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Independence Day Speech by Ambassador R. Niels Marquardt

Celebration of 230th Anniversary of Independence Day
— July 4, 1776 —

Malabo, Equatorial Guinea
Juy 1, 2006

Excellencies, Ministers and Ambassadors, Fellow Americans, Friends, Ladies and Gentlemen,

On behalf of myself and my entire team here in Malabo, I'd like to welcome all of you to this celebration of the 230th Anniversary of the Independence of the United States of America. Thank you all for coming; we all hope you enjoy yourselves.

The signing by our founding fathers of the Declaration of Independence, creating in 1776 an independent, democratic United States of America, remains an important moment, and an important inspiration for many people, regardless of nationality.

We Americans have indeed had a blessed existence, although it is also true that we have often been called on to defend democracy, not just at home but all around the world.

As we celebrate the underlying values of democracy, independence, and respect for the individual and his and her rights here in peaceful Malabo, we must also acknowledge our compatriots in Iraq and Afghanistan and other far corners of this earth where they again have been asked, through our democratic system, to advance and defend the democracy and freedom of others.

It is now almost two years since I first came to Equatorial Guinea, a natural point at which to take stock on progress and continuing challenges.

A second reason to do so now is the exceptionally good news that Equatorial Guinea soon will again have a resident American Ambassador. Yesterday, the White House announced the nomination of my friend and colleague Ambassador Donald C. Johnson as my resident successor in Malabo. Upon confirmation by the Senate, Ambassador Johnson will arrive in Malabo within several months to take charge of this fast-growing diplomatic mission.

Having strongly supported the assignment of a resident Ambassador since I arrived here, and notwithstanding an understandable sadness on my part to be leaving a place and a people whom I have come to appreciate deeply, I congratulate the people and government of Equatorial Guinea. I plan to return for a final visit in late September to say my formal good-byes and to make sure all preparations for my successor's arrival have been completed.

The embassy Ambassador Johnson will inherit will bear little resemblance to the one that welcomed me in 2004.

My Deputy Sarah Morrison, who has done a terrific job since the day she arrived in 2004, is now ably assisted by our new vice-consul, Maureen McGovern.

We have now been in this fine facility long enough for the landscaping to have taken hold, to have converted bedrooms – and even bathrooms – into offices, and for the people of Malabo to know where we are.

We now have proper communications capabilities, having been called "Embassy Yahoo" for the first years of our renewed presence here.

We have recently doubled our American and locally engaged staff, and I expect we will more than redouble our presence before the next July 4 celebration.

Perhaps most importantly for both resident Americans and our Equato-Guinean friends, improved staffing and proper communications now allow us to offer key consular services in Malabo, including visas for residents wishing to visit the United States.

All of these steps represent commitments I made upon my arrival, which I am proud to have fulfilled before my departure. I take this opportunity to say thanks to my many colleagues here, in Washington, and in Yaounde who did the hard work to make this happen.

On the policy side of our relationship with Equatorial Guinea, there have been important strides as well.

Following the Presidential Decree, signed last July 4, creating a Social Development Fund for the benefit of the people of EG, USAID will send the first resident technical advisor later this summer. The task will be to work with the government to stand up a new organization that will expedite badly-needed investment of EG government funds in health, education, women's issues, and sanitation. We intend to do this in close collaboration with all other development partners active in the country, and look forward to learning from their experiences.

We also are pleased that the government has signed and is implementing an agreement to bring an experienced private American company here to train police and military in administrative and human rights issues, with the International Committee of the Red Cross as their partner. Discussions of this training took a full decade to bear fruit before that agreement was signed two months ago.

We also note with great satisfaction the agreement signed in March between the Government of Equatorial Guinea and one of America's leading conservation organizations, Conservation International, to increase the proportion of EG territory under conservation protection from seventeen to thirty-seven percent. Once implemented, this accord will have transformed Equatorial Guinea into the most protected nation in Africa in percentage terms.

We also have received funding to bring another mission from one of America's most respected democracy-promotion organizations here to advise the Government with respect to improving the electoral process in 2008 and beyond.

I am also very pleased to see that the American Chamber of Commerce in Equatorial Guinea, founded last year with our support and encouragement, already has contributed significantly to such issues as advancing transparency and improving the investment climate. I believe that this "AmCham" will emerge as a significant catalyst for further progress.

And also allow me to express some unvarnished American pride over the key role American companies are playing in this country's rapidly-expanding economy. As we all know, American companies are developing this country's hydrocarbon resources, in close collaboration with their local partners GEPetrol and SONAGAS. In this process, they are involving dozens of local and foreign subcontractors, creating thousands of the best jobs for the citizens of this country, transferring technology, being responsible corporate citizens, and supporting the process of social and economic change here.

At every visit I see enormous progress at Punta Europa in creating Africa's premier LNG plant, which will allow the full valorization of Equatorial Guinea's extensive natural gas reserves. Because this plant will use not only EG gas but also product from neighboring countries, I see this facility having political significance by enhancing stability in the Gulf of Guinea. I congratulate all who are involved in developing this landmark project.

Some say simplistically that the reason we have come back to Equatorial Guinea is "because of the oil (and gas)." It is of course true that our government supports Americans working and investing abroad, and that this embassy will continue to play strongly that role.

But such a narrow understanding of why we are here would represent, especially on this Fourth of July, a gross misunderstanding of who Americans are and what motivates us. In fact, America's strong role in the EG economy gives us a special responsibility to do here what we have done for years around the world, and what we believe people — especially so-called "little people" — expect of us around the world today.

We believe that the beacon of democracy, freedom, and respect for human rights that first shined brightly from Paul Revere's lantern in Boston, in 1775, burns as brightly today as it did then.

As this country undertakes the continuing challenge of spreading its new-found wealth in a transparent way to all the people of this land, we believe that our values and experience can serve as a valuable guide. We believe that we should stand with the people of Equatorial Guinea as partners in this process.

We believe that continuing challenges in the evolving democratic system here will be addressed more effectively with us strongly engaged than otherwise. We believe that our historic role as champions of human rights everywhere will help expedite ongoing improvements in human rights here.

We also believe that so-called "American values" — like a people's rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, their expectations of basic rights like the freedoms of assembly and expression, their desire to see their basic human rights respected, their craving for free and fair elections, and their demands for government that is both accountable and transparent — are in fact universal values to which aspire all the peoples of this earth.

Here in Equatorial Guinea, as elsewhere on this planet, our friends and partners can expect us to engage with commitment and passion to see that these universal rights are respected and that they gain their fair place in the daily lives of the people.

Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen, that is why we are here, that is why we have come back.

Allow me to close by expressing thanks to all of you who have helped us in the long process of returning to a country — and to a people — we never should have
left.

Thank you for you attention.