Now we take you to a News Conference where the secretary of state, antony blinken, is at the state department. Secretary blinken over the years we have moved from addressing difficult and sensitive issues of history to an increasingly ambitious and affirmative agenda and as we look to the future of the growing partnership will continue to enable us to do more for the security and prosperity of all. Let me also say a word about ukraine. Next week we will mark the year and a half since the fullscale russian invasion. A year and a half of bombing ukrainian schools and hospitals, weaponizing fuel, killing and wounding thousands of ukrainians, even abducting ukrainian children. For just as long, the people of ukraine have demonstrated remarkable courage and resilience. The United States, dozens of other countries will continue to stand with them until ukraine secures a just and durable peace. Last week President Biden requested 24. 1 billion from congress to deliver on that promise and continue to support ukraines security, economic, and humanitarian needs, and helping other countries who are experiencing the effects of the rushmore. Our efforts and resources have enabled ukrainians to fight for their lives, their freedom, their future. Helping to uphold the basic principles of sovereignty, territoriality, and independence that are vital to maintaining security. Making sure the russian invasion remains a strategic failure. I urge congress to pass the supplemental funding right away. While they are at it i want to once again strongly encourage the senate to swiftly approve the dozens of ambassadors and officials who continue to await confirmation. At the same time, our department is working with ukrainian partners on longterm security commitments to help ukraine deter and if necessary defend against future russian aggression well into the future. Ukraine should be clear about the enduring nature of our support and the many other countries that will provide similar commitments to ukraine. President putin should be clear about the futility of pursuing that aggression. We also continue to condemn the black Sea Grain Initiative and appreciate the efforts from romania and moldova as we work to get ukrainian grain to those who most urgently needed. Finally, last week we confirmed that iranian authorities released five u. S. Citizens from prison to house arrest. Most have been in prison since before the administration took office. One has been held for nearly eight years. None should have been detained in the first place. Yesterday i spoke with several of these detainees loved ones. There resilience, their courage never ceases to inspire. My message to them is the same thing that you will hear from me today. Moving people to house arrest is a positive step but they are not yet home. We are closely monitoring their wellbeing and are especially grateful to our Swiss Partners for the on the Ground Support and we will not rest until our fellow citizens are back in the United States, reunited with their families. Nothing about the overall approach to iran has changed. We continue to pursue a strategy of deterrence, pressure, and diplomacy and remain committed to ensuring that iran never acquires a Nuclear Weapon and continue to hold the regime accountable for human rights abuses, destabilizing actions in the region, funding terrorism, provisions of drones to russia for use against ukraine, among other offenses. We have been clear that they must deescalate to create space for future diplomacy. This development has moved our detainees out of prison. The heart of detention is not linked to any other aspect of the policy. It is simply about the people. You have heard me say this before. I have no higher priority than looking out for the security and wellbeing of americans around the world and our department will continue to do everything we can to gain the release of those unjustly held around the world. With that, happy to take some questions. Thank you. Good morning. Still mourning for another 10 minutes. I wanted to ask you about the summit and your call this morning. I realize that no one likes to rank threats or issues in terms of importance. A lot of what you talked about is related to north korea. China is also an issue. So if you, how much of this summit do you think is going to be focused on china and how much on north korea in terms of the security elements . And anna somewhat related note, have you seen oppenheimer, and what did you think . Sec. Blinken taking the second one first, i have not yet seen oppenheimer, im looking for the 3. 5 hours necessary. Is that what it is . I might have to wait for streaming. What has evolved over the last eight years or so, back to 2015, 2016 when i worked on this as deputy secretary is a trilateral grouping, Cooperation Among our three countries that has really evolved from as i said to some extent a focus on helping supporting japan and korea deal with some historical legacy issues to initially an intense focus on north korea to a much more expansive agenda that continues to focus on north korea, given the endless provocative actions they have taken, but also much more expansively to advance what is a shared vision as i have described it for a free and open resilient, secure, connected indo pacific. I think that much of what you will see come out of the summit are positive initiatives that address the broad expanse of that affirmative agenda. Including security questions. Including Economic Security questions. But also including things like coordination on Development Aid and on humanitarian assistance shaping the use of emerging technologies. Greater people to people exchanges. So i dont think there is any one thing that will dominate. Of course at the heart of our bilateral alliances and at the heart of the work we are doing together, its security. Going back to friday, i think you will see some very concrete measures we are taking to enhance our capacity to provide for our securities as free countries and more broadly security in the indo pacific region. Hello, mr. Secretary i guess i should ask if you had 3. 5 hours if you would go for barbie or oppenheimer, but im not going to. [laughter] sec. Blinken no comment, go ahead. [laughter] on the trilateral summit, im wondered if the United States is concerned about the plans to discharge radioactive water from fukushima. Could these plans undermine the south korean president talks between tokyo and seal seo ul . And iran, there are reports that they are accelerating beginning of near weapons grade uranium. Have they slowed . Was the decision in any way related to or a part of the u. S. Iran agreement announced last week . Last but not least, why isnt the u. S. Permanent resident [indiscernible] who has been detained there a part of this deal and why hasnt he been designated as wrongly detained as hes on a Hunger Strike at the moment to protest. Sec. Blinken first, i also look forward to seeing barbie, but no set plans to do that. Have to find the time. Maybe we can do a double feature in the briefing room, for those who have seen neither movie. Second, with regards to the release of water from fukushima, we are satisfied with the japanese plans, which are safe and in accordance with international standards, including critically the iea Nuclear Safety standards. Japan has coordinated closely and proactively on those plans and have conducted a sciencebased transparent process that we are satisfied with. With regards to the questions around iran, i cannot confirm the reports you cited. What i can say is that we would of course welcome any steps iran takes to actually deescalate the growing Nuclear Threat they have posed since the United States got out of the iran nuclear agreement. We have been of course very focused on that and President Bidens determination to assure that iran never gets a Nuclear Weapon. That remains rocksolid. Um, there is no agreement between us on nuclear matters. The agreement we are pursuing to bring home those who were wrongfully detained in iran is an entirely separate matter that we want to bring to a successful conclusion and that is what im focused on. I think it is important to note that even as we have been pursuing this effort to bring our americans home, we have continued to vigorously pursue our efforts to counter a whole variety of actions being taken by iran that we profoundly objected to and so do many other countries around the world. You see that in the continued implementation of sanctions against iran. You see it in the steps we have taken just recently to shore up our military presence in the gulf to account for the iranians trying to interfere with shipping. You see that in a whole variety of areas where we are pushing back against their abuses of human rights, the destabilizing actions, ballistic missiles, funding of terrorism, sending drones to russia for use in ukraine. So there is a long list of things iran is engaged in and a long list of actions we continue to take to oppose what iran is doing. Finally, the five americans who have been moved from prison to home detention and who we expect to come home in the weeks ahead are americans who have been found to be designated as wrongfully detained. We continue to look and will always continue to look at the situations, the conditions of other americans around the world who may be detained. [indiscernible] sec. Blinken i cant, for reasons of privacy, i cant talk about individual cases. I can simply say that as a matter of policy we are constantly reviewing whether any particular individual, american citizen or legal permanent resident, incarcerated in another country, is wrongfully detained. That of course triggers a whole series of actions and steps to be taken to secure their release. Reporter do you expect this weekends level to continue on an annual basis with south korea and japan . And today marks two years since the taliban took over in kabul. Theyve declared it as a National Holiday and recognized it as great victory. Human rights and especially womens rights to say that they have been trampled there is an understatement. Many people there have been said that its worse than theyve feared. So hearing and seeing that two years in after the u. S. Withdraw from afghanistan, how do you believe the u. S. Has done by the Afghan People and by the afghan partners . Sec. Blinken thank you. So on the cooperation, what you can expect to see coming out of this summit is collaboration on a trilateral basis that is further institutionalized in a variety of ways to include regular meetings at a variety of levels, senior levels. So that is something that i see fully coming out of friday. With regard to afghanistan, youve heard me say this before. Ill repeat it now. The decision to withdraw from afghanistan was incredibly difficult one because also the right one. Weve ended perks war. We dont americas war. And that has enabled a us to meet the many challenges of our time from Great Power Competition to the many trance national trance national issues. We continue to work on supporting the Afghan People. We have some end during litmus when it comes to that. As you know, we brought back virtually all of the american citizens who say they want to depart in the course of the withdraw and that effort continues well after. It continues to this day and i believe some 900 or so additional americans that told us that they wanted to leave, weve made sure they get home. At the same time, we are continuing to make steadying from our partners in afghanistan who were with us for many, many years. Through august 1, 2023 between that period and when we left so, august 31 to august 1 of this year, nearly 34,000 special immigrant visas to family members have been issued and have been and these people have been able to leave afghanistan and come to the United States. We remain the leading donor of the humanitarian assistance to the after began people and we continue to work to hold the taliban accountable for the many commitments its made. Weve been clear with the taliban and dozen of countries around the world that the path to normal relationship between the taliban and other countries will be blocked unless and until the rights of women and girls among other things are actually supported. So, this is an area of ongoing focus. [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2023] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy visit ncicap. Org] of ongoing focus and that wont cease. Reporter i want to talk to you one on iran just to following up on with regard to the transfer of funds which you are working out the details, what kind of Enforcement Mechanisms are we going to see so we know that the iranian government are not abusing those funds and that there connect with the deal that the u. S. Brokered together funds released and the leaders are Holding Steady holding out hope for some type of diplomatic position. Would the u. S. Support any type of military action that they have threatened or do you see any alternative to resolve this situation in thank you. Sec. Blinken thanks. So first on iran. And its important to be very, very clear about this. The funds in question are not american funds. Theyre not american taxpayer money. They are iranian funds. That have been in south korea banks for a number of years. The Previous Administration allowed several countries to continue purchasing oil from iran and to place those funds in special accounts. And they allow those accounts to be spent down for the purposes was actually limited oversight. And the funds in south korea, thats how they wound up there the first place. The dollars that have being now available to iran, this is a way of facilitating their use strictly for humanitarian purposes and in a strictly controlled way. There will be oversight and visibility from the United States. With regard the releasing of the family the detention. And we reiterate the imperative of returning to Constitutional Order in in a jerry. The measure thats been exerted by many countries on the military leaders responsible for disrupt the order is mounting. They have to take that into account that their actions have isolated them from the region and from the world as well as the fact that there is a diplomatic path forward under the execution that would restore Constitutional Order. Thats what were focused on. I dont want to get ahead of where we are now or get any hypotheticals of what might happen in the future. This is a moment to focus on the diplomacy to restore the Constitutional Order thats clearly in the best interest of everyone including those responsible for disrupt the Constitutional Order. Thanks everyone. Hope yall get a break. Thank you. I will continue on this briefing. Canuate like 15 minutes . Can you wait for like 15 minutes . Sorry . Seriously . Ok. Ok. Give me one second and then we will continue on with this. Ok. All right. Kylie, go ahead. Reporter it just occurred to me that he spoke about this weekend, the trilateral summit and, you know, a broad range of issues that need to be addressed economic, securitywise and many of those are inherently related to kind but even in response to matts question, he avoided saying the word china throughout, you know, his discussion. So im just wondering why the secretary is avoid apparently avoiding, you know, outright saying that this weekend will be about the china threat in some issue or form . So i will say a couple of things about that. First, the important thing to remember is that part of that is not just investing within ourself, within the United States but also deepening our alliance in convergence with our partners and allies, including the r. O. K. In japan. And to be clear as youve heard us say before, we do not seek conflict or confrontation for a new cold war and youve seen consistent effort on this from this administration to manage our competition with the prc responsibly. But another piece to this is we are not asking countries to choose between the United States and the prc. What this is about is offering countries a choice of what partnership of the United States could look like. And what a free and open indospecific could look like. That is our approach when it comes to the prc, when it comes to countries around the world. And i think where we are seeing that in fruition is examples of this trilateral engagement where of course, an speck of this is an aspeck is deeper alliance. But there is an area of immense cooperation important for the people of the countries. Youll see the leaders speak to the tail end of this week so much im not going to get ahead of this process. Reporter we saw a historically large naval exercise jointly conducted by the russians and the chinese. So what effect do you think these longstanding commitments that are expected to be made this weekend are going to have on what few have been painstaking efforts by this administration to reestablish Communication Channels with china on the heels of other moves that beijing has said or it views as provocative and does russia stand to gain from a military standpoint there . I would say these things are not mutually exclusive. I think one, we believe that it is important for us to manage pour relationship with the prc responsibly is not just something that we expected the prc and ourselves. Its something that the International Community expects of us also. But through that, we continue to invest in ourselves and invest in our alliances and partnerships with countries in the region like korea and japan as well. But we also have been clear about the continued concern of the prc and russia closing their relationship and so we can continue to pursue all of these things appropriately. Shannon, go ahead. Reporter travis king will come up in conversations as being held in north korea. Is there any concern that it might create a danger for king what i would say broadly on the circumstances of private king, i have no updates at this point. The secretary have spoke about this a little bit about a week and a half ago as did matt miller. I would just let the summit go forward before previewing anything that might come out of it. But to your point, shannon, potentially provocative action, potential activities by the dprk that could be deemed as destabilizing to the region is one of they have many things for why its such trilateral engagement is so important and why we are taking these steps to further deepen our partnerships with japan. Reporter [indiscernible] you can you comment on the country . Well, you heard us speak about this before and we continue to remain deeply concerned that the dprk continues to provide military support to russia against ukraine. And the president traveled to the dprk to convince north korea to sell more munitions to russia to support russias war. And russia having to rely on the support of interlocketters like the dprk, like iran who have provided drones, i will also note that our information indicates that russia is seeking to increase the sign of military cooperation with the dprk. And so any kind of Security Cooperation or arms deal between north korea and russia would certainly violate a series of u. N. C. Security council resolution. Chinese and russian ambassadors met and they had a talk in south korea in pyongyang. What could you repeat the first part of your question . The ambassadors met and had a talk in pang yang. Pyongyang. Got it. We are concerned about the prcs alignment with russia. On the category, can you talk about the extended deterrence amid the the United States and south korea held its First Nuclear through talks [indiscernible] cooperation be ex penned to trilateral cooperation deterrence and also [indiscernible] ive been doing this long enough to know to not get ahead of the president. I will let the camp david summit take place. What i can just say and i would echo what youve heard the secretary say is this is an important opportunity to deepen strengthen some of the work that he started when he was deputy secretary of state. Today is the National Liberation day of korea where Korean People celebrate or commemorate. Its independence from the rule of japan. Can you talk about the reason the visit between these two countries. How does that help the china World Corporation . I will let the two specific countries speak their obie lateral relationships, but what i will just say is from the United States perspective as the third part of this trilateral engagement that of course, it is a good thing to see and something we certainly welcome to see korea and japan deepening their partnerships as well. This summit is about getting countries together to share a vision of a free and open world, an area that is interconnected, where people in good can flow appropriately and where countries are free from coercion are able to choose their own path. That is what we are looking forward to having the leaders in discuss at the end of this week at camp david and im sure they will have more to announce from there as well. I know you had your hand up patiently. This is a mini nato but what assurances have any has the u. S. Given china that this is not a provocation against beijing but more about the allegiance. Anything that has eased that concern with them. Obviously, we saw russia had similar concerns about the real nato and uses has it its claim or justification for its actions against ukraine. So there is no reason to use this summit as a provocative or any kind of step or effort to incite tensions. What this is about is deepening our partner on a number of areas that we believe are in the neutral shared interest of our three countries. And a lot of those are going be in a lot of various spaces. I dont want to get ahead of the president and so i will let the summit speak for itself. Reporter i want to ask you the questions that i would have asked the secretary if given the opportunity. It is probably easier to establish a colony on mars than to [indiscernible] my question to you. What practical steps has the United States taken in the past few months to reverse the settlement practice, the violence of the occupation and on the palestinians, terrorists are being let out the following day. What have you done in terms of practical steps, dramatic steps away from all the rhetoric to the twostep solution . The focus is on normalization between air problem countries. So please, give me your thoughts. I would just say in a broad brushed strokes sense that the particular designation of somebody in a specific role or a personnel decision to assign someone to a specific portfolio is not necessarily indicative of the weight that our government placings places on an issue. We have been clear of how integral we see a negotiated twostake solution as a peaceful resolution to the current situation. I will also note that part of this, sayid, is not having some sort of glitzy rollout of major policy steps or steps that we have taken. What pragmatic steps that we have taken . It is about pragmatic diplomacy which is something that individuals that you asked about, others have been engaged on. Quite directly. And so that is how we continue to see as the best path forward to getting us to a twostate solution is negotiating, discussing, raising these directly with the appropriate interlocketters and thats what well continue to do. And when steps have been taken that we view take us further away from that, we across this administration have been vocal and well continue to do so. Reporter can you share anything with us about dominating the next ambassador . I have no person opinion to that. Kennedy said there may be a play bargaining in the making. Can you share to us anything that is ongoing . I dont have any updates on that. I would let the department of justice speak to any of those pieces. Is there any what does traffic look like . Im not going to preview or try to look into a crystal ball. Our belief is our view let me take a step back. If you look at the port that weve seen for our ukrainian partners from congress, its been clear that it has been not just bicameral. It has also been bipartisan. And we expect that to continue to go forward. We think that supplemental is an important opportunity to continue to support our ukrainian partners. But in a number of other areas, like supporting Food Security efforts, supporting Energy Resilient efforts that our ukrainian importance need support on. We are in touch with congress regularly on this issue and many other things. And so well continue to engage with them on that. Thank you. When should we expect from the state department to send out a notification . I have no updates on the announcement of security assistance. What i would just say if you look back over the entirety of this conflict, we have assessed the kinds of needs that are ukrainian partners need and we have attempted to meet those needs with the various provisional systems either through us or through allies and partners and you can expect that kind of engagement to continue. Thank you. Your effort to bring about peace, how bad is the situation in your opinion and why is it so bad . So what i would say, alex, is that we remain deeply concerned about the continued closure of the latching corridor, specifically its closure to commercial humanitarian and private vehicles. The hatting of this kind of humanitarian traffic in our opinion, it worsens the humanitarian situation and it undermines the efforts that have been in place to build confidence in the peace process. And so we urge the government to restore free transit of commercial humanitarian and private vehicles through this corridor and were aware of the u. N. C. Security council has a meeting on wednesday to discuss the issue. Do you have any message to send out . We have said that any engagements that ultimately bring peace and stability to the people would be a good thing in and a positive step forward. I want to followup on the stuff that the secretary said about niger. Acting secretary nolan was there. That meeting went rather poorly. And im looking at headlines saying west african chiefs will meet in ghana and prepare for a possible military intervention. So can you talk a little bit about or explain what kind of avenue is less that the u. S. Is pursuing right now . We continue to work with the African Union, with other partners around the world as well as regional partners to get this situation back on track and to maintain nigers hard earned democracy. They had the opportunity to speak with the president and other than this department have had the opportunity to engage. We continue to want to see a diplomatic resolution to this. Thats something that we know that is shared by other regional partners. This is something that we continue to believe is an avenue. What about that window, the window of opportunity to try to reverse it . Is this like how open it is or are you guys we continue to believe that this window is open. But every day, every minute that the president and his family continue to be detained and every day that nigers hard earned fee is not respected, that window closes a little bit. Is there specifically on this meeting between west african army chief thats going to happen thursday and friday. Do you eyes . Any specific plans to engage with them and ecowas around . Afterwards . We are in constant touch with ecowas and we remain deeply engaged there the African Union and through our mission in there as well. Thank you. Go ahead. I understand given the nature of how the president was unseated, it makes it very difficult for the u. S. To have any sort of optimism but the u. S. Has very Significant Interest in niger so any change in the situation with the u. S. Be opened to some sort of constructive alliance with the leaders for lack of any Better Options . Vivian, we have been incredibly clear throughout the duration about the two outcomes that we would like to see. And that is first, we want to see and ensure that the president and his family are kept safe. And we want to see the hard earned democracy of niger respected. [indiscernible] vedant we are in regular conversation including through our counterterrorism dialoguing and other bilateral consultations. We have a shared interest with pakistan and remain ready to work with pakistan to combat militant and terrorist groups. And we want to ensure the safety and security of its citizens in a manner that promotes the rules of law. I dont have anything additional to offer. Our department of defense colleagues can speak to specific systems and actions. We are aware that the tna and the government have been dissolved and the announcement of senator has been named to the caretaker of Prime Minister and we look forward to working with him and his team as they prepare to hold elections. We will continue to partner with pakistan on areas of mutual interest. They will be transited back through later on in a few days. Theres been the response from chinese apartment industry which parliament industry. Has the United States noticed a change in the way that china has been responding to these times of transit . Vedant so im not going to assess or analyze actions that the prc may or may not taken from up here. I touched a little bit on this yesterday that there is no reason for beijing to turn this transit that is consistent with longstanding u. S. Policy and practice into any kind of coercion or any kind of provocative activity. We do not intend to change the status quo. Such transit are consistent with our one china policy and that continues to be the case. Last question. Go ahead. Thank you, sir. Saudi arabia announced of its also doerr through the palestinian authority. Next, there is a minister saying they will not allow [indiscernible] releases through that normalization vedant so i would refer you to the kingdom and the Israeli Government for comment for own diplomatic action. We continue to support our full normalization with israel and continue to talk with regional partners including saudi arabia about how to make progress in that space. We continue to believe that regional integration benefits the National Security. It benefits National Security interest as well as the interest of our regional partners and the people of the United States. Thanks, everybody. Thanks, everyone. Wingspan is your unfiltered view of the government, including comcast. You think this is just a Community Center . No. Its way more than that. Comcast is partnering with 1,000 Community Centers to create wifi enabled lists to get the tools they need get ready for anything. 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