Tulsi Gabbard on Trump’s America First Policy & Commitment To Peace

Thank you, distinguished guests, excellencies, friends, and fellow peacemakers. It's a privilege to join all of you here this evening. Your Highness, thank you very much for your kind hospitality in welcoming us and hosting this important event. To IINSS and your team, thank you for yet again putting on a phenomenal dialogue. It's an honor to be able to address you here in the Kingdom of Bahrain at this pivotal time in global history. As we gather here, we're reminded that true security, true stability, and peace cannot be forged in isolation, but in the common collection of peacemakers working towards that common purpose. Today, I want to speak plainly for myself as a veteran and a soldier who has seen firsthand the high cost of war. As someone who serves under President Trump's leadership, I have experienced the promise of peace. His vision is about delivering real wins, not just for America, but for our collective cause of peace and prosperity, and doing so through a very principled realism rooted in shared goals, interests, and values. The old Washington way of thinking is something we hope is in the rear view mirror and something that has held us back for too long. For decades, our foreign policy has been trapped in a counterproductive and endless cycle of regime change or nation building. It was a one-size-fits-all approach of toppling regimes, trying to impose our system of governance on others, intervene in conflicts that were barely understood, and walk away with more enemies than allies. The results? Trillions spent, countless lives lost, and in many cases, a creation of greater security threats, the rise of Islamist terrorist groups like ISIS. President Trump was elected by the American people to put an end to this. And from day one, he has showed a very different way to conduct foreign policy, one that is pragmatic, that is deal-driven, with a very realistic approach focused on protecting American security and prosperity while engaging with the world on terms that actually make sense. During his first term, the president brokered the Abraham Accords, this historic pact between Israel, the UAE, Bahrain, Morocco, and Sudan that came from staying laser-like focused on shared interests, economic prosperity, counterterrorism, technological innovation. These countries that had eyed each other, perhaps warily at times for decades, found common ground in trade routes, joint ventures, and a mutual stake in both regional and global stability. We've heard President Trump and Vice President Bantz speak just last week about their hope that the Abraham Accords will continue to grow and expand to allow for a true, lasting regional stability and peace. This is what America's, this is what President Trump's America First policy looks like in action, building peace through diplomacy with an understanding that there cannot be prosperity without peace. President Trump de-escalated tensions on the Korean Peninsula through direct talks during his first term in office. He opened lines of communication with North Korea that had been frozen for generations. He did what no other president had been willing to do, engage directly to speak about peace. He restored American leadership abroad. He brokered economic normalization between Serbia and Kosovo, promoting stability and peace in the Balkans regions. And now, just nine months into his second term, President Trump's America First agenda is supercharging these efforts and securing peace on a scale that we haven't seen in decades. He secured ceasefires between India and Pakistan, Israel and Iran, a peace agreement between Rwanda and the DRC, a peace deal between Armenia and Azerbaijan, Cambodia and Thailand, an averted conflict between Egypt and Ethiopia over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam. As was mentioned previously and is very much in focus for so many of us, he negotiated the release of all living hostages from Hamas. While fragile and historic ceasefire and peace plan is moving forward, it is doing so with integral support from many of our partners here in this room. So what ties all of this together? A simple and revolutionary idea. Pursue joint interests. Find those win-win solutions where they align. And recognize that, yes, we will have differences and we will work through them. President Trump understands that not everyone shares our exact values or our system of governance. That's OK. What's most important is finding where our shared common ground exists and building those partnerships and progressing on those common grounds. Things like energy independence that stabilizes global markets. Things like countering terrorism, something that continues to grow in different parts of the world. Strengthening trade partnerships to boost economic growth and innovation. These are the components, the glue of enduring partnerships and friendships. So America First is not about isolating ourselves. As President Trump has shown, it's about engaging in direct diplomacy, being willing to have conversations that others are not willing to have, and finding that path forward where our mutual sovereign interests are aligned. And that's really why we're all gathered here today in Manama. We can commit to this path ourselves and put it into action. Bahrain's own leadership, year after year hosting these critical dialogues, shows us the way forward. Convening nations from around the globe, amplifying shared stakes, and strengthening partnerships and lines of communications that allow us to resolve our differences and deliver results for our respective people. Under President Trump, the United States is your partner in executing this vision as a dealmaker who is committed to peace. Together, we look forward to continuing this path towards peace, to ending wars that have defined too many generations, unlock prosperity for millions, and help support the future of a Middle East where security is a dividend of cooperation, not a cost of conflict. Thank you very much. God bless you. God bless the pursuit of peace. Dr. Gabbard, you spoke about peace through diplomacy also in the service of prosperity. And maybe that's a good way to lead into our conversation now. And I wanted to ask both of you to speak a little bit about CECIPA, the Comprehensive Security Integration and Prosperity Agreement that was signed between your two nations in 2023. Of course, shortly after, the region entered a phase of turbulence, I think one can say. But you're both here, and it underlines the endurance of that vision that was enshrined in that agreement. So I wonder whether I can ask you to talk to us a little bit about how you're proceeding with the implementation, and also what kind of message the CECIPA agreement conveys to other countries who are seeking to build their cooperative frameworks. Maybe, Your Highness, if I may ask you to start. All right, thank you very much. As promised, I'll be short and precise, because I personally would rather face an army but not face the food. So I would like to go on on the CECIPA, which is actually the answer for so many conflicts we see, and also not just conflicts, but also the answer for how do we build a global framework that is much bigger than a regional effort. So the CECIPA is actually a new framework that we have been working on since the signature of a bilateral agreement with the United States, and we are very proud of it. That came right after our signature of the Abraham Accord. So this follows the Abraham Accord effort. Yet, any new framework needs to be institutionalized, and from our side, we have conducted a high-level meetings at Washington and at Manama as well, at the highest level possible, and I personally lead the Defense Working Group, the DWG, so I would refer to it as the DWG, and we have broken down the CECIPA into three different sectors, which is the Defense Working Group, which conducts the Article Two, and then we will have the Science and Tech Division, and then we will have the Economy and Trade Division. And this is why the CECIPA, we look at it as a capital C, it is a comprehensive agreement, it is not just a defensive agreement. And as soon as we have signed that agreement, we have seen quickly a regional unrest, and that means it's not just a commitment from the United States, but also it's a commitment from Bahrain, where we have immediately joined the Operation Prosperity Guardian, and we are there with you, and we'll always be with the United States. Thank you. Thank you, Your Highness. Yes, this agreement is exactly what President Trump had in mind in the crafting of the Abraham Accords, and Bahrain being a partner obviously there, but moving very quickly towards execution, and really turning those ideals into actions. And so obviously under President Trump's leadership on all fronts, we are moving very quickly forward in following through on that agreement that was signed under the last administration to make sure that those connections are being made, not only between counterparts within government, but bringing together, I think, a private sector on the American side who are very eager to engage and to bring innovation and to bring solutions forward that can turn this into something that is able to start delivering very real results. So we're very happy about this, and the progress that's already been made. I think there's incredible potential, specifically because of where we are now, with some hope for a new dynamic here in the region, and one that is forward-looking towards peace and stability. Your Highness, on the point of progress, what are the highlights for you in the CECIPA implementation that stand out for you? Where would you like perhaps to see yet more progress? Where can we go further and faster? And if I may also invite you to perhaps look at when the region mobilized back in June to defend against an incoming Iranian missile attack, what was the role of CECIPA in the context of defending and protecting the Kingdom of Bahrain? Yeah, so basically, it has really advanced our strategic priorities, and thanks to the United States, we have fast-tracked our F-16 Block 70 integration and boosting our air power and interoperability. So this is something that we really value, and as well as the Patriot missile systems actually delivered ahead of schedule. We have signed at this time last year and during the IISS with the National Geospatial Agency, and this is something that is not just a defense related, but also it has a lot of benefits in the civilian sector as well, but not only that as well. We, tomorrow, us and the DWG sign a trilateral with the United States and the United Kingdom together, and we'll be announcing it, inshallah, tomorrow, and you'll hear some, a joint statement starting from tomorrow, inshallah, during that trilateral. So CECIPA is not a bilateral, and it's not also a trilateral. It's a multilateral. It is not a regional. It is a, I see it as, since after the, probably the Cold War, there's an outdated security structure, if I may say that, and CECIPA today, look at it at a global level. You can be creative with it. You can offset so many things with it, and I think we have benefited from it, and we have integrated our efforts with the United States, and also we will see CECIPA evolving, and we will see new opportunities, and hopefully new flags joining the multilateral agreement, inshallah. Wonderful. Thank you very much. Dr. Gabbard, the United States across administrations have prioritized bilateral security agreements, and Qatar has recently obtained a security commitment through an executive order. Saudi Arabia is reportedly seeking a security agreement with the United States. So what does this tell us about the U.S. role, the security role in the Gulf, and what does it mean for U.S. global posture, these arrangements? Yeah, you know, the president obviously has focused a lot on building these economic partnerships. As Your Highness very eloquently stated, you can't look at any one of these things in a vacuum or in a silo, because ultimately they're all connected, and the president has recognized how to capitalize on that, but also recognizing that the United States' relationship with different countries perhaps needs to be different in certain cases, and so as you've seen through his direct engagement, his incredible first trip out here to the Middle East shortly after taking office really delivered great results, and investing in those relationships from the outset is what really made it possible for him, both through the 12-day war with Iran, but also in this ceasefire and peace deal with Israel and Hamas to make this possible, to bring together friends and partners to work towards those shared interests. You know, the road ahead will not be simple or easy, but the president is very committed down this road, again, recognizing the direct connection between peace and prosperity, and working with each of our partners and friends uniquely to recognize and understand what the challenges and opportunities are that exist within each. You both mentioned that in the case of CECIPA, it obviously goes beyond defense and military matters, and, Your Highness, can I ask you to perhaps speak a little bit about the other benefits of that agreement in non-security domains? There's science, there's technology. What stands out for you? Well, first of all, let's talk about CECIPA. Let's not talk about acronyms. It is Comprehensive Security Integration Prosperity Agreement. So, we have designed the CECIPA to become a driver of prosperity and innovation, and not only a military pact. Yes, there is a lot of non-security gains as well. During the visit of His Royal Highness, the Crown Prince, to Washington, there was a multi-billion dollar deal signed thanks to CECIPA. We have signed with the United States in the sector of energy. We were one of the first countries to sign, and thanks to you, Tulsi, and your government, and the SMR domain, which is the small modular reactors, and the nuclear energy. We have signed in the cyber security, geospatial space as well, space industry. So, really, we are seeing the sky is the limit, and we are trying to become creative with what we are having on the table with us, and maximizing on our bilaterals with the United States. And we also continue talking with the United States, and the industries as well, between our both countries. And, Dr. Hubbard, the intelligence is obviously a key part of security cooperation. Can you speak a little bit about your expectations, American expectations, towards partners in that field? What underpins a reliable intelligence relationship? Also, what is the U.S. willing to put into those relationships? Obviously, the U.S. has unique assets and abilities, and I wonder whether you can explain how you look at that aspect of security cooperation, insurance aspect. Well, I won't delve into the depth of intelligence capabilities in this setting. The relationships really are the key. And this is why I really value, and I'm grateful to be here, because it is our ability to build those, in many cases, long-standing friendships, partnerships, make sure that those lines of communication are open, not just to share information when it's good news, but really those relationships are what we depend on when we hit a rough patch, or there is a crisis that needs to be addressed, where candor is required and, plainly speaking, of the ground truth of a situation is required for us to be able to navigate through it safely and to deliver results. Again, I look to these most recent examples that President Trump has led in dealing with Iran. That required a lot of conversation with many of our partners across this region, and very candid dialogue about what was happening and what was the threat that needed to be dealt with, and the results that ultimately were delivered. Again, the same here in dealing with Hamas. This could not be done by any single country alone. We are in this game-changing and historic moment with President Trump leading the charge, working with people who have become good friends of his. I think that sometimes people think because you're friends, you have to agree on everything. That's not the case. Every nation's leader will think first and foremost of what is best for their own sovereign interests, what's best for their own people. President Trump does that every single day, and he recognizes that what's best for the American people is when we can tackle and solve these problems together. And so, from my standpoint and my role as the Director of National Intelligence, of course, is to make sure we have those strong lines open with our friends and partners in this region and around the world, and to make sure that we are best informing the President so that he can continue to deliver success towards this end of peace and stability. Can I ask you both one final question very briefly, and, Director Gabbard, I'll start with you, and then I'll let His Highness have the final word. But given that there is a sense of urgency and there's volatility, it's a fast-paced environment. Do you feel our efforts on security cooperation across the region, are they keeping pace with that demand and that environment? What do you think? I do. I think when President Trump first came into office, again, the second time, he certainly hit the ground running. He wasted no time. And what has been very heartening and I think exciting and hopeful to see is how many of these nations' leaders have been eager to step up and engage, and not only keep pace, but really to find, hey, where are there new opportunities to explore that haven't been explored before, or what are the conversations that now we can have to tackle tough problems that were maybe taboo to have in the past, or conversations that people thought didn't need to be had because the task was impossible. I think President Trump has really shown that we cannot afford to have a defeatist attitude. If we are committed to peace, as we say we are, we have to be willing to do the things that others have been unwilling to do in the past, to deliver the results that have failed in the past to have been delivered. Thank you. Your Highness. I do agree with you, Tulsi, and indeed there is a growing sense of urgency. And in Bahrain, the imperative is clear. But what we need now around the world is actually to stay ahead of the curve, to keep up with the pace ahead of us. And the conventional, and the cyber, and the hybrid domain as well. There is an imminent threat ahead of us. We watch it, but we also have to keep up with the pace. And again, I would finalize my word as I have started it with Sisiba. I think this framework lets us to have that edge over the building up speed of threat globally. Thank you very much. May I invite all of you to thank our two fantastic speakers. Thank you very much. What a great way to begin our 21st ISS Manama Dialogue. Thank you so much. And I hope you very much enjoy your dinner. Thank you.