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New York City, New York

The Palace Hotel

September 27, 2024

Secretary Blinken:Good afternoon everyone.

The events of the past week – and especially the past few hours – have highlighted the perilous moment the Middle East and the world currently finds itself in.

Israel has the right to fight terrorism and defend itself, but how it does so is also important.

The choices made by all parties in the coming days will determine the path the region takes – with profound consequences for its people now and likely into the future.

One path is diplomacy.

A ceasefire on the Israeli-Lebanese border allows people from both countries to safely return to their homes and live in a secure environment.

A ceasefire in Gaza and the return of hostages to their homes would significantly increase the likelihood of delivering relief to people in urgent need of humanitarian assistance and ensure longer-lasting security in Gaza and the region.

The other path leads to conflict—more conflict, more violence, more suffering, and greater instability and insecurity—with repercussions that will ripple across the globe.

The United States has made clear—along with the G7, the European Union, partners in the Gulf, and many others—that we believe the way forward is through diplomacy, not conflict.

The diplomatic path may be difficult to see at this moment, but it exists and we believe it is necessary. We will continue to work closely with all parties to urge them to choose this path.

I also want to make clear that anyone who uses this moment to attack American personnel or American interests in the region – the United States will take all measures to protect our people.

Let me also talk about Ukraine.

This week, we took important steps to support the Ukrainian people as they continue to resist Russia’s continued aggression and continue to defend their sovereignty and independence, as well as their right to write their own future.

At a Security Council meeting on Tuesday, the vast majority of countries condemned Russia’s brutal war of conquest and called for a just and lasting peace in accordance with the United Nations Charter.

Key to this is putting pressure on Iran, North Korea and China – which is a permanent member of the Security Council – to stop providing weapons, artillery, machinery and other support that Putin is using to destroy Ukraine’s homes, energy networks and port.

As we saw this week, support for Ukraine is not just lip service, it’s real.

Dozens of countries have come together to pledge to help Ukraine rebuild.

The G7 and other partners have made additional pledges to bolster their energy infrastructure in the face of Russia’s continued attacks – sending more equipment such as turbines, portable generators that will be essential to keeping the lights on and keeping Ukrainians warm, And heating homes, classrooms and factories is critical as Russia seeks to weaponize weather as winter approaches.

President Biden and I met with President Zelensky on Wednesday to discuss a path forward for Ukraine to win this war, and they continued that discussion in Washington on Thursday, yesterday.

To help Ukraine’s brave defenders and citizens, we announced a plan to dramatically increase support: $8 billion in new security assistance, including long-range munitions, an additional Patriot air defense system, and more Ukrainian F-16 pilots provide training.

Beginning last Saturday at the Quad Leaders Summit in Wilmington and continuing this week, we have also advanced our vision for a free, open, secure, and prosperous Indo-Pacific.

President Biden met with Vietnamese General Secretary To Lam to deepen the comprehensive strategic partnership between the two countries.

We are strengthening cooperation in various areas, from building resilient semiconductor supply chains to addressing environmental challenges in the Mekong River.

We will continue these conversations at the ASEAN Summit in Laos in two weeks.

Together with relevant officials in Japan and South Korea, I have taken steps to institutionalize our trilateral cooperation – building on the historic Camp David Summit and reaffirming our shared commitment to establishing a trilateral secretariat to advance this work.

I just had a candid and substantive talk with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi.

We discussed steps to implement the commitments our leaders made last year in Woodside—such as working to stem the flow of synthetic narcotics and precursor chemicals into the United States, improving communication among our military services, and discussing the risks of artificial intelligence.

I emphasized the importance of maintaining peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait and expressed concern about the People’s Republic of China’s dangerous and destabilizing behavior in the South China Sea.

I also highlighted our serious concerns about China’s support for Russia’s defense industrial base, which strengthens Russia’s war machine and perpetuates a war that China claims it wants to see end.

During the week, we also worked with our partners to address many other critical challenges facing the world.

We are committed to a ceasefire, unimpeded delivery of humanitarian assistance, and civil governance in Sudan.

We work to secure additional resources and support for the multinational security support mission in Haiti.

We coordinate measures to increase international pressure on the Maduro regime in Venezuela to end its widespread repression of the Venezuelan people and respect their will expressed through the ballot box and their votes.

These tests and more underscore the magnitude of the challenges facing the world, but also underscore the critical importance of diplomacy.

There is no room for retreat. In the days to come, and every day in this administration, we will continue to work tooth and nail to address these challenges and work to create a better world. Thank you all.

(Q&A section omitted)

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