Opening Remarks: Assistant Secretary of State of Western Hemisphere Affairs Roberta Jacobson

“We are all rooting for each other’s success as it means our success, too.”

During the conference’s opening remarks, the assistant secretary shared her perspective after having joined President Barack Obama during his May 2-4 trip to Mexico and Costa Rica, noting that trade, energy, and education were top agenda topics during meetings.

• Watch the assistant secretary talk on the sidelines of the conference about the event and evolving hemispheric relations.

“It’s no secret that the president’s trip to Mexico and Costa Rica focused heavily on our economic relationship,” she said. “What was novel, it seems to me, is that when we were talking trade, we were talking about what comes after our own trade agreements; whether it’s the Trans-Pacific Partnership or the Trans-Atlantic one just recently launched, everyone wanted to be part of these next-generation trade agreements.” On energy, she noted, discussions explored opportunities for diversification, new sources, scaling up of renewables, and the need for regional regulation.

“Let’s face it, these kinds of forward-looking, globally responsible and responsive conversations were not what we were talking about 10 years ago,” said Jacobson. “The desire to be responsive to all of our citizens dreams’ of a better life might have existed in the past, but the opportunity and ability to actually bring it about was what was new.”

She went on to paraphrase the president during his remarks in Mexico City, saying: “We are all rooting for each other’s success as it means our success, too.” She explained that security concerns are shared, saying that, in Mexico, Obama noted Chicago saw a record number of homicides last year, many of were linked to drug trafficking. Jacobson said that while efforts are being made in the United States to fight the “plague” of drug addiction and violence in the United States, the problem is one that must be tackled collectively as it “simply cannot be defeated by any one of us alone.”

The assistant secretary closed out the main themes of her remarks by focusing on education and the goal of preparing students for the twenty-first century, the global marketplace, and advancing innovation and entrepreneurship. “We’re talking about both quality of education and access to education,” she said, noting that the growing middle class in Latin America means evolving educational needs. Jacobson highlighted the 100,000 Strong in the Americas exchange program initiated by the Obama administration two years as a way to expand educational potential across the Americas.

Watch Assistant Secretary Roberta Jacobson's opening remarks at the 43rd Annual Washington Conference on the Americas.