Secretary Clinton at the first Global Chiefs of Mission Conference

      Secretary Clinton hosts a luncheon on Feb. 2, 2011 with Vice President Biden for the Global Chiefs of Mission Conference, at the Department of State. State Department photo by Michael Gross, Feb. 3, 2011.

On Feb. 2, 2011, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton addressed the Global Chiefs of Mission Conference at the Dept. of State in Washington, DC. Take note: the conference was planned prior to the Egyptian uprising.

Here’s Secretary Clinton:

Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. (Applause.) Thank you all very much. Thank you. It is such a pleasure to welcome all of you back to Washington for the first ever, in American history, all-hands-on-deck ambassadorial conference. Chiefs of Mission from every corner of the world who may not ever get a chance to meet each other or exchange ideas are here today for the gathering that we have been looking forward to.

We’ve wanted to do this for some time. We figured early February would be quiet, not much going on. (Laughter.) What better time to pull you from your posts and responsibilities? And, of course, Margaret Scobey from Egypt is not here. But I am very grateful that we’re going to have a chance for you to interact with the senior leadership of the Department. I will be back tomorrow afternoon for a Q&A session, and I want everybody to be fully prepared. Today, you will have a chance to hear from Mike Mullen – Admiral Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs at lunch – who will make remarks and do a Q&A. And we have some other surprises along the way.

For a complete transcription of Secretary Clinton’s address, go here.