Secretary Clinton devising N. Korea strategy with Japan and S. Korea

Posted By P.J. Aroon Monday, December 6, 2010 - 10:24 PM

Secretary Clinton is meeting both individually and jointly with the Japanese and South Korean foreign ministers today to devise a strategy to deal with increasingly hostile North Korea, which late last month killed two South Korean soldiers and two South Korean civilians in the first attack on a civilian area of South Korea since the end of the Korean War.

At the beginning of the trilateral meeting, Clinton said:

This is a landmark trilateral meeting between three strong partners. This meeting takes place at a time of grave concern in Northeast Asia amid the provocative attacks from North Korea.

She also requested a moment of silence for the victims of the shelling (see the video below starting at 1:11.)

(It remains to be seen whether a cable about the bilateral and trilateral meetings will be WikiLeaked.)

Update, 5:28 p.m., Dec. 6, 2010: The original photo was updated to a similar one, but of higher resolution.

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

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'Hillary of Japan' says she's 'very different' from Clinton

Posted By P.J. Aroon Monday, June 28, 2010 - 7:03 PM

Japan's new first lady, Nobuko Kan, has been affectionately called by the country's ruling-party lawmakers "the Japanese Hillary" because she had been a "brilliant campaigner" for her husband, as Singapore's Straits Times put it. She also spends a lot of time at home debating politics with her husband, Naoto Kan, now the prime minister. She once said of her husband during a TV interview, "He is a good debater in parliament because he is well trained at home."

Nevertheless, Nobuko Kan rejects the comparison to Hillary Clinton. While in Toronto this weekend for the G-20 summit (as seen above with her husband, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, and Canadian first lady Laureen Harper), she told the Global and Mail of Canada through an interpreter:

"I am the opposition party within my family, so we spend a lot of time discussing politics at home and that's probably the reason people equate me as 'Hillary of Japan,' but I'm very different from Ms. Clinton."

One similarity though: Just as Hillary Clinton took up health-care reform as first lady, Kan has her own issue she's pushing: doing away with sales taxes on produce and medicines.

SATORU IIZUKA/AFP/Getty Images

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Clinton off to Asia for a week

Posted By P.J. Aroon Thursday, May 20, 2010 - 8:59 PM

Clinton is out of the country until next week. She departed today for a weeklong visit to Asia.  Her itinerary follows. (Meanwhile, I'll be busy finishing up FP's July/August issue for the next couple of weeks, so posting will be light.)

May 20: Departing Washington.

May 21: In Tokyo to discuss regional and global issues.

May 21-23: In Shanghai to visit Expo 2010 and attend a dinner to honor the USA Pavilion sponsors and others involved with creating it. On May 23, Clinton will attend a commercial diplomacy event to promote U.S. market access and job creation.

May 23-26: In Beijing, Clinton and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner will meet with Chinese officials for a meeting of the U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue.

May 26: In South Korea, Clinton will meet with government officials to discuss regional stability and other topics. Later in the day, she'll fly back to Washington.

(In the photo above, Clinton boards a plane on March 1, 2010.)

PABLO MARTINEZ MONSIVAIS/AFP/Getty Images

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Clinton headlines for March 17, 2010

Posted By P.J. Aroon Wednesday, March 17, 2010 - 10:03 PM

Secretary is en route to Russia right now to discuss the new START treaty and meet with the diplomatic "quartet" on Middle East peace. Meanwhile, here are some recent Clinton headlines.

MIDDLE EAST: 

•"With subtle shift in nuance, Hillary Clinton reiterates U.S. stance on Israel" (Washington Post)

•"Clinton to call Netanyahu soon amid row" (Agence France-Presse)

•"Foreign minister: 'Not reasonable' to stop building in East Jerusalem" (CNN)

•"Mrs. Clinton's hissy fit" (Washington Times)

INDIA:

•"Nirupama Rao briefs US on talks with Pakistan" (Indo-Asian News Service)

•"Pakistan, Afghanistan high in Rao's talks in US" (Indo-Asian News Service)

JAPAN:

•"Clinton, Okada to meet in Washington or Canada in late March" (Associated Press)

•"Okada unlikely to present Clinton with Japan's plan on Futemma" (Associated Press)

IRAQ/WOMEN: 

•"Clinton looks forward to an inclusive Iraqi government" (Kuwait News Agency)

•Yesterday, Clinton met with 22 female Iraqi provincial council leaders. Her remarks are here.

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Photo Summary: Clinton's Interrupted Pacific Trip

Posted By P.J. Aroon Tuesday, January 19, 2010 - 8:13 PM

What a crazy week it was for Secretary Clinton last week. She was supposed to complete a Pacific trip that included Hawaii, Papua New Guinea, New Zealand, and Australia -- a trip that was supposed to have ended today. Instead, she ended up having to cut her trip short in Hawaii and return to Washington to deal with relief for Haiti in the aftermath of its devastating earthquake. Here, though, is a photo summary of her interrupted trip.

Above, Clinton steps out of her vehicle before boarding her plane on Jan. 11 at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland. Heading to the Pacific, Haiti was probably far from her mind.

MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images

With a lei around her neck, Clinton chats with base personnel on Jan. 11 after arriving at Hickam Air Force Base in Honolulu.

MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images

Clinton greets Japanese Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada as he arrives for a bilateral meeting at a hotel in Honolulu on Jan. 12.

MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images

Clinton, with a fruity-looking beverage, sits across from Japanese Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada during their bilateral meeting.

MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images

Japanese Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada speaks during a joint news conference with Clinton following their meeting. They made these remarks.

MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images

Clinton visits the USS Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu on Jan. 12. The memorial marks the resting place of 1,102 of the 1,177 men killed on the USS Arizona when Japanese forces attacked Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941.

MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images

Clinton lays a wreath at the USS Arizona Memorial and quietly reflects on those who perished during the Pearl Harbor attack.

MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images Clinton greets Pearl Harbor survivors at the USS Arizona Memorial.

MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images

Clinton speaks on the U.S. vision for Asia-Pacific multilateral engagement at the East-West Center in Honolulu on Jan. 12. Before beginning her speech, she made these remarks about the earthquake in Haiti. The full text of her speech is here.

MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images

In Honolulu on Jan. 13, a very concerned Clinton speaks on a cell phone in a hotel lobby before briefing reporters on the earthquake in Haiti. She was on the phone all morning long.

MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images

Clinton speaks about the Haitian earthquake during a news conference at U.S. Pacific Command on Jan. 13 in Honolulu. Clinton announced that she was canceling the rest of her Pacific trip and returning to Washington that afternoon.

MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images

After leaving warm Hawaii for chilly Washington, Clinton alights from her plane upon arrival at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland early in the morning on Jan. 14.

Ron Sachs-Pool/Getty Images

At the White House on Jan. 14, President Barack Obama speaks about relief efforts in Haiti while  surrounded by, from left, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Vice President Joseph Biden, Secretary Clinton, and Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano.

Images, top to bottom: First 10 by MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images, last photo by Ron Sachs-Pool/Getty Images

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Clinton downplays tension with Japan and China

Posted By P.J. Aroon Tuesday, January 12, 2010 - 3:35 PM

The following is adapted from today's Morning Brief on FP's Passport:

Arriving in Honolulu yesterday wearing a lei (as seen above), Secretary Clinton is kicking off her  tour of the Pacific region with a meeting in Hawaii with her Japanese counterpart, Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada. The meeting will likely focus on the relocation of the U.S. air base on Okinawa, which the United States wants to keep on the island but which the Japanese want moved elsewhere. More generally, the talks may be aimed at defusing tensions that have emerged since the election of Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, who is looking to make Japanese security policy less dependent on the United States.  Clinton said she's hoping the talks will "reaffirm the centrality of our 50-year-old alliance."

En route to Hawaii, Clinton also discussed U.S. relations with China, denying that recent arms sales to Taiwan and President Obama's upcoming meeting with the Dalai Lama would damage the relationship. "What I'm expecting is that we actually are having a mature relationship," she said. "That means that it doesn't go off the rails when we have differences of opinion."

 

MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images

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Clinton heads for Hawaii!

Posted By P.J. Aroon Monday, January 11, 2010 - 4:48 PM

Secretary Clinton departed for her Pacific trip today. Her first stop is Hawaii, where she's supposed to meet the Japanese foreign minister to discuss the United States' controversial Futenma air base on Okinawa. She'll also give give a speech on Asia-Pacific multilateral engagement and meet with U.S. Pacific Command before heading off to Papua New Guinea for the next leg of her trip.

In the photo above, Clinton gets out of her vehicle this morning before boarding her plane at Andrews Air Force Base. As you can see, her hands are already stuffed with foreign-policy memos that she will diligently study during her flight so that when she lands she'll be fully informed with the latest information. As Tina Brown wrote on the Daily Beast last summer:

On her State Department plane, Hillary is always eager to throw off her well-groomed public look and sit up front with no makeup, wearing sweats and her bookworm glasses, as she crunches her way through a big fat file of foreign-policy memos."

MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images

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Clinton: a 'first' in calling for a Palestinian state

Posted By P.J. Aroon Wednesday, November 4, 2009 - 12:31 AM

Hillary Clinton, Morocco, Nov. 3, 2009 | ABDELHAK SENNA/AFP/Getty Images

In an interview with Al Jazeera today, reports the Politico's Laura Rozen, Secretary Clinton said she was the first American associated with any U.S. administration to call for the creation of a Palestinian state. She said,  "I was the first American associated with any admin to call for the establishment of a Palestinian state when I first did it 10 years ago. A lot of people thought that was very radical, now there is consensus we must get to a Palestinian state."

Clinton, seen above today in Marrakech, Morocco, at the Forum for the Future conference, is clearly trying to get back on track after her controversial remarks this weekend about West Bank settlements. The New America Foundation's Daniel Levy dissects the controversy in today's FP piece, "Unsettling Questions."

A few other tidbits of Clinton news:

•After attending the conference in Morocco, Clinton flew to Cairo today, and on the plane she served Lenôtre chocolate to the press. See the photo here.

•Japan apparently scheduled and then canceled a Friday meeting between Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada and Clinton. The reason: infighting within the Democratic Party of Japan.

•Over at the AfPak Channel, a contributor states that Clinton was insensitive when, two days after a terrible terrorist attack in Pakistan, she told a group of Pakistanis, "Al Qaeda has had safe haven in Pakistan since 2002. I find it hard to believe that nobody in your government knows where they are and couldn't get them if they really wanted to." As the New York Times put it, "The remarks upset her hosts, who have seen hundreds of soldiers and civilians killed as Pakistan has taken on a widening campaign against militant groups that have threatened the country from its tribal areas." Well, it certainly isn't the first time Clinton has been hard on Pakistan.

Photo: ABDELHAK SENNA/AFP/Getty Images

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Madam Secretary is an obsessive blog about all things Hillary Clinton. From her policies to her pantsuits, Madam Secretary delivers up-to-the-minute news, analysis, and gossip about America's top diplomat.