The deepest condolences of the United States to President Union on the passing of his father. He was by all accounts a remarkable scholar and among other things a strong proponent of relations between the r. O. K. And japan. This comes at a moment when our region would be tested by climate crisis, russians war of aggression against ukraine. Our heightened engagement is part of our broader efforts to revitalize, strengthen and bring together our alliances and partnerships. What we mean by that is a region where countries are free to chart their own path, defined their own partners, where rules are reached transparently and where goods, ideas and people can flow freely. Japan and south korea are allies, not just in the region but around the world. Strangely, our trilateral cooperation is critical to delivering for our people, for the region and for the world. It is a force multiplier for good. It furthers our commitment to the korean peninsula. It advances our shared values and helps the principles of the u. N. Charter. It allows us to expand opportunities for prosperity. That is by President Bidens house this historic meeting. The first candle and summit ever between our three countries. We will have an opportunity to discuss and strengthen practical cooperation on a variety shared. 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 this growing partnership will continue for the prosperity of all. Let me also say a word about ukraine. Next week, we will mark 1. 5 years since russias fullscale invasion. 1. 5 years of weaponizing food and fuel, killing and wounding thousands of ukrainians, even abducting ukrainian children. 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 ord clicks a group of academics discusses president Donald Trumps 2024 campaign. In a conversation hosted by american university. It will highlight how is participation or absence in next weeks Republican Debate might affect the president ial race. And what a potential rematch against President Biden to look like. At noon, a discussion on ways to address violence such as that january 6 attack on the u. S. Capitol. These are just from the Rand Corporation who interviewed former extremists and their family members will present their findings. And david gergen talks about the state of the nation. Healthy democracy does not just look like this. It looks like this