Chris Coons Questions Kimberly Guilfoyle About U.S. Military Cooperation With Greece

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During a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on Wednesday, Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE) asked President Trump's nominee to be Ambassador to Greece, Kimberly Guilfoyle, about U.S. military cooperation with Greece.

Transcript

00:00Thank you, Senator Ricketts, and thank you to all of you for your willingness to serve

00:07our nation and represent us overseas. I will focus on the nominees for UN posts,

00:12but no disrespect to the others. Thank you for your willingness to serve. Mr. Bartos,

00:17we've known each other well. You were introduced by both the Democrat and Republican senators of

00:21Pennsylvania. Congratulations. Folks against whom you ran in a previous cycle, double congratulations,

00:27and to you and your family. The UN is a crucial area, in my view, for the United States to advance

00:33its national interests, and as you cited in your opening comments, the UN Charter focuses on promoting

00:40peace, security, and stability, and we need a UN that is focused on those priorities. I was encouraged

00:46that you also emphasize the importance of expanding the number of Americans who are in the UN system

00:52globally. Over the last 15 years that I've served on this committee, over several administrations,

00:59my view is that when we withdraw from the UN, our adversaries simply advance and fill the gaps that we

01:06create. So your challenge is going to be to balance ensuring that the money that we invest in the UN

01:13and the systems and organizations at the UN are efficient, are transparent, are delivering on their

01:18mission, but to not abandon that mission, to not completely withdraw. One of my core concerns is

01:24that the US-UN reform process might look like what happened to the USAID. We could have had a balanced,

01:32bipartisan, measured process that looked hard at inefficiency in USAID, narrowed its focus, and

01:38prioritized in American national interests. Instead, it was simply slashed and shut down, largely with no

01:45consultation with Congress. If confirmed, will you commit to engaging with Congress regularly on

01:51reform efforts to ensure that there's bipartisan support, both for sustained US leadership in the UN

01:57system and for any reforms that are proposed and that you're carrying out? Senator, thank you for your

02:03question, and I'm smiling here because we've known each other 20 years, and who would have thought 20

02:08years ago when we were working on sewer issues in Newcastle County, Delaware, that we'd be sitting here,

02:12so it's an honor to be with you. God indeed has a sense of humor. Yes, yes, sir. And it's wonderful

02:17to see you, and thank you for your question. Yes, I can strongly commit and, if confirmed, look forward

02:23to working with the committee to address all of these issues. I'm inspired by Secretary Rubio's

02:29leadership. I'm deeply grateful to President Trump for his leadership, and if confirmed, I look forward

02:34to working as often as you'll have me with this committee to address these issues. Thank you, sir.

02:40To your point about the importance of having Americans, how will you advance American representation

02:47in the UN system at the same time that there are proposals that would dramatically cut back our

02:52contributions to the system? So, thank you for the question. In his first term, President Trump

02:56established the directive that we were to have an agency at I.O. at the State Department to focus on

03:03either elections where United States citizens could run and or be appointed to certain agency heads.

03:08That office – any of us involved in politics would love to have a record that that office has

03:14achieved over the last five years. If memory serves, it's something like 28 contested positions and 23

03:20or 24 successful candidates. It's a fantastic record. Credit to the President – to President Trump for

03:26his leadership on that issue. In his second term – and again, I'm a citizen. I'm not currently at post or

03:32in the State Department. But if confirmed, one of the things in my briefings that I really perked up at and

03:37thought was this a huge opportunity is the terrific team at State at I.O. that's working on these issues.

03:43I would agree it's been a sustained success across several administrations to keep advancing Americans

03:48for positions of leadership. One sitting to your right is nominated to lead an important food-related

03:54agency. The previous head, a Chinese national, was an alarming example of what happens to a critical

04:01UN agency when we don't have either American or American-aligned leadership. Last question for you

04:07and then I have one question, if I might, for Ms. Guilfoyle. I believe investing in peacekeeping is a core

04:12part of the UN mission. I agree with you we should have zero tolerance for abuse. I worked with Chairman Corker

04:18now many years ago on investigations and transparency around peacekeeping.

04:23How will we sustain our peacekeeping engagement when the President's proposed budget zeroes out

04:31all U.S. contributions to peacekeeping and the rescission that will be on the floor next week

04:36would claw back 360 million? How do we balance that? How do we sustain an effective voice in peacekeeping

04:43while there's proposals to withdraw all support? Senator, thank you for the question. As a citizen,

04:50I have not currently read into any of the issues relating to the reorganization or how that's

04:55approaching. I can say generally though, if confirmed, I look forward to immediately getting

05:00stuck into those issues, to learn about those issues, and to working with this committee. I think

05:04on the broader point about peacekeeping operations and the successful ones versus the unsuccessful ones,

05:09having clear objectives and a clear exit strategy is an outstanding roadmap for any of these endeavors.

05:16Broadly, we're in agreement on that point. I look forward to continuing our conversation.

05:19Thank you, Senator. Ms. Guilford, if I might just, because the U.S.-Greece relationship is important

05:24to me, to my state, to our nation. Under the first Trump administration, there was a so-called three

05:30plus one cooperation launched between the United States, Greece, Cyprus, and Israel. Give me your sense

05:36of what difference that's made, what's its current status, and whether you would commit to sustaining

05:42this level of cooperation in this structure. Yes, thank you for the question, Senator. I believe

05:48this is a very important area of concern as it relates to national security in Greece and Cyprus,

05:53Israel all being very strategic and powerful allies, steadfast and reliable throughout the years. And

05:59this has just increased under President Trump's last administration. We're looking forward to making

06:04sure that those partnerships remain intact and, in fact, foster and develop. I believe firmly,

06:10if confirmed, as ambassador to Greece, that I will work tirelessly to make sure that Greece's national

06:17security interests and our strategic allies in that partnership remain very strong and robust,

06:23working in concert and conjunction with the United States of America, because national security in

06:28those areas and those countries directly equates with national security for the United States of

06:34America. And I would ensure that we increase the commitment that has been consistent by the people

06:39of Greece to do the defense spending, buying U.S. military equipment, which they have been doing,

06:45and see to it that we are going to project to include up to five percent from them. Anything for me

06:51about why the three plus one mechanism is particularly important? Well, geopolitically, as you know,

06:56that is a very complex region with a lot of security issues, migration issues. We saw recently what's

07:02happened. And, you know, Greece, where it occupies its place in the world is that southeastern edge of

07:08Europe, which is pivotal in terms of its relationship, its proximity to the Middle East. So we saw then,

07:15with the cooperation with our allies, making sure that American citizens that were stranded and at great

07:22risk and danger in Israel were protected and were transported with ease and efficiency, despite the

07:28complex issues involving visas, our partners, our allies in Greece were able to help effectuate that

07:35in a timely and safe fashion, bringing people through Cyprus, through Greece, and into Athens. Thank you for

07:41the question. Thank you, ma'am. Thank you all. And I look forward to working with you. Thank you.

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