ANTONY J. BLINKEN, SECRETARY OF STATE
QUESTION: How concerned should Americans be about the prospect of nuclear war?
SECRETARY BLINKEN: Scott, we’ve heard a lot of irresponsible rhetoric coming out of Vladmir Putin, but we’re focused on making sure we’re all acting responsibly, especially when it comes to this kind of loose rhetoric. We have been very clear with the Russians publicly as well as privately to stop the loose talk about nuclear weapons.
QUESTION: Privately, has the United States been in communication with the Kremlin about these threats of nuclear war?
SECRETARY BLINKEN: Yes, it is very important that Moscow hears from us and knows from us that the consequences will be horrible, and we have made that very clear.
QUESTION: You called the nuclear talk loose talk, but isn’t Vladimir Putin telling us what he’ll do if he’s backed into a corner any longer?
SECRETARY BLINKEN: Vladimir Putin has a clear path out of the war he started, and that is to end it. If Russia stops fighting, the war will end. If Ukraine stops fighting, Ukraine ends.
QUESTION: Is there anyone in the Kremlin who can tell Vladimir Putin, “No,” if he decides to launch a battlefield nuclear weapon?
SECRETARY BLINKEN: They have a chain of command – whether it works or not, to see them – but I think what you’re pointing to is a bigger challenge, and that’s the Achilles’ Heel of autocracies everywhere, there’s usually no one who has the ability or willingness to speak truth to power. And part of the reason I think Russia got itself into the thing it’s in is because there’s no one in the system to effectively tell Putin that he’s doing the wrong thing.
QUESTION: In our interview last week, President Biden told us he had a message for Vladimir Putin about the use of nuclear weapons.
President Joe Biden, last week: Don’t, Don’t, Don’t.
QUESTION: He went on to say that the US response will be “consequential.” What did he mean by that?
SECRETARY BLINKEN: I’m not going to go into what the consequences will be. Any use of nuclear weapons would have catastrophic effects for the country that uses them, of course, but for many others as well.
QUESTION: If you can’t give us details on a US response, can you tell us that the administration has a plan?
QUESTION: Is this a plan to prevent World War II?
SECRETARY BLINKEN: President Biden was determined that as we are doing everything we can to help the Ukrainians defend themselves, as we are doing everything we can to rally other countries to put pressure on Russia, we are also determined that this war does not expand, it does not widen.
QUESTION: As we were talking with Secretary Blinken, news broke that a UN investigative commission found evidence of rape and torture of children in Russian-occupied Ukraine.
The panel continues to say, “Based on the evidence gathered by the Commission, it concluded that war crimes were committed in Ukraine.” What does justice look like for Ukraine?
SECRETARY BLINKEN: Justice looks like responsibility – responsibility for those who committed these war crimes, these atrocities, as well as those who ordered them. And it’s one of the reasons, Scott, why we’re doing everything we can to support those who are trying to gather evidence and investigate and, ultimately, prosecute those responsible.
QUESTION: In order to prosecute – do you believe there should be war crimes trials?
SECRETARY BLINKEN: I was in Ukraine a couple of weeks ago. One of the places I visited was a town called Irpin. And I saw residential buildings – building block after building block – totally bombed. This was the totally indiscriminate use of force. Wherever the Russian tide recedes, what is left behind is very clear evidence of atrocities and war crimes.
QUESTION: The atrocities were brought before the UN Security Council last Thursday, drawing a dubious defense from the Russian Foreign Minister.
When Sergey Lavrov says that the atrocities were staged and it is Russia that is the victim, Tony Blinken is there thinking what?
SECRETARY BLINKEN: This is Alice in Wonderland. It is the world upside down. Up is down, white is black, truth is false. But here’s the thing, Scott: All these words, all these words, ring completely hollow to every member of the Security Council and so this word-spewing is not having an effect. On the contrary, I think it just shows the total disconnection between Russia and practically the rest of the entire world.
QUESTION: At the time we spoke to the secretary, Russia was rushing through what it calls “elections” to force these eastern and southern areas occupied by Ukraine into the Russian Federation.
SECRETARY BLINKEN: These so-called elections are a sham, period. They enter. They put puppet governments, local governments. And then they proceed with a vote, which in any case they manipulate in order to try to declare the territory Russian territory. It is not. It will never be recognized as such. And the Ukrainians have every right to take it back.
QUESTION: Blinken came to our interview after meeting with China’s foreign minister. China is increasing pressure on the democratic island of Taiwan which, in our conversation last week, President Biden promised to defend by force.
Scott Pelley, last week: So unlike Ukraine, to be clear, Sir, the United States Forces, the men and women of the United States will defend Taiwan in the event of ‘ Chinese invasion?
President Joe Biden, last week: Yes.
But the official policy of the United States is, and has been for decades, ambiguous about the defense of the island.
SECRETARY BLINKEN: China has acted increasingly aggressively when it comes to Taiwan. This poses a threat to peace and stability in the entire region.
QUESTION: The Chinese foreign minister must have asked you to explain the President’s remarks.
SECRETARY BLINKEN: Well, we had a conversation about our different approaches to Taiwan, and I reiterated what the President said and what he said clearly and consistently: our continued adherence to the “One China” policy; our determination to resolve differences peacefully; our insistence on maintaining peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait; and our serious concern that China was taking actions to try to change that status quo. That is the issue.
QUESTION: Blinken warns that turmoil in the Taiwan Strait will wash over the world.
SECRETARY BLINKEN: Taiwan itself, if anything were to happen, is where virtually all semiconductors are made. One of the reasons we’re now investing so much in our own capacity to produce semiconductors here in the US – we design them, but the actual production is done in a small number of places, and Taiwan produces most of them. If this is disrupted, the effects it will have on the global economy can be devastating.
QUESTION: Last week on 60 Minutes, the president of Iran told Lesley Stahl that he would consider re-entering the deal to curb Iran’s nuclear weapons program. The Trump administration had canceled it. Blinken doubts Iran is serious.
SECRETARY BLINKEN: Iran has continued to try to add extraneous issues to the negotiations that we simply will not say yes to. We will not accept a bad deal. The response they gave to the latest proposals put forward by our European partners was a very significant step backwards. And so, I don’t see any prospects in the very near future to– to bring this to a conclusion.
QUESTION: Antony Blinken is 60. One of his grandfathers was born in Ukraine, his stepfather survived the Holocaust. And his father was a US ambassador. Blinken spent 30 years in foreign policy for the Democrats mostly in the Senate and the White House. That’s in the back of the room during the strike on Osama Bin Laden. His philosophy on American diplomacy is a strong commitment to what he calls humility and confidence.
SECRETARY BLINKEN: If we’re not engaging, if we’re not leading, then one of two things: either someone else is and probably not in a way that advances our interests and values, or no one is, and then you have tend to have chaos. You have a vacuum that is filled with bad things before it is filled with good things. Because the world does not organize itself. There is no single major problem affecting the lives of our citizens that we can effectively solve alone. Whether it’s the climate, whether it’s COVID, whether it’s the effect of all these emerging technologies on our lives, we need to be working with others to try to shape all of this in a way that actually it will make our people, as well as other people, a little safer, a little richer, a little more full of opportunities.
QUESTION: Considering January 6, because of the invented controversy about the election results, do you find that countries around the world are concerned about the stability of the United States?
SECRETARY BLINKEN: It is no secret that we have challenges in our own democracy. They are playing in front of the whole world. We don’t sweep them under the rug, even when it’s painful. So I can say to other countries that bring these: Yes, we have our problems, but we are facing them. We are dealing with them. You can do the same thing.
QUESTION: Your father was the US ambassador to Hungary. And as we sit here on Friday afternoon, he died last night. And I wonder why you decided to keep such a busy schedule the day after that tragedy in your family.
SECRETARY BLINKEN: My father was 96 years old. He was in many ways my role model. He built a remarkable business, one of the main investment banks in this country for many years, He led a life of dignity, of decency, of modesty, which is something that I could very much aspire to. And so I—I think I thought that—to honor all that he shared with me, the best way to do it was to continue doing my job.
QUESTION: That job, for the foreseeable future, will be consumed by a question that has overcome generations of diplomats—how to keep a small war in Europe from igniting the world.
Are there any talks right now that we may not have heard about?
SECRETARY BLINKEN: There are no talks because Russia has shown no willingness at this moment to engage in meaningful discussions. If and when that changes, we will do everything we can to support a diplomatic process.
QUESTION: Is Vladimir Putin losing this war?
SECRETARY BLINKEN: He already lost in terms of what he was trying to achieve. Because keep in mind, what he said very clearly from the beginning is, his goal was to destroy the identity of Ukraine as an independent country, which has already failed. Ukrainians are fighting for their own land. They are fighting for their own country. The Russians are not. And these Russian soldiers who are thrown into this conflict, often do not know where they are going or what they are doing – this is not something they want to fight for. Ukrainians are fighting for their own future. They are fighting for their own land. They are fighting for their own lives.
From the American Embassy Tbilisi | September 25, 2022 | Topics: Key Officials, News, News from Washington | Tags: Office of the Speaker, The Secretary of State
