U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton delivers remarks at an event for Feed the Future: Partnering with Civil Society in New York, New York on September 27, 2012. [State Department photo/ Public Domain]

About the Author: Jonathan Shrier serves as Acting Special Representative for Global Food Security.

Today, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton co-hosted an event with President Joyce Banda of Malawi, to highlight both the progress made in the last three years under Feed the Future and the contributions of civil society organizations to advance our food security goals.

The highlight of the event was an extraordinary commitment by civil society organizations.

As Secretary Clinton said, “Today, I am pleased to announce a new commitment by civil society groups…InterAction, an alliance of 198 U.S.-based organizations, is pledging more than one billion dollars of private, non-government funds over the next three years to… more »

Special Briefing
Senior State Department Official
New York, NY
September 27, 2012

SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: …[T]he P-5+1 remains completely unified in wanting to get the Iranians to consider and to address the concerns of the international community, and that the P-5+1 is completely united in ensuring that Iran does not acquire a nuclear weapon.

In addition, the P-5+1 is unified in our dual-track approach. No one likes sanctions. We understand that sanctions sometimes not only hurt countries, but have an effect for people’s day-to-day lives. We’re quite well aware of that. But we believe that it is necessary for Iran to understand that there are consequences to their not addressing the concerns of the international community, and we believe that it also helps to create political space for the diplomacy, which is far and away the preferred way to deal with this issue. All of the ministers were unified in their belief that diplomacy is the much preferred way forward, and that we are committed to that dialogue and diplomacy, and to the dual-track approach which we have been pursuing.

We discussed how we will proceed forward in making sure that we have all of the right substance on the table. We expect there to be contact in the next instance between Cathy Ashton and Dr. Jalili to discuss the next steps forward. She had said she would call him after this P-5+1 consultation, both with political directors and ministers. She will do that. They will talk about what we discussed as possible next steps. We think we will do this – continue to do this in a step-by-step process, which will include some additional consultations among ourselves, then consultations with the Iranians. And I would suspect at some point, we will indeed return to P-5+1 political directors track for a fourth round.

But we are taking this step by step, and so I think unity is – was the key word today. There was complete unanimity among the ministers most importantly, and also a strong affirmation of the job that the High Representative has been doing in coordinating this effort and coordinating these talks and the way forward. MORE

U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Administrator Dr. Rajiv Shah and Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Ambassador Johnnie Carson discuss their work at the UN General Assembly in New York. [Go to http://video.state.gov for more video and text transcript.]

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton addresses the United Nations Security Council session on peace and security in the Middle East, New York, NY, September 26, 2012.  You can read the Secretary’s full remarks here.

About the Author: Maria Otero serves as the Under Secretary of State for Civilian Security, Democracy, and Human Rights.

I was glad to see more than 200 people in the audience for a discussion on water, peace, and security on the margins of the 67th meetings of the UN General Assemblyyesterday. The United States, the European Union, and UN-Water co-sponsored the event, which drew senior representatives from governments, UN agencies, and international financial institutions. Secretary Clinton, whose remarks closed the event, has made water issues a priority in our diplomatic and development efforts, and I have been pleased to lead those efforts for the State Department.

Citing the findings in a recently released United States Intelligence Community Assessment on Global Water Security, Secretary Clinton noted… more »

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton delivers remarks on the situation in Mali during a United Nations meeting in New York on September 26, 2012. You can find a transcript of the Secretary’s remarks here.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton hosts the Trans-Atlantic Dinner for Foreign Ministers from EU and NATO countries in New York, New York on September 25, 2012. [State Department photo/ Public Domain]