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[applause]
The Vice President: Thank you, John,
and it is true, I'm as old as John.
[laughter]
And we are both 45 years older than Kathleen.
[laughter]
You know, I'm going to do what John did.
You couldn't see from here, but John skipped
about 15 pages of his speech because
he and I come from a political background.
We know that if you ask an audience,
no matter who the speaker is or how collectively numbered
speakers are, to stand more than 15 minutes,
you lose them all and you're beyond 15 minutes already.
So John, thank you for passion and perseverance
and the incredible energy
you've shown in representing American
interests around the world.
I have been here for, I have to admit,
eight presidents and I've never seen a man
or woman with as much energy and commitment as you have
shown, John, and we thank you for that.
[applause]
And to the members of the diplomatic corps
to Evan Ryan, who is the Assistant Secretary of Education
and Cultural Affairs, one of the most talented people
to occupy this office in my view, to Roberta,
who has been the source of my collective education here.
[laughter]
I spent most of my career early on dealing with the
Soviet Union and NATO and the Middle East,
and when the President asked me, as Ben will tell you,
to take a direct hand in increasing personal
relationships and connections
in the hemisphere, I immediately went to Roberta.
Although I thought I knew a lot, I realized until
I started talking to Roberta how little I knew.
Thank you for the education, Roberta.
[applause]
And to cut right to it, there's a reason
why this program is here.
It's Ben Rhodes.
Now, obviously, it's the President
of the United States, but Ben has been the engine
behind making this happen.
He has been the idea, the intellectual gravamen
behind it, and Ben, I want to personally thank you
because I think not only will this be a legacy
for the President of the United States,
it will be one for you as well.
So congratulations.
You know, for the first time -- and I apologize,
Roberta, because she's heard
me make this comment before.
For the first time in the history of the hemisphere,
you can look at the hemisphere
and see the possibility of a democratic, middle class,
secure hemisphere from top to bottom.
That has never, ever existed
in the history of the hemisphere.
And this is a fairly propitious moment.
With middle class in Latin America and the Caribbean
that is 275 million strong, a region that's
becoming and will be the epicenter of energy
in the world, this will be the epicenter of energy
production in the world, a hemisphere where
we have an unbroken line of free trade agreements
stretching from Canada to Chile and a trillion
dollars -- already a trillion dollar
trade economy in North America alone.
40 percent of all of American exports
go within this hemisphere and that is destined to grow.
I do not say this as a criticism of any other
part of the world, but I believe
the economic muscle and might of the 21st century will reside
in the western hemisphere because
of the incredible potential that exists here.
And that's part of the reason why the President
has John focused on this, has asked me to join
John and Roberta to help deepen the engagement
in the western hemisphere.
But our ability to make good on these incredible
opportunities and expand depends
on our populations being, very simply, more connected.
John has heard me say before and the President
kids me for saying it so often --
I don't want to try to improve on Tip O'Neal's axiom
that all politics is local, but I think I can.
All politics is personal and all foreign policy
ultimately is personal in terms of the relationships
leaders have and that gets nurtured by the exposure
of those future leaders to the culture, the language,
and the politics of one another's country.
The more exposed to each other's culture,
the more fluent we are in each other's languages,
the more knowledgeable about each other's economies
and societies we are.
That is the thing, in fact, which is going
to build this incredible alliance in the hemisphere
-- this economic alliance in the hemisphere.
And all rest, as John has pointed out on us,
have on education.
In our country and in the hemisphere,
there's a need for new skills -- new skills training
to sustain economic growth.
There are 600,000 jobs in the United States
of America -- high tech jobs that are going unanswered,
unfilled because of the lack of skills.
That exists throughout the entire hemisphere.
Right now, too many people are still --
particularly those young people John referenced --
they're on the outside looking in.
And the fact is that we face a global competition
and we have the workforce -- we're going to need
a workforce that -- throughout the hemisphere
that is better educated and is more --
how can I say it -- informed and astute about
one another's countries and cultures.
Just as important for students in this
hemisphere is to grain -- gain greater fluency
in English, but it's equally important for young
Americans to learn Spanish and Portuguese because
when 40 percent of the exports and still rising
exists in our -- here in this hemisphere,
a lot of our economic future will be conducted
in the language of the Americas.
That's why President Obama, among other
reasons, launched the 100,000 Strong --
100,000 students going to Latin America
and the Caribbean by the year 2020 and 100,000 students
in the hemisphere coming here.
This is the stuff of which close ties are made,
the stuff of which economic growth is cemented.
And by the way, international students
add -- just students coming here.
International students add $24 billion
a year to the U.S. economy.
And American students going south
will add billions of dollars to the economy
of those countries as well.
100,000 Strong isn't just another U.S.
government scholarship program.
We already have major and successful international
scholarship programs like Fulbright,
access grants, and others.
What we're trying to do here is create something
more, as Ben said, something more than
a government program.
We're trying to create a synergy --
a new synergy between private
sectors, charities, universities,
and all the governments in the hemisphere
to invest in sending students to and from the United States,
to lower the financial and logistical language and
informational barriers that now stand in the way.
Countries in the region recognize, I believe,
the importance of this and all the leaders I've been
and poor Roberta has been on all my recent
many trips to -- within the hemisphere --
[laughter]
-- I'm convinced that they absolutely understand,
as all the speakers have said,
the consequence of this.
The governments across Latin America have tripled
their investment in the Fulbright
program over the past decade.
Brazil has launched a massive program
to send young people overseas to study science, technology,
engineering, and math, and we recognize it too.
The U.S.
government is announcing new grants and programs
to connect international students
to American universities, offering scholarships
to learn English to people in disadvantaged communities,
engaging in dialogue and international education
like the one I was able to launch in Mexico City,
which Assistant Secretary Ryan has just attended.
And -- but as much as is going on,
there's a need to do more.
Right now, out of the 300,000 U.S.
students learning abroad, just 45,000
of them are in this hemisphere.
We need to more than double that.
We need to more than double that.
Nearly 67,000 Latin American
and Caribbean students are in U.S.
colleges right now, and that's really good.
But South Korea alone has 70,000.
South Korea alone has 70,000 South Korean
students in American universities right now.
That's good.
I'm not suggesting that should let up at all.
But it's the means by which you can make some
comparisons here about how far we have to move
and what potential there is when we do move.
We all need to pull our weight here
and the partnership is of equal benefit
to the United States and to the rest of the hemisphere.
If we can deliver the effort and the investment
required, each of our countries are going
to see real, tangible improvements
in people's lives.
And again, John mentioned it.
Exxon Mobil -- Santander -- excuse me.
Santander Bank, which I understand
didn't know how to tell Kathleen Kennedy Townsend no --
[laughter]
Coca-Cola, where my niece is here, I'm
sure the only reason is -- Coke is doing this, Missy,
is because of you.
Thank you very much.
[laughter]
That's a joke, by the way.
[laughter]
Although I'm confident Missy,
who worked at the State, knows this.
Anyway, the list goes on, but I just want to thank
you all because I think you all get it.
It also significantly impacts and will impact
on your businesses and opportunities and access.
You know, on her way to Mexico City,
Evan Ryan asked a very simple question on Twitter.
She said, "How will you invest in the future?"
That's basically the question that
we're all asking right now.
We think we have the answer because
if we invest in the future, there's going to be no
limit to the possibilities available to us in this
hemisphere.
I'm convinced that the greatest opportunity
economically and politically
in the next 25 years exists in this hemisphere.
Think of what we're doing on TPP.
It's not just about our relationships
in the Pacific basin.
It's about Latin American-Pacific
nations being part of this.
It's about expanding, I believe,
not just arithmetically, but geometrically
over time the opportunities that exist.
And that brings stability.
That brings economic growth, brings stability.
There's no reason we can't, as I said, be the
epicenter not only of energy here,
but the epicenter of ideas and technology
and breakthroughs over the next 25 years.
But we have invest in our young.
We have to feed their minds, we have to give
them real opportunity in order
to see the world and take part in it.
You know, the single greatest gift I think we'd
all acknowledge, and you're all sophisticated
people gathered in this room,
and those of you who are in public service, ambassadors,
and members of governments of other countries,
it's obviously not the economic
opportunity provided to children.
The greatest advantage they get
is they get exposure.
They get exposure.
When you think about it, what's the one thing
you can give your child that is most likely
to impact upon that child's stability,
future, and well-being?
It's exposure.
It's exposure.
I remember my son working overseas calling
me -- I won't tell you what company he's working,
but he said, "Dad, these guys aren't that smart."
[laughter]
"I can do this."
It was an American company he was working for.
[laughter]
He said, "They're good, but I can do this."
Think of all of your personal experiences.
What made you think -- if you didn't come
from a position of privilege to begin with,
what made you think you could do what you're doing?
You saw other people doing the same thing
you're now doing and said, "I can do that.
I can do that."
That's what this is all about.
That's what this is -- the bottom line,
what it's all about.
You know, William Butler Yeats said,
"Education is not filling a pail.
It's lighting a fire."
I've been doing this a long, long time.
I have -- just since I've been in this job, I've
traveled over 900,000 miles.
I've traveled millions of miles
and been -- met every major world leader in the last
40 years just because of my position,
not because of any consequence.
And every single solitary time, those who understand
most are those who've been exposed to this onset.
How many times, John, do we run into people,
like you said, who've been educated in America
or American leaders and American businesspeople
who've been exposed and educated abroad?
That's the stuff of which real progress is made and
we have an overwhelming opportunity to light
that spark in a -- on a continent
and a hemisphere that is just ready.
It's just absolutely ready.
And so folks, thank you for your cooperation.
I thank all my colleagues here for their leadership
and again, I particularly want to thank Ben Rhodes
for not letting this slide away from the beginning.
Thank you all so very much.
[applause]