SECRETARY BLINKEN: Well, good afternoon everyone. It’s wonderful to be back here at Stanford, to be in California in Silicon Valley. We’ve had a great couple of days covering The waterfront, including meeting with some notable tech innovators last night, going to the Accelerator this morning, and then spending time here on the Stanford campus. And I really want to thank Secretary Rice for the incredibly warm hospitality and great conversation, as always. And it was especially great to be with so many students.
We are at a turning point. The post-Cold War world has come to an end, and intense competition is underway to shape what comes next. And at the heart of this competition is technology. Technology in many ways will reshape our economies. He will reform our armies. It will reform the lives of people all over the planet. And so it is profoundly a source of national strength.
At the same time, it is front and center in our positive vision of the future: technology finds cures for disease; technology that ensures people around the world have healthy and sustainable food supplies at a time of increasing food insecurity; technology to make sure we can drive our economies into the future without relying on fossil fuels and make sure we’re tackling climate change; technology to have resilient and strong supply chains – we’ve experienced what it’s like when we don’t; and technology, ultimately, which can produce good jobs for the future.
And much of this technology is coming to fruition starting here in Silicon Valley and right here at Stanford University. It is also front and center in our foreign policy, first because we cannot do any of these things alone as effectively as we can when we work in partnership, collaboration and cooperation with others. And deepening these collaborations, deepening these partnerships, including technology, is part of our foreign policy.
We also need to be the ones at the table who help set the rules, the norms, the standards by which the technology is used. If we’re not there, if the United States isn’t there, someone else will be there, and those rules will be shaped so that they don’t reflect our values and they don’t reflect our interests; or there will be no one and we will have chaos before we have a world that is actually organized to try to take advantage of all the progress we are making.
We have tried to build a State Department that is fit for purpose, that has the right people, that has the right organization, that has the right focus, to make sure that the United States is a leader around the world on related issues. with science and technology. . So part of our conversation here at Stanford and over the last 24 hours has been to listen and learn from people about how we can continue to do that effectively. We created a new office on cyberspace and digital policy; As we’re building it, having a real dialogue and learning from the people here makes a big difference. And we want to make sure that we have an ongoing and sustained dialogue as we work on science and technology issues both here in the United States and around the world. So for me, this was an incredibly fruitful visit, but it’s part of an ongoing conversation, an ongoing dialogue.
Finally, I will say this. We are at our best when we invest in our own strengths. This morning I was at The Accelerator seeing some of the extraordinary things being done there, literally from looking at the tiniest particle to the cosmos as a whole. And the work being done at this national laboratory will literally provide the answers we seek to address the challenges of our time, from climate to health to food and more.
But it works best when we make the right investments in it. And luckily, we are. What happened a few weeks ago with the passage of the CHIPS and Science Act, this is the kind of investment in basic science, in research and development, that will pay off for generations to come. And it also makes the United States an incredible attraction around the world. When people see that this is what we’re doing, that we’re making smart investments in the future, they want to be a part of it. They want to come here, work with us, collaborate, and they want to work with us around the world to help shape the way all this technology is going to be used in the future.
So it’s a source of incredible strength, and it’s happening right here, too. With that, happy to answer any questions.
QUESTION: Secretary, thank you very much. As you know, there was a deadly fire at Evin Prison in Iran…
QUESTION: — over the weekend. A couple of US citizens involved in these fires. I understand they are fine, but does the State Department have any responsibility regarding the US detainees there?
SECRETARY BLINKEN: We are working for the release of any American who is wrongfully detained, just like Siamak Namazi and Emad Sharghi in Iran in Evin prison. We are working on it every day.
When we learned what happened in the prison, we immediately contacted different countries around the world that could have better visibility and information about what is happening in Iran, including our protecting power, Switzerland, to ensure – us that our two citizens were, in fact, counted and were not harmed. And they are taken into account and have not suffered any harm.
But they must be freed. They must be returned to their families as soon as possible. And we will continue to work on this every day.
QUESTION: Earlier today, Russia again resorted to using Iranian drones to bomb Ukraine’s infrastructure as well as its abstention buildings. What will be the US response in terms of changing the types of aid offered? Can we expect a (inaudible) alliance in this piece, and if so, under what condition?
SECRETARY BLINKEN: From day one, even before day one, as we saw the threat of this Russian aggression increase prior to February 24th, one of the things that President Biden did was try to ensure I know that the Ukrainians had in their hands the tools they would have to face the Russian aggression. So, going back over a year ago, September a year ago, we did our first withdrawal of military equipment for Ukraine. We did a second one at Christmas, again before the Russian invasion.
And as a result of that, when Russia invaded, the Ukrainians had in their hands some of the tools they needed to repel that aggression, especially around Kyiv, and push the Russians back. First of all, this was because of their incredible courage, but also because we tried to make sure they had what they needed to cope.
But what has happened since then is that the nature of the aggression has changed. It has been moved to different locations, different terrains, different weapons being used. We adjusted every step along the way in very close collaboration with our Ukrainian partners, as well as with many countries around the world to try to make sure that, based on what Ukraine really needed, we were doing our best to get it your hands as soon as possible. And now we have a mechanism that Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin has put in place, the Ramstein process, to make sure that this happens not just in the United States but in dozens of countries. And if we don’t have something, maybe someone else does. We make sure they get it.
Also, as you know, it is necessary but not sufficient to bring technology to Ukraine. Making sure our partners know how to use it with the right training is vital. We’re doing a lot of that. Countries participate. Making sure they can maintain it, that’s vital, and we’re working on that as well. But we have and will continue to address what is really needed.
We are seeing these drones, as you said. What are they doing? They are attacking civilians. They are attacking critical infrastructure like power plants, hospitals, things that people need in their daily lives that are not military targets. And it’s a sign of increased desperation on Russia’s part, but it’s also a sign of the levels to which they will stoop, which we’ve seen repeatedly when it comes to targeting civilians and civilian infrastructure. We want to make sure that we are doing everything we can to help the Ukrainians defend themselves against this aggression, even as they are pushing the Russians away from the territory that Russia took. Thanks.
QUESTION: Mr. Secretary, Stanford is one of the leading institutions in combating disinformation research and pointing out propaganda narratives and how they are spread. How do you envision cooperation between the State Department and institutions like Stanford to combat the spread of propaganda, and how does that fit with the recently released National Security Strategy?
SECRETARY BLINKEN: Yes. So Stanford is doing a remarkable job of that, and it’s one of the things that we want to make sure that we benefit from, because that’s a day-to-day battle for us, fighting disinformation and misinformation around the world. . . At the State Department itself we have a big focus on this. We have something called the Global Engagement Center that works on this every day. But this work is inspired both by work being done in academia, including here at Stanford, and by collaborations where appropriate. And one of the things we have to do is make sure that we’re using the technology itself to deal with some of the downsides of technology when it’s misused, including when it comes to disinformation and disinformation.
So we’re trying to create these kinds of partnerships to make sure that we’re looking at all the places that are actually developing answers, including Stanford, and then integrate that into what we do. It is also part of a long conversation and policy dialogue. My colleagues in other parts of government are working on this. And of course platforms have a responsibility to make sure those platforms aren’t used in a way that abuses the platforms, especially when it comes to disinformation and disinformation.
Therefore, it is a vital work. It is a work in progress. But we’re very grateful that there’s so much being thought about, thought about, and developed that we can actually use to tackle this problem. Thanks.
MR PRICE: One final question from Liz.
QUESTION: First of all, to your point. Do you have any reason to believe there was foreign meddling in the upcoming midterm elections? And secondly, related to your visit here, you can talk about your department’s efforts to increase semiconductor manufacturing, why that’s part of your national security strategy, and what you need from technology companies in the area of the bay for this to happen?
SECRETARY BLINKEN: Sure. So, first, when it comes to the midterm elections, the Department of Homeland Security, other government agencies, they’re tracking that very, very closely. And we’re constantly looking at whether certain countries are engaged in efforts to interfere with, manipulate or otherwise misinform elections, and that’s been true for several past elections. We are very focused on that now. I would refer you to these other agencies and departments, particularly DHS, which has a total focus on this.
When it comes to semiconductors, chips, these are the building blocks of the 21st century economy. We have a strong interest in making sure that we not only stay at the forefront of the technology itself, which we do, but we also make sure that we have very resilient supply chains that can avoid any disruption in chip production. and also in its distribution, because we have seen what happens when these supply chains are interrupted.
Part of that means getting back into the business of manufacturing, not just inventing, not just designing the technology, but making it here in America. And of course, the CHIPS and Science Act makes a historic investment to renew that capacity. It is also vitally important that we have the workforce for many years to be able to do this, that we stay on the cutting edge. We’re seeing it here at Stanford, where that workforce is being developed. A couple of weeks ago I was at Purdue, which is also leading efforts in this country to make sure we have a workforce focused on chips, semiconductors, and staying on the cutting edge.
So if we make the right investments, we will maintain the advantage that we have, we will continue to be the technology leader. But while we’re working to run faster, we also have to make sure we’re doing what it takes to protect, by that I mean this. You’ve seen the export controls that the administration brought up a couple of weeks ago. This is to make sure that the countries we don’t want to have the most sophisticated cutting-edge chips don’t get them or the ability to make them, but doing so in a way that also maintains our competitiveness, that ensure that our own chip producers continue to be able to sell worldwide.
What it’s fundamentally about is making sure that, especially when it comes to sensitive technologies, that going to one place or another could be a security issue for us, that we’re building the highest fence possible but around the smaller part of the property, as opposed to building a low fence around everything, because we want to make sure that our companies can remain competitive, can remain leaders in global markets, but in a way that also ensures our safety That’s all part of it.
But it really starts with making sure that we keep innovation here, that we keep generations of people who are experts at it, and Stanford is exactly where that’s happening. We just have to be smart about making the necessary investments. And that’s where something like the CHIPS Act comes into play. That’s where the Climate Inflation Reduction Act comes in.
When we make the investments in basic science, in research and development, history has shown that we will be leaders in all these fields. If we pull back from making these investments, it will allow others to catch up. Fortunately now, and in a bipartisan way, we are making these investments.
MR PRICE: Thank you Mr Secretary.
SECRETARY BLINKEN: Thank you. Thank you all.
