right. i mean, so, first of all, i agree with garry that putin did achieve one objective in having this phone call, which is having the phone call, showing his relevance, showing, you know, russia s a power, coequal power with the united states, hinting at the possibility of having spheres of influence in deciding ukraine s fate without ukraine there, so that is a victory for putin. but in addition to that, i think putin was looking for some intelligence. he was probably looking to test president biden s resolve, and it sounds like what he got back as an answer was that president biden is very resolved and working closely with our european allies to make sure that, number one, we protect we help ukraine protect itself and in that piece that we that i coauthored with a large group spearheaded by the atlantic council, we were beautiful arguing that right now, we should not wait, that the administration should continue its arming of ukraine right now, that the administration should
now the united states is respected. countries may not like what we do, but they respect what we do. they know that if we say we re going to do something, we follow it through. and the president proved that. whether it was with the chemical weapons in syria, whether it s with nato, saying that other countries have to pay their share. and whether it s the trade deals, which have been amazing. they get that the president means business, and they follow through with that. but then if you look at just these two years at the u.n., we have cut $1.3 billion in the u.n. s budget. we made it stronger, more efficient. south sudan, we got an arms embargo, which was a long time coming. three north korean sanctions packages, which were the largest in a generation, done in a way that we could really work towards denuclearizing north korea. the iran deal, bringing attention to the world that every country needs to understand you can t overlook all of the bad things they re doing. you have to see them
but i m most excited, look at the two years. look at what s happened in two years with the united states on foreign policy. now the united states is respected. countries may not like what we do, but they respect what we do. they know that if we say we re going to do something we follow it through, and the president proved that, whether it was with the chemical weapons in syria, whether it s with nato saying other countries have to pay their share. whether it s the trade deals which have been amazing, they get that the means business and they follow through with that. if you look at just these two years at the u.n., we ve cut 1.3 billion in the u.n. s budget. we ve made it stronger. we ve made it more efficient. south sudan, we got an arms embargo which was a long time coming. three north korean sanctions packages which were the largest in a generation done in a way that we could really work towards denuclearizing north korea. the iran deal, bringing attention to the world that every
didn t. yeah. they did the sanctions packages on russia, iran and north korea, which was veto proof. some of his rhetoric, no question, has been conciliatory, if not down right friendly to vladimir putin. i agree with that. people are confused. and there was a mop-up action after helsinki. no question. and this declaration on crimea is a piece of that because it is absurd that we would permit the russian annexation of crimea just because president trump says so. at any rate, people are confused. i mean that s why you see the poll numbers tanking in terms of his approval. for sure, republican members of congress are very worried about the midterms, which are coming around the corner and the fact that a lot of the old guard is being rejected, including on the republican side, see the
president trump. but it will take full enforcement of sanctions for us to get there. it will also take chairman kim following through on his personal commitment that he made to president trump in singapore. the path ahead is not easy. it will take time, but our hopes for a safer world for all of us in a brighter future for north korea remains our objective and that endures. thank you. thank you so much, i m very grateful for my friend for coming out a meeting with the security council today. this is what we know. 18 months ago when i came in, our biggest concern is north korea. everyone was wondering when that new test was going to happen, everyone was wondering when the new threat would occur in the entire international community knew something had to happen. it was a herculean task by the security council to pass three massive sanctions packages. getting rid of all exports, 90%