Ceiling talks. This is just over an hour. Karine jeanpierre all right, good afternoon, everyone. Q good afternoon Karine Jeanpierre oh, so nice. Okay. So, a short while ago, as many of you saw for yourselves, President Biden convened cabinet members and agency heads from across his administration for a briefing on the 2023 atlantic hurricane season, a meeting he has convened each year since taking office. The president was also updated on the ongoing wildfires across the nation and federal efforts to reduce wildfire risk in the United States. During the meeting, the president and his team discussed ongoing preparations for these extreme weather events, response plans for when they occur, and resources in place to help communities recover. The president thanked the brave First Responders who work around the clock and put their lives on the line to keep our communities safe, and highlighted how the historic investments that are being made through his invest investing in america agenda will make our communities stronger and more resilient. With that, my colleague, admiral kirby, is here to talk about our ukrai the support that we are we continue to give to ukraine and any other Foreign Policy questions that you all may have. Kirby. John kirby afternoon, everybody. Q afternoon. John kirby laughs. im just not ever going to get used to that. Q they dont say good afternoon to you at the pentagon . John kirby no, its not quite as enthusiastic. laughter. maybe thats just because of me, not because of them. I think this week, as you all have seen, russia has continued to wage just a brutal, completely unprovoked war against ukraine, launching yet more airstrikes and bombarding am ukrainian citiz cities all across the country. In fact, in just this this here month of may, russia has launched 17 Different Air assaults against kyiv, harming civilians, devastating civilian areas, hitting civilian infrastructure. In response, the United States is going to continue to support ukraine, help give them things they need to better defend themselves. And as part of all that effort, weve got an upcoming package here, which will be the 39th drawdown of equipment from the department of defense inventories using president ial drawdown authorities. We will use that package that were announcing today to provide ukraine with additional munitions for Patriot Air Defense systems, which ukraine has been deploying quite effectively, as well as more avenger air defense systems, stinger antiaircraft systems, and ammunition, of course, for the himars, artillery, and antiarmor systems that the United States continues to provide to ukraine. I think as you all saw on full display in hiroshima, at the g7, our allies and partners stand firmly behind us in this effort. And we can continue that su we can continue to expect to see that that support will continue going forward. Thats it. Karine jeanpierre all right. Okay, go ahead, kristen. Q thank you so much. Can you give us your reaction to the chinese fighter jet that conducted what the pentagon described as a, quote, unnecessarily aggressive maneuver over the South China Sea . What are the implications . What are the potential ramifications . And what could the fallout be for the u. S. Chinese relationship . John kirby well, it was unsafe, and it was unprofessional. You heard the pentagon speak to that. And you all saw the video for yourselves. You can see that they forced that rc135 to go through the jet wash of the chinese fighter, which just tells you how close it was several hundred feet. Thats dangerous. And, you know, one of the reasons we want to keep the lines of communication open in fact, one of the reasons why we want to make sure we can get that militarytomilitary military channel back open is so that, you know, we have a way to talk to the to the chinese about incidents, like this one, that could lead to miscalculation and misunderstanding and maybe getting somebody hurt. Q what is the status of trying to reopen those talks, particularly in the wake of, you know, dustup of defense inaudible . John kirby well, right now, unfortunately, the militarytomilitary vehicle is just not open to us. Its one of the reasons why secretary blinken is so eager to get back over to beijing. We want to get back to that spirit of bali. We want to there are lines of communication open, and certainly we have used the diplomatic channel to convey our concerns over this particular intercept, but thats not the same as having miltomil comms and having that available to you, especially when tensions are so high and the risk of miscalculations are also high. Q if i could just ask one on ukraine. There were obviously the drone strikes in moscow. Ukraine has denied that theyre responsible for that. John kirby yeah. Q what is the latest u. S. Assessment . And could this be a sign that ukraines spring counteroffensive has begun . John kirby well, weve seen the ukrainian denial that they had anything to do youre talking about the drone strike on the Apartment Building in moscow . Q moscow, yeah. John kirby so wed refer you to the Ukrainian Government to speak to that. We dont have any specific information that tells us who was responsible, and its not like were going to go out and investigate this. You know, its not that wouldnt be appropriate for us to do. And then, to your second question on the counteroffensive again, i we would let president zelenskyy speak to this. Wherever, whenever the Ukrainian Military is ready to step off here and get started, thats really going to be up to them to talk about and to and to explain. I would just tell you that over just the last few weeks alone, there has been a lot of fighting and a lot of back and forth here. And i think i need to leave it at that. Thank you i just wanted to follow up on china, beyond this incident, my question is will the with that investigation what can we expect with that investigation, will it be made public and then i have a followup. John kirby so just to be clear, theres not an investigation going on. There was forensic analysis done on the material that we recovered from the payload of the spy balloon. That was done by the fbi in quantico, largely. And i dont know the status. I dont know whether theyre complete or or or they still have things theyre theyre sort of looking at. But i wouldnt expect and ive said this before that, you know, were going to lay all that out for the public. This was a espionage piece of equipment, and we want to get a better handle on it, understand it for our own National Security purposes. So i would not expect that we would, you know, lay some sort of public summary of everything weve learned. This was a capability a surveillance capability that we we certainly knew and were tracking that the chinese were trying to develop and to improve. And we we exploited it when it was in the air, and we exploited the material that we recovered. Q okay. And on north korea, in the context of the Spy Satellite that they just launched, can you give us an update on where we are in terms of the u. S. South Korea NuclearConsultative Group that President Biden and president yoon agreed on under the washington declaration . Is that all set up . Is it operational . And did the Spy Satellite incident kick off any elements of that . John kirby the answer to your second question, as far as i know no, that the spy balloon didnt have an effect on us youre talking about the washington declaration and the Consultative Group q yeah. John kirby with south korea. I dont believe that the spy balloon had anything to do with that. Ill go back if im q Spy Satellite, sorry. John kirby oh, im sorry. Q the Spy Satellite that north korea just launched. John kirby that north korea launched. Q yes. John kirby so, i think my answer still would be would be no. I mean, this was put in place before they decided to try this launch over the weekend. That said, the declaration and the Consultative Group was certainly established as a result of the continued provocations by the dprk over so many, many months here, if not years. And its a way to help improve our ability to be responsive to whatever threats there might be. Now, as for the status of the group, im going to take the question for you. I dont know exactly, like, where they are in the process. I mean, it was announced when president yoon was here, and the teams are have been working on it. Where they are in the timeline, i just dont know. Q and just really quickly, on the diplomatic side of it, i mean, we know that theres this whole extended deterrence push for both south korea and then also japan. And on the diplomatic side of it, youve mentioned and other officials have mentioned that the invitation is open for north korea any time, but has there been any kind of specific push on the diplomatic side to entice them to come back to the negotiation table . John kirby we have been clear and consistent since the beginning of this administration that were willing to sit down with the dprk without preconditions to talk about the denuclearization of the peninsula. Were we make that case all the time. I dont have, like, the last conversation to read out to you, but its its been a consistent message that we have delivered in various ways to the dprk. And to date, theyve yet to take us up on that. Karine jeanpierre go ahead, trevor. Q thank you, john. So, just following up on some of the president s remarks regarding turkey, he said that there would there would be another call or another engagement with erdo . An within in the next next week. Can you do you have any finer detail on when exactly that call is going to happen . And is it fair to say that the main agenda item on that call is a deal where the u. S. Will provide f16s in exchange for turkey agreeing to let sweden into nato . John kirby i dont have an update for you on when that conversation will occur. Certainly, as we get closer to another conversation with president erdogan well keep you informed. And the president has been long supportive of providing f16s to turkey and to helping their air force modernization. Thats something that that hes talked to many, many times. That has not changed, and that is not linked to whether or not turkey accedes to swedens membership in the nato alliance. We also want to see sweden as a nato ally. Very capable military. Were used to operating with them. Theyll lend terrific capabilities to the alliance. We want to see that happen, and the president expressed those concerns as well when he talked to president erdogan over the weekend, congratulating him on his win. But to suggest that theres some sort of linkage there would be would be erroneous. Can you clarify again what is that on the general matter and does ukraine, a country that has been under attack for more than a year not have legitimate rights to protect itself . We dont tell them where to strike, we dont tell them were not to strike. We dont tell them how to conduct their operations. We give them equipment, we give them training, we give them advice and counsel. We even do tabletop exercises with them to help them plan out what they are going to do. But ultimately president zelenskyy and his military commanders to do from a military perspective and decide what they are going to do with equipment that has been provided to them and that they now own. With that said we have been very clear with the ukrainians, privately we have certainly been clear publicly. We do not support attacks inside russia. And we do not enable and we do not encourage attacks inside russia. And we certainly dont want to see attacks inside russia that are being propagated, that are being conducted using u. S. Supplied equipment. Do you have implied assurance from zelenskyy not to use the weapons we are providing in russian territory, are you confident . Yes we have gotten that assurance at various levels not just from president zelenskyy but other senior military and defense leaders in ukraine. Thank you john. Elon musk are among several u. S. Executives who recently traveled to china and met with highlevel officials there. Is the administration going to reach out to them given your difficulty in communicating with officials there and also is there any hope with this business level engagement with chinese officials that it might help thaw the u. S. Chinese relations . I dont know of any plans to reach out overtly to these business leaders. Specifically about their trip. Certainly if they choose to share some insight and perspective we would be willing to hear what they learned but it would be up to them to decide whether they want to do that. We are helping represent and facilitate these conversations. We want to see them act accordingly. 2020, accused them of a assault. Does the white house have any reaction to that announcement given the accusations that she has made . Thats really up for her to speak to. Does the white house believe her allegations might have been motivated by her allegiance to our affinity for russia . Difficult to say. I cant get inside her head and speak for her motivations and intentions. The one thing i will say this allegations that her life was at risk by the United States government, absolutely false, baseless. Theres is absolutely nothing to that. European leaders in the ukraine about the potential for a ukraine piece summit. Is that something that President Biden . Weve been talking with ukraine for many months now. We are helping to actualize that, operationalize that. We support moves toward peace, but in order for any proposal no matter who its nominated fop nominated by or put forward by, weve got to have the support of president zelenskyy. What we are focused on is working with our ukrainian counterparts and we will see where that goes. The president has son desha said where and when or even if the russians can be brought to the table, thats got to be president zelenskyys decision. Thats not something the United States is going to litigate on him. He has to be ready to sit down and talk. And the conditions at amenable to him and then you can move forward to whether the russians can be a part of it. Mr. Putin has shown absolutely zero inclination. Eventually, theres going to be negotiated peace, of course. But president zelenskyy gets to determine that. Ukraine has shown no inclination at all. 17 strikes alone let alone other places in the country. This is not the act of a nation that has any serious design on diplomacy right now. Could you give us an update on efforts of the United States making and any other prisoners, u. S. Prisoners in iran. That have been, the potential subject of, potential prisoner swaps or those efforts coming to fruition or advancing in ways that make you all optimistic . All i can tell you is we are working on all of these cases. Thats an unsatisfying answer to you, but i hope you can understand why we would not publicly negotiate here and publicly disclose the conversations we are having here. You are right to say there are wrongfully detained americans and we are working on that. Each and every case is important. Each and everyone is a priority and were doing everything we can. Each case is different and need to be handled differently. What we put for is going put forward is what to be different in terms of its palatability so we are working them all. Are you optimistic on any of those cases . I will say we are working each one very very hard. I dont know i could stand here i dont know that i could stand here and give you terms of optimism. What i am confident about, what we are confident about is we are putting a good faith effort into each and every case because each and every one is important. Quick question about kosovo. Theres been quite a few tensions there over the last few days and the Prime Minister said the u. S. Response is an overreaction. I wonder if you could react to that and secondly, whether the u. S. Feels below voter turnout suggests this may not have been a legitimate election. All parties should take immediate actions to deescalate tensions. We strongly condemn yesterdays attacks against troops and these attacks which injured numerous peacekeepers, absolutely unacceptable. The governor of kosovo should make sure that elected mayors carry out duties outside municipal buildings and withdraw , urge kosovo and refrain from further violence. We want to see this deescalate it and we want to see the violence stopped. Its difficult in any way to look at, think of that as hyperbolic in any way. I just want to, do you mean whenever because they are running out of . I was talking in general about all of their operations. Weve been dictating to them since the beginning of this war where they are going to operate and how they are going to do it. Weve been helping them. Weve been giving them advice. Whether they are defensive or offensive in nature president zelenskyy is the commander in chief. He gets to decide how his troops are going where they are going to fight, whether they are going to go on the offense. Any offense of operation done by any military, the timing is crucially important and thats also one of the things you want to protect as much as you can, your sense of timing so yes, its absolutely up to him. Think its pretty clear that were doing that. Number two is to support our nato allies and we have increased our footprint on the european continent alone and kept them there to make sure we are meeting our commitments and the third one is to avoid world war iii. I think we can all understand that a war that has already escalated way beyond the level of violence. There was no violence justified against ukraine. We can all agree that a war that escalates the on that, the text that is not only not good for our National Security interest, its not good for the graining people. Its not good for the people across europe. Its certainly not good for the russian people. As part of the senses we fed that is part of the thinking since the beginning. We have had that as part of the thinking since the beginning. Additional funding from congress. How does the debt ceiling processed the struggle weve seen vote for additional funding . Weve been doing