House Republican Conference : At American Enterprise Institute, Chairman Royce Discusses the Need for American Leadership

Chairman Royce: 'We've had seven years now of policies that, frankly, have been focused on befriending our enemies and distancing ourselves from our allies, ignoring our allies… And that's important because it means people no longer necessarily take our counsel.'

Just days before President Obama's final State of the Union Address, House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce (R-CA) sat down with Danielle Pletka at American Enterprise Institute and discussed the need for American leadership to defend and advance freedom, security, and free markets both at home and abroad. Chairman Royce stressed the importance of open communication with our allies around the world.

Below are several excerpts from Chairman Royce's appearance:

On the need for American leadership to defend and advance freedom, security | 'We've had seven years now of policies that, frankly, have been focused on befriending our enemies and distancing ourselves from our allies, ignoring our allies… And that's important because it means people no longer necessarily take our counsel. They begin to take things into their own hands, or begin to take a new calculus over who the regional hegemon is going to be based upon the assumption that we have now tilted toward Iran. … 'We have to have a policy of more back bone, not a policy of more backing down. That's the crux of the problem today.'

On the Way Forward for American Leadership Abroad | '[We need] to lay out a strategy in which we are going to lead. I think first reaching out to our democratic allies, and then to our other friends around the world, in order to lay out what we think that strategy is going to look like. I think also in terms of explaining the rules of the road internationally. …[We also need] to be dedicated not to a containment strategy with respect to ISIS, but [to] destroyingISIS.'

On Opening up American Goods and Businesses to Global Market through Trade | 'We're either going to have agreements for international trade, which are low tariffs, high standards. Or we're going to have agreements - if Beijing is leading the process - of low tariffs, no standards. And we figured out that for us, we're much better protected in these negotiations if we can have high standards. …we would sooner have America driving this train than Beijing. This is also what European parliamentarians of either political stripe tell us privately. …they encourage us to move forward and to lead.'