issues introduced by former nebraska senator hagel. [applause] >> ,, thank you and thank you for your leadership and many contributions to the german partnership. i also want to take knowledge those who are here tonight to have contributed so much in some anyways to this very important relationship including some of america's former ambassadors to the federal republic of germany and many distinguished leaders present and former in the government of the federal republic of germany and to each of our distinguished guests tonight who are here to acknowledge your leadership chancellor merkel, and also to thank you for what you have meant to this partnership in the larger transatlantic alliance and i am personally privileged and very honored and that i have been asked to be included in and play a role in this evening's events so thank you and to all who to continue to show leadership in this institution which is relevant today as it has ever been. excepting the prestigious eric m. warburg award, the first to be presented in the united state

there are many challenges ahead for all of us in the senator hagel was right in saying, there is no country in the world that will be able to go alone. that will be able to solve the great challenges alone. this is what it's so important that we look after our relationships, that we nurture them and also from time to time take time out to wonder what is so special about the transatlantic partnership. what is special in these to me is we each share the same values, the same basic values. we don't need to talk a great length about what we understand with respect to human rights and human dignity. that is our common foundation if you like. and the fact that we stand firmly on this common ground, on this common foundation that has always been incidentally common ground among chancellors of germany and presidents of the united states and incidentally also of congressmen and governors, that is something that we need to keep and it is also something where the dignity of each individual needs to be guiding our young. but we also are aware of the fact that such a basis of shared values is simply not

i was just listening to how donald rumsfeld hagel originally had some presidential aspirations. are we looking forward to seeing rumsfeld rahm as the president in the next four years, and as well, as for ms responsibility has he ever admitted to the responsibility or admitted that we should have sent more troops on the ground when we first invaded iraq or is it something that is kind of glossed over? >> guest: as for future presidential ambitions, i think those are behind rumsfeld. he has no intention that he shared with me any way of coming back into the government, let alone running for president. he's spending much of his time working on his own memoir which is due out late next year. no, he has not expressed any regrets, any second thoughts about the troop level initio. we will probably hear more from him about that in his book. i deal with it at length in my book. he was not the only one arguing for holding the line on the number of troops and trying to bring them down in iraq. that was also a position favored by his top generals and iraq at the time. and he -- they all sha

so i think that the byrd-hagel commands strong support in the united states senate. any treaty that the obama administration submits must meet the resolution criteria or it will be easily defeated. remember what that criteria is. if it submits something that says we in the united states have to do something that the rest of the world -- or the developing world doesn't have to do, then it's not going to pass. secondly, it inflicts economic harm on this country. proponents of securing an international treaty or vowelly acknowledging that the gulf is widening between the united states and what the other industrialized nations are willing to do and what countries like china want them to do. i suggest that the gulf has always been wide, but will continue to widen. recent actions by the united states and china continue to confirm my chief. take china's initial reaction to the waxman-markie bill, it was hailed on capitol hill as a historic breakthrough woarcht like a thud during the international negotiations. get this waxman-markie which will be economically ruinist to the