Thursday, May 17, 2012
Opening Statement: Chairing SFRC nominations hearing
As prepared for delivery on May 17, 2012
I am pleased to chair this hearing of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and would like to welcome my good friend, Senator Isakson, as well as Senator Rubio, Senator Nelson, and our distinguished nominees.
Today we will consider the nominees to be Ambassador to Mozambique, Equatorial Guinea, and The Gambia, as well as the U.S. Representative to the UN Agencies for Food and Agriculture.
Turning first to the nomination of David Lane as the nominee to the UN Agencies for Food and Agriculture in Rome, I want to highlight the crucial role that those agencies play in Africa and elsewhere in the developing world. The World Food Program provides life-saving nutrition in Somalia, Sudan, Niger, and many other conflict and famine zones. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization is an important complement to our own government’s Feed the Future program and other initiatives to improve agricultural productivity and ensure food security.
We will also today consider nominations for Ambassador to three African countries that are all important to U.S. national interests, including security, trade and investment, health, governance and human rights.
Douglas Griffiths is the nominee for Mozambique, a country that has emerged from a long civil war as a promising democracy with impressive economic growth. Like many African countries, it is rich in natural resources, but suffers from high levels of poverty. The next Ambassador will have a number of challenges in working with the Mozambican government to consolidate its democratic gains, use its resources wisely, and increase its trade with the United States, including through greater use of benefits under the African Growth and Opportunity Act.
Equatorial Guinea, where Mark Asquino is the Ambassadorial nominee, is an important producer of oil and natural gas, with a GDP of more than $14 billion. But the United States has serious concerns about weak human rights protections, lack of political freedoms, and corruption. President Obiang is Africa’s longest-serving entrenched leader, and opposition political parties regularly complain of political repression.
Our final nominee is Edward Alford as Ambassador to The Gambia, a tiny West African country almost entirely enveloped by Senegal. It has few natural resources and relies on exporting and tourism for revenue. U.S. interests in The Gambia include concerns about drug trafficking, as well as governance and human rights. A number of Senators, including Senators Durbin and Casey, have raised concerns in the past about the lack of press freedom in The Gambia and the death and disappearance of journalists critical of the government. The Gambia is eligible for benefits under the AGOA program, and I encourage the next Ambassador to work closely with the government to increase trade and investment with the United States.
I will now turn it over to Senator Isakson for his opening remarks.
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