Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Hillary Clinton: U.S. to give $280 million to Haiti in 2009

The day's events started off with a bilateral and working lunch with His Excellency Javier Solana, Secretary General of the Council of the European Union and High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy.

That was followed by a meeting with Haitian Prime Minister Michele Duvivier Pierre-Louis today. They spoke and took questions from the press after Hillary addressed the piracy issue. That is where Hillary made her announcement about the U.S. aid to Haiti.

"At the Haiti Donors Conference yesterday, officials of the Haitian Government and the international community discussed the plan that the Haitian Government has put forth. This will respond to Haiti’s short-term reconstruction needs while addressing the longer-term development goals. We appreciated the prime minister’s leadership at the conference and the constructive engagement of Haiti’s government. They have set realistic and achievable goals.

And I assured the prime minister again today that the United States will remain a committed partner throughout this process. The Obama Administration is very willing to work with you, Prime Minister. And as an expression of our commitment, I announced at the conference the United States will provide more than $280 million in assistance to Haiti in 2009.

During my visit tomorrow, I will be meeting with President Preval and other officials, and I look forward to working with both the president and the prime minister. We want to help Haiti because Haiti deserves our help."

Read their full remarks here or watch below:

She also met with Chilean Foreign Minister Mariano Fernandez Amunategui today. She said this to reporters after their bilateral:

"I welcomed Minister Fernandez here today; someone who represents his country so well and who is part of the extraordinary progress that Chile has shown. We discussed a number of important matters, including the upcoming Summit of the Americas. I’m looking forward to seeing President Bachelet there, someone who I also admire greatly.

But I want to reaffirm the strong, positive relationship that the United States and Chile has, and we have plans for deepening and broadening that in the years ahead."

Read their brief remarks here or watch below:

1 comment:

AJ Halliwell said...

Wow, I'd love to be the intern that has to run to the closet and pull out a dozen different countries flags a day for each individual press conference.

...n.n yay for the black and yellow pantsuit!

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