QUESTION: Thank you very much for being with us today, Mr. Secretary.
SECRETARY BLINKEN: Good to be with you.
QUESTION: Let me start with South Korea. Given the U.S. has thousands of troops in South Korea, did you really have no awareness that martial law was going to be declared until President Yoon’s address? And would you have expected to have been informed?
SECRETARY BLINKEN: Yeah – no, that’s correct. We were not aware. We’re obviously watching this very carefully. Very good to see that the martial law edict was withdrawn by President Yoon after the parliament voted against it. And for us, this is one of the most critical alliances that we have anywhere in the world. South Korean democracy, it’s one of the most powerful stories anywhere in the world. It’s very important that any disputes, differences, political differences be resolved peacefully and pursuant to the rule of law. That’s what we’re seeing now. That’s what’s so important to sustain.
QUESTION: You’re saying you’re – you welcome the rescinding of the martial law. Does that mean that you don’t think there was justification for it?
SECRETARY BLINKEN: Look, I’m not going to get into the decisions that were made, political decisions that were made in South Korea. All I can say is as Korea’s staunch ally, as a country that also believes that Korea has such an important story to tell to the world – because of the extraordinary emergence not only of a democracy but a strong, resilient democracy – we want to see that sustained because it’s in our interest and it’s a partnership that’s critical to us, but also because of what it says to the world. So I think it’s very important how our allies resolve any internal differences. As I said, we’re watching closely, but it’s good to see that the martial law declaration was rescinded and that the political process is moving pursuant to the rule of law.
QUESTION: Have you been able to speak to your South Korean counterpart; and are you trying to talk to him, if no?
SECRETARY BLINKEN: I haven’t had an opportunity to speak to him, but we speak on a pretty regular basis just because we have so many things that we’re working on together. So I anticipate I’ll be speaking over the days ahead.
QUESTION: Final thing on this. The fact that U.S. hasn’t been informed and it didn’t have an idea about this, some people interpret that as a gap in intelligence. What do you say to that?
SECRETARY BLINKEN: Look, I – again, I can’t get into the decision-making that partners make. We are certainly not routinely informed of every decision that any partner may be making anywhere around the world at any given time. As I said, what’s important now is to see this process play out peacefully and according to the constitution and the rule of law.
QUESTION: Okay. Thank you. On Ukraine, you said downstairs at the presser it’s a critical moment for Ukraine, and President Zelenskyy wanted the United States to convince NATO members so that they would formally invite Ukraine to be a member of the Alliance. Why hasn’t the U.S. done that? Is it because you’re concerned that Trump wouldn’t agree to it and would reverse it?
SECRETARY BLINKEN: Ukraine is on an irreversible path to membership in the Alliance. The Alliance declared exactly that at the last summit, and what we’re focused on is making sure that it can proceed down that path in a very practical way. That’s what really counts. We set up, for the first time, a dedicated NATO command whose purpose is to help move Ukraine down the path to membership. What we were focused on here was giving reality to that new command, making sure it was fully staffed. We have countries that have now made necessary commitments to send the personnel there so that this can get up and running. And as a practical matter, which is what really counts, Ukraine can move ahead. That’s what we’re focused on.
QUESTION: But why haven’t you specifically issued – why haven’t you convinced the Allies for a formal invite? Ukraine repeatedly said that’s what they want and they won’t settle for anything else.
SECRETARY BLINKEN: Again, I think what’s most important is practical, and practical is taking the necessary steps to get to membership. There are reforms that Ukraine needs to continue to make. It’s made very good progress on those reforms just in the last year or so, but it needs to do more. There’s more that it can and needs to do just on a military, practical level to be fully ready for membership. And from our perspective, the most important thing to do, the most effective thing to do, is to support Ukraine as it moves down the path. That’s why we have this dedicated command. We’ve never done that before in NATO’s history.
QUESTION: What have you discussed with Trump’s team on Ukraine? Do they agree Ukraine should be in NATO?
SECRETARY BLINKEN: Look, I haven’t – let me put it this way. We are in communication with the incoming administration. I want to make sure, we want to make sure, that they have all the information they need to hit the ground running. I also want to make sure that they can hit the ground running with the strongest possible hand to play across all of these issues, whether it’s the Russian aggression against Ukraine or anything else. And that’s what I’m focused on. So we have been in contact. They are – they’ll make, of course, their own decisions.
But as we head into the new year, there are two things that are critical for Ukraine. One is dealing with the ongoing aggression, and the urgent aggression in the east as well as in the Kursk area, and we’re working every single day to make sure Ukraine has what it needs. But the second is to put Ukraine on a strong trajectory well into next year where it has the money, it has the munitions, and it has the mobilized forces to continue to deal effectively with the Russian aggression; or, if there is a negotiation, that it can negotiate from a position of strength. I think as we put Ukraine on that trajectory, we’ve made important decisions here at NATO to do that with all allies participating, then that’s to the benefit of the incoming administration because, again, it will have a strong hand to play as it decides along with others where this goes next year.
QUESTION: Yeah. But I just want to be very clear on this. You’re in touch with the incoming administration about Gaza, and we know that you’re aligned on that. Are you aligned on Ukraine? Because we know National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan has spoken with his incoming counterpart. Are you aligned on Ukraine?
SECRETARY BLINKEN: I can’t speak for the incoming administration. It would be wrong and presumptuous of me to do that, so I’ll let them speak for themselves. All I can tell you is we’ve been sharing information with them, and I think they’ve been very much as well in listening mode. And my intent and my focus, as I said, is to make sure that I hand off the strongest possible hand for them to play. And I think that’s in their – in the interests of the country and in the interest of the administration. I want to make sure that my successor, Senator Rubio, is able to hit the ground running, because the world doesn’t stop just because we’re in the midst of a political transition. It keeps going. And any new administration coming in has to get up to speed. I want to make sure for my part that I do my part to help them be up to speed immediately so that they can engage all of these issues.
QUESTION: Last one on Ukraine. What is your advice to European allies given the threat of Trump possibly curbing U.S. support for Ukraine, and how can they make sure that Trump is engaged?
SECRETARY BLINKEN: Well, my advice, first, is not to presume anything; it’s to continue doing what we’ve been doing, and what we’ve been doing together. This is the most extraordinary example of burden sharing that I’ve seen in my career. The United States has dedicated about $100 billion to Ukraine; allies and partners $150 billion. So this has been a group effort. It hasn’t just been the United States. And as we gathered here at NATO, we not only talked about but worked on what are we going to do in the weeks and months ahead to make sure that Ukraine can continue to have what it needs – the money, the munitions, the mobilized forces. So that’s going to continue. And what I heard around the table at NATO is we have tremendous determination among all of the allies to do what’s necessary.
For the United States, look, I think two things. This is not just about Ukraine. From day one, this was about something bigger than Ukraine. It was about some of the very principles at the heart of the international system that are there to try to preserve peace, to try to preserve security – things that emerged after two world wars to try to make sure we didn’t have another one. And these notions of sovereignty, of territorial independence – territorial integrity, independence – they’re not just words. They mean something. And what they mean is, when they’re upheld, we’re not going to have war; we’re not going to have conflict.
And beyond that, what happens in Ukraine matters will beyond Ukraine in the sense that other would-be aggressors are watching. And if Putin were allowed to do what he’s trying to do with impunity, other would-be aggressors, including in Asia, would take note and maybe take action. So again, I think it’s been in the interest of the United States from day one to stand strongly with Ukraine, not only because we care about Ukraine and Ukrainians but because it goes directly to our own national interest. No American wants war, wants conflict. The best way to prevent it is by standing strongly for the principles that help make sure that we can preserve the peace. That’s what we’re doing in Ukraine.
QUESTION: Turning to Gaza, President Trump said on Monday there would be “hell to pay in the Middle East” if hostages in Gaza were not released by January 20th. Can you use this threat to push for a ceasefire? Is this something that strengthens your hand?
SECRETARY BLINKEN: Look, I think it’s a reflection and a powerful reflection of the fact that we as Americans are determined to get the hostages back, including the seven Americans who remain hostage in Gaza, and also to bring this conflict to an end and bring it to an end in a way that provides enduring security for Israel and relief to the children, the women, the men who so desperately need it in Gaza. And I think that’s a strong position across parties held by the United States, and we’re going to pursue every avenue we can in the time that we have left to try to get the hostages back and to get a ceasefire. And I think the President-Elect’s statement reinforces that.
QUESTION: Are you aware of any communications between the Trump team and the officials in the Middle East about Gaza ceasefire?
SECRETARY BLINKEN: I’m not directly aware of any conversations. I’ve certainly seen reports of conversations that they’ve had, but I don’t have firsthand knowledge.
QUESTION: And what can you tell us about the latest on this final push for a Gaza ceasefire? Is there any sign that Israel and Hamas are moving closer to an agreement?
SECRETARY BLINKEN: Look, something very important happened over the last few weeks as a result of the work that we’ve done. One of the reasons that Hamas has held back from concluding a hostage ceasefire deal is because of its belief, hope that it could produce a wider war; that Hizballah, Iran, Iranian-backed militia groups all would jump into the fray and force Israel to fight on multiple fronts and take some of the pressure off Hamas. Now, Hamas sees that the cavalry is not coming to the rescue. We were able through intense diplomacy to – for now at least – reduce the tensions between Iran and Israel so that after Iran’s unprecedented second attack directly on Israel, the Israeli response was very focused, was very calibrated, did tremendous damage but in a way that wasn’t escalatory. And now my hope is that Iran has fully digested that message, and things with – between Iran and Israel for now end there. Lebanon, the ceasefire that we worked so hard to achieve. Again, this means that Hizballah knows that it can’t count on a wider war, it can’t count on others jumping in. I think that’s going to be a motivating factor in seeing if we can finally get a ceasefire and hostage agreement over the finish line.
QUESTION: Right. Over the weekend there were talks in Cairo about this ceasefire. What can you tell us about the U.S. involvement? What’s next? Is there going to be any – yourself or other U.S. officials traveling to the region?
SECRETARY BLINKEN: All I can tell you is we’re intensely focused on this, very much engaged, but beyond that I can’t – I can’t and won’t say because we’re focused on doing everything we can, pursuing every avenue that we can, to finally conclude an agreement.
QUESTION: Is there – has there been any progress on the day-after plan?
SECRETARY BLINKEN: There’s been a lot of work and, I think, progress on a day-after plan. And this is critical as well, because if there is a hostage/ceasefire agreement – that is, if we get the fighting to stop and we get the hostages out – for it to be enduring, to make sure it continues, there has to be a clear understanding of what follows – a post-conflict plan, a day-after plan. That’s necessary if Israel is going to fully withdraw from Gaza, as we believe it must, and for there to be a secure environment, for humanitarian assistance to flow, for Gaza to begin to rebuild.
So I’ve been working on this intensely for the last several months. I’ll continue to do that. Whether there’s an opportunity in the time that we have left to actually begin to implement such a plan or whether it’s something we hand off to the next administration, we’ll see.
QUESTION: I just want to ask you about Lebanon ceasefire violations. You’ve been asked at the presser, but I want to push a specific point. If it collapses, Israel said it will strike deeper inside Lebanon and it won’t differentiate between Hizballah and the Lebanese state. Does the United States support that or not?
SECRETARY BLINKEN: I’m not going to get into hypotheticals. We’re determined that it not collapse. And again, I think both Israel and Lebanon – or more particularly, Hizballah – have a strong interest in it not collapsing. The – they both engaged in this agreement knowing that it would advance and serve their interests, particularly for Lebanon to avoid a full-scale war and the suffering that would ensue from that; for Israel to secure the area along the border so that the 70- or 80,000 people who’ve been forced from their homes since October 7th – because Hizballah was lobbing rockets and missiles – can return home, kids can go back to school in security, and Lebanese in the south can do the same.
So our focus is on making sure that the ceasefire moves forward. It’s why we set up a monitoring mechanism with France. Of course, any ceasefire anywhere around the world throughout history, typically there are allegations of violations of the ceasefire. It was why it was so important to have this monitoring mechanism in place, the United States and France, so that, if there are alleged violations, we see them or they come to us and we resolve them.
QUESTION: But don’t you think it seems to be collapsing already before that mechanism takes up its role? There has been so many violations, allegations of violations, on both sides.
SECRETARY BLINKEN: That’s not what I’ve seen right now. These things are always fragile. And we have a 60-day period to try to carry it forward and deep-root it, and that’s what we’re focused on.
QUESTION: You’ve been critical of the violence of extremist Israeli settlers in the West Bank, but so far the administration has stopped short of sanctioning the two most influential voices – ministers Smotrich and Ben-Gvir. Will you sanction them before you leave office?
SECRETARY BLINKEN: I’m obviously not going to preview what we might or might not do on sanctions or any other measures we might take. As you pointed out, we’ve sanctioned a number of individuals, as well as organizations, who’ve been engaged in violence or supporting violence against Palestinians in the West Bank. And it’s something that we take and will continue to take very seriously. We also strongly oppose any steps that would move in the direction of annexation. And I think it’s imperative that that focus remains and is sustained, because while everyone has been very focused understandably on Gaza, Lebanon, the Red Sea with the Houthis, we also have to make sure that, in the West Bank, we don’t see the continuation of steps that, again, would make a long-term resolution of the Palestinian question even more difficult, if not impossible; and that the lives of people, their lives and livelihoods and their security, is protected.
QUESTION: Your department has been looking into hundreds of potential violations of international humanitarian law regarding Israel’s military conduct in Gaza. How do you explain the fact that it hasn’t produced a single conclusive assessment on any of these incidents? And do you – does your administration, does the department actually have any plans to conclude any of these – like, the assessments into these allegations?
SECRETARY BLINKEN: We want to make sure of two things: that we’re doing the work to make these assessments, to get the facts, to render judgment; but we also want to make sure that we get it right. And one of the challenges that we have is that in real time, in the middle of a conflict, especially when we don’t have people on the ground and there’s also not a lot of media on the ground, it’s very difficult to gather those facts, to make sure that we actually get it right. So that’s what we’re focused on. And by the way, this is an enduring obligation. If we’re able to conclude any of the investigations and make assessments in the time that we have left, we will; but if we’re not, that’s not the end of the story. We have laws, we have our own rules that we have to follow, and the next administration should be bound by the law as well in continuing, if necessary, any of those investigations and assessments and making determinations.
QUESTION: I just want to go back to Ukraine for one second, because there’s been reporting that perhaps some European countries might be considering putting troops in Ukraine. Is that something that the United States supports?
SECRETARY BLINKEN: That’s not something that came up in our conversations over the last couple of days here at NATO. What allies and partners are focused on is making sure that Ukraine itself has the resources it needs to continue to deal with the Russian aggression and to be able to do that well into next year. That’s what we’re focused on.
QUESTION: One more on Ukraine. Based on what you said downstairs about the mobilization, you said Ukraine needs to make very hard decisions. They have concerns over their young population. What do you think – what’s going to be the compromise? What kind of steps do you expect from them in the coming days? You made it very clear the necessity of this, but what realistically you think the step is – what step they’re going to take.
SECRETARY BLINKEN: Look, these are very hard decisions, and I fully both understand that and respect that. But for example, getting younger people into the fight, we think, many of us think is necessary. Right now, 18- to 25-year-olds are not in the fight. And making sure that people are there – not just the weapons, not just the munitions, not just the money, but mobilized forces – is also essential to success. So how the Ukrainians do that, what things they put in place to mobilize more forces, their decision. I think the assessment that we have across the board in NATO is that they do need to do more to get more people to the front lines.
But we have a commitment as well. The commitment that we have as an Alliance and as countries that support Ukraine is to make sure that for every force that they mobilize, we will provide training, we’ll provide equipment so that anyone who goes off to serve and defend their country can do so knowing that they’ve got the highest quality training, they have the highest quality weapons to make sure that they can do their jobs and defend their country.
QUESTION: My final three questions – it’s super, super short. Syrian conflict has flared up again after many years. Super short – does the United States still believe Assad must leave office, or could he stay?
SECRETARY BLINKEN: Again, what we’d like to see in Syria – and I think what we’ve seen recently shows exactly why what we wanted to see and that hasn’t happened is so important – is actually moving forward on a political process to end the civil war. Assad’s utter failure to engage in that process is one of the reasons that he is now under assault. The other problem that he’s faced is that he’s faced is that his allies, his partners, have all been distracted by problems of their own, making – Iran, Hizballah, Russia. So they weren’t there. The HTS, a terrorist group, took advantage of that situation.
QUESTION: But you’re okay with him staying?
SECRETARY BLINKEN: Look, I’m not prejudging anything because it’s up to the Syrian people to decide the future of the country, but there has to be an effective political process for them to be able to make those decisions. Assad has not – has refused to engage in that, and he’s actually paying a price for it right now.
QUESTION: Okay. Final two. Mr. Secretary, tens of thousands of Palestinians have been killed in the Gaza war. You personally repeatedly expressed your sympathies about the suffering of innocent civilians. I’m wondering: How does Israel’s conduct reflect on your legacy as Secretary of State? Do you leave the administration with a clear conscience that you have done absolutely everything in your power to stop the killing?
SECRETARY BLINKEN: Others will have to judge the legacy of the administration, my own legacy. Right now, what I’m focused on is using every minute that I have left in this job to try to bring an end to that conflict, to try to bring an end to the suffering of people. And when I see – and as I’ve seen from almost day one – the horrors that so many innocent people have been suffering, caught in this crossfire that Hamas initiated, a conflict that they didn’t start and are powerless to end, it’s absolutely gut wrenching. But what I have to focus on, what we’ve had to focus on is how do we bring this to an end most quickly and most effectively, in a way that helps ensure that October 7th and its horrors never happen again but also in a way that’s responsive to the desperate needs of Palestinian people in Gaza. That’s my entire focus.
There will be time, maybe a lot of time, after the end of this administration for people to judge what we did, whether we did right, whether we did wrong, whether we could have done better, whether we could have done differently. I don’t have time to do that now. My time is focused on trying with every minute that we have to get the hostages home, to end this conflict, and to put Gaza on a better path.
QUESTION: You’re one of President Biden’s closest aides. It’s hard to imagine that you didn’t see his cognitive decline. Why didn’t you advise him against running? What is your response to criticism that everyone who shielded him from scrutiny have cost the Democrats the election?
SECRETARY BLINKEN: Look, I don’t get into politics. I also don’t get into private conversations between me and the President. If I did, that’s the minute he would stop listening to anything I have to say. So that’s where I’ll leave it, but what I can say is this. What we inherited, what President Biden inherited – the worst economic crisis going back to the Great Depression, the worst health crisis going back at least a hundred years, partnerships and alliances in total disarray – to now leave office, handing over the strongest economy among the major countries in the world by virtually every indicator, inflation tamed, more foreign direct investment that we’ve seen at any time, and – for my part, at least – partnerships and alliances that have been re-energized, re-imagined, putting us in a position of much greater strength to deal with all of these challenges, to deal with China, to deal with Russia. He and we, I think, can take pride in what he’s – what we’ve accomplished under his leadership and what we’re handing off to the next administration.
I’ve still got a few weeks left to keep working at all of these issues, to make sure that, again, we’re giving the next administration the strongest hand to play. That didn’t just happen. A lot of work went into it, but every step of the way was under the leadership, under the guidance, following the decisions that were made by President Biden. I think the record speaks very eloquently for itself.
QUESTION: Mr. Secretary, thank you very much for being with us today.
SECRETARY BLINKEN: Thank you.
