military officers here to take our innovation, ingenuity, creativity for free to take a back to china so they could both strengthen the National Defense and offense is given those against the United States but also to improve their Industrial Base visavis the u. S. Without doing the right thing. The president strengthen our authority to restrict Foreign Investment the threat u. S. National security and tightened export control of all. Our democratic partners are taking similar action against china. Sweden removed chinas confucius institutes from its universities. The u. K. , the czech republic, estonia, bulgaria, slovenia, taiwan, romania, and sweden have committed to using trusted providers for their 5g networks. Administration did not, that allows space for them to engage in peace negotiations with israel. What is amazing, i think this is going to be a warm piece. Its not going to be a cold peace like we had with israel and egypt in the past where there wasnt a lot of interaction, not a lot of tourism. We are already seeing a dramatic increase in tourism between the uae and israel. We are seeing Economic Opportunities that are staggering. Israel is a startup nation. Its a hightech nation, a rival of silicon valley. The uae has tremendous banking and finance. Marrying up israel he attack and entrepreneurship the Financial Center in dubai and abu dhabi is going to be something that creates huge opportunities for young people in the middle east, young israelis, young arabs. Other countries are going to see it and want to be part of what is happening. So far, its going well. It didnt come from nowhere. This was something that was fostered and created by President Trump taking a different approach to peace in the middle east. Wisdom isnventional you had to solve the palestinian problem first, and you couldnt until you solved the palestinian problem. You never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity. Piece out a great opening plan for the israelis and palestinians, and the palestinians ignored it. Other countries said, this is a good deal. The palestinians should come to the table and negotiate and get a better deal, but if they are not going to come to the table, we arent going to continue to deny our young people opportunities in business and commerce and tourism. We are going to make peace with israel. The president laid the foundations getting out of the jcpoa, standing up to iran was a big part of that. Secure, the saudis felt under the American Security pledges. Israel felt secure, and we followed through on our plans. Recognized the sovereignty of the Golan Heights. In that unique set of circumst