SECRETARY BLINKEN: Madam Minister, thank you so much. And I really want to say thanks first and foremost for what I was going to say is a warm welcome here in Luleå - (laughter) - certainly warm in our hearts. And I'm so grateful to be here with all of our colleagues from the Biden administration and from the European Union as well as our Swedish host.
We wanted to see at the start of this Trade and Technology Council meeting - our fourth - this remarkable green transition with our own eyes. And we see Sweden playing a leading role in making sure that we can all have green economies that are responsive to the imperatives of dealing with climate change, but at the same time producing great new jobs for the future. And you can see that future right here in this spot.
It's also very gratifying that part of the reason that so many of these institutions have come together in a remarkable value chain is because of initiatives like the First Movers Coalition that the State Department, led by Secretary Kerry, and the World Economic Forum have set up to basically help companies that are investing in green technologies, make sure that they have a market for those technologies right up front so that they can feel confident in making those investments. And commitments to buy materials by 2030 that are clean and green is what the First Movers Coalition is all about. So the fact that we have SSAB and Vattenfall that are members of that coalition right here in this enterprise is something very powerful.
We're very much looking forward to the work that we're going to be doing over the next day with the Trade and Technology Council with our EU partners, but front and center in so much of what we're doing is this green transition - again, a transition not only to a clean economy but one that is producing the jobs of the future that are going to power lives and livelihoods for generations to come. So thank you all. Wonderful to be here today.
(Applause.)
