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Jeffrey Feltman: Thank you. Thank you very much, Wendy. Thank you, Ambassador Chamberlin. Congratulations to the Middle East Institute, the Green Book Society and ExxonMobil for hosting this important event. Also, welcome to Deputy Foreign Minister Mohamed Taher Siala, Ambassador Ali Aujali and other distinguished Libyan colleagues.

I’m pleased to be able to stand here today and say that the United States is committed to an important and growing bilateral relationship with Libya. Libya’s historic 2003 decisions to renounce WMD and terrorism were unprecedented. And as a result, the United States and the international community after three decades have rightfully responded to that Libyan decision by moving to restore and strengthen our ties to Libya.

As our two countries continue the process of fully normalizing relations, we can reflect on our accomplishments over the past five years, and these include the upgrading of diplomatic relations in June 2004 and the opening of our embassies in May 2006; the president’s nomination of a US ambassador to Tripoli; Foreign Minister Shalgam’s successful visit in January, which was the first visit to Washington by a sitting Libyan foreign minister since 1972; a science and technology agreement, which is the first bilateral agreement signed between our two countries since the renewal of diplomatic relations and it was signed during the foreign minister’s January visit; increased counter-terrorism cooperation with a new and vital partner; expanding commerce and trade; and rejuvenating people-to-people exchanges through public and private, professional, citizen and academic ties.

Libya continues to reengage positively with the international community and is playing an increasingly constructive and active role in international affairs. Libya is meeting its 2003 WMD and missile commitments and the international organization that oversees the Chemical Weapons Convention has approved Libya’s schedule for completing elimination of its remaining chemical weapons stocks.

Libya facilitates a dialogue to resolve the Darfur crisis, including hosting the October 27th Sirte conference. Libya helps provide a humanitarian corridor to send needed humanitarian supplies to Darfur’s internally displaced population. Libya also plays a constructive role in promoting peace in Chad. It is a member of the African Union contact group charged with facilitating a peaceful settlement between Chad and Sudan. Libya also helped broker a peace agreement between Chad and several Chadian rebel groups on October 25th last year. Libya now serves as the president of the Arab Maghreb Union and advocates for greater AMU cooperation.

In addition to all of this, Libya was elected to the U.N. Security Council in October. We hope to continue to work constructively with Libya on many issues of concern in the Security Council and other fora, including African security, conflict resolution in the Middle East and pressuring Iran to comply with its international nuclear obligations.

As we continue the process of fully normalizing our relationship, we are working with Libya to identify, reinforce and expand various areas of cooperation. I’d like to speak to some of those.

First, commerce. Commerce and trade are rapidly expanding between our two countries. In 2007, US imports of Libyan goods rose almost by 40 percent. US exports to Libya also grew almost by 17 percent. The planning minister, I know, spoke earlier about development plans at the panel this morning, but the planning minister has announced in October at the October US-Libya Business Association luncheon that Libya’s 2007 development budget was $30 billion and its 2008-to-2012 development budget is $140 billion. And the Libyans have encouraged direct US foreign investment.

In November, US Commerce Secretary Gutierrez and Economy and Trade Minister Esawi began the first annual commercial policy dialogue in Washington. The US Trade Representative’s office has begun direct negotiations with Libyan counterparts to conclude a trade and investment framework agreement, which we hope to sign by the end of the year. The US Export-Import Bank has begun making government support available for exports to Libya.

The US entry into the Libyan market is also increasingly diversified outside of the hydrocarbon sector. Oil and gas opportunities remain quite strong, but there is growing interest in new opportunities as well. Libya is a major producer and exporter of petroleum and an important contributor to global energy security. Libya has implemented policies that have encouraged international investment in its petroleum resources, providing modern technology to help ensure wise management of reserves and appropriate production levels.

And even if I speak of it anecdotally, we can see the interest of US companies in Libya because our office Near East Bureau of the State Department receives daily phone calls; everything from what we call mom-and-pop shops to small-to- medium enterprises to major multinationals seeking to do business with Libya, both in Libya and in the United States. And we are encouraging a more open and transparent business climate. We recognize Libya’s economic reform efforts, particularly in the banking sector, and we welcome opportunities to help support Libya’s reform efforts through technical assistance.

Science and technology is another important area of cooperation that is developing between our two countries. On January 3rd, we signed the Science and Technology Cooperation Agreement during the foreign minister’s visit. This agreement provides a framework of engagement at the governmental and the non-governmental level, including academic and private sector scientific engagement in a wide variety of fields, including healthcare, archaeology, education, business applications and technological innovation. This agreement builds upon our already active partnership in science and technology, a partnership that is especially active in support of Libya’s historic 2003 decision to give up WMD, a process that began in 2004.
The NASA documentary “Path of Totality,” which premiered in October, documents the first bilateral cooperative science program between our two countries. It was to show a total solar eclipse on the Libyan Desert. This is one such tangible benefit of our engagement. Most recently, in the science field, we have worked with Libya on renewable energy and will soon link Libya to the global seismic network.

Turning to education and culture, my notes here say that at one time over 4,000 Libyan students studied in the United States. But I learned from the Deputy Foreign Minister outside this room that, in fact, at one time the number was as high as 7,000 Libyan students studying at one time in the United States. We would like to make, again, the United States the most desired and welcoming destination for a new generation of Libyan students and scholars. At the same time, we want to develop with the Libyan government opportunities that will allow American students and American scholars to study in Libya and contribute to the building of greater mutual understanding.

In that regard, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Tom Farrell will lead a delegation of American universities to Libya in June to work on recreating those sorts of ties. We are also working with Libya to support educational reforms, particularly in English language learning and training, classroom-based independent reading programs, and science and technology. We want to deepen our people-to-people ties through exchanges of scholars, teachers and ordinary citizens of both of our nations. We want to share cultural ties and help preserve and protect Libya’s rich cultural heritage. As such, the United States has given a $90,000 grant to the Global Heritage foundation to help conserve the ancient Greek city of Cyrene.
Turning to security and counter-terrorism, Libya is a vital partner in combating terrorism in North Africa and elsewhere. We want to expand and deepen our security cooperation through increased intelligence sharing as well as technical assistance and non-lethal equipment to strengthen Libya’s counter-terrorism capacity and Libya’s ability to support regional peacekeeping efforts. At the same time, we will promote the respect for human rights and international norms that govern the use of force and the rules of engagement in these areas.

We also wish to expand our military cooperation, particularly as we stand up AFRICOM, the new African Command. As I hope you can all see by these examples, we have made much progress in building this bilateral relationship. But as in any maturing relationship, outstanding issues of concern do exist. We hope that we can resolve historical impediments soon and continue to create a dialogue based on mutual respect and understanding.

I would like to touch on a couple of the more political subjects such as democracy. Encouraging respect for human rights and the growth of democratic governance is a central part of our relationship with all nations. It is an issue we address by way of dialogue, foreign assistance and support for civil society. In that spirit, we encourage efforts by members of the Libyan government to create a social contract, to expand democratic freedoms, including freedom of expression and freedom of association.

We in the United States look forward one day to cooperating with an independent civil society to help advance Libya’s interests. We are committed to work with Libya in its efforts to strengthen its institutions and to allow democratic change needed for a more stable region.

Human rights are another area that is part of a normal bilateral dialogue between the United States and all of its partners. In terms of our bilateral dialogue with Libya on human rights, we welcomed and we were encouraged by the Bulgarian medics [sounds like] release in July 2007. We have also been encouraged - I understand this subject came up this morning - by the fact that Mr. Fathi el-Jahmi is now in the hospital receiving medical care and that his health has improved, that he is seeing his family regularly. We are encouraged by the fact that Human Rights Watch and Physicians for Human Rights have also visited Mr. el-Jahmi. We hope that this matter can be resolved for good as soon as possible.
As we have said many times, we believe that Mr. Jahmi should be freed unconditionally, should be allowed to travel freely or seek medical care wherever he chooses. We do remain concerned, however, with other issues of imprisonment, and we call for the immediate release of all political prisoners. We look forward to discussing with Libya the framework for a future-oriented dialogue on human rights concerns.

I would also like to bring up the issue of claims, which comes up in many discussions between our two governments. It is well-known that the United States and Libya have old issues that we want to move beyond. Resolving outstanding claims filed against the government of Libya and US courts remains one of the highest priorities in our bilateral relationship. Libya has promised to respond to the claims brought against it in good faith, and we expect Libya to honor that commitment. We recognize that American claimants are frustrated by the slow pace of judicial proceedings, and we have encouraged Libya to seek [sounds like] seriously, to settle out of court whenever feasible.

I think as most of you are aware, Congress recently passed legislation, which altered previously existing provisions of law under which claimants could file suit against current and former state sponsors of terror. The administration has recently proposed waiver authority for countries like Libya that have taken the necessary steps to be taken off the terrorist list. Four cabinet secretaries - Secretary Rice, Secretary Gutierrez, Secretary of Defense, Secretary of Energy Bodman - have all signed a letter to Congress proposing a waiver in this legislation.

At the same time, the administration remains committed to helping American victims of terrorism obtain justice through fair and appropriate compensation. The proposed waiver authority can help achieve that objective. We also believe that it is critical that the US continue to provide incentives for other states to follow Libya’s example and renounce WMD and terror. So we are working together with Congress to ensure our ability to achieve these important goals.

Libya and the United States are working on identifying shared concerns and shared goals for the region. We are optimistic that our relationship will continue to move forward and that these past issues will be resolved. We are creating a foundation for the future by bringing our governments and our two peoples closer together. We both know that open dialogue and a spirit of friendship are the best ways to make progress in our relationship.
I think it is safe to say that the United States and Libya, like any two countries, will not always agree. But that is a sign of a mature relationship, and it is on the basis of that that we will work together now and in the future. Thank you.