karen donfried head of the german fund president is up here on the panel. i'll introduce here in a moment. it's a special honor for me to have the opportunity to host and introduce federica mogherini because i knew her before she was famous. by only about five minutes, actually. we had a wonderful meeting in splendid palace in rome before she was appointed as foreign minister in the new italian government, and pretty soon after that, she became the high representative of the european union foreign affairs and security policy. in short, the e.u. foreign minister. but i remember that meeting very well. i was just in the process of departing from the state department in my last role as the special envoy for israeli/palestinian negotiations and we had a wonderful discussion about the problems involved in trying to promote reconciliation and peace between the israelis and palestinians and i was immediately impressed by her understanding and knowledge of a complex issue that i had spent 35 years trying to master, and she seemed to have got hold of it. so welcome.

karen donfried head of the german marshall fund its president, is up here on the panel.al honor for me to have the opportunity to host and introduce federica mogherini because i knew her before she was famous. only by five minutes, actually. we had a wonderful meeting in a splendid palace in rome before she was appointed as foreign minister. in the new italian government. and pretty soon after that she became the high representative of the european union for foreign affairs and security policy. in short the eu foreign minister. but i remember that meeting very well. i was just in the process of departing from the state department in my last role as special envoy for israeli/palestinian negotiations. we had a wonderful discussion about -- about the problems involved in trying to promote reconciliation and peace between the israelis and palestinians. and i was immediately impressed by her understanding and knowledge of her complex issue that i had spent 35 years trying to master. and she seemed to have got ahold of it. in that moment. so, welcome. ms. mogherini, as i said