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Michael Crowley with the New York Times
Mr secretary there's some confusion
today about American diplomacy with
Panama now as you must be aware
wondering if you could clarify for us as
you surely know after the state
department announced last night that
Panama had supposedly agreed to wave
fees for US Government vessels
transiting the canal the Panama Canal
Authority quickly denied this and today
president Molino who seems rather upset
uh called the uh State Department
statement on this lies and falsehoods
can you tell us your understanding of
how we reached this point of confusion
and where you understand uh the
situation to be right now is there an
agreement uh what's what's the point of
confusion here and on USA Aid if I may
quickly we are hearing from employees
abroad who are confused anxious and in
some cases actually panicked about the
order to return within 30 days which is
not that much time to up R and lo
relocate from a foreign country do you
plan on offering these employees any
more guidance on this process and in
particular are you able to say whether
people can serve out their
administrative leave in their mission
country or are they required to return
home even if they're not using
government resources and Mr President
please um uh you said that the
leadership of the US is fundamental and
there is no substitute in finding some
sort of a solution for Haiti uh the
president of Haiti's transition Council
uh seems very concerned about this uh
said a couple of weeks ago he believes
that President Trump does not care about
Haiti and that the Trump
administration's policies will be a
catastrophe for his country can you just
give us a sense of your confidence level
that the Trump Administration will
follow through and exercise the sort of
leadership role you described thank you
what was your let me answer the first
two because I think they were for me
what was the first one again I
apologize and the state of the diplomacy
what to the confusion and where things
stand now the second one was USA ID okay
yes please thanks I'm not confused about
Panama we had conversations I felt there
were strong First Steps we have
expectations we made clear in those
conversations I respect very much that
Panama has a process they're a
democratically elected government they
have rules they have laws they're going
to follow their process but our
expectations remain the same in
particular on that I would just say that
um the United States has a treaty
obligation to protect the Canal it comes
under attack that treaty obligation
would have to be enforced by the Armed
Forces of the United States particularly
the US Navy I find it absurd that we
would have to pay fees to Transit a zone
that we are obligated to protect in a
time of conflict those are our
expectations they were clear they were
clearly understood in those
conversations but I respect very much
the fact that Panama has a process of
laws and procedures that they need to
follow as it relates to the Panamanian
Port the Panamanian Canal authorities
will allow them to work through those
proc processes we intend to make it
amicable the way our visits were as far
as um uh the
USA a couple points the goal of our
Endeavor has always been to identify
programs that work and continue them and
to identify programs that are not
aligned with our national interests and
I identify those and address them so we
have sent out guidance to those deployed
abroad that they should they will be on
leave of absence not fired leave of
absence as of Friday and then we made
very clear in the message it's there
it's written in the message that was
posted that if there are exceptional
circumstances regarding family or
displacement or maybe the person their
spouse is employed in the embassy so
they're collocated and their children
are in school there is room and space
for that we also made clear in the
guidance that there will be specially
designated programs that would not be a
part of that order and we are working
through the process of identifying them
now what those specially designated
programs are and we will continue to
work through the process of finding them
the third point I would make is that
people were given 30 days
to that we would help bring them home if
they so desire during that 30-day period
and at the same time the expectation as
I said that if they have a special
condition or something's going on we
didn't list them all but we're willing
to listen to those we're not trying to
be disruptive to people's personal lives
we're not this is we're not trying to
we're not being punitive here but this
is the only way we've been able to get
cooperation from usid I had preferred
not to do it this way when we tried to
do it from the top down by getting
cooperation from the central office of
usaid what we found instead are people
trying to use the system to sneak
through payments and push through
payments despite the stop order we s
found people that were uncooperative and
ter giving us information and access all
very consistent with some of the things
we experienced while we were in Congress
and so we've had to do this other route
instead but we are going to get we are
going to do foreign aid the United
States will be providing foreign aid but
it is going to be foreign aid that makes
sense and is aligned with our national
interest and um I know that the last
question wasn't for me but I want to
address that as well number one the
United Nations is sitting on $100
million in their fund the United States
has provided 15 of the $100 million for
that fund okay that only 13 million of
that is currently Frozen that means they
still have $ 85 million plus the 1 point
something million they spent that we
already have in there available for the
mission that's clear and that's not an
impediment to the mission continuing
beyond the UN fund I've issued a waiver
providing for the use I think it's close
to $40 million of additional support and
those contracts are out there and
they're working now they're providing
logistical support both to the mission
and to the Haitian National Police those
are facts so um I could just say that's
a pretty strong commitment and it's
certainly a lot stronger commitment than
some of the other rich countries around
the world who aren't doing nearly as
much by the way it's a credit to Kenya
who's come halfway around the world and
willing to stand up and do something
about it when countries in our own
hemisphere they're not willing to do
anything about it it and I don't want to
go through and list all of them and
start some diplomatic fight my two and a
half weeks into my term here but I'm
just telling you there's some rich
countries out there and they're not
doing nearly enough about it and they
could be doing more so I encourage them
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