Secretary Antony J. Blinken Before His Meeting With Civil Society – United States Department of State

SECRETARY BLINKEN:  Well, hello, everyone, and I’m so pleased to be able to spend time with colleagues from civil society from Ukraine, from Azerbaijan, Belarus, and Russia.  We’re here at the OSCE, and a foundational premise, principle of the OSCE is that we can’t separate our military, physical, and economic security from fundamental freedoms, that these go hand in hand.  And in all of our countries, civil society is absolutely essential to helping us preserve, defend, and protect basic human freedoms that matter the most: to be able to speak freely, to associate freely, to practice religion freely, to vote.

And for all of the democracies, civil society is essential to holding us, holding governments accountable, to making sure that we’re doing what’s necessary to uphold those freedoms.  And so for me it’s a very important opportunity to hear from people who are in this struggle – on the front lines – every single day in very challenging circumstances, but at a time when it matters more than ever.  So thank you all for being here, and I’m really eager to hear from you and, again, hear how the United States can help support your work which is so essential to the freedoms that we sometimes take for granted but without which none of our societies – none of our countries – would be genuinely secure.