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SECRETARY BLINKEN: Well, good afternoon, everyone. It is a genuine pleasure to welcome my friend Foreign Secretary James Cleverly back to the State Department. As usual, we covered a lot of ground, but I began by asking the foreign secretary to extend my warm congratulations to their Majesties King Charles III and Queen Camilla on their coronation.
I was in Atlanta over most of the weekend. I can report that many members of our team got up pretty early on Saturday to watch the ceremony, including me. I think it's something that captivated millions and millions of Americans, as it did people around the world.
Today, I also had the chance to thank James for the United Kingdom's crucial cooperation in getting citizens of both of our countries out of Sudan. These joint efforts allowed UK aircraft to evacuate more than 2,000 people, including U.S. citizens, from dangerous and unpredictable conditions (inaudible) evacuation of hundreds of additional U.S. citizens through Port Sudan. All told, we supported the evacuation of more than 1,300 Americans from Sudan in collaboration with our partners.
Together now, we are pressing the warring parties in Sudan to put down their guns and allow lifesaving aid to reach the Sudanese people. Even as we meet here, we have diplomats from the United States and Saudi Arabia deeply engaged in talks in Jeddah, working in close consultation with counterparts from the UK, the United Arab Emirates, the African Union, and other multilateral partners. The collective aim that we have is to lay the foundation for further negotiations between the parties that we hope can lead to a permanent cessation of hostilities.
But in the first instance, we're working in Jeddah to extend the ceasefire and get agreement on the provision of humanitarian assistance to the people of Sudan. We continue to engage directly with Sudanese civilian leaders, with Sudanese civilian society with the goal of putting their nation back on the track to civilian democratic governance. That's the goal that we share and the goal that we will not give up on.
We're also working hand in hand, as we have been for well more than a year now, to provide support for Ukraine as it defends its people and its territory against Russia's war of aggression. We applaud the UK's pledge to match in 2023 the $2.3 billion in military support that it provided to Ukraine during the first year of the war. In addition to training of tens of thousands of Ukrainian soldiers, the UK is providing MRS, Challenger 2 tanks, armored vehicles, anti‑air missiles, and other military aid that will help equip Ukraine's defenders as they work to retake more of their nation's territory in the weeks and months ahead.
We also talked about the urgent need to extend and expand the Black Sea Grain Initiative. In recent days, Russia has once again returned to blocking ships from sailing to Ukraine's ports to pick up the grain: a cynical action that directly results in less food getting to global markets and to human beings in Africa, in the Middle East, and around the world who need that food. While we're grateful for the tireless efforts of Secretary-General Guterres and our colleagues in Türkiye working to break this impasse, the world shouldn't need to remind Moscow every few weeks to stop using people's hunger as a weapon in their war against Ukraine.
We're teaming up to help rebuild Ukraine from the colossal damage inflicted by Russia's relentless attacks. Next month, we'll build on these efforts at the UK-hosted Ukraine Recovery Conference, which will bring together governments like ours with the private sector, with international financial institutions, with multilateral organizations to invest in the future of Ukraine and its people.
We also discussed how to meet other challenges to our shared security. In March, the UK released its Integrated Review Refresh 2023 and its assessment of both the challenges that we face and how to effectively address them to work together in that area. I think we see very, very close strategic alignment. That includes when it comes to both our individual relationships and coordinated approach with China, which we discussed today.
The vision that James set out a few weeks ago in his speech at Mansion House underscores the shared approach when it comes to key issues like ensuring peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait, as well as looking for ways to cooperate with China where we can work together to solve big challenges. That's what people around the world expect from great powers, and it's in our collective interest.
I think it's also important to note that even as we focused today, as we do, on Ukraine, on some of the challenges represented by our respective relationships with China, we equally focused on a much broader agenda and that is the needs, the concerns, the imperatives for people around the world as they deal, and as we deal, with the impact of climate change, food insecurity - as I've already mentioned - energy insecurity, global health, trying to provide for more inclusive economic growth through work that we and partners in the G7, as we're preparing for the leaders' meeting of the G7, can help advance and support. That agenda is very much the focus of both the United Kingdom and the United States.
James said something when we were together recently in Japan that I'll take the liberty of quoting here. He said, "The world is a healthier, happier, safer, more prosperous place when the United Kingdom and the United States work closely together, and it's in our mutual interest to do so." I couldn't agree more.
And next month's visit by Prime Minister Sunak to meet with President Biden will offer us a chance to do even more of that, and we're very much looking forward to it.
With that, the floor is yours.
FOREIGN SECRETARY CLEVERLY: Secretary Blinken, Tony, thank you once again for hosting me here in Washington. It's always a pleasure to speak with you, to discuss the areas of bilateral interest, as well as the issues which affect the whole world. We did so recently at the G7 with our - all our friends in the international community.
And thank you also for the kind words that you've said on behalf of your nation on the coronation of His Majesty King Charles III and Queen Camilla. Can I also thank the First Lady for joining us at this time of special celebration, a once in a lifetime event made more special because we were able to share it with friends from across the world.
Can I also put on record our thanks to the United States of America and, indeed, you personally for the huge amount of effort that you have invested in seeking peace in Sudan. It was a situation which unfolded whilst we were meeting at the G7 in Japan, and I commend the effort that you personally put in, engaging with the generals, with the leadership of the warring factions, to try and bring initially a ceasefire and then your ongoing work, the ongoing work of the United States of America, in trying to broker a sustainable peace.
It should remind everybody that whilst we are, of course, working on the support that we give to Ukraine and their self-defense - and I'll touch upon that again in a moment - we are not distracted from the pressing issues of the day and we deal with them. We deal with them effectively; we deal with them collaboratively. And we're able to do so because of the very strong bilateral relationship that our two countries enjoy, a relationship which is invested in regularly by the visits that we make over here. And as you say, I know the prime minister's very much looking forward to meeting with President Biden when he comes across next month.
But also we are very grateful to the President for his recent visit to the United Kingdom to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, a topic which I know is of great interest and passion to him, and we value your country's engagement on that issue.
We remain committed to building peace and prosperity around the world, just as we are attempting to do in Sudan, and we continue to work towards that goal in Ukraine. Every time I come to the United States I make a point of thanking your nation for the scale of support that you have given to Ukraine. You are the largest donor, both in military and economic terms, and I know that your support is incredibly important in their ability to defend themselves against this unprovoked attack from Russia.
We, of course, spoke at length about the nature of that support, about the next few months, and the importance to not only look at the context through the prism of the conflict but also to focus on the future rebuilding work that will inevitably be needed. We are very pleased - the UK is very pleased to host on behalf of Ukraine the Ukraine Recovery Conference, where we will seek to build a coalition that will enable Ukraine to rebuild its country after this conflict has been concluded, after they regain their country back. And we value the United States of America's coordinating role in ensuring that the private sector as well as the public sector is heavily involved in that reconstruction. From the UK's point of view, we'll of course also continue to provide financial and military aid. We intend to give the Ukrainians the tools they need to successfully defend themselves against the invasion.
But just as we did with Sudan, we remain focused on the needs of some of the poorest people in the world, and I echo your comments on the Black Sea Grain Initiative. It is completely wrong that Russia uses the hunger of some of the poorest people in the world to pursue leverage during this conflict. They should re-sign the Black Sea Grain Initiative and do so immediately. They should unlock the supply of food to go to those people around the world who need it most. And it is perverse that they are using hunger in the developing world as leverage in their conflict in Ukraine.
We did, of course, also have the opportunity to speak about issues on a broader context. And, of course, how we recognize the role that China has in world affairs and how we respond to China's action will, of course, be an ongoing part of our bilateral discussions.
I recently gave a major speech on the UK's posture towards China, which was derived from our recent integrated review refresh. We made the point that we need to defend ourselves as nations - the UK is doing this, as indeed the United States of America is - against inappropriate activities by China. We also need to make sure that we build alliances and strengthen the pre-existing alliances that we have, as I'm doing today with the United States of America, but also with our friends in the Indo-Pacific region. And we have to engage with China directly, robustly, regularly, to seek to influence the decisions that are made in Beijing and do so in a way that benefits the whole world, whether that be on the maintenance of peace across the Taiwan Strait, which of course is something which affects all of us irrespective of where we are in the world, to issues such as climate change, pandemic prevention and response.
And that of course brings us full circle to our bilateral relations with the United States of America. We have been close defense partners. We are intelligence-sharing partners. And of course, we have strong economic ties. And we will seek to find opportunities where the UK can be a strong economic partner to the United States of America as well as being a strong defensive partner as well.
It is - and thank you for reminding me of that quote; I do happen to be rather proud of it - I think it is in our mutual interest and in the interests of everyone around the world that the UK and U.S. bilateral relationship continues to be one of the points of pride, and one which is strong, and one which I intend to make even stronger still in the future. Thank you.
