One of my favorite quotes – and I saw it when I was in Dhaka just a couple of weeks ago – is a quote from Senator Edward M. Kennedy that’s on the EMK Center in Dhaka, and that is that “Our relationship is not just government-to-government, but it’s people-to-people, citizen-to-citizen, and friend-to-friend.” And I hope that in my tenure, that I can underscore that.

This is a very real personal privilege for me to come to Bangladesh and walk into the Edward M. Kennedy Center.  I know that Ted Kennedy holds a very special place in the history of Bangladesh and in the hearts of its people, of you. And the reasons for that are because he was very much a visionary and very clear about his support for the independence of your country back in 1971. And I knew Teddy for many, many years. I first met him when I was 18 years old, fresh out of high school, and I worked all summer – for free, I might add – to try to help get Ted Kennedy elected to the United States Senate in 1962. And it was his first race. He was running to fill the seat of President John F. Kennedy. His brother had just been elected president two years earlier.

“My hope is that Edward M. Kennedy Center for Public Service and the Arts will foster greater mutual understanding between the U.S. and Bangladesh.”