Blinken In A Memorandum On Cooperation On Education
A SECRET BLINKEN:
Well, hello, everyone. I will say that the first time I started talking to Rahm about the mayor of Chicago, I thought he was going to announce his request for Hiroshima. Therefore, if the mayor is here, be careful.
But Mr. Ambassador Rahm, we thank you for this Memorandum of Cooperation and for helping so many companies to do what we are doing today. We have known each other for several decades. I can say this from experience: When an ambassador puts his mind to something, then you can go with it and it will happen.
But to his Madam Minister, I am grateful to you for your partnership, for your vision in leading this joint effort, one of the smartest investments we can make in our world's national and economic security. We spend a lot of time doing the urgent, maybe less time doing the really important, which is really important. It promises some brilliant minds, the best universities, the most daring companies, and an incredible promise for the future.
And the ambassador said, it is difficult to do all these things while standing today. But I can say with great confidence that both our regions and the world will remain in a very good position. This is an extraordinary collaboration that we are starting today. I couldn't be more excited to be a part of it.
And to all the leaders who are here from the US and Japanese industry, from established institutions, these new initiatives are kicking off today from IBM, from Google, from Micron, from Tokyo Electron; The universities of Tokyo, Hiroshima, Tohoku, Chicago, Purdue, Boise State, this is an extraordinary list, but an extraordinary group of institutions, a group of people, now in this effort. And I really want to thank you for making this happen, and thank you and thank the team for doing it so incredibly.
The collaborative efforts we make today are about improving the lives of our people. This is basically what goes down now, but also for future generations. We all know that semiconductors are powering everything from the devices we all carry in our pockets to the artificial intelligence that is revolutionizing knowledge creation. They are the foundations upon which future innovation will be built, from quantum computers and biotechnology to precision medicine to renewable energy.
Maintaining our common edge in these technologies is not only important for expanding opportunities and delivering tangible benefits for us. It will also allow us to shape norms and standards around emerging technologies so that they are developed and used in ways that reflect the values we share.
It's not just what we're working on that makes these new partnerships critically important, but how we work together. We invest in the best innovation ecosystems, bringing together extraordinary research from our universities, companies and governments. We will be stronger, we will be more agile, we will be more energetic because the United States and Japan will build these synergies in voice rather than in isolation. And I am most moved by the young minds that are being brought into this society. That's one of the beginning parts of this project for me.
We know this formula delivers, because collaboration across our borders and sectors has already enabled some of the world's most transformative breakthroughs. To mention just two examples of this morning out of many that we all know, the first is from 1986, when Motorola merged its microprocessor with Japan's Toshiba design and manufacturing technology, producing one of the first and biggest leaps in semiconductor technology.
The second was back in the 1950s, when, after completing his PhD at the University of Tokyo, a Japanese meteorologist, Manabe Syukuro, worked for the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Over the coming decades, he and his American colleagues developed the first models used to simulate climate change, for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2021. As he continued his research, Manabe, who is now 91 years old. generations named after the rise of American and Japanese scientists at Princeton and Nagoya Universities.
Finally, what is this Memorandum of Cooperation In Education all about? It not only maintains but expands the pipeline of rising American and Japanese innovators and technologists to shape emerging technologies for the good of the world, for the good of the world.
So I'm confident that no one can do better together than our countries, our institutions, our people, Rahm and I. Well, maybe I won't be Rahm for a long time when it comes to seeing things.
