Secretary of State nominee, Hillary Clinton, is vowing `broader engagement` of Caribbean nations in the Obama administration.
Clinton made the pledge during her opening statement at her official nomination hearings before Senate colleagues of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Tuesday.
The New York Senator promised a `return to a policy of vigorous engagement throughout Latin America` and said the administration will seek `deeper understanding and broader engagement with nations from the Caribbean to Central to South America.`
`Not only do we share common political, economic and strategic interests with our friends to the south, our relationship is also enhanced by many shared ancestral and cultural legacies,` she added.
Focusing ahead to the April Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago, Clinton said the incoming administration is `looking forward to working on many issues during the Summit of the Americas in April and taking up the President-Elect’s call for a new energy partnership of the Americas built around shared technology and new investments in renewable energy.`
Meanwhile, Clinton promised that if confirmed, she `will accept the duties of the office with gratitude, humility, and firm determination to represent the United States as energetically and faithfully as I can.`
And she vowed that amidst the many global challenges, the first duty is of America is to protect and advance its security, interests, and values while strengthening its position of global leadership.
`We will lead with diplomacy because it’s the smart approach,` she added. `But we also know that military force will sometimes be necessary, and we will rely on it to protect our people and our interests when and where needed, as a last resort.`
On the conflict in the Middle East, Clinton said there must be an increase in our determination to seek a just and lasting peace agreement that brings real security to Israel; normal and positive relations with its neighbors; and independence, economic progress, and security to the Palestinians in their own state.
`We will exert every effort to support the work of Israelis and Palestinians who seek that result,` she stated. `It is critical not only to the parties involved but to our profound interests in undermining the forces of alienation and violent extremism across our world.`
On Africa, Clinton said that helping African nations to conserve their natural resources and reap fair benefits from them; stopping war in Congo; ending autocracy in Zimbabwe and human devastation in Darfur; supporting African democracies like South Africa and Ghana and working aggressively to reach the Millennium Development Goals in health, education, and economic opportunity is high on the Obama administration.
Clinton, 61, was greeted with bipartisan support for her nomination. Republican Sen. Richard G. Lugar raised concerns that foreign governments could perceive donations to former president Bill Clinton’s library as a way to curry favor with the new secretary of state.
Lugar said donations to the library represent a “complication that will have to be managed with great care and transparency.”
Jamaica was among the foreign governments who donated to the Bill Clinton foundation.
Source:CaribWorldNews.com
