Enhancing U.S.-Japan Cooperation: a Conversation with Ambassador Hagerty
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Hudson Institute Enhancing U.S.-Japan Cooperation: A Conversation with Ambassador Hagerty Discussion……………………………………………………………………….……..………….………2 • William Francis Hagerty IV, United States Ambassador to Japan • Patrick M. Cronin, Asia-Pacific Security Chair, Hudson Institute • Ken Weinstein, President and CEO, Hudson Institute Hudson Institute, Washington D.C. Headquarters 1201 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., Suite 400 Washington, DC 20004 April 25th, 2019 TRANSCRIPT Please note: This transcript is based off a recording and mistranslations may appear in text. A video of the event is available: https://www.hudson.org/events/1680-enhancing-u-s-japan- cooperation-a-conversation-with-ambassador-hagerty42019 Enhancing U.S.-Japan Cooperation: A Conversation with Amb. Hagerty | April 25, 2019 KEN WEINSTEIN: Good afternoon, and welcome to the Betsy and Walter Stern Conference Center here at Hudson Institute. I'm Ken Weinstein, president and CEO of Hudson Institute. Our mission is to promote U.S. leadership and global engagement for a secure, free and prosperous future. Of course, looking at American relationships around the globe, no bilateral relationship is more important than the U.S.-Japan relationship. We at Hudson Institute have a long and distinguished history of work on Japan, which dates to our founder Herman Kahn, who in 1962 was the first to predict the rise of Japan as the world's second-largest economy. And we have just recently announced our Japan Chair and are significantly increasing our work on Japan. We were delighted earlier this week to receive Japanese National Security Adviser Shotaro Yachi as part of the delegation here in Washington to prepare the prime minister's visit. He was just the latest of the Japanese dignitaries to honor us with a visit and a very substantive exchange on critical policy issues. This is, of course, a historic time for the U.S.-Japan relationship as Prime Minister and Mrs. Abe head to Washington to meet President and Mrs. Trump to celebrate the first lady's birthday together as couples, but also to focus on the complexity of the U.S.-Japan trade agreement that both nations seek. The friendship between the Abes and the Trumps is no accident. President Trump and Prime Minister Abe have worked hand-in-hand together to assure that our security policies are aligned as never before through joint efforts to operationalize the concept of a free and open Indo-Pacific - a vision, of course, developed in Tokyo but adapted here in Washington. The result is, as one of these Japanese officials who streamed through here not too long ago indicated in a closed-door session, that the U.S.-Japan relationship has never been better. One of the key reasons for this is the man whom we will hear from this afternoon - William Hagerty, the U.S. ambassador to Japan. The United States has been blessed by some extraordinary ambassadors to Tokyo from both political parties - Michael Mansfield, Howard Baker, Walter Mondale, Tom Schieffer and Caroline Kennedy and - all of us in this room know and everyone in Tokyo knows that Bill Hagerty has earned his place among the very best. This is no surprise. If you know Ambassador Hagerty, he's an outside-the-box thinker with a strategic mindset who has a record of extraordinary accomplishments long before he was appointed ambassador, whether in the private sector as a businessman, as an investor - in the public sector, most notably, as commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development, where he helped to bring significant foreign investment to Tennessee, including from Japan. I should note that he is also a good friend of Hudson Institute. He has spoken for us in the past in Tokyo and via video for the launch of our new Japan Chair, but he has never been here before in person, so it's a real honor to have him here. Following some opening remarks from the ambassador, we have invited him to sit down in conversation with Hudson Institute's Asia-Pacific security chair, Patrick Cronin. Patrick, like the ambassador, is a transformative leader. He has held leading positions at USAID under President George W. Bush and at top think tanks including IISS, CSIS and CNAS before putting on the Hudson Institute jersey. Please welcome - please join me in welcoming Ambassador Hagerty. Thank you very much. WILLIAM FRANCIS HAGERTY IV: And thank you for that warm introduction. If you don't mind, I'll just stay here in my seat. After a long, long flight, it's a little bit more comfortable here. But it is indeed an honor to be here with you, Ken - Patrick, to join you here on stage. It's great to be here with Hudson Institute. I've been a friend of Hudson for many, many decades thanks to my good friend, Tom Duesterberg, who is with us today. Thank you, Tom, for being here. And it's 2 Enhancing U.S.-Japan Cooperation: A Conversation with Amb. Hagerty | April 25, 2019 great to be with you, Mr. Libby - back together again. It's, again, tremendous to be here with the group. I'm so proud of what Hudson continues to accomplish. Hudson has been at the forefront of policy development for decades. Your long history in policy arenas has been well- documented. But your move to form a Japan Chair, I think, is extraordinarily strategic and very timely. As Yachi-san, I'm sure, underscored when he was here with you earlier this week, there's been no better time to be focused on U.S.-Japan relations. The relationship between the United States and Japan has never been stronger. So we are at the precipice of some new challenges. The alliance is critical to that. And I think we're going to have a wonderful discussion today talking about the number of issues that are before us that are related to that region but also to the world at large. So thank you for having me here today. PATRICK M. CRONIN: Well, Mr. Ambassador, thank you. Let's just jump right in with your top priorities. I mean, you've now been in the ambassador's position for a while. I remember visiting people like Ambassador Howard Baker, and he'd sit at a long table and say, well, what should my top priorities be? But I think you've got a very clear set of issues that you're working on. And I'm just - what are your two or three top priorities right now? HAGERTY: Our priorities fall into three broad buckets, Patrick. And it's pretty simple - security is first and foremost. And we deal with that on a regular basis. And I don't think the alignment between the United States and Japan could be any tighter. There is literally zero daylight. And we are working every day to bring our capabilities to the fore in that region. So security is No. 1. No. 2, and actually related, is our economic relationship. But we are striving to make that even deeper than ever before. We see more and more cross-border investment. In fact, the United States is the largest direct investor in Japan by a long shot. And Japan has been a very significant investor here. We're working on trade right now, I'm sure we'll talk about that some more. But the economic component is also quite important. And finally, we are constantly working to find ways to engage on a personal level - to bring our people closer together. Those personal ties, whether it's the president and his wife enjoying a birthday dinner with the prime minister and Mrs. Abe, whether it's the golf game we'll probably have on Saturday or other things like that - all bring us closer together. And I want to see that that relationship exists not only at the top but throughout. So we're looking for opportunities, whether it's student exchanges, celebrating sports and athletics. We've got the Olympics coming in 2020 to Japan, and many American athletes are moving through right now. We've launched a program called Go for Gold that will bring Japanese schoolkids together with our athletes and really get them excited about America. And I think more and more Americans are interested in what's happening in Japan, too. So working at all three of those levels, we're working hard every day to advance our relationship. CRONIN: Well, it sounds like an exciting time to be in Tokyo with you and your lovely family. You know, you've got a family of ambassadors. Every time I open the newspapers, your children are seemingly thriving there and your wife as well... HAGERTY: They've done a great job. CRONIN: I mean, so you're managing a lot. Picking up on the security issue that you've mentioned is number one goal on the bilateral relationship. Last Friday, there was a two-plus- two - we had the Foreign Minister Kono and the Defense Ministry Iwaya. I'm not sure that that got a lot of publicity here in the United States. So from your point of view, what were the major outcomes of that important document? 3 Enhancing U.S.-Japan Cooperation: A Conversation with Amb. Hagerty | April 25, 2019 HAGERTY: The two-plus-two, I think, was an excellent engagement. We reaffirmed a number of things. First and foremost, on the security front, is the unqualified representation that we are here to protect and defend Japan under Article 5 of our security agreement. That includes Japanese administration of Senkakus, which is very important.