exports to the region grew by 10% last year, which is a pretty good performance for any region. and perhaps most importantly of all, the brookings institution believes that of the next billion people to come into middle class economic status, 88% will be in the indo-pacific region. secretary gutierrez: absolutely, absolutely. i think, as secretary pompeo was saying, its the largest and fastest growing. so pretty special. so, many of us in the business community had quite a bit of anxiety when we pulled out of tpp and were left with three trade agreements in the area, in the region. does this commercial strategy as part of the indo-pacific strategy, does that substitute for what would have been tpp? is there another way of thinking about our commercial strategy going forward? secretary ross: well, when we withdrew from tpp, we withdrew from a potential agreement with which we disagreed. it was not a withdrawal from the region. to the contrary, one of vice-president pence's first trips, which i had the honor of accompanying him on, was through japan, and he then went on to other c

in the region if we are in a region does could. understand the legal presence. the united states is trying to be in a region. when there are. the only job thier doing and they have shown that they do is creation of the terrorist group who are risking tone during the time his tenure in the foreign ministry he. has so. meted out. she. has dissipated in the creation of the terrorist group in syria and iraq if you recall in the. states. doesn't trump. choose into the you who are the people who are these terrorist groups or if you're ultimately agree with mr trump in the in these coalition he wanted to in agent change to the only change you followed the same policy that. created do you think you may have other things in common with mr trump and placed in the way how he conceptualizes there is no newcomer in purposes a common policy between us and the sutra and that there could be no overlap of of us on how the region develops we're not. because we know that. he has his you know any policy you know or the war you're against any kind o. e

program will benefit mongolia, the region and the world. i could go on much longer and give you more examples. american companies have been a force for prosperity and good throughout the indo-pacific region. our good faith as partners are evident that honors local autonomy and sovereignty. the united states doesn't invest for political influence, but rather partnerships and economics. and this is a prelude to what i expect in the future. i'm here to say emphatically the trump administration is committed to expanding our economic engagement in the indo-pacific region. we seek to capitalize on opportunities in accordance with the principles of freedom and openness. as president trump said in vietnam last year, the indo-pacific is a beautiful constellation of nations. each its own bright star. satellites to none, and each one, a people, a culture, a way of life, a home. to burn brightest the constellation needs sustainable growth and this is what our indo-pacific strategy will promote. we believe in strategic partnerships, not strategic depend

and the us engagement in the region. we have joining us from indonesia the deputy minister from maritime authority and sovereignty indonesia's coordinating ministry of maritime affairs. minister order via, joining us. next to him, ambassador sarna who charged as india's ambassador to the united states in 2016. november 2016, very interesting moment in which he began his tenure. and has a distinguished member of the indian foreign services 1980 as served as india's high commissioner to the united kingdom ambassador to israel and many, many other posts and we're very pleased to have you join us today. finally, we have met, and her is the beauty assistant to the president and senior director for asian affairsthe national . the council and has ensured very involved in all of the proceedings today from the executive branch and the indo pacific strategy and vision that has been laid out and so we look forward to hearing more from you as well. welcome all of you gentlemen. and i thought we could start off the conversation perha

we have some companies active in the region. the macquarie group is a good example of a significant infrastructure fund and only this month one another significant highway projects in india. so it is about working together , governments and the private sector to identify projects and put the pieces together to enable those projects to come to fruition. >> i remember minister bishop talking about the leverage, if it isn't coca-cola's distribution network which is a creative way to partner with the private sector. >> with technology there are other options. the last thing i'd say which is important in getting the countries to work as development. in terms of conductivity, we are working with the iconic agenda and digital trade is another important element. >> perfect to lead into the next question i wanted to post which is conductivity. conductivity among the three countries represented here. ray opened has entered into mou, recently with japan with jbic and australia as well. how are you feeling about the work you're doing collab

as pivotal or centered in the region. that was of our choosing. the region has moved on without us. our view is this is our choice and we are confronting iran, so be it. we need to keep in mind that the way that regional leaders see their neighborhood much more in much more complex terms and they are paying attention to much more different allies and relationship building than they did a decade ago. >> if i could just make kind of a broad kind of statement and put things in context, i think if you look at past middle eastern -- it is always an action-reaction dynamic in the aftermath of the war that ensures whatever achievements that were got bin war have often been undermined by the social and political forces set loose by that war. we saw that after the u.s. defeat of iraq in kuwait. we were at a high watermark in the region. and then because of our presence of saudi arabia, you had the rise of al qaeda. then in 2003 again, a great american military victory and then within a year or two we ere mired in insurgency. iran is now at its high watermark. i would argue that we are seeing

cyprus has entered into a close dialogue with this regional -- its regional neighbors to create a unified approach to battling terrorism, again, terrorist ideology, understanding that there are no firm barriers to the spread of radical indoctrineation, especially given the advent of social media, mr. speaker. cyprus is participating in a number of international efforts, including the coalition against the islamic state and the process. the minister further noted the cyprus -- that cyprus has actively and in cooperation with some of its european allies provided military assistance and nonmilitary support to international efforts in the african region. cyprus has cooperated with the u.s. in providing specialized training assistance to officials from neighboring countries and collaborated closely with egypt. the training revolves mostly on civilian type of expertise and customs and border controls. additionally, cyprus has provided training on the identification and containment of various chemicals, as well as better storage and handling of dangerous substances. . cyprus also explored collab

nonproliferation region. and in the broader sort of the nuclear policy regime. >> and where is the u.s. nonproliferation leadership vis-a-vis israel and indian? >> well, i would argue that the u.s. view toward israel is a mistake and it is a -- >> and you have been critical on this point. >> yes, with israel and iran, yes, i agree, but in trying to set the stronger nonproliferation standards and guidelines, here the u.s. has played a much more critical role than the countries like russia and china and when we have superbed for not only the more important protocol, but pushed for the intrusive and state-level concept and looking beyond the nonproliferation, and looking at the nuclear safety, and we have in the are region, many civil and power programs, and iran, because of this, the situation around the deal is going to be looking to russia and china to expand its nuclear power reactors, and can do we trust russian and chinese leadership, and the nuclear safety and nuclear safety? i don't. and china has made s

ehe regional outlook for tha gcc is mix. are reflecting anxiety, dividing short-term gain into growth for investors. the medium-term outlook is less clear. this points to a potential decline in gdp. for exporters, they are moving into surplus. means weakening the momentum for economic reform. i do not think it is the rising comfort with higher oil revenue that increases the risk of confrontation between saudi arabia and iran. the displacement of markets is just one area of economic cooperation. this should not be seen as a quick fix. it is not just affecting oil markets. we're dealing with production prices in other places. the other thing is respect to transit points. some would argue that their supporters in yemen, 30% of global seaborne oil rose through the street. so does 11% of rice. globally,e is traded 52% of global fertilizer. crisis in these waterways affects more than oil. it is going to create a food crisis. we should be bracing for economic collapse, more severe than the recession after 2012. like its neighbors a

is coming hurtling toward civil war strikes that began back in twenty sixteen in the anger phone regions have led to extreme violence and calls for secession but take a look at how cameroon got here and how its citizens are currently coping imo it could be louder live on you tube and we want to hear from all of you especially those in our cameroonian community well the examiner what it will take to bring both sides to the table and how a long lasting peace could be possible. we want to strike to start for our president to talk with our english speaking colleagues to try to restore peace in cameroon since we are indivisible we must form is what i can see. from is a mission to make america be isn't going to. have no problem is bringing an urgent problem so we need peace. here at least. cameroonians there speaking on cameron day violence first broke out in the northwest and southwest regions of cameroon in october twenty sixth and at that time noise and teachers went on an indefinite strike saying they were being mistreated marginalized socially economically and politically by the governmen

>> frankly it varies from region to region and from time to time.one of the central objectives here, for the consulates, is to ensure that the mexican nationals irrespective of their status, are subject to due process. and that there human rights are also observed which again, that doesn't mean we condone illegality, or promote illegality. it's not what we do, certainly not as the government. but we are just, we base our work in what is you know, in this sort of provision. that's what assistance provides for anyone here. we do work, frequently. with the administration on different fronts or even the top fronts like this one. there is no other way to address them beyond having you know, serious, frank, or different battles. but that is what we do. i think we sometimes we had a good experience and sometimes not so good. it is you know, the basic bread and butter of what we do every day.>> a final question as we are coming to the end, i know you have some commitments. how would you characterize your relations with the trump administration, not simply o

knows, there is mexican prosperity is regionally, regions are different. northern mexico has been doing better than the southern parts of mexico, which is where the new president elect as his political base and where he is from. how will it change and the balance of governance and political power in mexico from north to south? will that affect mexican economic policy, external policy? amb. gutierrez fernandez: i think his bases everywhere. he did pretty well. he ran a good campaign and he convince people. he won a majority of votes in all but one or two states and that is something, irrespective of what anybody thinks. challenge inas a terms of its regional diversity. north and i'mhe using a generalization, the north seems to be nor -- more industrial and link to international markets than the south. i think that is true. you see areas in the middle that are doing well, whose growth rates are above the national average. you see in the south, some states or regions of that are lagging behind. the former president address ,hat to a specific initiative econom

regional partners who happen to be the chief rival in the region, the israelis and the saudi arabian government, and i think there's also this open question about is the trump administration policy toward iran regime change but we know that john bolton is a frequent speaker at events held by the mek which is a group that has been accused of terrorism which seeks to overturn the iranian government, most recently at the event in paris, rudy giuliani spoke before the group and repeated something john bolton had said which is that the next gathering would be held in tehran. despite this they say the regime change is not the policy, but with everything that's going on, we are trying to deduce what that policy is. secretary pompeo is speaking before a group of iranian americans on the topic of raising iranian voices. it's an open question what he's actually going to call for at that speech which is this weekend. to help us unpack this and talk a little bit about where they go from here, how does europe and russia and china respond to what the trump administration is doing regarding the san

the vice president has traveled to the region three times to urge regional leaders to do more for the venezuelan people. in nicaragua, the administration has rightly designated three top officials for human rights abuses and for corruption. but we should do more to support the nicaraguan people. civilians were killed. one of the civilians killed in the street was a former neighbor of a subcommittee of mine. senator paul cook will convene a hearing to further examine this incident tomorrow. they continue to pose a major threat. these violent gangs are fueling the drug and migration crisis that the united states struggles with today. as we fight the deadly impacts of opium in our communities, we must continue working closely with our regional neighbors to increase counternarcotics cooperation. the recent increase in cocaine production in co columbia is unacceptable and i'm hoping there is a sign that the country will redouble efforts to confront gangs and the cartels. this committee continues to support helping the triangle, honduras and guatemala, to help shore up institutions, combat

to the region, or spoke the languages from the region. this was true even in cairo. many posted to cairo rarely spoke with an egyptian other than in a master-servant relationship, and even fewer spoke with the turks. the arab bureau, which was not established until early 1916, as a result of a recommendations from mark sykes, who was interestingly one of the few individuals who traveled throughout the region and spoke arabic and read the koran -- he . of theleted a tour british seeds of authority and he identified the ottoman empire was much more effective in dealing with narrative than the british governments, and it led to an ineffective british narrative. so even though the arab bureau was created and existed, it also included people of specialization, language skills, and regional experience in the middle east, but they were buried within the intelligence department in cairo. so throughout the war, the british perceived the war and their opponents in the middle east through a three-lens kaleidoscope that gave a fractured vision at bes

knows mexican prosperity is regionally -- it's not region regions differ. northern mexico has been doing somewhat better than the southern and rural part of mexico which where the new president-elect has his political base. how would it change and the balance of governance and political power in mexico little bit from north to south? will that affect mexican policy, economic policy, external policy. >> i think it's pretty much everywhere. he did pretty well. he ran a very good campaign. he convinced people to my knowledge, he won in majority of the votes all but one or two states. mexico does have an important challenge in terms of his regional diversity. if you go to the north, north seems to be little bit more industrial better linked to the international market in the south. you see areas like in the middle doing extremely well who's growth rates are way above the national average. you see the south some states are regions are lagging behind in economic growth. president pena nieto in my view addressed that through a specific initiative -- implyies refor

>> it frankly varies from region to region and from time to time. one of the central objectives here for our consulates, 50 of them, is to ensure that mexican nationals, irrespective of their status, are subject to due process and that their human rights are also served. and again, that does not mean we condone legality or promote legality. that is not what we do and certainly not as a cover. but we just base our work in the sort of provisions that the u.s. legal system provides for anybody here. and we do work frequently with the administration on different fronts. even on the tough fronts as this one. there is no other way to solve them or address them beyond having serious, frank, and many times difficult dialogues. that's what we do. we sometimes have a very good experience, sometimes not so good, but it's the basic bread and butter of what we do every day. >> one final question, because we're coming to the end and i know you've got some commitments. how would you characterize your relations with the trump administration? not simply at a politic

regional measure one was back in 1988. so these are not that common, and they are way that's we address -- and they are ways that we address goals in money for transportation infrastructure, but they are a real statement of the priority of what the region is thinking when they decide to put this on a ballot because we know how many propositions they are on every year on every ballot. so this regional measure is something to pay attention to. and because it is so rare, and because it is so recent, we thought it would be very helpful to help us to understand what's in store for san francisco and what's in store for the region now that it's passed. and it turns out that we've got a super hero in our midst in tilly chang, who is the director of the transportation authority. and because we're a city and a county, we have an m.t.a. and a c.t.a., and the c.t.a.'s function is really that long-range planning, the delivery of large-scale capital improvements and undefunding. and so we work a lot with the c.t.a. on grants. would we w

today is coming hurtling toward civil war strikes that began back in twenty sixteen and i got five regions have led to extreme violence and calls for secession but take a look at how come over and got here and how its citizens accommodate coping imo it could be louder live on you tube and we want to hear from all of you especially those in our cameroonian community well examine what it will take to bring both sides to the table and how a long lasting peace could be possible using said. they want to strike to stop for our president to talk with our english speaking colleagues to try to restore peace in cameroon since we are indivisible we must form because what i can see. film is. the head of state with these two and we rejoined so that you can sit down and frame is solution to make the commitment to be a peaceful country. but for which we we have no problem or distance is bringing it up to a problem so we need peace not going to the other state we at least see what we can do to solve the problem so there will be. cameroonians there speaking on cameroon day violence first broke out in the n

knows, there is mexican prosperity is regionally, regions differ. in general, northern mexico has been doing somewhat better than the southern, more rural parts of mexico, which is where the new president-elect has his political base and where he is from. how will it change in kind of the balance of governance and political power in mexico a little bit from north to south? will that affect mexican economic policy, external policy? how do you see that working? amb. gutierrez fernandez: first of all, i think his base is now pretty much everywhere. he did pretty well. he ran a good campaign and he convinced people. to my knowledge, he won a majority of votes in all but one or two states, and that is quite something, irrespective of what anybody thinks. mexico does have an important challenge in terms of its regional diversity. if you go to the north -- and i am using a generalization -- but north seems to be a little more industrial, better linked to the international markets than the south. i think that's, to some extent, true. you see areas in the mi

to the powers in the region to the g.c.c. specifically saudi arabia and the u.s. . i doubt that we've been here before they will be met with fire and fury donald trump very north korea and its leader before agreeing to a meeting and earlier this month he met russian president vladimir putin in all sinking at a top level summit it'll be interesting to watch the reaction to donald trump's offer when barack obama was in the white house and said he'd be willing to meet the iranian president he was heavily criticized by republicans democrats and by many right wing commentators who know largely support donald trump. one additional problem might be who would broker a summit with iran or south korea pave the way for the meeting with kim jong il in france might be an option president emanuel mccraw had arjun donald trump not to walk away from the iran deal during a state visit to washington is links with tehran and that might open up the necessary diplomatic channels that are voices senior people in this white house have been very cri

we live in our region, our neighborhood.have been dealing with iran and the challenges that iran puts on the region, the stability and security of the region, has always been a concern. there has been concern over what that agreement has been able to achieve in terms of preventing iran from building a military nuclear capability. david: now recently, saudi arabia and the uae, among others, have had a dispute with qatar. have you seen any resolution and what is the basis of the dispute? khaldoon: the basis of the dispute is we live in a very challenging region. national security has been at the forefront of challenges that all countries in our region face. and the gcc as a block has always tried to maintain at least a vision of how we see the future, stability, and security of that region. there has been a fundamental shift or disagreement in terms of how we see the future of this region, and the direction they have decided to go with its decisions in terms of its politics, who it has decided to support, how it is in our view

it will help us respond more effectively to regional challenges. in order to be prepared for the challenges we face, we need to invest more and better in defense. we all agree that we do not have fair burden sharing in our alliance today. we all agree that we need more cash in national defense budgets , more modern capabilities, and more contributions to missions and operations. the good news is we are making progress. for a quarter of a century, many of our countries have been cutting billions from their defense budgets. now, they are adding billions. increasingallies are defense spending. this year, eight of our nations have committed to devote at least 2% of gdp on defense. the majority of allies have plans to do so by 2024. last year saw the biggest increase in defense spending since the end of the cold war. last year, we also agreed to develop national plans on burden sharing. ofed on the national plans european allies in canada, -- and canada, we expect $266 billion in extra u.s. dollars for defense between now and 2024. this is significant,

this is significant and unprecedented in the region. is a mor a more sophisticated missile and architecture to threaten israel with a. they've gone on facebook and publicly show how these attempted influences of political future of iran. they are capable of carrying the warhead to take the side of the technology but it's also unprecedented that they've provided the missile technology to hezbollah changing dramatically the capacity to winning the adversaries, their targets may come up with an attack or counterpunch which could again take the region into dramatic areas. the. finally iran has continued to build the cyber capabilities. it's one of the top threats in the united states. the absence of the international response for these actions in my view is contributed but it can be conducted with the international community to bring little cost and for those that are looking at how to reconstitute or reenergized the nuclear deal process this needs to be kept in mind to continue to undertake these actions and risks that they will miscalcula

alaska's vast undeveloped regions are a storehouse of natural wealth.here are magnificent mountain ranges bearing precious ores of gold, silver and copper. there are 20 million acres of forest. the lumber and wood for future american markets. there are rivers teeming with fish, and along the coastline, there are untapped deposits of oil. because alaska extends 1200 miles from north to south, it has a variety of climate. example, north of the arctic circle we see alaska as most of windswept, a barren, region. here the summers are cool and the ground just below the surface is always frozen. but did you know that in central alaska, the heat of summer is about the same as new york city? along the southern coast, the climate is similar to seattle. alaska as we are beginning to see is not a land of endless ice and snow. alaska was brought closer to us with the building of the highway in 1942. of ourith a cooperation canadian neighbors, this famous highway connects with the canadian roads at dawson creek, completing the first land route between alaska and our

veamos como fluye en estos momentos en los distintos puentes de la regiÓn.e problema las autoridades han hecho una millonaria propuesta de la que nos va a hablar mi compaÑero ramÓn adame. ramÓn: te saludo con gusto. estamos exactamente sobre la carretera 101 en direcciÓn sur. una los principales problemas es la cantidad de trÁfico que se acumula, principalmente en horas pico. por esa razÓn la comisiÓn metropolitana de transporte estÁ lanzando una iniciativa con el fin de que pueda presentarse proyectos que podrÍan darle a usted 1 millÓn de dÓlares el fin de agilizar y que el trÁfico sea menos complicado. estÁ y la informaciÓn. es la cruda realidadcotidiana . miles automovilistas que 1000 todos los dÍas se ven atascados en la pesadilla del trÁfico a travÉs del Área de la bahÍa. >> en las horas pico es terrible. y cuando se atraviesa un imprudente y probÓ con accidente es peor. >> la circulaciÓn se convierte en un dolor de cabeza en ciertas horas indeterminadas direcciones. >> estÁ duro ir a lugares . y aparte hay trÁfico de san francisco para acÁ. >> y quÉ de

that are region faces. gcc block has always tried to maintain at least a vision of how we see the future, stability, and security of that region. there has been a fundamental shift for disagreement in terms of how we see the future of this region, and the direction they have decided to go with its decisions in terms of its politics, who it has decided to support, how it is in our view not done what we had hoped it would do with regards to combating terrorism, combating the financing of terrorism, and sharing the vision we have what we feel all of us should have, for the stability of our region. that is at the heart of this dispute. these issues are quite deep, but these issues have been going on now for months. i hope that ultimately this matter gets resolved and i hope at the end of the day that we are all one family. saudis, egyptians, kuwaitis, we are all one people. david: some of the rhetoric out of the u.s. government, has that been a concern to people in the middle east about muslims, or is that poli

the region has been destroyed by more than 20 years of war. the women here have suffered horrific ordeals. >> when you're a victim, your heart is damaged. it's as if you're no longer human. reporter: along with emotional suffering, diseases like hiv also take a toll. mapenzi addresses these issues, listening to story after story, including that of nakatia, who was held captive by rebels for six months. nakatia: during that whole time, they hardly gave us anything to eat. they beat us and raped us day and night. when one was finished, the next one arrived, then the next one and the next, on and on. i want as many people as possible to know thihis is happening. reporter: it's not clear precisely how many women have suffered in this way, but they likely numumber in the hundredsf thousasands. therese: when you listen to these stories, sometimes you are powerless. you miss ways to share compassion with people, , but u just s stay there, listening o them, looking at them. it's my y only wayf f supportig them.. because it's horrible to see how human

the vice president has traveled to the region three times to urge region nal leaders to do more for the venezuelan people. in nicaragua, the administration has rightly designated three top officials for human rights abuses and for corruption. we should do more to support the nicaraguan people. the repressive ortega regime has killed more than 200 advocates for free and fair elections since this april. one of the civilians murdered on a village street was a former neighbor of an orange county friend of mine. subcommittee chairman paul cook will convene a hearing to further examine this matter tomorrow. across the hemisphere transnational criminal organizations continue to pose a major threat. these violent gangs are fueling the drug and migration crisis that the united states struggles with today. as we fight the deadly impacts of opium in our communities, we must continue working closely with our region nal neighbors, to increase counternarcotics cooperation. the recent increase in cocaine production in clom olombia is unacceptable. i'm hoping the recent election of president yvonne uke

a lot of ago xeni is a child region researcher at amnesty international and jang manga is a cameroonian blogger and activists are hoping also be joined on the phone by essentially roma bacary the minister of communications for the government of cameroon he'll be speaking to us from an official in gage welcome to the stream all of you and i want to start with our community because they pitched today show and have been for several weeks now two opposing perspectives are i here says i live in . a country colonized by cameroon and i live in fear of being shot at for no reason there is beyond disturbing presence of armed forces everywhere in amazonia and they see civilians as snow on the other side we got a comment from someone who also lives in that region that some call amazonia this is any who says this is a huge a lie i'm here and demand and civilians are scared of losing their properties and being killed or called names by secessionists if they say or do anything against them jang do you want to weigh in here we're seeing very different points of view from people who live in the very sa

mopti the regional bumbled to the region of key dahlan even as far north the style denny near the algerian border from all these sectors incidents of violence have been reported we don't know the impact of that immediately but it is quite clear that there are many areas where people have been prevented from voting by this violence asked was threatened by the jihad is organization g n i m of golly. you mentioned voter turnout being affected do we know yet exactly what the effect of this violence was on voter turnout. but that's a matter for the calculators obviously have this point in time it is very difficult to see how exactly this has affected voter are complacent a choice. matter and bear in mind also that mali has a traditionally very low turnout for voting in presidential election that's been below fifty percent since two thousand and one but obviously things like these do not help. now why are these elections so important for mali and what should the international community be looking for here. or interestingly the question could be why are very important for mali is i think part of