Deputy Secretary of State William Burns meets with United Arab Emirates Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, December 14, 2012. [State Department photo/ Public Domain]

U.S. Deputy Secretary of State William Burns delivers remarks on the Syrian Opposition Council during a press conference in Marrakech, Morocco on December 12, 2012. A text transcript can be found at http://www.state.gov/s/d/2012/201945.htm.

Media Note
Office of the Spokesperson
Washington, DC
December 12, 2012

Today, Deputy Secretary of State William J. Burns announced the United States is providing nearly $14 million in additional humanitarian aid that will provide nutrition support for children, as well as additional emergency medical and winterization supplies to families in need inside Syria. With this new assistance, the United States is providing $210 million in humanitarian assistance to help over 1.5 million people inside Syria and the hundreds of thousands who have fled to neighboring countries.

This new assistance will provide a monthly ration of highly-fortified, ready-to-use food supplements to help approximately 225,000 children in Syria. These supplements are specially formulated for young children between 6 and 24 months of age and provide all the vitamins and minerals required for their development. To further increase medical capacity in Syria, this additional aid also includes essential medicines and supplies for 150,000 people and specialized drugs and supplies for 3,000 surgical interventions. We are also supporting the Early Warning Alert and Response System, a medical surveillance system that allows early detection and timely response to epidemics of communicable diseases. The United States is already working to reach 375,000 people in Syria with critical, life-saving winterization supplies, and this new funding will provide heavy-duty plastic insulation, duct tape, blankets, mattresses, rubber boots, and woolen socks to help an additional 45,000 people with winterization needs.

The United States, along with the international community, is working tirelessly to ensure that the innocent children, women, and men affected by the conflict in Syria are provided with life-saving assistance, and we will continue to stand by them in their time of need. The United States acknowledges the extraordinary efforts of Jordan, Turkey, Lebanon, and Iraq to keep borders open and generously hosting and providing assistance to those fleeing Asad’s brutality.

For more detailed information on the U.S. government’s response to the humanitarian crisis in Syria, please visit:http://www.usaid.gov/crisis/syria.

Deputy Secretary of State William Burns delivers remarks at the 2012 State Outstanding Volunteerism Abroad (SOSA) and Eleanor Dodson Tragen Award Ceremony at the U.S. Department State in Washington, D.C. on December 4, 2012. A text transcript can be found at http://www.state.gov/s/d/2012/201496.htm.

About the Author: Hannah Johnson serves as an Assistant Editor for DipNote.

Our “Photo of the Week” shows Deputy Secretary of State William Burns and Colombian Vice Foreign Minister Patti Londono signing a memorandum of understanding on the Small Business Network of the Americas in Cali, Colombia, October 23, 2012.

Deputy Secretary Burns and Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere AffairsRoberta Jacobson traveled to Cali for the fifth Pathways to Prosperity in the Americas ministerial. The government of Colombia hosted the event, attended by high-level government officials, policy makers, business leaders, academics, and representatives from international organizations throughout the… more »

Deputy Secretary of State William Burns and Colombian Vice Foreign Minister Patti Londono sign a memorandum of understanding on the Small Business Network of the Americas on the sidelines of the Pathways to Prosperity in the Americas ministerial in Cali, Colombia, October 23, 2012. [State Department photo/ Public Domain]

Media Note
Office of the Spokesperson
Washington, DC
May 30, 2012

Deputy Secretary Burns will depart May 30 for a trip to Singapore, arriving May 31. On June 1, he will meet with government counterparts and senior officials to discuss a broad range of bilateral, regional and global issues, underscoring the continued growth in our strategic partnership with Singapore.

June 2, the Deputy will join Secretary Panetta, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Dempsey, and other senior U.S. officials and members of Congress to participate in the annual Shangri-la Dialogue. On the margins of the Dialogue, he will meet with senior officials from other delegations to discuss regional and global security concerns.

Remarks
William J. Burns
Deputy Secretary
Remarks to the Council of the Americas’ 42nd Washington Conference on the Americas
Loy Henderson Auditorium, Washington, DC
May 8, 2012

Thank you, John. Welcome to the State Department. I can think of no greater honor in this building than to be introduced by John Negroponte, who for so long has set such a high standard of professional excellence for the rest of us. I am honored and humbled to follow in your footsteps as Deputy Secretary, and we are all deeply grateful for your continued efforts to advance peace and prosperity in our hemisphere.

I am delighted to address this 42nd Conference of the Council of the Americas, and on behalf of Secretary Clinton, to welcome all of you back to the State Department today. Let me emphasize at the outset what may seem like a blindingly obvious point to all of you: during this moment of tectonic political shifts elsewhere in the world, from a rising Asia-Pacific to a restive Middle East, one of the starting points for effective U.S. foreign policy in the 21st century is to focus on the enormous opportunity in our own neighborhood. Today, our engagement with Canada, Latin America, and the Caribbean requires an extra measure of strategic focus, precisely because this region is so important to our shared future. Our partnerships in the Western Hemisphere are vital to our economic recovery and competitiveness, and vital to our ability to solve the transnational challenges that no one country can solve on its own. MORE