Dianne Feinstein: “As a Californian, I have been surprised to discover how Washington, and the whole East Coast foreign policy…”

“As a Californian, I have been surprised to discover how Washington, and the whole East Coast foreign policy establishment tends to look primarily across the Atlantic to Europe, and how little it looks to Asia and the Pacific. But the fact is that U.S. interests are no longer primarily in Europe. You've heard the phrase ``the dawning of the Pacific Century'' many times. Well, the Pacific Century is here. Consider these facts: The Pacific trading theater has long since overtaken the Atlantic. Overall trade with Asia stands at $570 billion. With Europe it is $270 billion. Trade with Asia accounts for more than 30 percent of U.S. exports and close to 40 percent of U.S. imports. And today, more than 60 percent of the world's population lives on both sides of the Pacific Ocean. All of this illustrates what Secretary of State John Hay meant when he said nearly a century ago: ``The Mediterranean is the ocean of the past; the Atlantic, the ocean of the present; and the Pacific, the ocean of the future.'' That future is now.”