 Good evening. I take great pleasure to introduce to you Secretary Ash Carter. I just heard the 25th Secretary of Defense of the United States. And actually, I welcome you as a forum as a platform for public-private cooperation. And you, of course, we all know about the Department of Defense, but actually, you are also the CEO of the largest enterprise in the world, and you are in addition an academic. And when you came first here a number of years ago, you came in your former capacity as someone I know who has a deep global, now you have insights, but at some time you also already had a deep global knowledge. So we are delighted to have you here, particularly for our members. Recently, we went to the Pentagon together with a number of our members, and I have to say I was so impressed and so surprised how you are a forward-looking man and looking particularly also at the force industrial revolution and how it impacts your own work, your own work in terms of defense, but your own work also in terms as a CEO of this huge organization. So, Mr. Secretary, what we are living in a turbulent world, and it's great to hear from someone who is really at the center and who knows what's going on. What keeps you awake at night? Because of the Secretary of Defense of the United States and because of the pivotal role that we have long played and continue to play, not alone, because we also have lots of friends, and that's not just because we're powerful, but because of the values we stand for, and I see friends here and I'm grateful to all of them. Klaus, let me just begin at the beginning. Something that's very much on my mind this year is the defeat of ISIL. This needs to occur, it will occur, and it needs to occur first and foremost in Syria and Iraq. This is the parent tumor of ISIL, and we need to defeat it there, but then we need to combat it elsewhere around the world to which it is spread. We also need to defeat our homelands. Just this week, I've been discussing with my colleagues and I'll be doing it more in coming weeks. Our operational concept for doing that, we have a very specific plan, and if you think about it in World War II newsreel terms, in arrows on maps, you should be thinking of an arrow going to Mosul, capturing Mosul, and an arrow going to Raqqa in Syria and capturing Raqqa, the so-called capital. That's the operational plan for Iraq and Syria. I was talking to Prime Minister Abadi today about the success he's had in Iraq and then our move forward to heat and Mosul, and our strategic approach to doing that is, first of all, to use the great might of American military power. We're doing more. We're accelerating our effort and we're looking for opportunities class to do yet more, but we are also taking the strategic approach of enabling capable and motivated local forces. This is critical because we've all had the experience of trying to occupy places that we have cleared of terrorists, and that's something difficult for foreigners to do, so we do want to find capable local forces. That's why it's so important to work through the Iraqi security forces, and then do that worldwide. So we need to defeat ISIL. If you're asking me what else keeps me up at night, I'm afraid it's not a short list. You know we have a nuclear deal with Iran. That's important. I think that's a good deal. However, it doesn't solve all of our problems with Iran, and we're still concerned about its malign influence in the region, freedom of navigation, and other issues, ballistic missiles, and other issues we have in protecting our long-time friends and allies in the Gulf to include, especially Israel. Then we have North Korea, and I know you had an invitation to the North Koreans, which by taking the self-isolating step, which seems to be their habit of testing a nuclear weapon, they're not here. But, and this may sound odd to those of you who, like me, have watched the situation on North Korea for so many years, Klaus, but we call it, in the defense department, fight tonight. That's not that we want to fight tonight, but up on the DMZ, and I was just there a few weeks ago, you have to be ready every night. And then finally, looking further ahead and more geopolitically, we have a competitive situation that we don't want to lead to armed conflict, but we have to acknowledge a competitive situation with Russia, on the one hand, in Europe, with China, in Asia, and I'll just say one thing about Asia, it's terribly important for this audience because it's a big business market. It's half of the world's economy, half of its population. For 70 years, peace and stability have been kept in Asia because of the American military. We aim to keep that going. Now, that's not to exclude anybody else, it's not to keep anybody else down. It's never been that way. Taiwan rose, South Korea rose, Taiwan rose, Southeast Asia rose, now India and China. We welcome that, but you can't take for granted the environment of peace and security. So these are the things that keep me up at it, but my job is to let make a situation where everybody else doesn't kept up at night. So I'm happy if I'm up at night and you're not up at night because that means that you get to lie there, dream your dreams, wake up, hug your children, take them to school, go to work, live full lives. That's what's supposed to happen. And my job is with other colleagues here is to provide protection without which none of that is possible. Mr. Secretary, I have two follow-up questions. One is more specific, one way is more of a general nature. To start with the specific one, we had also the reassuring message of the Prime Minister of Iraq, that actually I still could be defeated by the end of the year in Iraq. Are you not afraid that those fighters, we speak here mainly also about foreign fighters, afterwards are dispersed and you transport the issue from Iraq and Syria back to Europe, to the United States and we will see the consequences in terms of increased terrorist acts. Well, you have to be concerned about that, but at the same time, I mean part of the campaign plan is not to let these people out. And that's part of the concept of defeating them where they are. Now that won't be perfect. And some of them will go out, some of them will go back to the countries from which they originated, which sadly include many in Europe, a few, but a worrisome few in the United States. And that's why I said you have to deal with the metastases, some of them will show up in Libya and already are, and some of them will show up in our home lines. So we need to protect ourselves and we need to protect our people and take that seriously and we will. But the phenomenon originated in Iraq and Syria, and I think that the psychological importance of the defeat of this phony ideology and the idea that there's an Islamic state is a very important victory to have, Klaus. It's necessary. Is it sufficient? No. We'll need to keep watching out for and fighting its metastases where it crops up. But we've got to defeat Iraq and Syria. And just on Prime Minister Abadi's point, I mean I'm delighted that he feels that way. I share that ambition. I think he's very entitled to that momentum as a result of the victory in Ramadi and one of the good things about that is I think it gives him the opportunity to do more and for us to do more in partnership with him. Success gives opportunities for more success. It was great performance by the Iraqi security forces. Mr. Secretary, I have again a specific question, a straight forward question. Do you feel Turkey is doing enough to support you? Well, I would like Turkey to do more. By history, by geography, Turkey is in a pivotal position here. Now, Turkey's a longtime friend of ours. It's a NATO ally. We're strongly in support of it. We stand with it in terms of defense of its own territory. But the reality is it shares a big border with Iraq and Syria, which border has been porous to foreign fighters, Klaus, going in both directions. And I think the Turks can do more. I think the Turks can do more to fight ISIL. They're helping us fight ISIL by, for example, hosting our aircraft in Turkey. I'm grateful for that, but I think they can do more. So they're on the list of, and I'm sorry to say it's not a small list of countries that I think could make contributions that are distinctive, unique, and necessary to the defeat of ISIL. One of the reasons I'm in Europe this week, Klaus, is to talk to the defense ministers of all the coalition. I met with a key seven in Paris two days ago. I'm going to convene all the defense ministers, first time ever, of the coalition to defeat ISIL in Brussels in a couple of weeks. And precisely the purpose there is to set expectations in terms of the capabilities that will be needed from everybody, Turkey included. Mr. Secretary, now my general question, and I just rapidly say, sometimes the concerns that the U.S. do not have any more capability to be present at the same time in all those troubled areas you mentioned. Aren't you overstretched? Well, I mean, we've always liked to have more. What Defense Minister or Defense Secretary wouldn't tell you that. But if you to go back through the commitments I described, we are conducting what we call the rebalance to the Asia Pacific region, which is really just a way of saying what I said earlier, which is we aim to keep the role, historical role of the United States. I am about to submit a major new budget for that will carry the United States into the years ahead. It fully resources that it makes new investments that sadly, we now have to make in the defense of Europe with NATO territory as a consequence of Russia's aggressive behavior, which we've seen in Ukraine. And I wish it weren't so for a quarter century. We haven't had to make those investments. Now we will. We have the money and Congress has given us the money and the resources. We have the forces to defeat ISIL. So the answer is, you know, you're never happy, but we have the forces we need to meet our commitments. The key is to me, and one of the reasons I'm here is to make sure that we are ahead of everybody else, that we have historically been that in all technological areas of warfare and security. And one of the things I'm determined is that the United States stays that way. So that not only can I answer that question now, Klaus, but my successor, my successor, successor, can answer the same question with the same confidence that my predecessors gave me. I have the finest force the world has ever known, and I'm very grateful for it. But in this respect, Mr. Secretary, we have talked a lot during this meeting about the force industrial revolution, the new technologies in the small book which I published. I devote also one chapter to new technologies in, let's say, being used in military action. How do you prepare for this new wave of technologies and how will it rewrite the rules and methods of warfare? Well, technology does, it has, and technology's a partial answer to your question, but there's another part that I'll get to in a minute, but just take the technology part. Some of you may know I'm a technologist myself. And when I started out in this business class, when I began my career, and I never expected to be in defense, but it was a reflex, it was part of the culture of technology to have a connection to defense. It was also true that most technology of consequence originated in the United States and much of it in connection with the government. Now that's still true to a large extent, but not nearly to the extent it was there. So if we're gonna continue to do what we need to do, which is stay ahead of a dangerous world, we need to do that in a different way. And I'm highly aware of that. So I'm trying to build bridges, one of the reasons I'm here, to the tech innovative community that are as strong but different as the ones I grew up with. The other answer to your question is people. And another thing that the people in this room who manage big enterprises, like I manage a big enterprise, is the thing that really makes the American military so wonderful is our people. It's an all volunteer force. So I have to ask for them. I have to find them. I have to compete for them, just like every company does. If I wanna have the best of them, so to clowns that to me means learning what the best techniques for human resource management is, recruitment, retention, how do you connect to today's generation? They don't put up with, they don't see their careers the way we did. They're not gonna put up with a system that seems old to them. We need to connect to them where their heads are. So one of the things I wanted to do here was talk to the leaders of major enterprises around the world, the same issues I do. They need to stay ahead in a competitive world of technology and they need to compete for talent. Is there anything they can teach me? Will always be different because we're the profession of arms. But I would like to learn what the best are thinking and the most innovative people. And by the way, I wanna be part of our enterprise too. These are people who wanna make a difference in the world. That's why they're here. That's why they're in the positions they're in. One of the ways they can make a difference is by helping us. You train people very well, not only in the utilization of hardware and so on, but particularly in working together in leadership. Do you see a better pact between business and the Defense Department in general, so that you prepare people for the business world? Yeah, it's a really great, and I'm so proud that in this generation, our veterans as they're called, people who have served in our military are regarded as wonderful people to employ. Why? They've had exactly the experience you've had of order, discipline, organization, mission accomplishment. Sometimes experience is way beyond their years. So they're young people with tremendous capability. Employers understand that now. I only say that that's remarkable. It shouldn't be remarkable, but remember, I remember the Vietnam generation, and that was not the rap on American service members at that time. We've turned that around. Now, there's a bad side to that, Klaus, which is all these people are trying to hire my people. And I want them to, because I want the best for our people. On the other hand, I don't want our good people to leave. Now, I can soul myself when our good people leave by, with the following thought, if they see that having been in the U.S. Department of Defense is good for their careers, then even though they leave, somebody new will come in who's ambitious and good and wants to be part of it, and I'll keep the pipeline going. So in a way, it's good, and it makes us attractive. And I need to be attractive because I'm competitive. I can't, I don't draft, we don't have a draft in the United States. I can't make people serve. They got to want to serve. Mr. Secretary, usually defense departments were very secluded in a national environment. Today, we are living in a global world, and here you have the representatives of many countries. How much does, let's say, real defense not only need treaties and cooperation in the context of very specific special organizations like NATO, how much does it really need a coalition between business and defense on a more global level? That's absolutely necessary in my judgment because for public officials to protect the public space so that private companies and people can do what they're supposed to do. I need their help in today's world, which means I need their understanding. And it can't be me just telling them what to do because I don't have that power. I got to meet them halfway, and so I'm talking to people here about, for example, how to help us counter-terrorism. And I have to do that in a way that respects their business interests and also that respects the society's other wishes, which are for privacy and freedom of the internet and so forth. On the other hand, nobody ever thought that the internet was supposed to bring you civilization and community and prosperity, not evil. And so people don't want that, but I can't dictate solutions to that. I've got to work with the private sector, and that's true in logistics, it's true in personnel management. I'm part of society and I'm most successful when I work with others. By the way, you mentioned allies. The Secretary General, our Honored and a Very Effective Secretary General of NATO is here. That's one very strong organization. I started right off at the beginning saying, we don't do everything by ourselves, that's not the American way. And one of the things I'm proud of is we have lots of friends. A lot of people want to work with us. And when other people act up, other countries act up, they drive people into our arms. And we like working with other people, and we like the fact that they like to work with us. And I think it's an important measure because we stand for things that they stand for and values that they want to protect too. So I'm proud of that, but it also makes us more effective because we've got to work together. So defense in the broadest sense is not just the job of the Defense Department, it's the job of all of us. Now that's a very wise observation to Klaus and so I can't do everything I just described in terms of defeating ISIL without John Kerry's political efforts in Syria. I can't do them without our homeland security, our law enforcement, our border security. We're celebrating, rightly so, the recapture of Ramadi from ISIL, but there's still a job ahead there. People have to be brought back, their homes have to be put back together, water has to be turned on, electricity's not over yet. And that's a whole side of things. It's not military, but it's necessary to sustain success. And this is where the rest of the U.S. government comes in. This is where I'm going to be asking others to make contributions also. But Mr. Secretary, I should add the community here is a stakeholder community business, particularly. I think we have also the obligation to make sure that we make your job abundant in addressing the root causes. I mean, if we create sufficient jobs for the young generation, hopefully your job can be, you could be dismissed. If we really take care of our responsibilities to address the root causes. Yeah, I mean, and to the extent that some really evil people are at work, prosperity might not make that go away, but it'll be created an environment in which they can't run rampant and where they are brought to justice quickly. And that is provided by a humane and prosperous and a world in which young people have promise. And that's what this crowd is all about. Ladies and gentlemen, friends, we will continue the discussion with a broader panel integrating distinguished people from the international defense community. So please remain seated. And I would like to thank Secretary Carter for providing with an insight. I frankly was pondering for some time whether we should integrate defense and you in such a program, but I felt it in a reduced multistakeholder community, it's part of it. And we are grateful for your presence. Thank you. Thank you.