Name: US Ambassador to NATO Addresses Cyber Security Concerns Involving China and More
Uploaded: 2019-11-18
Duration: 21 min 4 s
Description: Kay Bailey Hutchison, U.S. Ambassador to NATO, weighs in on how the digital revolution is changing the very nature of warfare.

[ MUSIC ] Yes, the ambassador has a convention center named after her in Dallas but we don't have time for chit chat because we have 15 minutes and you have a lot on your plate [ LAUGH ] Yes. [ LAUGH ] And thank you for coming. Thank you. You're in and out. You've got ministers coming in this week. We have our foreign minister this week, all of the NATO foreign ministers come in. And are on Secretary Pompeo will be there. So I've got to go back to Brussels. Tonight ?. So thank you so much. I wanted to just mention one thing that backstage because people think of NATO is Europe of course, but you've told me back fascinating fact about Venezuela. And the NATO partner, Colombia, and why you feel the need to bolster the defense and security of Colombia right now, new actor in there. Well, most certainly, Colombia is taking so much of the refugee group from Venezuela. And very supportive of a guy Ido and the government that he's trying to form that will give human rights to their people. And we asked the foreign minister of Columbia, what? Who was there that was holding up Maduro. He said Cuba, which you would understand Russia, which you would understand. China, also a big player there and also Hezbollah. Hezbollah, that's a man and I said, what the dynamics have shifted there. So we're going to have to start looking more at Creating partnerships and communications in Latin America I think, and Colombia has done a great job of putting their terrorist organization fork down. And so I think we're gonna have to start looking at ways that we can show up democracies and Help them. So speaking of sharing of democracies let's talk about cybersecurity in Europe with NATO, U. S. Secretary of Defense Mark Esper of course is calling for NATO allies not to hire Chinese companies to Install 5G Technologies. He actually said every Chinese company has the potential to be an accomplished in Beijing state sponsored campaign to steal technology. It's also of course has raised national security concerns. What is your thinking on that? Well, of course in NATO, we have to have interoperable communications for our overall security umbrella. And any Chinese company is required to give information to the government, if asked. So, any thing that is going to come into our interoperable communications could be taken by the Chinese government, in any kind of circumstance. So, For our communications and especially our military and government communications, we want to make sure that we have companies that are abiding by the rules based order and can keep contracts and privacy rights. And the Chinese companies cannot ensure that Have you been met personally making that case to [ UNKNOWN ] allies? Yes, definitely. So Secretary Esper was there for the Defence Minister Ariel about a month ago, and now, Secretary Pompeo will come in this week. He has made that position clear as well. And, I think it's just so important when a country has the ability to go into your networks and your communication systems, the laws of intellectual property. Is going to be in jeopardy. So you we've got to realize what the risks are in this. Do we want to have a good relationship with China? Yes, we do. But they need to come into the rules based order and that's where EU and NATO are on the same page to make sure that we have the capability to protect our networks, our intellectual property, and also that we are competing without subsidies that are On level the playing field and you have broader cyber security concerns of course. With the entry of 5G technology, there's a lot of concern about more leakages and more ways in and more ways to attack cyber systems in a In the next generation of warfare, what is NATO doing on that front ?>> NATO is adapting to this new generation of warfare, this, we now have cyber and hybrid as ways for For war. We have seen, we've seen Russia, for instance, trying to change elections in many of our countries by putting false information into the systems, false news stories, false social media. We have seen them also shut down certain Grids or infrastructure and so I think this is, if you shut down someone's ability to communicate. You shut down their ability to guide their missiles or guide their tanks or their airplanes to a different place, like interrupt, Through artificial intelligence, their path that they have been set on. Even now, we are looking at space as an operational domain. This is something that France has been very forward leaning on, so has America. NATO is now looking at ways to also declares space a domain. Because if you can interrupt a communication from a satellite into a missile trajectory, that's war. Right now, we do satellite guided missiles. To put them in specific places, if they can be disrupted and put off path, that's a war. So we've got to be able to adapt and get ahead of those who would use technology against us. So let's talk about Russian aggression, there's a range of versions of it going on right now. Let's talk about both Ukraine and Georgia. We were talking about that behind stage. Well, yes, I think that at one point we thought that Russia might actually become a partner with NATO. We had hoped that would be the case. But starting in 2008 with Georgia, when Russia took over two provinces of Georgia, then we began to look at this in a different way. But 2014 when Russia took over Crimea illegally, which is part of Ukraine Then we knew that we had to reverse course and start building defences and deterrence against Russia. Russia is now in the Donbass which is the eastern part of Ukraine. And they've killed over 10, 000 people in this area that they claim is. Russian citizens in fact, they're giving Russian citizenship to people in the Donbass. And as well to the provinces in Georgia. And so they're beginning to take over where they see their military Yeah, these regions. Yes. I mean when you when they see a window, they jump in and then we are trying to help Ukraine, we're trying to help Georgia to defend against these incursions and. Will take time but we're going to stay on the side of sovereignty of these nations. And what about the Baltic states? We've of course sent some troops in to Lithuania been some reports of Russian aggression in the in the skies? What are your big concerns and what are you doing there? Well, we do have an enhanced forward presence that is a NATO operation in all three of the Baltics, plus Poland and somewhat in Romania as well. Where we have rotating troops and Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia and there are the Russians are constantly overflying no fly zones. They're surveilling what is going on there. But we have a. Enhanced forward presence that is a NATO operation and France, UK, Germany, we are all there doing the rotations so that Russia knows that if they do attack any of those countries that that will would invoke Article five And in Poland we have a build up as well of rotating Troops that has US Troops and also NATO Forces as well. So we're trying to where we see that Russia Is close by and looking as if they would like to provide an incursion on sovereign territory. We're going to stand for the sovereign nation. Get your questions ready, go ahead and raise your hands while I asked what about. That Harvard came out with their report because NATO's turning 70 and you will be having a kind of celebration, a meeting next month. One of the concerns was a couple of member nations of NATO, and particularly Turkey in the invasion of Syria. What's your take on that? Well, of course is a very tense situation. We did not want Turkey to do what they're doing in Syria. And we are, all of us are trying to tell Turkey in every way To not do anything in Syria that is going to violate human rights. They consider the YPG to be a terrorist organization. No one else in the Alliance believes that they are a terrorist organization. They have fought Against ISIS with us, all of us in the D ISIS coalition. Our goal in Syria has been to keep ISIS from being able to regrow after they were pretty much put down in Iraq and in Syria. And so our goal is to keep ISIS down so that they will not come into any of our NATO countries and kill our people as they have done before. So we are working with our Turkish ally to try to keep them from Um, harming this the YPG that is doing a good job of fighting ISIS. Now, Turkey is a good ally in many respects their framework nation in Afghanistan. They have done a good job of keeping control of Cabo and Afghanistan under our NATO mission. They are in it in Iraq fighting against the rebuilding of ISIS. They're in the ISIS coalition. So we're going to keep working with Turkey. They are an ally. We want to keep them as an ally. Versus Russia. I mean versus, [ CROSSTALK ] the arms of Russia. Exactly, we are putting up with all of this to try to keep them in the Alliance so that they do not go into Russian arms. As an ally that would be a very problematic situation for Europe, as well as for the transatlantic bond. Questions. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] Let us know who you are. My name is Yeng Yin from Huawei. So a question to Madame Ambassador. First, I would just like to get the record right. Actually, Huawei has never been asked and never will Provide any, you know, information to any government and second of all, we have never been involved in espionage or security issues. And I'm very pleased that madam ambassador has mentioned about rule. Because we are working with European Union to mitigate your risk, especially to 5G security, but we feel like American administration is actually breaking the rules. The rules actually is about the Europeans core value about the openness and fairness and non discrimination here and so just quick question is actually another things about evidence base. So we heard kind of allegations again again, so when NATO or when the administration can provide evidence, that's proof that words the education is correct. Thank you. I didn't get I'm sorry. A good question is Huawei Why does not provide information that government doesn't have a history of doing that is not going to be spying on citizens or not a national security risk. Well, the problem is that they would have to if asked by the government, that that's the problem. Great. So let's Let's move on, other questions? Right back here. David Meyer, Fortune. Emannuel Macron recently said NATO was becoming brain dead. That's elicited quite a response from people saying that that's not true but diplomats have privately been saying apparently that there's a point to what he's saying. What's your take on this statement? What do you mean by brain dead just for people who haven't heard that? Well, that's it's it's becoming less it's becoming less functional in terms of its aims. Well of course we disagree with that. No argument there. But I think the, I think the French president is trying to build what he's saying is a European defence force, a European army. I think that is a big mistake, because right now. America is the foundation of NATO. We do spend the money. We do identify our risks, and then we take the pains and we put the muscle behind. Assessing the risk and then protecting against the risk. It's hard to see that any one of us in NATO would be able to face the big risks that we have in our future. The big risks are, Russia, and then a potential risk of China militarizing their efforts. I hope China doesn't, but we are seeing signs that they are. In the South China Sea they are militarizing those islands. So we have to be prepared for that. We hope for the best but we prepare for the worst. So I don't see one country, even just the United States doing that alone. We need our 29 allies, we need our democracies that are building up defenses together To be able to face a menace in Russia and a potential competitor of China. That's what we're doing we lead in that respect. We don't see France stepping up and saying this is a risk that we must face. It's America that is saying and we are leaving our NATO alliance to do that. I think we have a good combination with America that is very proactive in defense, America which puts security first and then Europe which is not as aggressive as we are, but is a good ally and partner in our missions. It's a good combination, we need each other, we need all of us to be effective for our security umbrella. Let me ask you, sorry to get you off with the menacing rush of question which we keep coming back to, which of course raises the issue of the Ukraine. Two questions for you Has the impeachment investigation in Washington had any impact on your work there? Secondly, there are some people who argue, a lot of people argue that you Ukraine should be a NATO member. We want Ukraine to be a NATO member at some point. We work with Ukraine, it is one of our major partners and And we want them to be an ally in the future. And I think President Delinski is making a good start at reforms that are necessary to strengthen that democracy. We also meet with Russia on an interim basis from time to time, we NATO ambassadors. And we urge them first and foremost, to leave Donbass to let Ukraine be the sovereign nation that they deserve and also to relieve the Ukrainian part. That is Crimea So we do have Ukraine's back, and we work with them. And we hope in the future that they will eventually be a partner and the MP China already any thoughts on that? The Impeachment Inquiry in Washington. At NATO, we're focusing really on the security umbrella and I have to say that I think I am impressed with the ambassadors at NATO. I've never been in the diplomatic side have always been on the United States Senate side. And we have a joke in my office about whether we're speaking right now in diplo speak or senate speak. Because sometimes the Diplomats are so diplomatic that I can't tell what they're really saying. So I say, give it to me in senate speak so I get it And that is I've had this great experience with all these diplomats, and they never take personally anything that, for instance, a president of a country does, whether it's mine or France or Germany or Hungary. I mean all of our Presidents do things that might be considered not helpful in a bilateral relationship, but nobody ever says anything personal about Not that will matter. It has their democracies, and that's the great thing that all of us understand. Democracies are not efficient, they're not pretty sometimes but it is the best that we will ever have. As long as the people have a voice. How is that for diplomatic? [ LAUGH ] [ APPLAUSE ] All right, that's it. Well, thank you very much. Thank you all. Thank you very much. [ MUSIC ]

US Ambassador to NATO Addresses Cyber Security Concerns Involving China and More 

Leadership

Kay Bailey Hutchison, U.S. Ambassador to NATO, weighs in on how the digital revolution is changing the very nature of warfare. 