avoiding what we're now seeing in syria, when the egyptian revolution began, long ties between american and egyptian officers played an instrumental role in encouraging the egyptian military not to intervene and cause a streets of egypt. with respect to our ngos, we think they have been working in good faith to support egyptian aspirations, the transition to democracy. they are respected organizations. they have been working in egypt with the goal of trying to assist in all the work that needs to be done, such as holding elections. they don't favor a group. they don't favor individuals. they are providing what we would call nonpartisan education and information. we are working very hard to

resolve this ngo problem. we have had a lot of tough conversations with various egyptian leaders and we hope that we'll see a resolution soon. >> tnk to let you know that i wl be submitting for the record some specific questions about the nato summit coming up in chicago and may. i think offers a tremendous opportunity for us to highlight the still critical economic and security ties ofc o partnershipo i look forward to your responses. >> thank you. >> thank you. senator shaheen. senator lee? >> thank you, mr. chairman. and thank you, secretary clinton, for joining us. i want to join the chorus, you heard from my colleagues praising you for your hard work on our country's service. every time i watch the news i wonder whether they ever allow you to sleep. i hope they do.

but rest assured the american taxpayer is getting his money's worth out of your service and i appreciate the hard work you've put in. i want to follow up, first of all, on some of senator shaheen's questions about egypt. you know, in your fiscal year 2013 request, there is a request for an additional sum, going up from $1.5 billion in the previous fiscal year to $1.56 billion for egypt. and i'm wonder iing, what levelf cooperation do you feel like we're getting out of egypt in exchange for that? and specifically, do you feel like egypt has shown a commitment to honoring its treaty obligations with israel? >> yes, i do, to that last question. we have no evidence or even any

intention expressed by centers of power within egypt not to and we have no evidence that there is any concern there yet. we obviously consult closely with the egyptians and the israelis about the challenges they face and the sinai for example. so at this time, senator, that is not yet a concern that we have to address. we also believe that they have carried out credible elections and that was no easy task given where they started. but we have to judge them on what they both say and what they do. and they don't yet have their government in place. so we're really unable to draw conclusions until we see the new

parliament acting until they hold elections for their president, and then we'll have more data on which tos. >> okay. okay. and you feel like the aid that we give to egypt is a component of that? that's part of what is keeping them maintaining the buy-in with respect to those hard fought treaty obligations, the treaty obligations that we and israel have so long hoped for need you feel like that that is strengthening that position. >> it certainly has historically. aga, sitting herey have no evidence on which to draw any other conclusion. but i also know that we're going to learn a lot more about the nethve ahead. and we will be very, you know, very vigilant, but at the egyptians

understand that peace is in their interests. and they have a lot of work to do to build their economy, to rtainly in their cy up and wanting to abrogate agreements and causen already more than full. >> g advice on that, i counsel them on that. >> i have said that. >> i want to turn t conducted last year by the british government, the name of the study i believe was the multilateralview. in that study the british government undertook an examination of the performance of various against criteria including cost control, delivery of outcome, transparency and other related factors. the review found that performance was severely ci of these

u.n. end tatities including the international labor organization, u.n. habitat and the food and organization. they found the performance so poor on those criteria that the british governmentwithdraw at l funding to those same programs. and the british government also concluded that various other u.ot scoring quite as bad as those, were jeopardized enough that they -- they that quota as a matter of absolute urgency, closed quote, the u.n. implement special measures to try to prog. so my question for you is with the united states continuing to provide support to the u.n. including the same programs, do you feel like the u.s. funding toward those programs is being

utilized responsibly? is it money well spent? >> senator, we are a staunch supporter of u.n. reform and we have made it very clear that we expect reforms at the level of the u.n. and at every constituent group. we led efforts to cut the size of the 2012-2013 u.n. budget. we are pushing them to be moret does an enormous amount of good work, work that helps to share the burden of everything from peacekeeping to keeping, you know, airplanes safe in the sky. they do a lot of very important work. but they have got to reform and they have got to adapt to the expectations of more accountability and transparency in their operations.

so we are adamant about that, and we're going to continue to press it. we made some progress in the last year or two. but i'm not satisfied. we have to expect more. >> what reviews, if any, has the state department conducted or will the state department be conducting that are comparable to this multilateral aid review conducted by the british government? >> we have participated in a number of such reviews. i will take that for the record and give you a full accounting of that. the british government, through their development agency, conducted their own review, but we have been involved in supporting independent, high level reviews and i would be glad to provide that to you. >> okay. thank you very much. i see my time has expired. thank you, mr. chairman. >> thank you, senator lee. senator coons. >> thank you, mr. chairman.

leadership and vision in a very difficult time, in world history. i want to applaud you and the administration for leading a strong foreign policy based not just on defense, but also diplomacy and development. and i was grateful for the chance to witness firsthand your leadership on a joint delegation trip to liberia for the inauguration of president johnson. i think it is critical that the united states continue to demonstrate support for democratically elected leaders in africa and other places in the world to encourage the rule of law and good governance and i'm also grateful you continue to elevate as you did today economic state craft and development among the five principled priorities you you put forward this year. a number of the senators who preceded me touched on issues of real concern to me. alan gross' case in cuba, iran sanctions and making sure we continue to press them, the path forward with egypt, there has been lots of good ground covered. and i want to associate myself with senator rubio's comments about pepfar and its importance.

i wanted to move, if i could, to the twin concerns of trade and governance and how an american values agenda around governance and tran parent sy and rule of law also helps promote economic opportunity, economic state craft as you put it. you recently commented at the first ever state department global business conference how america's foreign policy can champion u.s. business abroad and drive recovery here at home. describe for me, if you would, a little detail the tools pursuing these critically important objectives in africa in this fy-'13 budget request and what we're doing around trade and investment for the united states. and if we could go on to a question about governance. >> thank you. and thanks for your passion and commitment to africa and thanks for traveling with us to liberia. i think that's an excellent question. you posed it with respect to africa. it obviously could be more

generalized, but speaking about africa specifically, you know, our approach combines several different tools. first, trade missions to africa. assistant secretary johnny carson just took a large delegation of american energy firms to africa to meet with government officials, to meet with utility companies and businesses, to talk about how the products and expertise of american energy companies could really enhance development of the energy secretarier in africa. secondly, we're doing a lot of other energy work through our newly constituted energy bureau because africa is so blessed with energy resources that are either not developed or underdeveloped and underutilized

or being developed in i was t e are not good for sustainable development. we're interacting at the highest levels of government to try to work on that. thirdly, the african growth and opportunities act is a tremendous tool, and we have actively worked the last three years to, you know, help countries take better advantage of it. a lot of countries that are members don't really utilize it to the fullest. and also to work with countries that could benefit from it. we have the partnership for growth. we have the feed the future. we have the global health initiative. these are development objectives, but they are development objectives that are really focused on enhancing the capacity in african nations. the millennium challenge grants which are operating in africa do some of the same work. we also have encouraged greater regional integration, like the development in east africa of a

common market among some of the countries. we would like to see that all over the continent. if african nations would open up their borders to one another, if they would trade with one another, knock down barriers, if they would develop transportation networks, that would add dramatically to the ability of africans to reap economic benefits. the final thing i would say is probably no part of the world has benefited more from the advance in information technology, particularly wireless technology, especially mobile phones in africa. so we have a lot of interesting initiatives under way to help people do mobile banking, to help them get linked into the futures markets on their mobile phone, just all kinds of really innovative ways that we have promoted both from outside, but also from within by running contests for young african entrepreneurs. so i could go on for a long

time. it is a very important part of our agenda for africa. >> thank you, madam secretary. and let me transition then to the other part of what i think is our shared agenda for africa, which is promoting america's core commitment to transparency, to rule of law, to democracy, to internet freedom, to human rights. many of us were relieved that senegal's elections preceded without significant violence, but it raises the ongoing question whether uganda, cameroon, equatorial guinea, zimbabwe of national leaders who have either manipulated constitutions or avoided really free and fair elections on a continent where there has been steady progress towards democracy in the last decade. what can we do to encourage and sustain good governance in africa? what priorities are reflected in this 13 budget in that regard, and what can we be doing together that will help bring together these twin strands? one of the most striking things senator isakson and i saw in

nigeria is the mobile phone revolution, made possible transparent elections in nigeria in just the same way they're making possible access to the marketplace and information for small farmers in ghana. how are we advancing that in africa? >> you're right to point out what technology has meant because we have invested in helping countries modernize their voting systems, making elections more transparent. we did a lot of work in kenya and the constitutional referendum there really demonstrated the impact that technology can have because we were able to get technology wide we distributed, get votes counted without going through a lot of hands. so we are emphasizing the use of technology to empower citizens to hold their governments more accountable to have elections that are free, fair and credible. we're also pushing very hard on

how we interact with leaders in africa by supporting those who are legitimately elected, like president watara in cote d'ivoire. there was a case where there was a credible election, he was elected and the former president gbagbo wouldn't leave so we weighed in very heavily. we are trying to demonstrate that our commitment to technology, our commitment to elections, our commitment to good governance go hand and hand with what we think africans across the continent want, which is more effective functioning societies that give them a chance at a better future. >> thank you very much. i have additional questions i'll submit for the record about nigeria, somalia, others. thank so much for your appearance before this committee today and thank you for your leadership. >> thank you, senator coons. let me thank you for your tremendous energy and diligence and enthusiasm in your leadership of the african affairs subcommittee. it has been really terrific and

committee. we're down to the hard core here. senator udall has been here from the opening gavel to the last question and happy to recognize him. >> thank you, chairman kerry. thank you, secretary clinton for being here. thank you for your stamina. i think you've been here for more than two hours. and i really appreciate that. you have taken some final questions here. it seems to me in listening to your travels that you may be one of our most traveling secretaries of state and you may have set some records there. so i know all of us very much appreciate that. i have been a proponent of an accelerated transition in afghanistan. and i believe it is important that afghans begin to take a lead role in protecting their country so they can begin to gain the experience and the capability before the drawdown of u.s. forces is completed.

and i believe this will help stabilize afghanistan and lead to a faster drawdown of u.s. combat forces. and i don't believe, madam secretary, as some have asserted, that this means abandoning afghanistan. i believe a strong diplomatic training and counterterror mission will likely be necessary to support the developing afghan government. what i'm wondering about is whether the state department has begun considering what secretary panetta posed recently about accelerated transition of combat responsibilities to afghans by mid or early 2013. has the state department been considering this option? what are the implications? do you look forward to what is going to happen with the nato summit in may in chicago? is that going to be a part of the discussion that occurs there? >> it certainly will.

we agreed with all of our nato isaf partners to have a transition that would begin a year ago, transfer, lead responsibility to afghan we are transferring districts throughout afghanistan on a regular basis. we also know that there has to be continuing training in order to equip these security forces to do what they're expected to do. so this is an agreed upon transition sequence that was adopted at the lisbon conference, is being worked through on both the military and the civilian side, will be further refined in chicago and we're certainly, you know,h on that. >> thank you.

the -- the issue in youre yope talked about pivoting to asia and we know that the president has talked about marines in australia. i know you recently gave a speech talking about the south china sea and activities there. could you just talk in a broad general way about what this actually means for the united states to put more of an emphasis on the specific in the pacific? are we talking about containment of china? how does china relate to this whole thing? and what roles are we trying to fulfill? >> well, i think, senator, we have always considered ourselves so blessed by geography that we were both in atlantic and pacific power. and that unique position has granted the united states

significant strategic advantages that have been accompanied by economic benefits and so much else. but because of our heavy emphasis starting on 9/11, and going after those who attacked us, also, you know, the war in iraq, the broader emphasis on the middle east, there were many in asia who thought that we were either by intention or by default abandoning our leadership role in the pacific. and it was our intent to re-establish that leadership role, which we have done. we have initiated new strategic dialogues in the region. we became a full and active partner in strengthening our alliances in asean and apec. we joined the east asia summit. we signed the treaty of amity and cooperation. we began the lower m eer ma eee

initiatives to. we have the major trade agreement with korea. we came to the aid of our good ally japan after their disasters. we're having this opening to burma. we are actively involved in what is going on in the asia pacific because we think it is very much in america's interest to be so. and that includes being able to project both civilian and military power. and as we looked at where we had forces operating we saw some gaps and that's what the president addressed on his recent trip to australia. we think that there is a great deal for america to gain by, you know, being very much involved in and supporting the incredible growth of the region. so that's what we're positioned to do. >> thank you.

i just returned several weeks ago, maybe a month ago from india. and we had an excellent trip and one of the things that was remarkable was seeing the activity out in the villages and seeing the cooking and seeing the pollution by the way they cook and i know that you have been a real advocate of these kind of modern stoves that if they're utilized, i think do a lot of things from pollution to using less food, fuel, to make it in a healthier home and all that. could you just in the last couple of seconds we have left here describe how you're doing that and what you're doing. >> well, first, let me thank you for caring about that, senator, and asking a question about it. it is one of those long term projects that i think has

tremendous payoff, but it is not in the headlines. so thank you, sir. we are actively driving an initiative we helped put together called the global cook stove alliance, the alliance for global cook stoves. we are working with dozens of other countries, with the united nations, and organizations to help create a market for cleaner burning cook stoves in developing countries because you're right, this has tremendous benefits. it cuts down on respiratory illnesses for women and children. it also helps keep the environment clean by cutting down the soot, the black carbon that goes into the atmosphere. it is a security issue to the extent that many women and girls are put at risk when they go out

to gather fuel in many of these countries. so we have looked at the data, the national institutes of health has been one of our partners that in terms of cleaning up the atmosphere, reducing health costs, this is one of the most effective approaches we could take. for anybody who is really interested, maybe you or some of the staff would be interested, we have a display of clean cook stoves in the state department that we just opened last -- a few days ago because we want people to know what we're talking about. and when i was in india, i was in chenai, we had an exhibit set up and we're working with indian universities taking measurement of the pollution that goes into women and children's lungs and into the atmosphere. that is related to an announcement we made last week that in our effort to try to

help the environment, the united states joined with five other countries in setting up a new coalition to fight, you know, the climate forces, the short-term climate forces, methane, soot, black carbon, et cetera, and cook stoves are part of that. so, you know, again, this is the kind of initiative that i think is worth investing in. it will pay dividends down the road. it is not a quick fix, but it is something that we're able to do with public private partnerships. >> thank you for your efforts. thank you, mr. chairman. >> thank you. thank you, senator udall. thanks for your patience. senator lugar, do you have anything additional? this took a little longer. i apologize, madam secretary, thank you for being patient and staying with us. we'll keep the record open for a week. there is one additional issue i want to raise quickly, i know you're very familiar with the case of collin baur, my constituent from massachusetts, whose two children were taken illegally from massachusetts

against court order and taken to egypt. and he has had, as you know, an extraordinarily difficult time trying to get resolution to this. i raise this, the end of the hearing, not because it is of last importance, but i want the embassy and the egyptian government to take note that this is increasingly a concern among colleagues about respectful law and respect for family and individual parents' rights as well as the international legal system. so i hope we can continue to have that issue raised in the context of your diplomacy and we will continue to raise it obviously. final comment, i would just say to all of you who are wearing the yellow jackets here, i want to express my respect for and appreciation for the way in which you have been present today. yours is an issue that is of note to all of us and we're

concerned about it. and pursuing thoughtful approaches to it. but i am particularly appreciative for the respectful way in which you have taken part in this hearing. and we thank you for that. much for being with us today. we stand adjourned. >> thank you. >> thank you, sir.

>> secretary clinton will testify about the state department's budget again tomorrow afternoon on the other side of the capitol before the house foreign affairs committee. we'll have that live here on c-span3 at 1:30 eastern. right now we're going to take a look at the opening statements from today's hearing with secretary clinton. before getting an update on political news from c-span