SECRETARY FLASHES: Good morning, everyone. Let me start by reiterating my shock and sadness at the assassination of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. As President Biden said yesterday, this is a tragedy for Japan, a tragedy for his family, loved ones and everyone who knew him, but also for the world, because Prime Minister Abe was a leader of transformation, a statesman, someone truly global.
I have to tell you that the news of his death was very deeply felt by the entire G20, by all the foreign ministers, and I know she felt it deeply at home, in Washington, too. Many of us have had the opportunity to work with former prime minister Abe during his very long tenure over the years. I myself had the opportunity to meet him in 2015, when I was deputy secretary. I still remember his hospitality, his kindness. And, of course, President Biden had several opportunities to work with him while he was vice president.
The alliance between Japan and the United States has been a cornerstone of our foreign policy for decades. And as I said yesterday, Prime Minister Abe has really taken this partnership to new heights. The friendship between the Japanese and American peoples is also unshakable. So we stand with the people of Japan, with the prime minister’s family, in the aftermath of a truly horrific act of violence. I also conveyed this directly to Foreign Minister Hayashi when he was here yesterday.
Here in Bali, the G20 countries have come together to address some of the most important challenges facing people around the world, including the far-reaching consequences of Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, in particular increasing food insecurity and rising energy prices. It is extremely important that the international community, and especially the world’s largest economies represented here at the G20, jointly tackle these issues in a coordinated manner, with urgent need, and this was largely the spirit of the meetings we held.
At yesterday’s session we heard that most countries condemn Russia’s aggression towards Ukraine, which includes, among others, attacking the entire agricultural infrastructure of Ukraine – fields, warehouses, roads, transport networks, silos, ports. Time and again we have heard calls from all over the world, represented in this room, for Russia to open the Black Sea to Ukrainian grain supplies.
There was a strong consensus and Russia was isolated, as has happened many times since the beginning of this war. In fact, Foreign Minister Lavrov left the meeting early, perhaps because the messages became so emphatically clear. As I said yesterday, the United States strongly supports the efforts of the United Nations in cooperation with Turkey to bring Ukrainian and Russian grain to world markets. We need this initiative to move forward, and Russia must fully cooperate with it.
We also hope that other countries will take part in it. About six weeks ago at the United Nations, the United States issued a call to action to tackle the food insecurity challenge. So far, 98 countries have signed the action plan we presented to meet both short-term humanitarian needs and build long-term resilience. To date, the United States alone has committed nearly $ 2.8 billion to emergency food aid for Africa, the Middle East, Latin America and the Caribbean.
And then, at the G7 summit just two weeks ago, President Biden announced another $ 2.76 billion to strengthen global food security. This included long-term investments to support agricultural production and resilience, and we expect acceleration in other leading economies.
We will continue to provide humanitarian aid to the Ukrainian people. Today I can announce that the United States will provide nearly $ 368 million in additional support, including food, safe drinking water, monetary aid, emergency medical care, shelter as well as coordination support between humanitarian organizations that are doing so much of this critical work. on the ground.
More than 11 million people in Ukraine, 11 million people, have fled their homes since the beginning of the aggression. This is more than a quarter of the total population of Ukraine. The needs are immense and will increase as the war progresses.
I commend the Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno and the Indonesian Government for setting an agenda for the G20 that covered this and many other topical, genuinely urgent issues. At its best, the G20 brings countries together to mobilize targeted, coordinated response to challenges that actually have a direct impact on people’s lives. We saw this in the G20 response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Now we must make the same commitment to deal with the global consequences of this terrible war in Ukraine, which was an attack not only on Ukraine but also the rules-based international order that for decades has helped protect peace and security around the world.
During my stay in Bali, I also had the opportunity to meet many of our allies and partners, including one-on-one meetings with the foreign ministers of Indonesia, Australia, South Africa, India, Argentina and Fiji; a tripartite meeting with the foreign ministers of Japan and the Republic of Korea; and a meeting of the Transatlantic Quad countries – Germany, France and Great Britain.
Earlier today, I met with state counselor Wang Yi of the People’s Republic of China for a little over five hours. Relations between the United States and China are of great importance to our countries, but also to the world. We are committed to managing this relationship, this competition in a responsible manner, as the world expects us to do in diplomacy.
State Councilor Wang and I discussed how we perceive the state of our bilateral relationship, and I had the opportunity to convey directly our approach to the People’s Republic of China, as outlined in a speech a few weeks ago. We talked about regional and global issues in which both our countries have a large share, including the Kremlin’s war with Ukraine and the North Korean nuclear program. We talked about where greater cooperation between our countries should be possible, e.g. on the climate crisis, food security, global health, drug prevention. These are global challenges that require major countries to participate in the international community.
And, of course, we addressed the areas of non-compliance and how to manage and mitigate risks. I conveyed the deep concern of the United States about Beijing’s increasingly provocative rhetoric and actions towards Taiwan and the vital importance of maintaining peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait, as well as our concerns about the repression of freedom in Hong Kong, forced labor, treatment of ethnic and religious minorities in Tibet, genocide in Xinjiang .
None of these topics is easy, but the United States is always trying to be a coherent voice on human rights and fundamental freedoms, not to oppose China or any other country, but to help promote peace, security and human dignity. As always, I have raised the cases of Americans being held in detention or otherwise prevented from leaving the country.
Despite the complexity of our relations, I can confidently say that our delegations found today’s discussions useful and constructive. Moving forward, the United States wants our channels of communication with Beijing to remain open. And as always, we are committed to defending and supporting the interests of the American people and American values in all our ties with Beijing.
Finally, I would just like to thank our hosts in Indonesia for the wonderful G20, for the leadership of Indonesia. I think you will see how it pays off and pays dividends in the coming weeks and months as we follow the G20 leaders’ meeting this fall.
And I will be happy to answer a few questions.
MR PRICE: Our first question, we’ll start with Iain Marlow from Bloomberg.
QUESTION: Thank you, Secretary. I just wonder: What did you communicate to state councilor Wang about the role China can play diplomatically in the context of the war in Ukraine and the resulting food and energy crisis, and what was his response?
And secondly, just wondering – Wang is currently on a much wider diplomatic tour of Southeast Asia than yours and talks about specific infrastructure projects in Southeast Asian countries, specific investments. I just wonder: what does that say about the state of US-China strategic rivalry in Southeast Asia? Thank you.
SECRETARY FLASHES: Thank you very much.
So, regarding Ukraine, as well as Russian aggression there and China’s role in it, I shared again with the state councilor that we are concerned about the PRC’s alliances with Russia. Now you hear from Beijing saying it is neutral. I would start by saying that it’s hard to be neutral when it comes to this aggression. There is a clear aggressor. There is a clear victim. There is a clear challenge not only to the livelihoods and livelihoods of the people of Ukraine, but there is a challenge to the international order that China and the United States, as permanent members of the Security Council, are to defend.
So I think it’s hard to be neutral in this. But even if you accept that as an assumption, I don’t think China is actually engaging in a way that suggests neutrality. She supported Russia at the UN; it still does. He strengthened Russian propaganda. On his return, even as Russia was amassing its forces, President Xi decided to announce a “borderless partnership” with President Putin. Fast forward to just a few weeks ago on June 13. In an interview with President Putin, President Xi made it clear that he upheld this decision.
After more than four months of this brutal invasion, the PRC continues to side with Russia. It echoes Russian propaganda around the world. It covers Russia in international organizations. I believe that, as I said, it is shirking responsibility as a P5 member and is even engaging in joint military exercises. We saw this recently on a strategic bomber patrol in East Asia.
So I tried to convey to the state councilor that this is really the moment we all need to get up as we heard country by country in the G20 to condemn aggression, to demand that Russia allow access to food among other things that stuck in Ukraine because of her blockades and of course that ends the war. So that was the nature of our conversation and I will not characterize his answer.
Regarding the Indo-Pacific more broadly, look, we are not talking about asking countries to choose, but giving them a choice when it comes to investment and infrastructure, development aid, etc. On one level there is enough room for everyone because the needs are huge especially when it comes to infrastructure, for example. But we want to make sure we are in a race to the top – that is, we are doing things to the highest standards – and not a race to the bottom where we are doing things to the lowest standards.
Thus, the work we do in the Indo-Pacific region, including the development of the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework, including the Global Partnership for Investment Infrastructure that would also apply to this region, is to ensure that we invest, work that we do. we do with countries in the region, follow the highest standards. For example, we make sure that we do not burden countries with debt when we make investments in infrastructure; that we are developing the protection of employees and the environment; that we do not promote corruption; that people from the countries in question actually benefit from working on the projects in question; which we build in accordance with the highest standards.
Hopefully if China continues to commit to all of these efforts, the race to the top, they will pick up their game. This would actually benefit everyone.
MR PRICE: We will turn to Laksana Agung.
QUESTION: Thank you Mr. Secretary. I have two questions. The first question related to this day (inaudible) and going further. Will the new Cold War be the order of the world? If so, please give me details, including impact on global economic policy and so on. But if not, what new world order did the US government design after the Russo-Ukrainian war, and when will US-Chinese competition dominate international politics in the next decade?
And the second question: Where are you putting Indonesia in this regard and how will the United States work with the Indonesian government and improve cooperation between the two countries? Thank you.
SECRETARY FLASHES: Thank you. Let me start with the second track first.
Indonesia is an important partner of the United States. This is my second trip to Indonesia in this job. I think you see the key role Indonesia is playing in steering the G20 at an absolutely critical juncture for countries around the world. And what we have seen over the last day and what I know we will see in the coming months as we approach the G20 leaders’ meeting is the Indonesian leadership setting a very strong and urgent agenda for the world’s leading economies and, as we saw yesterday with the minister of affairs a foreign country that really has the conversation between all of us and tries to achieve concrete results. I think this is just evidence of the crucial role Indonesia is playing in general, and that we are seeing it play an increasingly important role, and that is something the United States treasured. The same applies to our bilateral relations – which we discussed with the foreign minister yesterday.
As for the world order, I think what so many countries emphasized yesterday is that what we saw with Russia’s aggression against Ukraine was not only aggression against the Ukrainian people, but aggression against the fundamental principles of the world order. . Russia is waging a war that challenges this order, as well as the sovereignty and independence of Ukraine. It fails in both. The sovereignty and independence of Ukraine are clear, and we will have a sovereign and independent Ukraine on the scene for much longer than President Putin. But in the meantime, death and destruction are terrible.
But it is also a challenge to order. And if we allowed it to go unpunished, if we did not oppose Russian aggression, then the order we would have is a world where power may be right and where large countries can intimidate smaller ones. It is not in anyone’s interest. This is a recipe for conflicts around the world. This is a recipe for instability. It’s a recipe for things we’ve seen in the past in history that we thought we had gone beyond that. That is why it is so important that states resist this aggression, that they insist that the aggression is over, and that we jointly adhere to the basic principles that underpin order.
Now, the last thing I will say – this is it. The United States is a strong advocate of this order, of those fundamental principles enshrined in the United Nations Charter, in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and in so many international laws that upheld both of these foundational documents. But we also believe that order must not only be defended but also reformed. It must take into account what the world is like today, not just as it was 70 or 80 years ago, when these basic components of the order were put into practice. It was also part of the discussion we had under the leadership of Indonesia on multilateralism, the future of multilateralism.
And one thing we do know is that none of the problems we talked about in the last day that actually affect people’s lives can be effectively solved by any of our countries acting alone, whether or not it is the United States. United States, be it Indonesia or any other country. In my career, countries have to find ways to collaborate, collaborate and collaborate. And that was the spirit of the G20 and we are very grateful for Indonesia’s leadership.
QUESTION: Excellency, Mr. Secretary, thank you very much for this privilege. My name is Rahmat Idris from Indonesia Television, TVRI World. Yesterday, foreign ministers met here in Bali that it will become an effective platform for all these leaders to unite, that they will meet to find common ground and really find solutions to the global crisis where food and energy – food and energy security as you mentioned, especially for the nations that have been severely hit by these crises, exacerbated by ongoing geopolitical tensions as well as the war in Europe. And what were some of the more significant outcomes of the meeting that could really inspire change, be it through stronger US involvement in the G20 or through the US Indo-Pacific strategy framework?
SECRETARY FLASHING: Thank you very much. Let me go back to where I left off. It just starts with this basic premise, and indeed the Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi started with that in our opening session. It is a fundamental belief that none of the challenges facing the world, be it food insecurity, be it rising energy prices, be it a climate crisis or global health, none of them can be solved by any of our countries acting alone. . We have to find ways to meet and work together.
The G20 is one of the most important vehicles for this purpose as it represents the world’s leading economies that have the resources and means to truly change these challenges. And I think what you saw was about 80 percent of global GDP – it was represented in this room yesterday. When we are able to concentrate our efforts together, we can make a real impact.
Take a look at what we’ve done, including the G20, COVID-19 only for the last year and a half. Thanks to the work of the G20 countries, we were able to increase the production and access to vaccines. We’ve managed to make sure countries have a larger financial cushion, including debt relief, to deal with some of the effects of COVID-19. We recently launched, but with other G20 nations, engaged a global plan of action to make sure that even when we have vaccines, the shots actually hit the arms. These are all concrete results of the work that the G20 countries are doing.
For the last day, we focused on two things. One of them is, as we have just discussed, an attempt to revive multilateralism. And that’s the way of doing things; it is not an end in itself. But I think what was very, very tangible in this room, in many different geographic locations represented, was the strong commitment to do just that. And I think you can see how this plays out in the weeks and months ahead.
Second, there was a strong emphasis on food security. Here are two things. First, if you were the Foreign Minister Lavrov sitting in this room, you not only heard a chorus of condemnation about Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, but you heard country after country insisting that Russia release grain from Ukraine to world markets. The only thing holding her back is the Russian blockade of the Black Sea and Odessa ports. So we’ll see if Russia has understood the message. We will see from its actions in the days and weeks to come whether it is actually cooperating with the efforts that the United Nations is working with Turkey to find a good mechanism to get the grain out.
Now look, the easiest way for this to happen is for Russia to end its aggression, end the war, or at least get out of the way when it comes to Odessa. But without it, this UN mechanism with Turkey would be a good step forward. We strongly support this. Russia must cooperate.
More broadly, a number of initiatives have been taken over the past few weeks to try to deal with the immediate crisis of food insecurity as well as the long-term challenge of building greater resilience. One of these initiatives was something that we did, the United States did at the United Nations about six weeks ago, where we launched a call to action to countries around the world and presented a real roadmap with seven steps that countries can commit to. doing so would address the urgent problem and also try to build greater long-term production and self-sufficiency.
As I said, nearly a hundred countries have signed up to it now. One of the things we talked about yesterday was this initiative, as well as several other initiatives, all of which concerned the G20 countries. Now that these commitments are made, they must actually be made, progress must be made, for example in ensuring that the World Food Program, the Food and Agriculture Organization have the funds needed to make sure that fertilizer is produced and distributed – this is essential. to work with international financial institutions to try to mitigate the financial blow countries are feeling as a result of food insecurity, to help them get food, to make necessary investments in long-term production and self-sufficiency, to share information more effectively with each other to look at various shortages and where we can direct our efforts and resources.
So I think that leaving the G20, and also going to the G20 leaders’ meeting this fall, will be a real action to implement the agenda we presented there on food security. Thank you.
MR PRICE: Okay, one last question from ABC’s Shannon Crawford.
QUESTION: Thank you very much. Mr. Secretary, most of the G20 can be included in the net against Russian aggression, but we have heard from practically every participant here that they want peace negotiated in Ukraine. And while the US is sending weapons to the battlefield, even President Zelensky says it will all end at the negotiating table. But throughout the war you did not meet – you refused to meet – with your Russian counterpart. Is it incompatible with the international community? And by allowing our relationship to deteriorate further, won’t we just pay for the loss of life as the fighting continues, but also for Americans like Paul Whelan and Brittney Griner who are being wrongly held in Russia?
SECRETARY FLASHES: Thank you. Let me start with this: As for the G20 itself and what we came here for, I think we had two goals this week. One was to ensure, as we have just discussed, that the world’s major economies focus on their most pressing issues, in line with the agenda set by the Indonesian Presidency. And that is exactly what we have done, especially with regard to food insecurity.
At the same time, we were determined not to do the usual, given the Russian aggression against Ukraine, and I think it is safe to say that both goals have been achieved. Yesterday’s discussion highlighted some of the most pressing challenges we face that we talked about, and I think it was very important that, since Foreign Minister Lavrov was there, he heard loud and clear from all over the world – not only the G7 countries – but many others, a condemnation of Russian aggression and a clear call for an end to aggression so that food can get out of Ukraine onto the world market.
So I think it was very important. The fact that the Minister of Foreign Affairs Lavrov did not even decide to attend the session on food insecurity, because it seems to me that he was listening to virtually the entire G20 group all morning about Russian aggression and the need to end the blockade of Odessa, I think in and of itself significant.
At some point, this war will end and it will end thanks to diplomacy. The United States will be – always ready to find a way through diplomacy to end conflict and bring peace, and this is the case with this aggression against Ukraine. The problem is that we see no signs that Russia is now ready to engage in meaningful diplomacy. A number of other countries that work closely with us have established cooperation with Russia in recent months. They report the same thing: there is no indication that Russia is ready to engage in meaningful diplomacy.
Meanwhile, I think our goal is clear, and you heard the president talk about it at the G7, at the NATO summit, to make sure we continue our support for Ukraine in terms of security aid, humanitarian aid, economic aid. This is to make sure that we maintain pressure on Russia to encourage genuine involvement in meaningful diplomacy. And both of these things will give Ukraine the strongest possible hand to play when the negotiating table finally emerges. So that’s where we are. We are right there.
But if we see any signs that Russia is indeed ready to engage in real diplomacy and end this war, we will of course engage in it, just as we spent the months before the Russian aggression working on what Russia said it was concerned about for Ukraine, alleged fears that NATO and / or Ukraine somehow posed a threat to Russia. We contacted the Russians directly. I spent many weeks on this, including with the Minister of Foreign Affairs Lavrov. We had the NATO-Russia trial. We had the OSCE.
It was becoming increasingly clear that it was never about the security concerns Russia had argued, whether from NATO or Ukraine. It has always been about what President Putin now admits, and most of all about his conviction that Ukraine is not a sovereign, independent country, that it should be subordinated to Russia. He spoke about it in St. Petersburg just a few weeks ago. That’s what it was always about. This is what it remains about. And as long as Russia does not change this perspective, this belief and wants to end aggression and engage in diplomacy, it will continue, and we will continue to support Ukraine and maintain pressure. If there is a chance for diplomacy, we will use it.
MRS. PRICE: Thank you very much, Mr. Secretary.
SECRETARY FLASHES: Thank you. Thank you all.
