About the Author: Philip H. Gordon serves as Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs.

Looking back at the busy and productive year we’ve had, I would say that the United States and Europe have never been more closely aligned, both in overall goals as well as tactics to achieve those goals. From the beginning of the Obama Administration we’ve made a deliberate and conscious effort to strengthen our ties with Europe and to work with our most important allies around the world on global issues. During 2012 the pace of our work continued with a multitude of high-level visits, ministerial meetings, summits, and international conferences. Not only did I travel widely for meetings with my counterparts, but 2012 also marked Secretary Clinton’s 38th visit to Europe. This intense diplomatic engagement is driven by our profound belief that successful alliances require investment and that such investment pays real… more »

About the Author: Seth McNayr serves at the U.S. Mission to NATO.

On December 4, 2012, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, in Brussels for her ninth and final NATO Foreign Ministers Meeting, began a typically industrious day by meeting with Department of State staff and families downtown at the U.S. Embassy in Belgium. Next, she moved across town to NATO Headquarters, arriving at mid-day and meeting immediately with NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen. She then conducted her first bilateral meeting with her Bulgarian counterpart, Nikolay Mladenov.

Secretary Clinton then joined other NATO Foreign Ministers for a working lunch of the NATO-Russia Council (NRC), including Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov, where many topics of strategic interest were discussed. Afghanistan, in particular, is an area where NATO and Russia have found ways to cooperate in recent years, through such initiatives as joint counter-terrorism and… more »

About the Author: Ivo H. Daalder serves as U.S. Ambassador to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

Our goals at this Ministerial are clear and simple: to support our ally Turkey by moving toward a deployment of Patriot Missiles to augment their air defenses, to help them protect their people and population; to broaden our cooperation and political dialogue with Russia; to strengthen our partnerships with other countries, including Georgia; and with all our ISAF partners, to monitor our progress toward successful transition in Afghanistan by 2014.

In addition to the goals, however, this Ministerial is noteworthy, because of Secretary Clinton. This is her 38th trip to Europe since becoming Secretary of State; and her ninth and last NATO Ministerial.

She has left… more »

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton will travel to Prague, the Czech Republic; Brussels, Belgium; Dublin, Ireland; and Belfast, Northern Ireland December 3-7.

Secretary Clinton will travel to Prague, the Czech Republic, December 3 to meet with Czech officials on strengthening Czech energy independence, as well as advancing human rights and supporting democratic transitions around the world.

Secretary Clinton will visit Brussels, Belgium, December 4-5 to participate in a meeting of NATO foreign ministers. The Secretary and her counterparts will discuss current security challenges in the Western Balkans and NATO’s global partnerships. The Secretary will participate in a foreign ministers’ meeting of the NATO-Russia Council on December 4 and of the NATO-Georgia Commission on December 5. NATO foreign ministers will also meet with their non-NATO partners… more »

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton delivers remarks on entitled “The U.S. and Europe: A Revitalized Global Partnership” at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C. on November 29, 2012. A text transcript can be found at http://www.state.gov/secretary/rm/2012/11/201223.htm.

Notice to the Press
Office of the Spokesperson
Washington, DC
November 28, 2012

On Thursday, November 29, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton will deliver remarks entitled The U.S. and Europe: A Revitalized Global Partnership at an event hosted by the Center on the United States and Europe at the Brookings Institution. Brookings President Strobe Talbott will provide introductory remarks. The event will begin at 1:30 p.m. at the Brookings Institution.

The event will be open to the press and streamed live.

To RSVP, please call the Brookings Office of Communications at 202.797.6105.

Viewers may follow the conversation on Twitter using the hashtag #BISecClinton.

About the Author: Amanda Berry serves in Office of Public Diplomacy in theBureau of European and Eurasian Affairs.

Imagine this: Mere minutes after a lengthy bilateral meeting with European counterparts, you step on to the stage and take your place behind a microphone. You have been asked, alongside a “top official” from the United States, to represent Germany at a press conference on the latest developments in the Eurozone. Palms sweating, you take the first question, hoping that they will be easy on you. A journalist turns on his microphone and starts out with a tough one, “Germany has been imposing austerity measures across the Eurozone, but are you considering the effects these drastic measures might have on working class Europeans?”

For 68 European and American high school students representing 42 different countries, this scenario became reality, if only for a few hours, in a simulation conducted at the State Department as part of the Benjamin Franklin Transatlantic Fellows… more »

More: Trip Page | Interactive Travel Map

Today, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is in Riga, Latvia, the hundredth country she has visited as U.S. Secretary of State. In her present capacity, she has traveled more than 830,000 miles to date. Secretary Clinton told an audience of Latvian youths, “I’m very happy that my 100th country was Latvia, because I have such a great admiration and incredible sense of friendship and solidarity with your country, and so it’s a perfect time to be here.”

In Riga, Secretary Clinton also… more »

About the Author: Roberta Jacobson serves as Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs.

Economic recovery, at home, in Europe, across the globe, seems to be on everyone’s minds these days. In the United States, the engine to power our economic recovery is fueled by human and physical resources right here in our own hemisphere. No one knows this better than the Council of the Americas. Since its founding in 1965, the Council’s approximately 200 members account for a large percentage of U.S. investment in Latin America and the Caribbean. Their investment is linked by a shared belief that free markets and private enterprise, coupled with strong democratic governance, offer the most effective means to achieve regional economic growth and prosperity.

Yesterday, when we addressed the Council at their annual conference,… more »

About the Author: Diana Marvin serves as a Senior Advisor in the Office of Euro-Atlantic Security in the Bureau of Arms Control, Verification and Compliance.

On March 24, the United States commemorated the 20th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty on Open Skies, and the role it has played in providing peace and stability for Euro-Atlantic relations. On March 27, Acting Under Secretary Rose Gottemoeller spoke at a special reception in Vienna, Austria, hosted by the governments of Canada and Hungary, to mark this occasion. In her remarks, Gottemoeller emphasized, “While much has been accomplished under the Treaty, its potential, in our view, has not yet been fully tapped. Parties need to upgrade to digital sensors as soon as possible, and application of the results should be used to address a wider range of transnational threats and verification challenges.”

In a nutshell, the Treaty gives each State Party the opportunity to conduct unarmed aerial observation… more »