SEATTLE — U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman spent time in Seattle this week talking about technology and how it related to foreign policy.
Sherman was at the University of Washington when it was announced that next year Seattle will be the host city for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum. It is an opportunity to welcome leaders from around the world.
Seattle will be the prime venue for a summit that promotes sustainable economic growth, trade, and investment.
"I think this will be a tremendous partnership with the city of Seattle on so many levels,” said Sherman. "It's going to be a really phenomenal event where great minds will come together representing everybody's interests and try to address these challenges of the future.”
During Sherman’s two-day visit, she spoke at Allen Library at the University of Washington and met with students who are studying cyberspace and foreign policy.
"It's terrific, but technology also can be used for things that are not good, like disinformation, like surveillance, like controlling free expression,” said Sherman. “We've seen the protests in Iran after Mahsa Amini was brutally killed by the so-called morality police."
Sherman cites the thousands gathering to protest as a recent example.
"They just want to express who they are and have a more open society in Iran. To do that they need to communicate, and the regime has shut down the internet, shut down the ability for people to communicate. So, this is what we were talking about with students today. This is critical to national security and foreign policy. These are domains of the future we all have to understand,” said Sherman.
During Sherman’s trip, she also visited T-Mobile to discuss U.S. technology policy and expanding opportunities.
"We talked about what that future might look like,” said Sherman. "There's a 6G universe out there that nobody understands yet. And we want to get some idea of what one company is thinking about that, and we certainly will be talking with other companies as well."