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, so that's a pretty staggering statistic from a consumer consumption point of view. secretary gutierrez: absolutely, absolutely. i think, as secretary pompeo was saying, it's 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 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, w

encroaching that region. walter: i do think it is the right approach in those two cases with the philippines and thailand. i think you need to be operating on a sliding scale. i am all for pressing for human rights concerns across the board, but the way you have do it has to be different in each. cambodia and berma, i think they are taking the right approach there, pressing pretty hard on human rights issues. but when you look at thailand and you look at the philippines, you have to weigh the other benefits that they offer. they both offer tremendous amounts of value to the united states as allies. the way you approach the issues in the philippines is where the disaster is now, mostly behind closed doors. similar in thailand. dan: let me stick with walter for another couple minutes. on the economic approach, obviously for those of you who watch monty python, the transpacific partnership is dead, it is not just resting. it has been dead for a very long time, arguably. it was dead as soon as it was given to the

in the us engagement in the region. we have joining us from indonesia the deputy minister at indonesia as coordinating minister of maritime affairs. thank you for joining us. next to him, the investor who took charge as india's ambassador to the united states in 2016 and it's an interesting moment in which to begin his tenure. he has been a distinguish member of the indian foreign services since 1980 and served as indians high commissioner to the united kingdom ambassador to israel and many other posts. were pleased to have you join us today. finally, we have matt pottinger who is the deputy assistant to the president and senior director for asian affairs at the national security council and has a default been involved in the proceedings today from the executive branch and the indo pacific strategy and vision that has been laid out. we look forward to hearing more from you, as well. welcome to all of you gentlemen. i thought he could start off the conversation perhaps is with her today a whole of government approach to

benefit to the region. despite the fact that as they talked about don't offer as much as u.s. or japan for that matter, they are able to use it. but way. >> i would just add to that but i think this is one reason they been some very strong and clearly stated words that the u.s. offers partnership rather than domination. and i think in southeast asia, folks approach that with open eyes and some of the cases leadership doesn't mind choosing domination because they benefit from it personally at home. but if we sort of harp on that case, it is one that is the winner and much of the region. >> i would also comment that with china's economy really heading toward deep, deep trouble over a long period of time. >> in the back, russell. >> thank you. a wonderful report. i really can't wait to dig into all the details of this. i'd like to question the panel on the good governor's aspect of the free and open pacific especially because i think what i heard from mike and walter is that your suggestion is the u.s. approac

and are there regions the way ray mentioned, sort of geographic regions or subregions that particularly are priorities in the abe administration right now? >> well, japan is hosting -- [inaudible] trade investment promotion in africa. >> yeah. >> so africa, president say china was playing a bigger, much bigger role. >> okay. >> but a couple of the projects we already identify their potential cooperation between opic and jbic in africa. >> got it. >> so that's a good step forward. not in the asia-pacific, but also in the other region. also in latin american countries. also that china also made a lot of investment. even in venezuela. of still continue to make loans to venezuela, chinese. this is, it's beyond our imagination, but they did. >> that's a high risk -- >> high risk investment. [laughter] we can't do it. however, that's now -- we need to bring the good practice and innovation so that the financing cooperation between u.s., japan, australia, maybe india are bring better outcome in the -- [inaudible] countries. >> fantastic. >> it's a really interesting question, actually, the con

of our commitment to the region. navigations are the most visible part of that. but we are engaged in activities , exercises and operations across the region every day. us military is active on a daily basis to safeguard navigation and overflight in the indo pacific illustrating our commitment to fly sale and operate wherever international law allows. these activities were joined by other like-minded countries. who are concerned about growing challenges to international law, international norms and rules-based order. we're also engaged in capacity building efforts and in this we are joined by like-minded allies such as japan and australia to build capacity of our southeast asian allies and partners to defend their sovereignty and independence. for example we provided extensive counterterrorism support to our filipino allies, both during and in the aftermath of the islamic state link, the battle with the islamic state link militants. we've also helped build vietnam's maritime capacityby providing a high endurance cutt

i am a supporter of regional we believe in regional organizations. one of the challenges of oas is very little parliamentary involvement. it does not have the same degree of support within the congress itself because we are part of the process. we are involved in the process. i would like to know how you all believe our regional organizations in that region can be strengthened in order to make them more effective in dealing with problems such as venezuela. outgoing representative at the old --oas, i'll be happy to take the first crack at that. that the situation in venezuela has been of concern for many region -- reasons. it has been on high priority for the oas. there is still much more to do to promote a peaceful in then in venezuela, two years that i served in the mission we have come a long way from the standpoint, initially was incapable of taking any action because of the strong influence of the venezuelan government in the hemisphere. or nothave seen the oas counsel has a series of resolutions condemning human rights violations there, and also

and to become clear in the region. but the more important process that's happening and these two processes actually eased russia's way into the gulf. the first was the oil prices multipled in 2015. -- plummeted in 2015. but what was interested, it happened at the same time when the u.s. and the west applied sanctions to russia. so as russia is constantly in a state of being encroached and they were saying -- they were hinting that united states was behind directly by intelligence offices or anything. so they -- they understood that if they don't make a deal with gulf state or major exporters, the prices will go even further down. and, you know, it will -- what's happened to soviets in 80s will happen to the current regime as well. so that kind of paranoia drove them closer to gulf. but their way into the gulf was that the power was created by non-intervention strategy of the united states. and we saw the practice that facilitated their interest in the market. and what they have achieved, one of the biggest successes th

unless we think regionally, but it can move people regionally and house people regionally.we will not be successful. they used to be a time when the city could go it alone and do it by itself. but that time has long gone. week are a complete region. sent this sculptor san francisco post's future is tied to oakland, berkeley, as it is to silicon vallie and san jose. our region has to work this way. we need to step up and sat -- sacramento and that is what we do every single day. i am proud to chair the bay area caucus and we are a caucus but we are fighting for the critical resources at the bay area. because if we don't, we will know there is an economy at stake and lives at stake and there's a quality of life at stake. we have seen what happens in washington and pelosi is fighting the good fight out in washington and we see what disastrous decisions have just -- occurred in the last 16 months. decision after decision is attacking the environment and attacking california. attacking everything that we have fought for as a safety, as a state, everything that we believe in. our

time to interfere and to become a player in the region. but the more important process happen and there are two processes actually. the first was the oil prices plummeted in 2015, but what's interesting, it happened at the same time with yes, and the west applied sanctions to russia. so as russia is constantly in a state of paranoia, being encroached, a were saying, they were hinting that the united states was behind the price plummeting, directly by intelligence offices. so they understood that if they don't make a deal with gulf states or major exporters, prices will go even further down and it will come what happened to the soviets in the '80s will happen to the current regime as well. so that kind of paranoia drew them closer to go. but the way into the gulf was the power vacuum created by non-interventionist strategy of the united states. that facilitated the interest in the market. one of the biggest successes that they achieve was the establishment of the oil prices to the russia opec deal which seen for energy experts seemed incred

strategy in the region.i kind of want to ask the entire panel and how would you define democracy because there's a lot of different components to it. the civil society component command human people component in the trade portion of it. there's governance, rule of law, accountability. and i am worried that kind of comment inherently takes out the wind of what mike's report is trying to say that these three pillars that should drive your strategies in southeast asia. how would you define democracy? >> that is a tough one. >> i'll go first. the asian democratization process has led in taiwan and south korea and the philippines and indonesia to multi-parties for more protection of individual rights, however i'm perfect, for people to have choices in who they vote for him just the basic concept of promoting the rule of law and basic human dignity. you know, i think as we saw throughout the cold war there is different authoritarian governments as well. that was the point that walter was trying to make about comin

be entirely excluded from the region. at the same time the islamic republic is at a crossroads in its history the aging supreme leader ali hi my name is increasingly frail and sick his succession will be a crucial element in the restructuring of the future political balance of the country. in the case of the current supreme leader is office is a big back black box of probably around a few thousand people working in that office and no one has a clear understanding of the power dynamics in that office the most influential people in that office and his own plans and designs for succession decisions surrounding succession and how it plays out within iran will be enormously consequential for the future of iran and stability of the islamic republic and for the capacity of iran to continue casting such a wide influence across the region we simply don't know how succession will play out. but often in iran the most powerful institution at the time of a transition will determine what comes next and the most powerful institution at

implementing their strategy in the region. the most important that they achieved was signing bilateral deals with the qatari investment uae sovereign --ld fund and many other saudi aramco, which happened mainly as a result of the first -- reaining business igning business. it is very vulnerable. so far, russia has been successful in achieving those objectives that they have put in front of them. opec and the deal , i see thee now prospects of the deal. i am less optimistic about it. we have almost 2.5 million barrels of non-opec oil, mainly coming to the market. as more oil comes from non-opec countries to the market, the carteleness of the becomes strained. it will add more pressure on it. it is an ambiguous deal. nobody knows who regulates these caps. they have taken advantage of the situation in venezuela, nigeria, canada. they reap the benefits. ,hey have to be very careful especially with saudi arabia and russia. this year, saudi arabian crown arabia,leader of saudi actually made a statement in -- ting the u.s., saying do

sort of autonomous region within. mohamad joe is over in djibouti reporting from there at the moment he knows all about this sort of. stories from this part of the region. there is a tense standoff in the city of to kick up a couple of the somali region of ethiopia federal troops continue to arrive some of them by planes and on friday residents of the city was surprised to see federal troops rolling into the city with tongues. at this point the local or special police exchanged fire with the federal troops and this created some confusion in which. began something that's so the entire market of looted to churches and up to fifty people losing their lives the government in addis ababa justifies why it sends the troops saying that there was a rift between the regional administration and the federal government and that there were plans by the regional administration to announce a suppression or secession from the rest of its european something that course outrightly didn't mind by the original president. let's talk more a

to the powers in the region to the g.c.c. specifically saudi arabia and the us. i doubt that we've been here before they will be met with fire and fury the will trying 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 will 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 south korea pave the way for the meeting with kim jong il in france might be an option president emanuel mccraw had arjen 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 critica

was moved into a rest regional leaders in the somali region in the east of the country federal troops took control of the capital of that region off the being met with resistance by paramilitary forces loyal to the government let's get more on that story now joining us via skype from frankfurt is said dolly lemma she is editor in chief of the standard an online news magazine thanks very much for being with us this is this is quite a complicated story isn't it just to set the scene for us. of what happened yesterday and what's behind it. thanks for having me yes indeed this is a very complicated history and story but what happened yesterday. the events that led to yesterday's intervention by the federal government police force and an army force begun actually unfolding on wednesday and thursday when so much i mean every time a state government and police force the paramilitary police force what we call them came to drain to another neighboring city to disrupt meeting by elders who have been denouncing the human rights abuses of the region not government. in what we call the presidents

is actually against himself his regional government isn't popular in the region and for the past decade has been much more about suppressing pushes for autonomy and self-determination in the somali region as opposed to fostering them really this is something he's latching on to right now as a more popular cause to try to preserve himself and in fact in terms of the kind of the impact on ethiopia it was him that there were these signs that sort of. were looking and things were getting better how did how much difficulty will this pose for the government this is a key political issue for the government as the new prime minister very much came on with a mandate of addressing the issues that were causing anger in the region and really the violence that we've seen over the past year and a half between ethnic and somalis is the last of these outstanding issues the new prime minister came in to address so this is something the prime minister needs to take very vigorous action on in order to keep his own political constituency inside ethiopia in a romeo i suppose the only that there's a worry fo

i am pleased -- to turn to the proven region -- peruvian region. andeputy chief of mission dust. -- if confirmed, i will probably represent the united states. a diverse nation in which christianity, hinduism, and dismiss religions live peacefully together. i will work the government to further develop mutually beneficial opportunities for economic growth and increased trade as well as export opportunities. u.s. companies are currently conducting oil expiration of the coast of -- spared have defined success as have occurred and neighboring ghana. companiesso john u.s. -- the u.s. government is supporting efforts to curb mining in the damaging use of mercury. security is a key mutual interest. keeping with the gulf the caribbean security initiative. if confirmed, i will continue to support bilateral and regional systems that provide technical trendline force officers, six to andat money laundering financial crimes, and support the strengthening of the rule of law. adding to your watchlist for the second year in a row after being upgraded to that leve

in the sign the museum showcases archaeological finds from the region. the sorts who are of slavic descent aren't as meek minority whose culture shapes this region to this very day each february they celebrate the post they don't traditional dresses drink dance and march from one home to the next. the goal is to dispel evil winter spirits. in summer time fountains front to do been famous hold fast the boat parade is a particular highlight giving visitors a sense of how locals used to transport the harvest and livestock through the region. to. the tropical islands theme park located in a form a hangar boasting the world's largest freestanding still done for that matter is another regional tourist magnet. it's perfect for rainy days. and in twenty seventeen alone it attracted more than half a million visitors in. my boat ride ends in late at one of the chalet but it's most beautiful towns. these processes snakeheads on the gables are typical for the region they symbolize the snaking his supposed to protect the locals. elated open air museum there's a lot t

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

there's growing concern about the rift between national and regional governments in ethiopia after at least fifty people were killed in fighting and ethnic violence in the east began when ethiopian troops were sent from the capital addis ababa to the eastern somali state to arrest regional officials there they clashed with local forces further violence followed with a force of groups of ethnic somalis attacking other civilians mounted the joins us live now from neighboring mohammed how significant is this. while quite significant. the people of good hugo was surprised to see government troops federal troops in their midst with their tongues surrounding parliament the president's residence and other important is the lucian's in the capital is when the local police force loyal to the regional president started attacking the federal troops something that created the riot which. resulted in the bombing of the charge of the looting of the town and the loss of almost fifty people in this city now all these potted according to senior government officials and that is because the federal troop

over the last three years cultivation of illicit crops has skyrocketed in this region. many believe that the issue has already grown out of the control of the national government colombian president even though camp has called illicit crop cultivations like this marijuana field with some around two thousand plants on it in existential threat and has vowed to increase eradication efforts including a crop substitution program for rural farmers i the new president has also announced a policy that includes the deployment of unmanned drones. to spray illicit crops with a chemical herbicide life is a bit of a total buy and they are either naive or they think we are all just stupid enough to believe that drones will defeat the phenomenon of drug trafficking this is alex and he's a colombian senator and a critic of the proposed eradication efforts. the only way to stop the drug trafficking is for farmers and people in these regions where illicit crops are grown to be aided by the government and. for the government to have their backs. tell us like to exist at the fringe of the

years since the war between russia and georgia broke out after georgia attacked in the autonomous region of south us out here in two thousand and eight the russian army intervened after five days of a full scale conflict and fourteen hundred civilians killed a cease fire agreement was reached and in fact russian troops remain in the region to this day acting as peacekeepers over the u.s. calls it an occupation. our position on the russian occupied georgia regions of the and also south ossetia is unwavering that remains unwavering today the regions are part of georgia they are not part of russia and the united states continues to support josh georgia's sovereignty its independence and also its territorial integrity like despite western politicians putting the blame on russia for the two thousand and eight such a war the e.u. is a fact finding mission to stop georgia was in fact the one who initiated the conflict however it also fell but both sides violated international law in

from beirut it's illegal but cannabis is planted almost everywhere in lebanon's northern because region in recent years the government stop destroying the crops because it couldn't provide the impoverished population with alternatives now it is considering legalizing cultivation for medical use but some farmers are concerned it could cut profits. the high supply means it's not very cheap so if they don't go lies the cultivation its will have no value we have to go as the trade for twenty years and they were against it and now they want to do this to gain political support from the people who are fed up with the politicians. it's a multimillion dollar industry which an international consulting firm says could help levanon struggling economy it would first have to introduce new seedlings that have medical properties a draft bill has been proposed in parliament proponent say the people of the region will benefit. and i propose this will help farmers they have been the victims they can't openly sell it because it's illegal so dealers benefit most by imposing a price on the farmers and selli

and limitations of any rehabilitation program the security council of the kurdistan region says one of the man arrested from a suspected eisel sleeper cell involved in the attack used to be in this program so hard with him to tell you the truth they don't always change one hundred percent there is a fifty fifty chance they will change. five hundred eisel juveniles were arrested during the iraqi army's offensive to recapture the city of mosul in twenty sixteen it was jailed for what is described as terrorism related offenses most have been released and as far as the warden knows haven't committed any additional crimes but part of rehabilitation involves inmates acknowledging their crimes and accepting accountability those we spoke to denied belonging to ice all and maintained their innocence. ali is serving a five year sentence for weapons training with ice all now all of us on the huddle i'm angry there were two hundred members inside here everybody knew that they committed crimes all of their sentences would have for years and they have been released why does my sentence have to be

foreign service officer and ambassador in the region.very quickly thank you for referring to the hemisphere as a community and a neighborhood. there are there are too many u.s. government officials over the years who would like to throw around the term backyard to which my mind is demeaning. let me get, you put your finger on youth corruption, transparency and accountability. a guatemalan friend yesterday told me the biggest problem in wat a mollica and 10 used to be corruption. they are working on it but one area in particular is public procurement which is riddled with corruption and my question jumps to what usa a.i.d. is doing with regard to the corruption issue across-the-board plus one other thing. there are universities in the northern triangle, universities and south america, good universities. are we doing enough to link american universities and universities of the region to join forces and can usaid be at -- play a more for catalytic role? i know some things are being done but just like the diaspora, are our own universities b

caspian region sense of asia. has lots of energy potential. having a disagreement basically opens up the way of making sure that the countries of this region can benefit from the natural resources that they exist and for you and i can say that the prosperity of the other four countries is going to be prosperity because being part of a region that prosperous countries would generally benefit everybody that isn't around. security issues who portion of the segment dictates that no country outside the five better bordering caspian sea is going to be allowed to be present militarily in that area so that makes sure that certain that countries like the united states are going to be out of the caspian sea which is good news for you obviously we've mentioned this already but one of the issues at the heart of this dispute has been what is the definition of the caspian is it a sea or is it a lake i want to ask you specifically when it comes to maritime law what is the difference between the two as designations. well i think in the introductory segment th

you go to the middle east they would be a regional solution. if they wasn't the united states supporting one state and its impunity and its priority in its occupation of part of it if there was goodwill in the united states to make that a regional solution then to be very difficult there there are a many different competing tribal forces but those tribal forces of mostly been. reignited. by the the the imperial palace as resort in libya and in two thousand and eleven so again i suppose i'm saying that although it's probably it's a remote at the moment in the middle east but to see glimmers of it in korea is hopeful well if trump has enemies of a career because he may what the big grand gesture he now has the curious enemy of the d.n.c. that is suing him russia is the us democratic party i think this is serious because i had to recheck it he is suing donald trump russia and julian assange and mickey mouse it's it's it's just of so absurd. i'm as the ruler inquiry progresses you know as if the goal is a road in that within the road to stop respon

here in two thousand and fourteen the iraqi government stopped providing funds to the region the. money pays the salaries of government and public sector employees such as kahar hussein and his wife her teaching salary has been slashed in half they say they're owed twelve thousand dollars in unpaid wages and. twenty. there is a lot of pressure on us we can't afford any vacations we can only afford food and hope to survive every month and every year this year the federal government resumed payments but not at the pre twenty fourteen level or maybe he had a request that the hope of the people is that the economy goes back to where it was the political the social problems every other problem they're all connected to the economic problems hussain says year after year they keep hearing the economy is improving when they finally believe it they hope to realize a dream put on hold by the economic crisis to give their daughter a sibling natasha going to aim al-jazeera erbil. the number of people indonesia who died in last week's earthquake has risen to three hundred ninety seven the count