Good afternoon
Welcome everyone to the State Department and
If I may have in your attention for just a moment, please
Isn't this such a beautiful Center it is incredible often?
I walk through this Center on my way into work, and it's pretty sparsely populated
So it's wonderful to see so many people in here at this afternoon. Thank you so much for joining us today
I want to extend a special welcome to our many distinguished guests including the diplomatic corps and those from the great state of
Minnesota
Where all the Minnesotans here?
Raise your hand if you're from Minnesota. You're from Minnesota. You're from Minnesota. You're from my husband's from, Minnesota
We have a lot of great folks there. Do you all know how nice Minnesotans? Are you've heard it? You've heard, Minnesota nice
Let me tell you how nice these folks are I would go running
Sometimes in Minnesota with my husband in the middle of winter January February
And we'd be on along for a run and it's maybe 15 degrees outside
Fahrenheit and
people would smile
And they would say hello at you in the middle of winter while you're running so we hope that you will consider, Minnesota
We are big fans of it certainly here at the State Department
I would like to acknowledge the US diplomacy Center for allowing us to use the space today. It is a beautiful pavilion
It was completed last January and funded with private donations as part of a private public partnership
It will be home to the first Museum and educational center telling the story of US diplomacy and also Americans diplomats
We're here today to highlight the strong national support enjoyed by Minnesota USA bid to host Expo
2023 and to inspire member states of the Bureau of international
Expositions to vote for the US bid on November the 15th, please mark your calendars. We would love your votes
The Minnesota USA project is a private public partnership that started more than two years ago
And is a part of our global campaign to bring a World's Fair back to the United States
We would love to see that I would like to thank the office of the undersecretary for public affairs and public diplomacy
For coordinating the State Department's efforts and put in today's and that together
I know they have been hard at work of deaths an initiative of this magnitude requires a true champion
To advocate on its behalf our Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan is here
And he has embraced this task and is working tirelessly to mobilize not only the department
But the entire US government in support of the Minnesota USA bid
Deputy secretary Sullivan is the native of Boston with decades of experience in both private legal practice and public service including
Positions at the Defense Department and also Commerce Department his ties to folk diplomacy and the State Department
Started long before he was sworn in as Deputy Secretary
His uncle served as a foreign service officer for more than 30 years
and we all know how important our foreign service officers are to the work that we do here every day as
Deputy Secretary of State he serves as principal adviser to secretary Tillerson providing guidance and first-hand assistance to the secretary and the
Formulation of conduct of u.s.. Foreign policy
We're honored that he is with us here today, and that he is such a strong advocate for Minnesota. USA's bid to host Expo
2023 please join me in welcoming Deputy Secretary of State John J Sullivan
And he is a terrific guy if you've got have Dan Samina
Thank You Heather for that
That kind introduction I have one
qualification to Heather's remarks I am from Boston and grew up as a
hockey player
hockey coach hockey fan
So I spent a lot of time both in my youth and then when I was coaching my children's youth hockey teams in, Minnesota
Brainerd Red Wing Winona Rochester, I've been all over the state then in many of your hockey rinks
Tournaments
summer hockey camps and
Minnesotan says as as Heather said are just the most wonderful sweetest persons
Except when they hop over the boards to take a shift in a hockey game, and then they're pretty nasty
So I can I can speak from personal experience on that, but I'm delighted to see so many people here to support
To support this bid and all of those who played an instrumental role in the United States bid for Expo 2023
I want to recognize the foreign diplomatic corps present this afternoon as many of the foreign ambassadors who are here
Thanks to all of you for being here and for standing behind this important cause
four months ago
I met with many of you at the department as one of my first public appearances as Deputy Secretary of State
At which time I spoke about the United States initial efforts to bring the World's Fair
Back here to our country. I'm thrilled to report that since that time the u.s.
Proposal has advanced to the final round our teams have been very busy highlighting why the United States and more particularly
Minnesota is the ideal location
With the perfect theme for that state health and wellness to host the World's Fair or Expo in
2023 as
Heather mentioned the Expo is a public-private partnership
One that's driven by grassroots efforts of the Minnesota world's fair bid committee
under the dedicated leadership of the committee president and chief executive sir mark Ritchie
Thank you mark for all your work many of you know Mark who was the former?
Minnesota Secretary of State and in a moment he'll provide us with the latest update on the bid
including details on the recent announcement of the proposed Expo site in Minnesota
Before mark comes up here
I'd like to highlight the impressive work done thus far to effectively mobilize international
support for this important commercial and diplomatic initiative
I want to thank our terrific Under Secretary for political affairs Tom Shannon who himself is a Minnesota native
And his colleagues from the regional bureaus present here today for their diplomatic engagement in support of the Expo
Many have moved mountains to get us here to this point in May Congress passed legislation by unanimous consent
Authorized in the United States to rejoin the Bureau of international expositions or bi e which is the paris-based?
organization that governs
participation in the world's fair
secretary Tillerson then signed the treaty accession documents that were deposited in Paris
Thank you to the Minnesota congressional delegation as well as the leaders of the House Foreign Affairs and Senate Foreign Relations, Committee
for getting this legislation passed
You'll hear later in the program from two members of the Minnesota delegation that are with us today u.s.
senator Amy Klobuchar and US Representative Tom Emmer
Thanks to all of you for your help in getting us to where we are today
In June the brewer of international expositions General Assembly voted to advance the u.s.
Bid to the final round that will be held in Paris on November 15th
earlier this month the United States once again became a voting member of the Bureau of
international expositions
And I look forward personally to traveling to Paris next month to cast the us vote in
support of this Expo the first in more than 50
My colleagues in the United States and around the world including my former colleagues and friends from the Department of Commerce
Have spoken to you and representatives in your capital about the Minnesota USA bid their strong federal support for this public-private
Partnership, and what would be the first World's Fair that take place in the United States in almost 40 years
BIE delegates have attended us hosted Expo events in Paris
Brussels and London and many of your councils general in the United States have attended Expo events in Minnesota and Chicago as well I
Understand that several of you will join deputy chief of protocol cam Henderson in the office of the chief of protocols
Experience America trip to Minnesota in the near future for those ambassadors or Shar Jays who have not yet signed up for the trip
Please speak with protocol today before you leave it's not too late to join
We want you to experience Minnesota as we seek to bring the world there in 2023?
We can all agree that there's something inspiring about a World's Fair a time when the world comes together to celebrate
explore and discover the promises and opportunities of new technologies and
Partnerships in this case to focus on the increasingly important areas of health and wellness
Minnesota home to some amazing medical technology companies in a region regularly ranked as one of the healthiest metropolitan regions azúcar
Regions in the country is an ideal location for such an expo the Smithsonian's American History Museum even included
Minnesota's medical out medical ally as one of the featured regions in their current exhibition places of
innovation I
Still formally fondly remember my experience as a child with my parents took me to the New York World's Fair in Queens in
1964 for those of you have not been to the Queens Museum in New York City
There's a great World's Fair exhibit that captures that time and experience to have a fantastic scale model of the city
It's really something to see
If you haven't been to a World's Fair yet, and I stress stress yet
I hope that we will have the opportunity to come together, Minnesota in
2023 for the healthy people healthy planet Expo
However in order for that to happen
We need your support, and we need your vote on November 15 in Paris at the bie General Assembly
so again
I thank you all for coming this afternoon and in Crete and appreciate your ongoing efforts to make the
2023 Expo in Minnesota a reality, thanks very much