 I'll go back to ThinkTech. There's global connections and we are talking with Russell Anma this morning about the G7 in Hiroshima. And we're going to hear about the plans for it and the aspirations for the economic framework for Indo-Pacific. Welcome to the show, Russell. Nice to have you here. You've been on ThinkTech so many times. We've learned so much about foreign policy, especially economic foreign policy. Welcome aboard. Thank you, Jay. Thank you for inviting me today. I know this is an important subject regarding what's happening in the G summit meeting in Hiroshima, Japan right now. And as you know, the meeting already started and President Joe Biden already had a bilateral meeting with Prime Minister Kishida. And right after that, they followed with the Quad meeting Australia Prime Ministers there, India's Prime Ministers there. And since we invited South Korea as well, Vietnam and Australia Prime Ministers. So they're having this Quad meeting there to discuss that, in guiding to the Indo-Pacific region for the South Pacific Sea. And basically this G7 summit is really crucial and very important in terms of worldwide policy to bring peace and security. Because we don't want to create a World War III. And as you know, the situation has changed with the situation in the Ukraine war and Russian aggression. And the same thing with China's aggression. Matter of fact, yesterday, the U.S. Congress had a special hearing regarding to the aggression of China. So everybody's more concerned what's happening geopolitically and global-wise. Oh, these are exciting times. Now, Joe Biden canceled part of his trip. What part did he cancel and why? And how does that affect the meeting? I think prior to that, he wanted to go back to Washington D.C. for the U.S. Congressional hearing regarding our national deficit, increasing the deficit ceiling for a budget. So I think he cut the plan short. He was going to visit, I believe, Australia and Papua New Guinea after that. So basically, so he's just going to stay for the G7 summit meeting. And basically, since the European Union leaders are there also, so if they can come up with some kind of consensus so that everybody's on the same page where we can move forward. And I know that United States is hosting the APEC conference this year. In November, it's going to be the leaders and the CEO summit. And the summer in August, they're going to have the minister in the U.S. senior official meeting. And they're going to have the woman in empowerment and economic forum based on indigenous people that includes Native Hawaiians, Pacific Islanders, Eskimos, Native Indians. So they can talk about the Native indigenous Americans that based on what we have in history for United States. So I think it's going to be a good APEC conference coming up after this G7 summit. So we can move forward with President Joe Biden's economic framework for Indo-Pacific region, which is similar to what we try to do with TPEC, Trans-Pacific Partnership. And since we pulled out when our past president, Donald Trump, wanted to focus more on the bilateral status. So we pulled out it from the TPEC, but we wanted to rejoin the comprehensive progressive TPP. And now with the new administration, I guess we're going to call it economic framework for Indo-Pacific, but they're basically the same members with the TPP. Plus, we got India and Fiji involved with the economic framework. So whoever wants to be part of our economic framework is welcome to join us. And I think that's what President Joe Biden wants to relay that to the leaders. And who are the seven and G7? G7 is basically that was formulated in 1970s when there was a lot of turmoil with oil shock and everything and what was going on. Includes England, France, Britain, Italy, United States, Canada. And so basically they're in Germany and they're the power nation in Japan. And this year, I guess, Japan is hosting the G7 summit. Last year was in Munich in Germany. So I think it's given everybody a global voice of concern for the leaders to kind of literate what's going on in the global affairs right now. So I think it's a good thing that they're getting together. And I'm glad they did invite countries like South Korea, India, Australia and Vietnam and the European Union to join in this meeting. So it's basically, I guess they wanted to see which direction they want to go in cause of the Ukraine war with the Russian invasion and aggression that we've seen in China with the South China Seas and all that trade concerns that we have that with China and the Manman Island and so called there nine dash nine boundary issues that needs to be resolved and based on United Nations freedom of navigation and a lot of the sea. So those kind of issues has to be addressed. And even with the situation with the North Korea when Timon Eun's regime and coming up with the plastic missiles, getting the technology and they're scaring everybody who are around the Korean peninsula, especially last month, they shot one over Hokkaido, Northern Japan. So that kind of triggered alarm system for them. And that kind of scared worried Japanese national. So that is a big concern also. Yeah. So not too long ago, the G20 met, I think it met in India, no? What's the relationship of the G20 and the G7? Actually, the G7 is the top seven countries in the world. Like that has, they're more of the superpower countries. And the G20 is the 20 countries. So India is a member in the top 20. Hopefully we're wondering in the future, maybe India or if China gets their act together, they can join the G8 just like Russia, Russian Federation was part of the G8. And what happened was because of the situation, the primary and the invasion, you know, back in 19, 2013, with the invasion of primary, the G7 leaders decided to get Russia out. And that's when Vladimir Putin was still the president. And so actually Russia was kicked out of the G8 and now it's still G7. So what, you know, you talk about an economic framework and it sounds like this is a core point. I mean, there are a lot of issues you identified some and they're really important global issues, geopolitical issues, issues that will define the future of the world really. But what is the quote economic framework? What is that? And how do you make an economic framework? Actually, it's basically we wanted to coordinate everybody who's in the economic framework for Asia in the Pacific region to understand, have a free trade, free, more like in terms of moving goods and services cooperation, having a communication for security, bringing peace to the region and prosperity and unity actually is a voice of concern for unity so that everybody can be on the same page and kind of move forward. And it is based on democracy. And so we can move from that kind of direction. And it's based on the world order, the liberal world order. And it is not based on invading your neighbors. So I get the feeling that one of the threads in the G7 meeting is what to do about Russia, what to do about its invasion and aggression on Ukraine and its threat to Western Europe. I expect there'll be plenty of discussion about that because all the countries in the G7 that you identified would be concerned about that. Am I right? Yeah, exactly. It's not only the G7, but I'm talking about in terms of Europe too with the European Union and England because even with the Brexit, they're still part of European Union and they're still doing their everyday business with them and they're part of the European culture and union. So they understand that and they're still moving forward with positivity. And hopefully my long-range plan when I've been planning a strategic business plan for APEC for Indo-Pacific region was I wanted to bring European Union and APEC organization, which European Union has 28 countries plus Brexit and APEC has 21 countries and we want to include India hopefully for this upcoming APEC conference in San Francisco. We can announce that India can be one of the members, be the 22nd member of APEC and move on that way and so that we want to bring the idea of having Europe and Asia kind of work together on the One Built One Road Initiative, what China was trying to push and hopefully the organization can do it in a fair way and according to the rule of law, the international rule of law. So small countries can work with the big countries, so the small countries, the developing countries can benefit and get equal share of the Europe versus Asia, the infrastructure development, moving goods and services, those kind of aspects. And I think it's a better meant for the humanity in the future. I think in the long range, maybe it might take 50 years from now, but we will see a peaceful One Built One Road Initiative, the old Silk Road trade that China had in the back when Chinggis Khan actually built the Silk Road back in the 13th century, where he was terrorizing the Asian regions and bringing trade to the east and the west. But those kind of aspects are going to have to be brought up again and hopefully in the future we can have a peaceful way of, so there isn't any prejudices or they can move on and it's a better meant for the humanity. And I think Europeans understand that and I think the agents are realizing that too. And maybe the United States can be the intermediator to relay those messages and I think that's what's happening in the G7 summit, meaning that when we get into the west country, the European Union, who believes in the free trade and free democracy, that they can bring in those kind of good things to happen. That's why- That's right. Oh, good. We're talking about achieving a lasting peace. We're talking about achieving a better global economy. We're talking about prosperity essentially everywhere. These are pretty lofty goals. How much does the U.S. bring to that in these times? We have a divided Congress. We have a divided country. We have people in the Congress who oppose these things or who don't care about these things. Does Joe Biden have a full portfolio go to these meetings? Does he speak with enough authority to make a difference? Does the divided aspect in Congress and the country undermine that authority? I know that's a hard question, but I would like your thoughts about it, Russell. Well, if you think back, backtrack it, I know when they had the last G7 in Munich, Germany, I think they pledged roughly $600 billion for this helping out infrastructure development project. Try to work with the developing nation so the world leaders can make a significant difference in terms of worldwide or in terms of globalization kind of concept. I think that's a start. It's part of getting everybody in the same page to realize what the consequences are. I think those countries have their domestic policies. They got to meet the fiscal and monetary policy and hopefully balance the budget. They got to pay services to take care of their people and do their domestic demand at home. If that feels good and they can do overseas and invest in overseas, right now only the developing nations, superpower countries can do that. Hopefully we want the developing nations, the G20 and all those other countries to realize that what the global leaders are trying to do right now. Hopefully the congressional side can look at the picture. We're always debating between the Republicans and Democrats. It's we're always finding cats and dogs in the US Congress, but that's the things that they do over there. From there, they're trying to iron out policies. Democrats and Republicans got to think we're all Americans. We got to do what's right for be a global leader again. Hopefully we can move forward that way and share our knowledge and share information abroad because everybody wants to come to the United States and want to trade and do business. We have pros and cons here, but hey, in terms of business and quality of life, United States got a lot to offer and we've been doing that for a century already. Hopefully that we can put everybody in the global aspect and be fair. We want our partners, our allies and friends to realize that the United States is here to stay and we are willing to work with you in a global aspect. That's what Joe Biden sees, because he's been doing foreign policy. He's a specialist and ever since he was a congressman, he's been a state senator and now he's a US president. I think he's got a lot of wisdom and knowledge, so he foresees that. I respect him for his vision and I would like to move forward with his vision as well and hopefully bring back the United States as a global leader again. Very noble thought, very important thought. So many international issues. The world is all interdependent whether we like it or not. This is good for his campaign to take the fore on international meetings like this. You name the five or six of them altogether. It's quite a few of them. To make that his pivot, if you will, make that an important point. In the domestic politics, there's a lot of argument about domestic issues, but I believe it's very good for him to discuss international issues. It's another part of his appeal to America, as you say, to come together. So question, we have immigration issues. Immigration issues are not only in Latin America and on our southern border. Immigration issues are in Europe and perhaps in a number of places around the world. And people are suffering. That's why they migrate. And what about this conference and the other conferences you mentioned? Do they address human flow and the migration of people sometimes voluntary, but often involuntary around the world? Is this a subject on the agenda? That's a good point there, Jay. I haven't seen the actual agenda, but that's a big concern that we have in terms of immigration. I'm sure that the Europeans see that as well, that's seen a migration. All these people want to come into Europe, especially with Ukraine and what's happening with the war over there. So I know that Europeans has welcomed all these Ukrainian immigrants crossing the border, especially Poland, because Poland seeing what happened with the Cold War. So now they're willing to give back and support their neighbors. And I'm glad that all these European countries have stepped up to the plate. And as well, we've been having a lot of Ukrainian immigrants come to United States, especially if they have family here. But even with the situation in Latin America, I know that the immigration that Donald Trump had, I forgot the exact name, they call it, but the act has expired. So there's all these immigration people waiting in the borderline to be processed so they can come up with their sanctuary over here in the United States and come in that way, especially with families. So I think we're trying to open up the border now and hopefully if we can build some kind of infrastructure to have the housing for these kind of people and create jobs for them. And since they'll be having the English as their second language, so they got to kind of blend into our system here and in the way of our life. And I'm sure that, you know, we're an immigrant state, so we all been doing this for the past generations. And we welcome immigrants because they come up with new ideas. They work hard and the jobs that we don't want to do, they're going to be willing to do it and build their family, especially the first generation. And the second generation is going to get better off and get educated and they're going to go off and get their college degrees and be a good law abiding citizen and contributing citizens for our United States. I see that. I see that with the Asian immigrants already. So, you know, I have no problem with that. And one other issue I think, if you went to UH on the Minoa campus and you talked to the journalism program in the School of Communication there, and you asked them what the most important global story was in our lifetime, they would tell you without hesitation, the most important story is climate change, because it's existential. And I know there are a lot of meetings around the world, a lot of organizations that are trying hard, you know, to respond to climate change. But I wonder in all the meetings you've mentioned, especially in the G7 coming up in Hiroshima, whether that is on the agenda, because that is a very important issue for all of us. Yeah, definitely, Jay. That is part of the agenda. It's just that we've just been diverted in terms of because of the crisis that we had with the war in Ukraine and China's aggression there. But there's ministers that of energy are getting together and they're talking about the sustainability to put it into their economic plan. Remember that United Nations 17STG, the sustainability goals that they had to put in that came out. I'm sure they're incorporating some of those 17STGs in there. And that's what we did in the state of Hawaii. We passed a bill. As a matter of fact, I testified and I wrote those kind of measures and we have it put in into the state plan. And in terms of coding effects, we put those 17 United Nations sustainability development goals into our state plan. So that kind of brings up the Paris Agreement having a long range. By year 2045, we should be fossil free. And even in Detroit, there are three automakers. They're all into electric cars now. The EVs are coming out and we want to promote more of a sustainability, an alternative energy source and all that. So it's working. It takes time. It doesn't happen overnight. But our long-range plans are being administered with our short-range plans. So it's kind of moving forward in that direction. And I think other developing nations are moving forward in that sense. And the G7 is a good platform to address that and refocus again. Russell, you drafted the APEC master plan for the APEC that was conducted a few years ago here in Hawaii, which has long legs because APEC will continue around the various member nations for the foreseeable future. So I wonder about the relationship of APEC, the APEC plan, and Hawaii in the G7. What kind of representation will we have? What kind of input will we have? What kind of interest do we have in the G7 meeting? Oh, yeah. Good thing you asked me, Jay. I know this is a high-caliber meeting. I know we're only the 50th State in the Union, but we do have a voice of concern. And I've been kind of drafting all these strategic business plans for the past one. We hosted a 2011 APEC Connoiter Conference when President Barack Obama was the President back then. And we wanted the East West Center to be the focal point. And we had headquarters there, matter of fact. And I was kind of working with the East West Center and promoting this warm up running in the airplane as a security measure, because I was with the Airship Management Services back then. But we did like Fuji film, airplane, we did McDonald's, we did quite a lot. It's just somewhat like a good airplane, but we did the Olympics too on that one. So anyways, that got me started with the APEC. And I got involved with the APEC Business Advisory Council when we hosted the 2011. And I drafted a comment kind of paper regarding to large enterprise, should work with small and medium enterprise so they can work out the supply chain issues. And that is a big concern with the G7 Summit, the supply chain issues right now, because we don't want to rely on China alone. And Japan is bringing up artificial intelligence issues. And hopefully that was a good thing because last year we just came out with the Chips and Science Act, which we're going to spend roughly about $260 billion invested. And out of that, $200 billion is going to go into research and development for the STEM projects. And other 60 million to be allocated to other agencies so they can look into cyber spacing, security measures, other intellectual artificial intelligence STEM projects that we can move forward with. So that is a good thing. And another thing is we want to bring up manufacturing for Intel semiconductors, chips like that, that's high caliber chips that we need for supercomputers and all that. So basically we want to bring manufacturing back to the United States. We don't want to rely on China alone. So that's a sticking point too, because we've got Taiwan there and Japan wants to come up with their own. They're bringing back their manufacturing of microchips and capabilities. But we want to work for Japan as well. And United States is going to want to remember back in the 70s, I recall, when Silicon Valley, when IBM was dominated at 64 RAM chips. And a lot of them were manufactured in Japan. IBM Japan controlled like 60% of the 64 RAM chips in the 70s and 80s. And those are needed for those 286 computers, 390s of clone computers that came out back in there. And before Microsoft came up with the dots functions and all those kind of things. But anyways, Apple came up with their own Macintosh. But we needed those 64K RAM chips and a lot of them were controlled by Japan. And if Japan was, we had a trade war with Japan back then. So they're controlling the chips. And so we decided to manufacture our own chips in terms of supply chain issues. So same things happening right now with China. And they're controlling everything. So we've got to bring back our capabilities back again. And I think this economic framework plan is calling for bringing manufacturing back for the chips and science app. So which is good. Good sign. You know, although you come on ThinkTech and talk about these meetings, I'm not sure they're getting enough pressed in the American press or in the Hawaii press. What is your advice to the media about whether they should cover this and how deeply they should cover these meetings and the discussions that take place between the leaders of state at these meetings? After all, you know, if you have meetings and you have countries talking to each other, you reduce the likelihood of aggression and war. And so whatever the conversations are, human beings, the countries, the leaders of countries getting together and expressing themselves in these meetings and rubbing shoulders and having social engagement in these meetings to me is always a good thing. But my question to you is, what can we do about passing the word, making people more familiar, more aware of the meetings and what goes on at the meetings and what the meetings hope to achieve? I know it's happening. Good thing you asked me that question though, but it's how the media portrays it on the reporters. It's how the consumers or the general public sees it. They're not a news people like we are. We're not up on top of the global issues of what's happening locally and we're not into the news. Most people are so busy occupied with their job, taking care of their families. They got their own personal problems or they got other daily chores. If they have time and leisure or economically stable, they're well off, then they can look into that. But I hope in terms of educating how the TV portrays it, the reporters, and I remember that one about two weeks ago when King Charles had his coronation in England, that took up the whole worldwide kind of dominance in terms of media coverage. In terms of APEC, I hope the same thing kind of coverage does happen, but I think in terms it's a scope of how the TV reporters and the media, the program directors, how they see it and how they're going to air it or not. It's a matter of interest and right now it's a geopolitical kind of issues. Every country is taking up what's happening and if it's going to affect their country or not or in terms of their business or the quality of life. I think that's a big issue. To me, I'm bringing this up because I want the audience to know this is what's happening. I hope it doesn't create a World War III because of what's happening with the situation. To me, what's happening is they're breaking up factions of countries because we have our G7 with the West country, the European Union, and the Russia and China have the BRICS nation, Brazil, Russia, India, South Africa, and they formulate an agent infrastructure investment bank. Remember that was established in about 2016, about that time when they formulate the BRICS nation. They got together in 2016 Olympics in Brazil and those leaders, the BRICS nation leaders got together on the slime land and came up with this BRICS nation kind of coalition so they can go against the West, go against America in terms of the US and the European Union's dominance in terms of trade and commerce. A lot of countries that wasn't too happy with what's happening with the West countries. In terms of dollar currency, China now wants to use UN as their dominant currency. The BRICS nation is trying to push for that and hopefully they got Iran and Saudi Arabia involved with it. That's why in terms of G7 country, we invited India, Vietnam as well as South Korea and Brazil is kind of sitting, but we want them to not go towards China and Russia. The geopolitical system is kind of shifting right now. We want to make sure that there's no ramification, they don't regret what's going to happen. We don't want to create this kind of amosity among the world dominance in terms of global policy right now, but that's what's being brought up in the G7 right now. This is going to happen. This is direction it's going to take. Other side, Russia and China and your partners and allies and friends, that's what the BRICS nation with. That's what they wanted to do, but now we have China coming, I mean India with us again with the G7 summit. President Modi has to kind of look into those kind of pro and con side because we want India to be on our side with the West. It is very important in this issue. How can we learn more about this? I know you wrote a newsletter. You should talk about that. Maybe there are sources, websites and the like that people should look at so that they can know more and follow the action on these international meetings. Yeah, definitely. I think in terms of Think Tech Kauai show, I know we're so diversified in so much knowledge and we have so much intelligent people in Hawaii that are in terms of globally, in terms of issues that know, domestic issues as well. So they focus on speciality and in terms of our conversation we have with the global connection, that's our speciality. I think what the global audience, when they look at the Think Tech Kauai shows, they have to pick and choose because we're so, we make so many shows every day throughout the years. I'm sure Jay, you're so busy there. I think in terms of we're kind of overwhelming, I would say, our Think Tech Kauai shows and because we got a lot of knowledge and wisdom that people live in Hawaii. So that's what showcases us. We're a special island here. So thank you, Russell. Russell Hanma, the draftman of the APEC master plan here in Hawaii and somebody who follows these international meetings every single time and comes and reports to us about it. Thank you so much, Russell. Thank you, Jay. It was a nice talk. I just wanted to share this, since this is an important time what's happening in the G7 summit in Hiroshima, Japan. Aloha. Aloha, thank you very much. Thank you so much for watching Think Tech Hawaii. If you like what we do, please like us and click the subscribe button on YouTube and the follow button on Vimeo. You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn and donate to us at ThinkTechHawaii.com. Mahalo.