Kerry calls for 'fresh thinking'
2013-01-24 20:48
Washington - Senator John Kerry called for "fresh
thinking" and US leadership around the globe on Thursday, winning a warm
welcome from the lawmakers expected to back him as the next secretary of state.
"American foreign policy is not defined by drones
and deployments alone," he told his confirmation hearing at the Senate Foreign
Relations committee.
"American foreign policy is also defined by food
security and energy security, humanitarian assistance, the fight against
disease and the push for development, as much as it is by any single counter
terrorism initiative."
Kerry - best known outside the US for his unsuccessful
2004 presidential campaign - has been tapped by President Barack Obama to take
over from Hillary Clinton.
During her four-year term, Clinton travelled almost a
million miles, and visited 112 countries, aiming to restore America's image
abroad, after it was left badly damaged by the era of former president George W
Bush.
Sitting across from the committee which he has been a
member of for 29 years, and which he has chaired since 2009, Kerry joked that
he suddenly felt some sympathy for the dozens of people he has grilled over the
years.
Clinton, along with veteran Senator John McCain, stepped
up to introduce Kerry and called him "the right choice, to carry forward
the Obama administration's foreign policy and I urge his speedy confirmation”.
McCain added: "I know he will acquit himself in that
office with distinction and use his many talents and his indefatigable
persistence to advance our country's interests."
Kerry, 69, is known to have long coveted the job, and he
is expected to sail through his hearing.
But he almost lost out to US ambassador to the UN, Susan
Rice, who had been seen as Obama's first choice until she withdrew under
Republican fire over the administration's response to an attack on a US mission
in Libya.
Addressing members of a bitterly divided Congress, Kerry
said he wanted to work with both Democrats and Republicans to confront the
challenges facing them across the world.
"I'm already excited by the many ways that we can
work together and in which we must work together in order to advance America's
security interests in a complicated and ever more dangerous world," he
told the committee.
But he choked up when he described how his love of world
affairs was forged as a child, following his diplomat father around the globe
to different posts.
Personal journey
Kerry described "a personal journey that brought
home the sacrifices and the commitment the men and women of the foreign service
make every day on behalf of America."
The decorated Vietnam veteran turned anti-war activist
was the Democratic candidate for the White House in 2004.
But he failed to unseat Bush after running a lacklustre
campaign in which he was bombarded by dubious ads attacking his military
service.
But, as a top senator specialising in foreign affairs,
Kerry has sat down with Syrian President Bashar Assad, soothed nerves in
Pakistan and visited the Gaza Strip, winning the respect of fellow Democrats
and Republicans alike.
He told senators he felt an opportunity to steer Syria in
a different direction had been lost, when Assad discussed with him the concerns
of a burgeoning young population.
"You know, he wanted to try to find some way to
reach out to the West and see if there was some kind of an accommodation,"
Kerry said.
"History caught up to us. That never happened. And
it's now moot because he has made a set of judgments that are inexcusable, that
is reprehensible and, I think, is not long for remaining as the head of state
in Syria."
Need for diplomacy
Kerry also vowed that the US would work to stop Iran
developing a nuclear weapon.
He emphasised the continued need for diplomacy, but said
there would be no policy of containment.
"The president has made it definitive - we will do
what we must to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon," he said,
adding "the clock is ticking on our efforts to secure responsible
compliance."
Echoing Obama's inauguration speech on Monday, Kerry also
highlighted climate change as a top foreign policy.
But he set as a top priority the need for America to
restore its economy.
"The first priority of business which will affect my
credibility as a diplomat working to help other countries create order, is
whether America at last puts its own fiscal house in order," he insisted.
He also vowed to maintain some of the programmes championed
by Clinton such as the state department's emphasis on women's rights around the
world.
