sanctions are one of the most effective diplomatic tools in our arsenal, one we rely on to avoid putting american lives at risk by engaging in traditional kinetic warfare. now, today, in response to a previous question by senator cardin, you said sanctions are a powerful tool. but you have made statements and given speeches where you have said you do not believe sanctions are a useful tool. so if sanctions are not a useful tool, have you changed your view? what are the tools of peaceful diplomacy you will use to get countries to return or act within the international order? what will you say to vladimir putin when he says, but rex, you said sanctions are bad? senator, it s important to acknowledge that when sanctions are imposed they by their design are going to harm american business. that s the idea, is to disrupt america s business engagement in whatever country is being
facts where they lead us, and hold ourselves and others accountable. i thank you for your time and look forward to your questions. thank you very much for your testimony. do you commit to appear and testify upon request from this committee? yes, sir. with that, i m going to i know the committee members and i rarely give opening statements, certainly not expansive ones like i gave. in order to move this along i ll reserve my time for interjections and move to the ranking member, senator cardin, and then we ll move to senator rubio. once again, mr. tillerson, thank you very much. do you agree with me that creating stable democratic free societies around the world that support the aspirations of their people including basic human rights is in our long term national security interests? without question, senator. and do you also agree that russia under mr. putin s leadership fails in that category? yes, sir.
terms of the principles that are going to guide them, yes, sir. individually thought that russia would be at the very top of that considering all the actions that have taken place. did that not happen? that has not occurred yet, senator. that s pretty amazing. you built a career at exxonmobil that you said afforded you the opportunity to engage regularly with world leaders including vladimir putin in russia. in 2013, he awarded you with the order of friendship award. in our conversations you told me you had direct and personal access to the russian president over the course of your tenure there. then in 2014, exxonmobil lobbied aggressively against sanctions on russia after their invasion of ukraine. exxon lobbied against stability and democracy for ukraine act which i introduced in the senate last year. you employed well-known washington-based lobbyists to support these efforts. you personally visited the white house and reported that you were engaged, quote, at the highest leve
what has been a rapidly emerging threat. as i said, we re seeing it manifest itself in ways we never envisioned. we have to have a cyber security plan. that is separate from the question of whether people who already have conducted attacks should be sanctioned and singled out. there is an executive order that sanctions those individuals. my question is do you believe that executive order should be repealed by the incoming president. if confirmed, senator, i would want to examine it, all aspects of it, not only with the president but other agencies that will have update input on their views. again, mr. tillerson, if all the order says is that certain individuals will be sanctioned, you still need to examine it to see if that is a good idea or not? is that correct? yes, sir. is vladimir putin a war
partners, particularly in the baltics and poland, are very concerned about russian aggression. nato has deployed troops in this region in order to show russia that article 5 means something. i take it you support that type of action? yes, i do. that is the type of response that russia expects. if russia acts with force, taking the crimea was an act of force, they didn t just volunteer themselves. so they require a proportional act, proportional show of force to indicate to russia that there will be no more taking of territory. that s encouraged to me to hear you say that because it s not exactly consistent with what mr. trump has been saying in regards to article 5 commitments under nato by the united states. so i appreciate your commitment or your views on that issue. so let me get to the response that was done. we imposed u.s.-led sanctions