US Mission Geneva

In early April, President Medvedev and President Obama signed the New START Treaty. It will improve our national security and international security by reducing and limiting the United States’ and Russia’s strategic nuclear forces.

I believe so strongly that talent is universal, but opportunity is not. And what we’re doing is trying to pry open those doors of opportunity for more people to walk through – more people in Muslim majority countries and more women, specifically. Because the fact is that women still have a harder time accessing loans and equity capital investments. Women are still saddled with unfair and untrue assumptions that they are less capable of starting and running businesses. And these obstacles exist in the United States and they exist in every country in the world.

Today United States Trade Representative Ron Kirk welcomed introduction by the Chairmen and Ranking Members of the Senate Finance and House Ways and Means Committees of a bill to expand and extend trade benefits available to Haiti, increasing Haiti’s duty-free access to the U.S. market for certain Haitian-made apparel and other articles.

Bureau of Public Affairs Fact Sheet April 27, 2010 “Together we will strengthen the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty as a basis for cooperation. The basic bargain is sound: countries with nuclear weapons will move towards disarmament, countries without nuclear weapons will not acquire them, and all countries can access peaceful nuclear energy.” — President Barack Obama [...]

Bureau of Public Affairs Fact Sheet April 27, 2010 “We should build a new framework for civil nuclear cooperation, including an international fuel bank, so that countries can access peaceful power without increasing the risks of proliferation. That must be the right of every nation that renounces nuclear weapons especially, developing countries embarking on peaceful [...]

Bureau of Public Affairs Fact Sheet April 27, 2010 “So today, I state clearly and with conviction America’s commitment to seek the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons. This goal will not be reached quickly—perhaps not in my lifetime. It will take patience and persistence.” — President Barack Obama The Treaty on [...]

The United States is committed to working with entrepreneurs around the world, including those in Muslim-majority countries and Muslim communities. In addition to partnering with other governments and multilateral organizations, promoting entrepreneurship will require new public-private partnerships.

I am very pleased to be back in Washington and able to join you for your annual meeting. This has been an extremely eventful year in the area of arms control and your meeting is well-timed, as there is much more to come.

“Economic growth based on private sector development has the potential to transform developing societies, enabling them to emerge from dependence on foreign aid and generate the resources necessary to finance their own development. That has direct benefits for all people of the world, including in the United States – which is why President Barack Obama chose to open our doors to share some American entrepreneurial spirit with people from around the globe.”