Consul General

Rotary Club Munich International Dinner
Generalkonsul Eric Nelson

München, 8. Januar 2007
Es gilt das gesprochene Wort.

Thank you Harold,
Thank you President Stricker,
Good evening, ladies and gentlemen:

When Harold Price invited me to speak to you tonight, I decided, how could I decline an invitation from a club whose motto for the year is “Serving with friends around the world”?  I think we need to steal that for our recruiting campaign in the American Foreign Service.

You have a proud tradition as Rotarians in Bavaria.  Your long list of distinguished members, current and former, even includes Thomas Mann.  In 2002, you founded this international chapter and recently you began a vibrant sister-club relationship with the Rotary Club in New York City. 

It’s an honor to address you today as partners; 

• Partners in international dialogue. 
• Partners in international cooperation. 
• Partners in international problem solving. 
• Partners in individual action.  One of my favorite quotes – which I was citing for my employees today - comes from Margaret Mead:

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.”
– Margaret Mead, anthropologist

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says “the United States is working with our many partners, particularly our partners who share our values in Europe and in Asia and in other parts of the world to build a true form of global stability, a balance of power that favors freedom...". 

We at the American Consulate, are busy in several priority areas:
• Promoting US exports.    
- Two-way trade between Germany and the U.S. exceeds $100 billion a year. 
- Germany is America’s 4th largest investor, at nearly $200 billion. 
- The United States is Germany’s second largest trading partner.
- The ranking is even better in Bavaria. 
- The U.S. is Bavaria’s #1 export market. 
- The U.S. is Bavaria’s #2 provider of imports.  (We’d like to see the US move up to be Bavaria’s number one source of imports.)

• Serving 40,000 American citizens resident in Bavaria.
• Working with an additional 60,000 Americans stationed here with the US military.  Bavaria hosts the largest contingent of Army forces in Europe. 

• Since July, you’ll also find us working hard to make travel to the U.S. easier.  Since reopening our visa section, we are processing about 1000 non-immigrant visas per month in Munich, vice Frankfurt/Berlin.  These visas are primarily for students and interns, as well as business people working temporarily in America.

• There is no shortage of business people coming and going. Ambassador Timken speaks often about the 13 million Americans who lived in Germany as soldiers since WWII.  The soldiers and airmen are being overtaken now by legions of businesspeople.  The U.S. is the biggest investor in Bavaria.  Microsoft, Hewlett Packard, General Electric, Merck – these are just a few of the American companies that have established German or European headquarters in Bavaria.  The list reads like a who’s who of U.S. industry.

• One of our top priorities is encouraging student exchanges.  From personal experience, I know there is nothing better.  My first trip outside America was to the Bodensee where I studied German 24 years ago.  I’m still studying.  The experience changed my life.  I want to sincerely thank you for your support of student exchanges.  Herzlichen Dank!  “Vergelt’s Gott.”  Since arriving in Germany last summer, I’ve found no well of anti-Americanism.  I have encountered a lot of disagreement with and misunderstanding of American policies and actions. 

• We know we have a special challenge among the younger generations of Germans who did not experience the very best years of cooperation between the US and Germany.  Reconstruction.  Opposition to Soviet Communism.  Reunification.  Young people are very well informed, but need more experience and exposure to America and Americans.  The very best is for them to visit there, and vice versa. 

• Here on the ground, the Consulate and the US Mission in Germany are focusing on how we can better reach more individuals and more communities in Germany.  My district is Bavaria, and I am challenging my team at the Consulate, as well as leaders of the BAZ, the Amerika Haus, to find ways to use new media tools to better inform people about America. 

• NY Governor Eliot Spitzer issued an executive order on his first day that all government meetings will be broadcast over the web. Can you imagine how exciting those broadcasts will be?  His objective, no, is not torture.  His objective is transparent government and an informed citizenry.  When I or the Ambassador or one or our invited speakers gives a speech in Munich or Nuremberg or Kulmbach, we could, for example, also reach every computer desktop and classroom in Bavaria with an Internet broadcast.  In this area, I am actively seeking partners, and if any of you know of individuals or firms with this expertise, I want to meet them.  Web broadcasts are not a substitute for direct contact.  We will also be on the road more often, visiting various communities in Bavaria.

• We are hoping to change the conversation.  Move beyond the debates about the Iraq war, and focus on the many urgent problems that we have to face together.  Those problems are tough because they are asymmetric and contained by no borders.  Problems like AIDS, malaria, avian influenza, poverty, terrorism, energy supply, environmental protection, and non-proliferation. 

• Bavaria has a well deserved reputation as a center for innovation.  We expect that some of the best solutions and progress toward the problems we face today – health, environment - will come from public/private partnerships.  And many of those partnerships will be between America and Bavaria. 

Thank you.  I’ll be happy to take any questions you may have.