Secretary of State Mike Pompeo opening remarks at an event hosted by the Department of State’s Energy Resources Governance Initiative, at the Palace Hotel, in New York City

Transcript

Everyone. Honorable. (speaking in foreign language) Resources Governance Initiative. I’m very– (speaking in foreign language) Secretary Pompeo and without further ado, I would like to over to the secretary who will provide brief remarks to open this, thank you.

Thank you and thank you all for joining us this morning. I wanna begin by welcoming Australia, Botswana, and Peru, founding partners of the Energy Resource Governance Initiative, along with the United States, Canada, and Chile. This initiative is yet more proof of how the Trump administration is tackling global challenges by building up partnerships with like-minded nations that focus on results that are real and tangible and which can make a difference. We’re proud to bring this group together. The work that we’re doing here is absolutely essential. It’s essential to ensuring secure and reliable energy supplies for every nation. Here’s why: as the global middle class expands, demand is increasing for mineral intensive technologies. Wind and solar require six times the amount of copper as coal-generated power. A typical electric vehicle will need around four times more copper than a conventional gas-powered car. So the question is, from where and how will we get the minerals that we need? Most are sourced from a small number of countries vulnerable to political instability, governance challenges and malign influence from foreign actors. We wanna ensure that these important mineral commodities remain free from international coercion and control. We’d like to work with you to promote good mining sector governance and insure that supply chains remain open and able to responsibly meet demand all around the world and for decades to come. So today we’re all here, we’ve assembled to discuss how we can do that by opening markets, leveling the playing field for competition, and sharing our knowledge, our best practices to support our allies and friends. At the same time, we must also pursue new sources of these critical minerals. The Trump administration’s doing exactly that inside our own borders. We’re also working bilaterally to strengthen supply chains. For example, President Trump and Prime Minister Trudeau recently agreed to a framework cooperation of cooperation of critical minerals. Australia, too, has committed to supporting potential joint ventures in the United States to improve rare-earth processing capacity. The US also signed an MoU to assist Greenland to explore and responsibly develop their energy resources. By forming this initiative, the United States and our partner nations have taken a significant step toward a secure and prosperous energy future. I look forward to discussing the important work that lies ahead and I hope other nations will join us in this effort, and again, thank you all for you being here. Thank you.

Thank you, sir. Thank you, Mr. Secretary. I’d like to recognize Secretary Pompeo’s excellent overview of the issues of energy resource governance and I look forward to turning it over to all of you for comments on this important issue. I’ll ask you to limit your remarks to three, five minutes to ensure that all the representatives joining have the opportunity to make their voice heard. I’ll first ask our founding partners speak. I would like to start off in alphabetical order with Australia, please, Madam.

Thank you very much. And it’s a great pleasure to be here this morning with some familiar faces and some new faces, including faces from our region. Great to be here with Secretary Teddy Locsin from the Philippines, and to support the Energy Resource Governance Initiative. I really wanna commend Secretary Pompeo and the United States for bringing us all here together this morning on this very important initiative because I’m confident that, together, we will make an important contribution to and resilient energy, to resource and mineral supply chains world, and representing four continents is a pretty good place to start in that endeavor. As Secretary Pompeo referred to last week in Washington, my Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, and President Trump agreed that Australia and the United State start collaboration on critical minerals and including on energy resources. And here today, this initiative gives us a very important platform for us to collectively progress that work and to better support resource-rich developing countries to drive trade, to drive economic growth, and to drive development by creating jobs and boosting government revenues in their countries. As I said, the countries that bring the initiative together span four continents and of course, are home to reserves, largest reserves of the world’s critical energy. For Australia’s part, we are the world’s top lithium producer. We have the largest reserves of nickel and the second largest global reserves of cobalt, to name just three minerals which are essential to our future prosperity. And despite the diversity of the countries represented here today, and the resources that we hold, we are, I think, bound by a common interest in improving mining sector governance and in building resilient energy mineral supply chains. Each of us has unique experience and expertise in this area, so together, we’re at a good position to help ensure that the world is able to meet that surging demand for clean energy technologies in a responsible and a sustainable way. Over the years, Australia has committed to significant resources in multilateral organizations, in NGOs, in universities, in the private sector to assist partner governments to build capacity and we’ve shared our experiences to help them maximize the potential of their extractive sectors. We, as a government, focus on three Is, on investment, on innovation, and on infrastructure to help to foster our critical minerals sector to create the opportunity for more development. We believe that, through the Energy Resource Governance Initiative, we’ll be able to coordinate each of our efforts to foster open and transparent markets in these essential minerals, and the initiative will amplify our collective impact as a result. So we look forward to working with partners in the coming weeks and months to formalize this grouping with an MoU and then, to deliver very constructive and meaningful activities that give effect to the ambition which were expressing by being here this morning. And thank you very much, colleagues.

Thank you minister. May I ask. Wait on it?

Thank you so much. My name is David Newman, I’m the Ambassador of Botswana to the USA. Our minister is on the way, Mr. Secretary, from the UN, I think, in traffic but permit me to of the minister and also on behalf of Botswana. Has been a resource-based economy since a year after independence when diamonds were discovered, and we’ve emerged from being one of the poorest countries in the world at independence in 1966, until today, when we’re an upper-middle income country and our vision for 2036 is to move to a high-income economy. That has been really on the strength of our mineral industry, the diamond industry, but copper and others as well And to other minerals, particularly rare-earth at this stage, going forward for strategic purposes. As we and move from a resource-based economy to a knowledge-based one. And for that, we need innovation, we need technology, and we need strong partners. We have developed as well as we have and been able to utilize the benefits that the mineral industry, we’ve derived, into putting into health and education and to developing Botswana, the population of the country. And that is through good governance and strong partnerships, and that’s what we look forward to going forward, particularly with the US and partners we’ve had with Australia, companies, Canadian companies. There’s a lot to be done but it’s with the strong partnerships that we will move forward. Thank you, sir.

Thank you, ambassador. May I now turn to Peru, please?

Thank you very much. I am the Peruvian Representative to the United Nations. I would like to thank the US for inviting us to join this important initiative. We support very much the idea of working for governance of these minerals, energy. And Peru, as you know, is a large producer of energy. We are the second largest exporters.