Myriad of platforms and around the world and live on cspan2 to Atlantic Council front page. Its our premiere live ideas platform for global leaders. Its our honor today to host the 70th secretary of state mike pompeo. Former director of the Central Intelligence agency, former member of congress, former u. S. Army officer, finished first in his class at west point, Harvard Law School graduate and much more. Im fred kemp, president and ceo of the Atlantic Council. This is a historic day. Israel, the uae and bahrain are scheduled to sign the abraham accord the first such agreement between arab countries and israel. The president will attend and Benjamin Netanyahu will sign. Secretary pompeo, we have a lot to discuss. China and your recent trips to europe and their connection to china issues. Lets start with the middle east, though i know you have a few prepared comments. My first question would be looking at the longterm implications for the u. S. In the region of this accord, how does the u. S. Alliance structure look longer term . What does this shift strategically . Whatever opening comments you have and lets dig into the middle east. Thanks for having me. Its great to be with you all today. Its a big day. As soon as we wrap up here i will head over to the white house for this historic opportunity for these three nations to sign documents that will recognize the reality. Thats where i begin with the respect to the trump administrations approach to the middle east. I have prepared remarks, ill skip them for the sake of having a good conversation. The strategy began with the reality. For decades this towns Foreign Policy with respect to the middle east gave the palestinians a veto right that they could act in a way that prevented any arab nation from engagi engaging. We took a different view. We laid out a vision for peace that had an element which was the deep recognition that the primary destabilizing force in the middle east was not the conflict between the israelis and palestinians but the threat posed by the extra territorial ambitions by the clerical reg e regimes in iraq. So we flipped what Previous Administrations did on its head. We identified iran as the strategic threat to the United States and laid out a set of policies that would provide security for the American People. I was in doha this weekend. For the first time now in 20 years, afghans sat down together to begin, to pound out what a reconciled peaceful afghanistan might look like. Under no illusions about who these parties are, how difficult that process will be. But its again a recognition of the reality of the things that america that accomplished. Fewer than 200 al qaeda left in afghanistan today. Were delivering a set of outcomes that will reduce the cost in blood for our American Service men and women, in treasure from the american taxpayer and risk to the United States of america. What well see today at the white house is a set of countries who came to the same conclusion that we did, about what was in their best Sovereign National interest to recognize the state of israel to normalize relationships with them and build out security relationships around that. A coalition that has been in the works for three plus years now. I heard someone say the other day this happened overnight. I can assure you this has taken all the efforts under President Trumps leadership for three years now to get us to this place today. The question of what kind of impact this could have on the u. S. Alliance structure, could there be tectonic shifts that go way beyond what weve seen thus far . What is your view there . What are the longerterm implications for the region and the United States and the region . This recognizes the reality that the gulf states recognized it shouldnt go without notice, not only have these nations chosen to recognize israel, but when the gulf states all got together and the palestinians demanded there be a statement that denounced what took place that did not occur. The only two countries that have vehemently denounced this were turkey. So there is a big shift in how these alliances are set. The Previous Administration took an irancentral focus. They undermined lebanese and iraqi sovereignty and stability, created chaos inside of syria. This administration has taken a fundamentally different approach to creating an opportunity for increased stability in the middle east and less risk to america. You mentioned iran. What are the implications for iran, do you believe . This week reported to be weighing an assassination attempt on the u. S. Ambassador to south africa. I was in the middle east at the time we hit sulemani, that assassination attempt was ostensibly to be in revenge for that hit. I think the specific question is the implications of this agreement to iran but also a little bit of context of where you think we are right now in that struggle. We should take the iranians word for what they think about these set of agreements. They think this fundamentally is a detriment to their security. They have made accusations about their muslim brothers that are outrageous, about it is frank i will showing the true antisemitic nature of the regime in iran as well. Look, i dont want to comment on the intelligence, but the iranians didnt need an action by the United States to conduct assassination campaigns around the world. This has been their model for 40 years. You know this too, fred. Their model of conducting political assassinations in europe and other places and building out networks and capabilities, proxy forces around the world this is the iranian model. We strived to build out a set of understandings that denies the regimes capabilities. You can see it. You can see a weakened capacity from hezbollah. You can see them scratching, clawing, turning to narcotics activities to generate revenue. You can see whats happening in iraq. Greater space for shia militias to join and put the monopoly of arms back in the hands of the iraqi leadership. All of this came because President Trump understood the way we were conducting our business in the middle east for decades had not delivered on American Security and were getting to a place where now we are able to do that. Thank you for that. Lets shift to nine. As i talk to people observing the trump administrations Foreign Policy, they point to the middle east and china as the areas where theres probably at this point the most lasting legacy. Some believe your speech on china at the Nixon Library and museum was one of historic significance in july. Following the speeches of the National Security adviser, the fbi director, the attorney general. Theres direct comparisons made to Ronald Reagan and his trusted verify, you said distrust and veri verify. You called china for its desire. How would you view this comparison to reagan towards the soviet union and pompeo trump towards china and do you want the same outcome that reagan eventually got with moscow, which was the collapse of soviet communism . Well, the outcome, of course collapse of soviet coin additio were seeking to ensure that the system that has benefitted the United States of america is the dominant force for the century that were in as well. Thats the objective set. That is in fact when i talked about chinese desire for hedge money, thats what im speaking to. Thats what its trying to undermine. We should take them at their word when xi jingping talks about national rejuvenation, hes not talking about a party. Hes not talking about having a good day and a celebration, hes talking about the middle kingdom, the central ideas of nationalism, chinese nationalism and the underpinnings of his regime. Hes dedicate today that, committed to it, put resources against it. They have a model that is highly developed of statesponsored enterprises. These are things xi jingping knows and for an awfully long time, the west sat on its hands, we turned the other cheek. What i spoke about was a need to reorient and recognize that whatever the policy that were chosen back in the 1970s, whether they may well have made sense at the time, it no longer makes sense for the security of the American People. This isnt just a security issue. This is a fundamental understanding about how economies grow and how we preserve jobs and Wealth Creation and prosperity here in the United States of america. This is central to trump, the trump administrations Foreign Policy. I believe its going to be central to every administrations Foreign Policy for years to come. Trump Administration Critics say it would be easier to counter china, as you said, for years to come into future administrations if we had done more to rally allies. I know youve been in asia and europe doing exactly that. Where do you feel youve succeeded, where do you have worries . Whether you look at germany, south korea, japan, they all have china as their number one trading partner at the moment. Thats an important question. And ive seen this critique. Let me give you two thoughts. First, the most important ally to have on this is the American People. The American People need to fundamentally understand the threat that is imposed on them. Ive traveled the United States. Im going to travel to a state capital next week and talk about the threat here inside the United States. Youve seen what we did to the den of spies in houston, we closed it. Its been going on a long time. Trump has said, enough, were not going to do that. The most Important Group that we need to make the case for is to convince the American People of this threat and this change and i think weve gone a long ways into communicating transparency about why it is the case, that allows tens of millions of jobs to have been stolen through the predatory Economic Activity here in the United States can not guilty cannot continue. Ive spent my year and a half as director of the Central Intelligence agency and 2 1 2 years as secretary of state, all around the world talking to them, not coercively, not threateningly, just data. Just facts about the what the Chinese Communist party is doing to their people and the threats that it imposes to their sovereignty. Its been rewarding to watch the shift, the world has awakened. My view is that the tide has turned. Whether its their recognition of the coverup that took place with respect to the chinese virus, whether its the predatory activity of the now failing falling flat all across africa. Whether its the countries i spoke to last week that the attacks on their own Economic Activities are things that they have the capacity to stand up so long as america is prepared to do it alongside of them. These are powerful shifts in the worlds view of the threat from the Chinese Communist party. I think commercial activity will reflect those risks. Ive seen it from American Business leaders. They understand much more clearly the Political Risk associated with operating inside a country dominated and controlled by a single party, the Chinese Communist party. General jim jones of the Atlantic Council, former National Security adviser, sends in a question along those lines, digging a little bit deeper. It seems to many of us that china has made europe an epicenter, almost a target, of its global efforts. Youve been to europe recently. Youve talking to people. Specifically youve signed 5g mous, slovenia elsewhere, how will you efficient wait those mous and do we have an alternative to huawei to offer our friends and allies . Jim asks, as he always does, a good question. What we can do at the United States is we have the capacity to control the information that, for example, comes into our embassies. Ill give this as a microexample. Weve now told the world that information coming to our embassies must only come from trusted vendors. It means i cant come across a system that has the capacity to flow information back to the Chinese Communist party or their National Security apparatus. Were building these systems out with our allies and friends, with the australians, japanese, south koreans, indians, each of whom has come to have a shared understanding of the threat. As for alternatives, i was very distressed to find the gap between huawei and American Technology with respect to 5g, for that matter, western technology. But over the last two years, ive watched ericson and knnoki take it up. They can deliver the same services or Better Services at comparative costs. Theyll never match them. When you have stateowned we always joke about the battle about airbus and boeing. Thats childs play compared to what the Chinese Communist party does. These are companies that were built on stealing American Technology, bringing it back to the homeland and turning around and dumping into in the United States of america and around the world and bullying countries into accepting this technology. When the chinese show up and say its free, nothing could be further from the truth. Theyve come to recognize the real costs connected with putting untrusted vendors in their system and i think the world will come to recognize thats not the right path and you will see western technologies that are verifiable, trustworthy and transparent come to dominate the telecommunications markets. Whats your vision, then, for an end state. Decoupling seems unlikely with a competitor as integrated into the World Economy as comhehina. Where do we land . Where is a safe place to hand with this strategy . Its a good question. Ive read the histories about where we thought we would land when we began to challenge the soviet union. No one had a sense of how that would unfold. Theres still much to unfold here as well we know what it would ultimately look like and we know that the Chinese Communist party will make decisions along the way that well have to respond to. But what it looks like, it looks like a world that is controlled and operated in a way that freedomloving nations, rulesloving nations, the lawabiding nations can live and not by authoritarian regimes, this is what the end state will look like. What it will look like inside of china, the Chinese People will get a heavy say in and theyll have to make some very difficult decisions for themselves. Their not ten feet tall. There are many challenges. We could talk about this for hours. Challenges that are faced inside china as they attempt this play. What i hope everyone on this call will take away is the theory that so many have been talking about for the past ten years. Its predicated on conflict between the United States and the Chinese Communist party because the United States is a declining nation is fundamentally false. It misunderstands the american tradition, who we are as americans, were not a ze klini declining nation. And theyre seeing that america is going to stand up for itself, respond in ways that are fair and reciprocal and defend american interests wherever we find them. Thank you, mr. Secretary. Most americans have not heard of something called the three Cs Initiative. Youve been advancing this in your trips to europe and your most recent trip to europe. We have a soft spot for this because the concept was originally born at the Atlantic Council. Its a northsouth corridor of transportation, energy that doesnt replace eastwest, but more deeply integrates central and Eastern Countries of the european union. Our ambassador has been a big and important advocate for this, the International Development finance corporation has put some potential funding on the table that i think is motivated this to go further. Theres going to be a summit in estonia soon. What does this achieve and why have you got behind this idea . Yeah, its a really fine idea and important idea about thinking about a different part of european infrastructure. You asked the question earlier about europe. I try not to respond to questions generically responding to europe. This is another example that you have Baltic States that recognize that their security situation is different from what you might find in other places of europe. So we