the us-japan alliance remains the cornerstone of the pacific security and with our new defense guidelines the alliance has never been stronger or more capable of contributing to security in the asia-pacific and beyond. likewise, it's the closest it's ever been. through our strategic handshake with america reaching last in the rebalance in the east in the policy the two nations are exercising together by air, land and sea and we have the technological handshake as the trade initiative grasps hands in the campaign that's helping the country move towards a more diverse development and production system for developing

weapons and now in the third phase it will be necessary to cement the progress we made in the first and second phase to build upon it the united states will continue to sharpen the military so we remain the most powerful military in the region by increasing and targeting investments and capabilities suited to the region to ensure that we stay the best. more on that momentarily. we will also continue to make technological investments including some surprising ones that will help us keep the lead and we will further catalyze the growing principled inclusive security network although it isn't a formal alliance, this burgeoning network is grounded on the principles.

it's inclusive no matter its capability budget or experience and it's developing into the ways try a letter on mechanisms that previously worked together. for example the blossoming us-japan republic of korea helps us coordinate responses to the nuclear missile provocations. just last month or three countries held their second effort many countries are coming together on their own by establishing the biological and trilateral mechanisms for example indonesia, malaysia and the philippines are coordinating the maritime patrols to counter piracy, organized crime and terror activities in southeast

asia. it's a good thing on its own but it's also an important step in the developing network. and even more broadly the asia-pacific regions are developing a network multilateral regional security from one end of the region to another as a central example the defense ministers meeting serving as an important form but its all for the good of the region and the united states but it's important to remember the rebalance security network isn't aimed at any particular country. the network isn't closed and it excludes no one. its objective is to tell everyone to rise and prosper although we have disagreements with china including destabilizing behavior in the south china sea and its drivingg many that work with us we are committed to working with china where possible on the measures

to reduce risk and encouraging them to avoid self isolation. all this is happening today but even as wthateven as we confrons challenges of the strategic time of transitio transition we woule necessary for the dod to lead well into the future. today is the finest fighting force the world has ever known. there is none more experienced or innovative but that isn't a birthright. we can't take it for granted in the 21st century. we have to earn it again and again. we have to invest and innovate and that's why i'm constantly pushing the pentagon to think outside our five sided box and ensure that our technology,

plans, organizations above all people stay the best for decades to come. the most recent budget proposal that i continue to urge appropriators and congress as soon as possible is designed to make sure they maintain their dominance in every domain we are growing not only the number of ships in the fleet at the new weapons like the tool capable of extending the community lead investing in the global reach and payloads of all kinds and also innovative capabilities and platforms, the joint strike fighter. those are the things we can talk about.

meanwhile we are also shipping training and readiness for the ground forces. the underinvestment in the nuclear deterrent and re- capitalizing it we are doing more in cyber and warfare in space to stay on the cutting edge and in addition to these investments we are pushing the envelope with research development to stay ahead of our competitors by putting $72 billion into the r&d for next year. that's more than double what apple, intel and google spent last year combined. beyond that, building and rebuilding bridges in the technology community. one way we are doing so is through the defense innovation

unit type created with startups and other groups in silicon valley, boston, texas and everywhere in between. and thanks to the managing director for participating those are already producing results interacting with the company's 31 states to help us adopt technology more quickly that can help accomplish the missions. we will also need to defense systems to better connect the pentagon to the whole world of american innovation to help our own companies find new technologies and new people to

bring into them and all of that is an investment worth making. we are also operating innovation only. including ways to overcome emerging threats we are planning in new ways for overloading the contingencies and the flexibility through the floor plans. meanwhile we are making reforms across the enterprise streamlining, lowering the health care costs and poor and we are also continuing to support and seek improvements in the spirit of goldwater nichols to clarify the authority of that joint chiefs and help the combatant commanders be more

efficient especially in the face of the functional challenges. we are also building on the success of the buying power initiative to the contracted costs are the major acquisition programs very significantly. to improve on this progress, it will be necessary to make additional changes like streamlining the system itself. and we are ensuring that it's a place we are thinking bold and differently which is a strength of the american military has fostered one way we are doing so as with eric schmidt.

one of the recommendations is the senior adviser for the innovation activities such as building software platforms that the human network for the driven innovation across the dod and the class we are building the force future to ensure in the technological and labo the labor market changes, we continue to attract and retain and develop the most talented people of america has to offer for the military. in total expands the career of the service member from recruiting those that join to caring for and developing them into consulting successfully transitioned those that want to move on into these initiatives include expanding the reach of

the program that marks its anniversary this year making commonsense improvements to the talent management and officer promotion, giving compliments the authority to directly hire civilians on college campuses and recognizing the survey data indicating family life through retention and bear in mind our forces. by expanding the to demonstrate the logic of what we are doing what they tell you more about one way we are helping build the force of the future as some of you may know today is the one-year anniversary of my decision to open up all combat positions. i made the decisions we can benefit from the talents of every american that can meet our

high standards and contributes to the mission. in the 21st century and the all volunteer force that requires us to draw from the broadest possible pool of people who can meet our stringent standards. that must include women because they make up more than 50% of the population that's mission-critical. i directed that there be no quotas and that's why the number of women previously closed specialties may be modest but they will be the best talent for the job. measured by the contribution tof the force the matter what career force she chooses. in conclusion all of the actions and decisions i spelled out today for taking to do exactly

what my predecessors did for me, and sure that my successors will inherit a fighting force. it's one i've always been determined to uphold. as i mentioned i departs tomorrow for the middle east and europe. we wish them all a happy holiday season from the commander-in-chief, from the leadership, from their country and i'm sure from all of you. i would ask all of you to help our fellow americans understand and appreciate what those troops are doing for them each and and

every one ensures we continue to meet the challenges we face to defend the country and make a better world. we are able to do so and bring strength to the missions because the work, the conservations and the ideas of people, supporters and leaders like those in this room. we can do so because the the president, defense secretaries, senators and congressmen of both parties and because of the service and sacrifice of our people. every soldier, sailor, airmen and marines and their families i know there are missions constantly changing but i couldn't be more proud of them for what they do everyday and

for what they've done for all of us. and i'm sure you feel the same. so god bless them and got us to united states of america. [applause]

secretary of state john kerry gave an update where an evacuation is underway between russia and turkey that fact opposite sides in the conflict. this is 15 minutes.

>> hello, everybody. i just want to bring you all up to date on what we've been trying to do with respect to the tragic situation in syria and focus or especially allepo. i don't think i have to be elaborate, but i'm going to certainly focus on the anger and anguish that everybody feels about the attacks that have been directed at the civilian population, humanitarian workers and medical personnel and there is absolutely no justification whatsoever for the indiscriminate and savage brutality against civilians shown by the regime and by its

allies over the past few weeks were indeed the past five years. the position of the united states remains clear, and i have personally reiterated that position in conversations over the past weeks in the past 24 hours with the u.s. special envoy in paris and senior officials from russia, turkey, egypt, saudi arabia and other countries in the region. what the united states is working towards and has been working towards for some period of time now under difficult circumstances where some parties do not want to move in the a direction it remains very difficult to secure but what we

want in allepo right now is the precursor to move to other things is an immediate and verifiable and durable cessation of hostilities, and that includes all attacks by the regime, its allies and other combatants in allepo. and we've been working very hard on that. we worked on that in the meetings with the feminist or lack of anywhere we've reached some measure of agreement in fact considerable measure but were not able to secure every component of what was needed to move forward. we want safe passage which was beginning today to see things take shape, but we want to see those four both civilians and fighters. we want full access for the delivery of the humanitarian supplies to people that meets

throughout syria and in these steps we are convinced that the killing and suffering in syria could stop if russia into the regime made the decision to do so. this morning i was encouraged by reports that after a number of hits and starts what we got picked up on in the continued conversations which by the way we were informed of by russia and turkey to build out what we talked about in the template we created there are individual cease-fires being worked out with armed operation group commanders and it appears we don't go if it will hold or where it is that the airstrikes

have stopped into the cease-fire may be taking hold. some of them in convoys are beginning to move into the first group of the 2 21 buses and 19 ambulances reached the checkpoint. so, this includes more than a thousand people who are on their way to the turkish border. however, we've also heard reports that the convoy of injured people was fired on by forces from the regime or its allies and we remain deeply concerned as well that we are hearing the reports between the ages of 18 or 40 of them conscripted in the military service when trying to pass through government checkpoints and some of these actually went missing days or even weeks ago,

and we still don't have, their loved ones don't have accountability for what has happened to them. obviously these actions are despicable and contrary to the basic human decency. we have finally received pledges that it will assist in the monitoring that the international red cross will be allowed access in being able to help them with the monitoring. the un is prepared to receive numerous sites in emergency relief kits have been repositioned to try to help people. medical assistance is also going to be available. the government of turkey is prepared to accept more for the

treatment so it appears the necessary preparations have been made for the evacuation process that will safe placdouble safe e implementation of the process continues to be dependent on the actions of the regime and its allies on the ground. let me emphasize, we are going to continue to do our part. we will continue to try to push the party towards resolution. as president obama said the other day in giving us all these impressions and instructions we will try every way we can to save lives and push this where it needs to go. to date we provided more than $6 million for food, water, medicine and other supplies. me be clear i said it once and i

will say it again what has happened already is unconscionable that there remains tens of thousands of lives that are now concentrated in a very small area of allepo. and a the last thing anybody was to see comin come into the worll be watching, that turns into another separate. i call on the entire international community to join on the pressure of all parties to go forward with the process that has been laid out for some period of time now to abide by the hostilities in the brain that cruelty that lays the groundwork to be up to take the next steps particularly in allepo. now all of you know we've been engaged in a lot of talks over

this extended period of time now and all of those talks have been geared towards trying to end the war. in september, after months of very tough negotiations, the prime minister and i were able to stand up and make an announcemenannouncement that wed in agreement september 9 and that agreement required a number of days since everybody knows of the purpose and then we would have a joint cooperation to move forward. regrettably for a number of different reasons, the troops and then by others to join in, it fell apart and everybody

feels the pain of the last moment, the lost opportunity for the externalities that we didn't have control over. more than a year ago we agreed on a series of steps that could have produced the cease-fire and protect negotiations. the process isn't succeeded mostly in my judgment because of the continued unwillingness of the regime to live by those agreements to always try to gain more territory and go out to negotiate but always affirming publicly in one statement after another its readiness to take back the country and do everything without regard to the

people that want to be part of the legitimate government process for fear it will not be their leader and he will never be able to unite the country. that is what kept us going. so, we have arrived at another critical juncture if it falls completely and people are slaughtered in that area it will be even harder to deal to bring people around and it will not end the war. there is still the challenge of governing. how many will step up and rebuild it for the policies that are being executed today? so provided that we are able to stabilize the situation in allepo it is essential that we

move forward in the earliest possible moment aimed at ending the war in the transitioning too a new representative government and without that meaningful transition of power which the voices are heard, the opposition will continue to fight. its reservists will continue to be drawn to the country and millions will to be forced to leave their homes. every single party had spoken to in recent days in paris last week and from here in washington this week as recently as this morning every stakeholder tells me that they are ready and willing to get ready on the path to geneva and that includes turkey and arab states and the only remaining question is whether the regime in the

support is willing to prepare to negotiate constructively and whether they are willing to stop this slaughter of their own people so let's be crystal clear who bears the responsibility for what we've seen and what we are seeing and continue to see. we are seeing the unleashing of the sectarian fashion allowing the regime aiding and abetting and it's carrying out nothing short of a massacre and we have witnessed indiscriminate slaughter not accidents of war, not collateral damage but frankly purposeful, a cynical policy of terracing civilians.

we believe this is a moment where the regime and the military have an opportunity to make the decision to for peace and hostilities which could flow right out of this. we are for a cease-fire countrywide but you have to be able to deal with allepo to legitimize getting to the countrywide effort and in addition to that, everyone has reconfirmed to me that readiness to go to geneva for discussions aimed at putting an end to this war. so that's the only way that anybody i've talked to says you can end this war.

they haven't taken place in any of these years but all of the parties have now told me with the exception to go out and actually negotiate in good faith that is the only way to make progress towards a united and peaceful syria as well as the statements that include russia and iran so hopefully people will put actions to the words. >> is it into election related

attacks did you think the administration should come out more boldly about the intelligence of these attacks? >> i am not going to start making comments at this point. i'm not going to comment on anonymous reports from officials that are not identified. we sat in the situation room i remember with the president of the united states and he made the decision based on the input that was carefully vetted by the intelligence community and

presented it to everybody he did have an obligation to go out of the country and give a warning and he did so back in october the president authorized the directorate of national intelligence and the department of homeland security together to make a statement to this nation, our nation they said they assessed with high confidence that the russian government directed compromises of e-mails from u.s. institutions including political organizations and that these disclosures and thefts were intended to interfere with our election process. so he made certain it is serious

now and then as more information comes out. i'm not going to comment further except to say people need to remember the president issued a warning that he had to be obviously sensitive to not being viewed on behalf of the candidate or against a candidate or in a way that promoted unrealistic assessments of what was happening. i think the president did that and now we have to get out the facts and i'm confident that we will in the months ahead.

>> secretary kissinger talked about his recent visit to china and his meeting with president elect trump. this is an hour and a half. [applause]

it's a pleasure to welcome you all to the fourth leaders speak to celebrating the 50th anniversary of the national committee on u.s. chinane relations. for 50 years at the national committee we've been educating americans about china and chinese america from ping-pong diplomacy to today we have sought to strengthen the bilateral relationship byor the fostering exchanges and informed discussions. this year we've gathered the secretaries of defense in the secretaries of commerce and u.s. trade representative's as welll as the national security

advisors and next year we will gather at the u.s. treasury secretaries and hold a similar program like we are doing tonight in china where i will interview chinese leaders many of whom are alumni. it's one of the owners of my life to be joined by the secretaries of state that are living legends for what they've accomplished during their ten years. the national security advisor and secretary of state and the administrations and were instrumental in the reestablishment of relations with china. he spent 45 years helping leaders on both sides navigate this important bilateral im relationship and we especially

appreciate your being here today because on friday we all saw you on television and we know you have to be jetlagged after that. we also know you recently visited trump tower suite of to hear more about that. the committee has been fortunate to have you served on the board of directors now for more than 12 years. today, the 20th anniversary of the secretary albright's anni nomination to be secretary of state under president clinton. having served four years -- [applause] having served for four years as the ambassador to the un, she became the first woman to serve as the secretary of state and at that time the highest rankinggha

woman ever in the united states government. a heroine to my three daughters. secretary albright played a leading role in the negotiations for the exception to the wto and represented the united states at the 1997 transfer of sovereign sovereignty. we've been fortunate to have secretary albright served on the di national committee for seven years and before beginning i want to thank the sponsors new york from the mastercard for funding this program. i would like to specialty think the china center for providing this incredible venue. be for those not with us in person today that are watching on the internet or television, this morning new york was overcast and drizzling. we worried that we wouldn't have this spectacular view but the

day turned into a bright sunny day and we watched this incredible sunset and my hope i that it may be cloudy but it's going to clear up and be bright and sunny in the coming years. [applause]y now >> last but not least i want to thank both secretary kissinger and secretary albright for joining us today. you've both contributed to world peace in ways too numerous to enumerate. if i started to list all of your accomplishments, we wouldn't have time for any questions so i should thank you for being here. you mentioned today she called

me and said he will be great ana it's taken away my one characteristic and i said no, henry. [applause] it will go back further than that to 1971. there've been no contact at that point between the united states and china for 22 years. what made you go to china and what did you seek to accomplish and what lessons from that generally apply to today's relationship? you have written a book on this but we will try to keep it to

five minutes. >> first, but they say that though different parties we have been close friends and never look at these policies as partisan policies and one of the strong elements of the relations is the success chinese leaders followed a fundamentally similar course. what made me go was of course presidents nixon and that we had the attitude that we would want

to improve relations with china specifically into the international system because the it was the contradiction of history that each country had hs its own set of problems. china had the cultural revolution, so it took a while to establish the contact it took about three years in the very complicated ways. one of the major decisions made was between the chinese and the

soviet. we came to the conclusion that russia was probably the attacker and most of the circumstances so we had the problem of decidingcg if these countries get into conflict, where should the united states be a. so we decided that it wasn't in the american interest for china to be defeated in such a conflict so out of this moves that culminated in my first meeting with the prime minister,

i was reading a statement and i said now here we are in this mysterious country. what is so mysterious about china and i said something i forget what it was but he's a think about it. 800 million of us and we are not mysterious to each other. i think this was advice that it was important to take and which

is still valid today. i think the chinese cultural background is different, and therefore it is important to understand the way that china looks at these problems. >> you were secretary of state just as china was joining the wto. talk about the relationship at that time and what lessons you learned from that experience that are applicable today. >> i was in the administration working for the nationalal security council so i was there for the normalization and watched what had in fact been a

very organized way t to follow-p on what doctor kissinger had done and proceed with normalizing the relationship and i was sitting outside the situation room seeing different people going in and then all of a sudden this wonderful moment came.ba i think what was important as we were determined to pursue the story of bringing china into the system. that was a very important part. when i was at the united nation, i sat there with my chinese counterparts and part of the issue was we could never get the chinese to participate in the discussions so you see the same people all the time. i finally gave him a little blue

ball so he could practice getting strong and putting hiso hand out to be part of the. discussions. then i established a good relationship with the foreign minister in terms of talking about more than just our talking points. i do think one of the issues that was so important is how to bring china into the relationship and the administration worked hard. it was basically pulling up the fantasy if i of it was growing a great source so the first step was to bring them into a normal system and then bringing them in

as part of this idea of putting them into the international system. we thought that it was fair and it made it possible for theor rules of trade to be enforced internationally and not just in a bilateral way so it's all part of the same story of trying to make sure china was respected and was a part of a functioning international system and that i think was the view that president carter had become a president clinton, and i think it's something we have to consider they are the number two economy and they need to be part of the functioning internationai system. >> did it work for america? >> the thing i always found so

interesting by the way any of us that have built together we know any diplomat has a set of phrases. it is a consistent and principled concessio position. but the bottom line is there were times that there weree issues. they also want to be seen as the largest developing country. it's a little hard to be the number two economy in the world and talk about being the largest developing country so those are a little bit of the arguments. and then there tends specific cases.. >> do you think that it worked for america? >> yes i do.

>> the fundamental issue has been to see whether china or the united states could pursue the objectives. it was never going to happen that we would have identical views on all the issues. the problem had been are there situations in which the chinese had gotten the better of the negotiations undoubtedly and it may even be true the other way. but having china as part of the international economic system is better than having a trade war between the united states.

within that general proposition, i would hope that improvements can be found, and improvements should be found and maybe even systemic discussions could be found. but the fundamental objective which was to treat china as a member of the international system was very crucial. when we first opened to china, the chairman and didn't really want economic relations with any foreign country in 1976 the trade between china and the united states was less than between the united states and. honduras so one has to see within the context of the rapidly expanding almost exploding economic relationship

and there is room for improvement, but it was a good thing that these decisions were made. >> i will come back to that in a moment i think that becaus but e we are sitting of the one world trade, we are at the epicenter of the 9/11 tragedy and i think that today we are celebrating the rebirth of this area that we can come here and hold this event i think it's terrific. what is the role of fighting terrorism in the u.s. china relationship, what is it and what should it be? >> i think that we are threatened by terrorism and a number of

where people can be pulled

aside to have the beginning of a bilateral discussion. i do agree if they say get the of leaders together in this context of what the region is like coming the united states has to allies of south korea and japan. we have our responsibilities there they keep shifting like uh philippines but that will require a way of us to have these discussions with the chinese in the larger context might think there needs to be multilateralism talks as has happened when we were in office too evolves into something not just flat out get them to get there because the preparations will be huge but it is one of the biggest

threats out there and 5b have somebody that we don't know who he is not. >> but you make reference the let's. >> how do we fix that and what do you suggest to see that he does? >> i think we have an interest in having freedom of navigation and by the way i am tired when people say what are we doing in the pacific also with the

pacific power and we have a great contrast. >> and those have to be worked out as the chinese cannot unilaterally decide then again leadership does make ed difference but what has happened is the international court has ruled on this call but somehow has changes mind but the bottom line there is a way to do this but the united states is not a signatory which puts us in a

weaker position to argue for the rules that the international system has put down but to believe in freedom of navigation. >> but we have not ratified. >> any suggestions dr. kissinger? they say we believe in freedom of navigation but the biggest that was impeded would be china. >> this is an example for of the different ways culturally the adm of the chinese claim that was made

by an emperor 300 years ago pdf when the idea of freedom was not developed but is this brought up by every chinese government. and in fact, they have the same view and don the other hand and with that period bedtime so if unbaked try to settle this in the absolute terms it will be difficult.

monte and other hand with that shanghai communique with the evolution and the agreements that were made and the united states following the shanghai communique. and they can find a way of of nature of the issue. the of vital solutions and i think that is the approach

so '02 reid craft that from the recreations of the tpp that died as a result of the congress not wanting to pass that to but the president-elect says he will withdraw of the american signatures. what is the of picture of the region going to look like and what should give from the american perspective to look like amy -- what should we suggest of the architecture of the region cracksman reid were in college we talk about the

southeast asia entreaty organization and there is some type of architecture. but from our office security butted did not deal with that economic situation of the of workers. i do is think united states. >> pet i do think that is important and made the difference if we were enthusiastic about it instead of standing aside. won by a the way talking about coulter i the to china now lot and more and more they talk about the fact they have not been respected

properly internationally and now with the '01 belt line road area that is a very expansive program. so how do they go about their economic infrastructure without did being contradictory? very interesting for chinese save their laborers are too expensive and no longer the largest developing country. there needs to be dead better way to friday's structure based of the concept of what is happening now as uh chinese takeover what we have left on the table. >> d.c. this regional

comprehensive partnership in china? that it was tpp light? to have those protections but it was more of a tariff. >> n number of american leaders have said america has vital interest in the nation and they are an ancient power. so it has accepted that the strategic groups are separate to symbolize and normalize between the united

states and the asian countries to have this relationship it cannot be anybody, china or in the united states for those that will lead conduct themselves with the greater consequence so the basic concept of tpp had those conditions but