Deputy Secretary of State John J. Sullivan will host a ministerial on counterterrorism cooperation in the Western Hemisphere on December 11, 2018. Senior officials from twelve key North, Central, and South American partners will attend, including Argentina, The Bahamas, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Honduras, Jamaica, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, and Trinidad and Tobago. Brazil will participate in an observer role. Senior counterterrorism and security officials from the Departments of Justice, Treasury, Homeland Security, and the U.S. Intelligence Community will also participate in the meeting. Participating governments will discuss the threat that transnational terrorist groups, including ISIS, al-Qa’ida and Lebanese Hizballah, pose to the collective security and safety of their citizens at home and abroad.

Deputy Secretary Sullivan will deliver opening remarks at the conference in the Department of State’s Loy Henderson auditorium at 9:00 am on December 11, 2018.

The Deputy Secretary’s remarks are open to the press.

Preset time for video cameras is 8:00 a.m. from the 23rd Street entrance. Final access time for writers and still photographers is 8:30 a.m. from the 23rd Street entrance.

Coordinator for Counterterrorism Ambassador Nathan A. Sales will be available for questions on the event during an online video press briefing at 9:30 a.m. on December 12, 2018. Interpretation will be provided into Spanish and Portuguese. Video and audio will be available for download after the briefing. Journalists can join the online session at this link: https://app2.sli.do/event/e5tkj26d.

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The Department of State released today Foreign Relations of the United States, 1917–1972, Volume ­VII, Public Diplomacy, 1964–1968.

This volume documents the efforts of the Lyndon B. Johnson administration to craft public diplomacy and information policy during the middle period of the Cold War. A major emphasis is on the various ways the United States Information Agency (USIA) presented U.S. foreign policy objectives to global audiences during a time of great social upheaval within the United States, particularly during the Civil Rights movement. It also describes how the Johnson administration ensured both USIA and the Department of State utilized a variety of public diplomacy tools in the face of numerous crises that defined the 1960s. These crises included the assassination of John F. Kennedy and transition to the Johnson administration, the Dominican Republic intervention, the ongoing nuclear test-ban treaty negotiations, the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, and, most significant, the Vietnam war, which was a dominant focus through Johnson’s presidency. Additional documentation chronicles the Johnson administration’s attempts to reassure the world of U.S. stability following Kennedy’s death, to promote a domestic policy during a period of tumult and great cultural change, and to advance the Department of State’s educational exchange activities, particularly with the Soviet Union and the developing world.

This volume was compiled and edited by Charles V. Hawley. The volume and this press release are available exclusively on the Office of the Historian website at https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1917-72PubDipv07. For further information, contact history@state.gov.

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External links to other Internet sites should not be construed as an endorsement of the views or privacy policies contained therein.

Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of Conflict and Stabilization Operations Denise Natali will travel to the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and Jordan December 8-19. She will speak on a panel at the UAE Security Forum 2018 in Abu Dhabi on stabilization approaches in Yemen. The forum, hosted by the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington (AGSIW) at New York University Abu Dhabi, will bring together the United States, the United Arab Emirates, and regional partners to find creative solutions to some of the region’s most pressing challenges.

During her travels, she will meet with senior government officials in the region as well as regional partners working on stabilization challenges.

Follow @StateCSO on Twitter for trip updates. For press inquiries, please contact CSOPublicAffairs1@state.gov.

The Office of Website Management, Bureau of Public Affairs, manages this site as a portal for information from the U.S. State Department.
External links to other Internet sites should not be construed as an endorsement of the views or privacy policies contained therein.

The thirteenth U.S.-Italy Joint Commission Meeting on Science and Technology (JCM) convened December 3-6 in Washington, DC, culminating in the signing of a joint declaration at the U.S. Department of State. Italian and U.S. government agencies and research organizations met throughout the week to discuss advancements, continued research cooperation, and new initiatives to increase collaboration in areas such as physics, telecommunications, health and life sciences, forestry, and resilience to natural disasters. Notably, the U.S. Department of Energy and the Italian Ministry of Education, Universities and Research agreed to collaborate on particle accelerator construction at Fermilab. Furthermore, 18 new Italian research projects, managed in collaboration with U.S. government-funded American institutions, will be financed by the Italian Government. The thirteenth JCM coincided with the 30th anniversary of the signing of the original U.S.-Italy Science and Technology Cooperation Agreement.

For further information about the U.S-Italy JCM, please contact the Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs at OES-PA-DG@state.gov.

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We are deeply concerned about the rapidly deteriorating health of Dr. Farhad Meisami, a human rights activist, whom the Iranian regime arbitrarily arrested for peacefully protesting in support of Iranian women’s rights. Dr. Meisami began a hunger strike four months ago to protest his arrest and detention in the notorious Evin prison, where he has no access to legal counsel and is charged with spurious national security offences. His life is now in imminent danger.

The United States condemns the arbitrary detention of Dr. Meisami. This is a brazen violation of human rights. The United States calls on the Iranian regime to immediately release Dr. Meisami and all political prisoners who are unjustly imprisoned. The Iranian people deserve a government that respects their rights and legitimate demands, not one that subjects them to slow deaths in degrading cells for peacefully demanding what is rightfully theirs – universal human rights.‎

The Office of Website Management, Bureau of Public Affairs, manages this site as a portal for information from the U.S. State Department.
External links to other Internet sites should not be construed as an endorsement of the views or privacy policies contained therein.