00:00Thank you so much, Mr. Secretary, Alex Raffold.
00:01This better be a good question, because I wasn't going to call him.
00:03Go ahead.
00:03Just to follow up on what you just said on Lavrov,
00:06can you give us a better sense of your interaction with Lavrov this time?
00:09My what?
00:10Your interaction with Lavrov.
00:12Well, we didn't have a meeting.
00:13We spoke.
00:13I mean, we spoke about, you know, but we didn't have a meeting.
00:17You know, we spoke just briefly about the opportunity for our leaders
00:21to potentially interact at APEC next month.
00:24And we spoke about, you know, there's no firm commitments about G20.
00:30And that was – but we didn't have any – we didn't have a meeting.
00:33He did speak to his own tool, and he mentioned that the position on Ukraine has not changed.
00:39Even that position makes you believe that negotiated peace is achievable?
00:43Thank you so much.
00:44Well, I don't know if negotiated peace is achievable in Ukraine.
00:47That's what we're trying to find out.
00:49But I don't think anyone here is claiming that we're on the verge of a negotiated settlement.
00:52I think what I can say to you is that the United States – you know, we have people that
00:56basically,
00:56you know, Jared and Steve as an example, work on this portfolio almost full-time between that and Iran.
01:01That's all they focus on.
01:02They don't focus on the quad.
01:04They don't focus on Western Hemisphere.
01:06They don't focus – they focus on that.
01:08And we've invested – to say we've invested a lot of high-level attention to that topic.
01:13But, you know, we're going to continue to try and see if we can reach an agreement.
01:17But I'm not here to tell you we're on the verge of one, but hopefully we are.
01:19But today, you know, we didn't have any meetings about that at this G20 gathering.
01:24Okay, in this row right here.
01:30Thank you, Mr. Secretary.
01:32I wanted to ask you if the United States helped Flavio Bolsonaro flee Brazil,
01:36and if you had any engagement with the foreign minister of Brazil here in Atlanta.
01:43Yeah, yeah, I saw him here today.
01:44We talked yesterday as well.
01:45I think we'll see each other in France.
01:47I think he's attending.
01:48Brazil's an observer at the G7.
01:49They were there, so we'll see them in France in a few weeks.
01:53We didn't facilitate anything.
01:55I mean, we had word that he was arrived in the United States.
01:58He had previously held a visa, and the president made a decision to allow him to enter the country,
02:02which we did.
02:03But we were not involved in any of the arrangements he made in terms of leaving.
02:06At least the U.S. government was not involved directly in any of the moves that were made.
02:11But the president made clear that if he arrived in the United States in a port of entry,
02:14that he would be paroled into the country, and he was.
02:17Okay?
02:18Back row right there.
02:19Yes, ma'am.
02:20You?
02:20Yeah.
02:21You sound surprised.
02:22It's a press conference.
02:23You ready?
02:23Okay, let's go.
02:24Thank you very much, Mr. Secretary.
02:26Do you think a limited ceasefire regarding Black Sea shipping and grains is more likely now than before following this
02:34conference?
02:34Yeah, I'm not an odds maker.
02:35I wouldn't say more or less likely.
02:37I would say there's interest in facilitating it.
02:39And by the way, it's not new.
02:40Turkey, like Turkey, for example, has been consistently and at one point did have an agreement in place in the
02:45past that then, of course, fell apart.
02:47So I wouldn't say it's – I don't want to put or prognosticate the chances of it.
02:51I do think it's having an impact on many countries around the world.
02:54You heard that expressed today.
02:55The African continent in particular is paying a high price for it, and there's an energy component to it as
02:59well.
03:00So I really hate to put, like, odds because in foreign policy in particular, odds are a hard thing to
03:05set.
03:06But I do think there's an incredible amount of interest in facilitating something that we have nation states that are
03:12involved.
03:12And India has also expressed an interest in perhaps floating some ideas.
03:16And so we're open to that.
03:18We've been talking to countries.
03:19But I can't give you odds as to how likely it is to happen.
03:21We'd like to see it happen.
03:22It doesn't solve the war problem, but at least it diminishes some of the impact, spillover impact, that it's having
03:27on the food security of vulnerable countries.
03:30Okay.
03:31Yes.
03:31Did I already get you?
03:32No.
03:33Okay.
03:33Can we start putting, like, a little sticker on people when I call them?
03:36Because I can't – like, I'm – the lights make it hard for me to see you.
03:39Marco Valerio from Rai, Italian National TV.
03:42Ah, Italy.
03:43Oh, yeah.
03:43My question is, in your speech in Athens, you call for a revival of Western democratic values.
03:50Yes.
03:50And I was wondering, when it comes to food crisis or Ukrainian crisis, is there any of those values that
03:56the U.S., along with the Europeans, is trying to uphold in finding a solution on the Ukrainian conflict?
04:02Well, I think primarily – look, obviously, but, I mean, at the end of the day, I think the Ukrainian
04:05-Russian issue is pretty singular right now, which is we're trying to stop a very deadly war.
04:11In which, on the one hand, Kyiv every single night is facing devastating attacks against its energy infrastructure, but also
04:18increasing number of civilians being killed.
04:20And even on the Russian side, you know, you're seeing 20,000 Russians killed a month.
04:25It's a very deadly and destructive war.
04:27And every month that goes by, you're just adding – I mean, think about how long it's going to take.
04:31When this stops, how long is it going to take Ukraine to rebuild its economy, rebuild its energy grid?
04:36We also think it's very costly for Russia as well.
04:38So right now, I mean, yes, I mean, ultimately, we would, you know, I think embedded in all of this
04:42is values that we care a lot about.
04:44But the primary value we care about is it's not really very complicated.
04:47There's a very nasty war going on, very destructive war, what appears to be in some ways of a stalemate
04:53that has the threat of escalation and spreading into other places.
04:56We already see some ancillary effects of this crisis.
04:59As an example, the Black Sea.
05:01As an example, some of these, you know, irregular efforts at sabotage that have spread into other countries.
05:09Drones that are being launched, that are being intercepted by electronic means, and so they wander into the airspace of
05:14a NATO country.
05:15There's a lot of danger involved in that as well.
05:19So from us, the singular focus is how can we – is there an opportunity for the United States, because
05:24we talk to both sides, to be able to facilitate a negotiated end to a very deadly, very costly, and
05:31very destructive war?
05:32And that's really what we're focused on.
05:35I think what's – and that's a pretty ambitious desire.
05:38Everyone has encouraged us, and every meeting we have, no matter what, be it the Europeans or others, we are
05:42encouraged to remain involved and engaged in this.
05:44And so we've remained involved and engaged, but that's really what we're focused on there.
05:48I don't know how that ties into the speech I gave.
05:52Yes.
05:53Behind – well, go ahead.
05:54I feel bad I pointed at you.
05:55Go ahead.
05:58We need to have more than one mic, guys.
06:00This is – go ahead.
06:01Thank you, Mr. Secretary.
06:02Yes.
06:03Paris Hwang, Voice America.
06:04Did you get a chance to convey the U.S.'s commitment to Taiwan and Ukraine to your Chinese and Russian
06:10counterparts?
06:11Also, did you also get a chance to talk to them, the potential bilateral meeting in AIPAC or even in
06:17Miami?
06:18Which bilateral?
06:19I'm sorry.
06:20Between President Trump, President Xi, and President Putin.
06:24Well, there will most certainly be a bilateral meeting at both.
06:26I mean, they'll meet in addition to being a part of these forums.
06:29I'm certain that we'll meet with regards to that.
06:31So we really – we didn't discuss it.
06:33Those brief conversations about arrangements for both the attendance at G20 and at AIPAC.
06:37So we talked about that.
06:39But that was the gist of it.
06:40I mean, ultimately, the point of this gathering, as I said, is we want – it's not that geopolitical issues
06:44wouldn't be discussed at G20, because I'm sure they are.
06:46And there were a lot of other bilateral meetings going on that we were not involved in between the different
06:50countries we were here.
06:51And it's why we structured the agenda the way we did, to leave plenty of time for some of these
06:55countries to interact with one another.
06:57So I can't speak to all of those meetings.
06:59But the core of this meeting and the core of what the President's vision has been for G20 is to
07:04bring the G20, which is primarily an economic forum, back to its core principle and purpose.
07:10And that's what we tried to address in the agenda we outlined today.
07:13That doesn't mean that geopolitical issues weren't discussed on the sidelines by different countries, but that's what we focused on
07:19in both our agenda and in our engagements.
