Statements by U.S. Officials
Remarks of Ambassador James F. Jeffrey
to the American Business Forum in Turkey (ABFT)
Istanbul, Turkey
Thursday, January 22, 2009
First of all, let me be clear: while I’ve spent seven years in Turkey, in Ankara and Adana – Ankara’da ve Adana’da – I love Istanbul. My wife and family love Istanbul. And I am so happy to be here with you today. One of the main reasons that Istanbul is so important to us, is that you really are a financial, business, media, and cultural capital, not only for this country, but potentially for the entire region. And we want to work with you, particularly the American companies, our Turkish and American friends representing those companies, to advance our overall agenda with Turkey – in particular, the economic/commercial component thereof.
Once upon a time, diplomatic/security affairs were at the center of our work as diplomats, and commercial and economic work was something else we did. Not anymore. What we’ve seen – and there’s no better example than this country in the twenty-five years that I’ve been coming back and forth to Turkey – is that a strong commercial relationship, a country open to the outside world, a country that trades, a country that welcomes outside investors, welcomes outside expertise, welcomes products and capital, is a country that grows tremendously. Our job here is to first of all, at the micro level, help you in your individual and specific difficulties and issues (and there are a lot of these in this country, as there are in others) but at the macro level, contribute to the atmosphere, the environment, within which you operate – be it on laws, be it on tariffs, be it on intellectual property rights, be it on court cases, and other legal or administrative decisions that impact on the ability of free trade to flow.
While, as I said, we do this specifically for the American business sector, we’re doing it for the benefit of our relationship as well. A Turkey that’s open to the outside world in one sector will be open in other sectors: democracy, freedom of opinion, and the multiplier effect of the kind of thing that you folks are doing on a daily basis, is really extraordinary. Again, you don’t see this day in, day out, but somebody like I who has been here back and forth for 25 years, really does see it.
We appreciate your input. Thank you for your example last week, with the help of our great Consul General here, Sharon Wiener, you organized a briefing for folks coming to Ankara to talk about the Trade and Investment Framework Agreement. That was very, very helpful. They came, as we say, “loaded for bear” when we unleashed them on the Turkish government officials. We had a very good meeting. We think that we’ve narrowed the differences on some of the issues. And again, that’s exactly the kind of cooperation I hope to have with you. I hope to be up here often. I hope to get to know you.
Now, let me talk a little bit, as Galip said, about the situation in Washington. Normally, it’s the bread and butter of a diplomat to talk about our foreign policy in general, our specific foreign policy towards country X, in this case Turkey. And believe me, Turkey is an easy portfolio normally because we have such a rich and important relationship. But talking about the Obama government’s, Administration’s foreign policy towards Turkey is a high adventure right now, because we haven’t seen the details of it yet. All I can say to you, in general terms, is that I already know that we can take President Obama seriously when he talks about extending a hand of friendship to essentially anybody that doesn’t respond with a clenched fist. He is also very, very serious about pursuing, to a victorious end, those wars we’re in now: in Iraq, which impacts Turkey very directly; in Afghanistan, indirectly affects Turkey; and our responding to terror and to those who oppress. He’s very committed to our alliances, beginning with NATO, he’s made this clear. He’s already engaging on the Middle East peace process – something where Turkey has been very helpful in, in the last four weeks. And he will put more emphasis, from everything we can see, into our multilateral diplomacy through the UN and with other major regional actors, such as Turkey.
So, this doesn’t mean that some of the hiccups that we’ve had in the past in the relationship will be wiped away, not at all. In my many years in Turkey, I’ve seen problems come and problems go, and I will see new problems come and go. But I think we have a good atmosphere with the Turkish government, and the Turkish government with us, to deal with these problems.
I’ll be happy to try to answer specifics, when you’ve got, when the time for questions has come. But I have to underline that I can’t tell exactly what President Obama will do on this issue or on that issue. I can simply say that while presidents themselves always decide on foreign policy, we do have a strong tradition of continuity on our relations towards Turkey. It’s an important country for us; it always has been since the early days of our Republic. And certainly since the Korean War. And it will remain so.
Thank you very much.