QUESTION: And joining us now is Secretary of State Marco Rubio is with us. He is in Türkiye tonight. Mr. Secretary, great to have you. Thank you for joining us.
SECRETARY RUBIO: Good to see you the other day, Sean.
QUESTION: Yeah, it was great to see you in person. You made a statement that NATO is only as strong as its weakest link. This issue about NATO and other countries paying their fair share is going to be coming to a head in about six weeks, is my understanding. Lot of nations have not lived up to that. Where are we in terms of pushing people on that issue?
SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, actually, 2018 was one of the most important moments in NATO history. It's when President Trump at the NATO summit walked through the different contributions of different countries, some of whom were under 1 percent of GDP - less than 1 percent of their economy was being spent on defense. Since that time we've seen improvements, and I can tell you that we are headed for a summit in six weeks in which virtually every member of NATO will be at or above 2 percent, but more importantly, many of them will be over 4 percent and all will have agreed on a goal of reaching 5 percent over the next decade. It'll be the first time ever in NATO history where they have reached targets and goals that will allow NATO partners to be more than 50 percent of the Alliance. That's a historic moment if it comes to fruition. That's what was agreed upon today by the foreign ministers. And I think all of that tracks back to 2018 when President Trump challenged the members of the Alliance to step up.
QUESTION: Mr. Secretary, you said, "The purpose of NATO is to prevent wars through its strength… that's why we want to see it grow stronger." You talked about a trillion dollars in our military spending. Tomorrow the Ukrainian delegation will be meeting with the Turkish foreign minister. And you also went into detail - there had been some hope, maybe, in the background - was never any full commitment - that Vladimir Putin might show up at this and have a meeting with Zelenskyy. And then you were pretty clear today that you believe if that's going to happen, it would take Donald Trump sitting down with Vladimir Putin. What exactly did you mean by that?
SECRETARY RUBIO: Yeah, it's my assessment and I think it's the President's assessment. By the way, I think he said publicly today that the only way we're going to have a breakthrough here - nothing is going to happen at this point - given everything we know, after months of working on this, nothing is going to happen until President Trump sits across the table from Vladimir Putin and puts it on the line and puts it on the table. I think that's the only chance we have at peace at this point given everything we've seen over the last few weeks. There's been talks, there's been negotiations, there's been trips and meetings. But in the end, I think we've reached the conclusion, and rightfully so, as the President has, that the only way this is going to happen - if it has a chance to happen, the only way it happens is - is the President directly engages with Vladimir Putin.
So I don't know what the date or the place of that is yet, but that's really the only chance at this point. And I think there are a lot of countries here that would privately share that assessment as well.
QUESTION: Do you have, Mr. Secretary, any degree of confidence? You've been clear that this war is going to end not through military solution - through a military solution but through a diplomatic one, and you said it's either going to be sooner or later, and if it happens sooner less people will die, less destruction that there will be. And the President keeps talking about the human toll, the humanity - all the human loss and tragedy and destruction and death that has taken place here, and for what reason?
SECRETARY RUBIO: Yeah, I - Sean, I think the President the other night or the other day in Saudi Arabia gave perhaps one of the most impressive speeches of his presidency and one of the most meaningful speeches by an American president overseas in decades. And in it, one of the things he talks about is how he wants to see more building and less bombing. In essence, he wants to see us building things up, not destroying things.
The President, frankly, is a lover of peace. He's - this is a person that would - wants to stop wars and prevent wars and end wars. That's what the President endeavors to do. In fact, he openly has said - and he said it in the speech - that he wishes we didn't have to spend all this money on the military; we could spend it instead on creating wealth and prosperity and human development. Obviously, that's not the way the world works, but that's what he hopes we can achieve. And that's what he's trying to achieve here. That's it.
I was just asked a question by the media here about this a few minutes ago, and I said I still don't understand why some would be critical of the President - they should be happy that the President of the most powerful nation on earth is a peacemaker who seeks to prevent wars, seeks to end wars, and seeks to stop existing wars. I think this is something we should be very proud of, that we have a President that seeks peace, seeks the end of death and destruction - in this case, in the Russia-Ukraine war which has gone on far too long, destroyed thousands and thousands of lives, and really is going to cost billions of dollars to rebuild from.
QUESTION: Well, obviously, we - we hope that that - that some kind of breakthrough can take place. Let me go to the - where we are here in the Middle East. And you've been very, very clear, and the President has been clear: The number one state sponsor of terror - that would be the Iranians - they have to walk away from sponsoring terrorism; walk away from helping Hamas, Hizballah, the Islamic Jihad, the Houthis. They have to stop firing missiles at Israel, but more importantly, walk away from building long-range missiles that have no other purpose than to have nuclear weapons and walk away completely from enrichment.
When you talk about that, I'm a trust-but-verify guy, as I know that you are. That would mean - that means zero enrichment, that would mean American inspectors, and that would mean anyplace, anywhere, anytime inspections in the future as any - as part of any deal. They would have to destroy their facilities. Those facilities would have to be destroyed for them for that to happen. Are you - we for the first time this week got an indication that they might be willing to make a deal on this. You have any high degree of confidence that they'd be smart? The President has been clear: They'll either do it the easy way or it will be done for them. I don't think he could be any more clear than he's been. Do you think - have any degree of confidence they will be smart?
SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, first of all, I think what the President did is extend an opportunity. And the opportunity is Iran can be a prosperous and peaceful country. And that's the opportunity before them, and he hopes that they'll take this opportunity and that they'll take this offer. He says this offer won't be around forever. And what he means by that is at some point decisions will have to be made about more maximum pressure and other options because Iran can never have a nuclear weapon. Look, the regime - and our problem is not with the Iranian people. The Iranian people are a peaceful people, an ancient civilization and culture we admire greatly. Our problem is with a clerical regime that is behind every problem in the region: Hizballah, Hamas, the Houthis, the militias that have conducted attacks out of Iraq and Syria. They all - it - they all track back to the Iranian regime. Syria - all the instability in Syria tracks back to the Iranian regime. It's a regime that every day and every Friday chants, "Death to Israel, death to America." We have to believe them when they say that.
A regime like that can never have nuclear weapons, and the President has made clear they will not have a nuclear weapon. We hope it's through the path of negotiation. We hope it's through the path of diplomacy. Steve Witkoff is doing a great job at negotiating in a very difficult negotiation. This will not be easy, but he's doing a great job at trying to bring about that peaceful resolution to this problem, and we should pray that he's successful. I have confidence in him. But in the end the decision lies in the hands of one person, and that's the supreme leader in Iran. And I hope he chooses the path of peace and prosperity, not a destructive path. And we'll see how that plays out.
QUESTION: Mr. Secretary, one - through published reports, public reports, and people that I have spoken to that would have knowledge of such things, their level of enrichment is quite high. It's believed - the IAEA has said so. If you're at 60 percent enrichment, it is not a stretch to get to weapons-grade enrichment at 80, 90 percent, whatever the level happens to be. My understanding is that could happen within a matter of months, so that decision of the Iranians will have to be made that quickly. Where do we stand in terms of their willingness to give up their ambition to have these weapons?
SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, we know. We're about to test it and we'll find out. Look, when you say 60, it's misleading when people hear that number because they think 60 percent enrichment and 90 percent is what you need for a weapon. Actually, 90 percent of the work it takes to get to weapons-grade enrichment is getting to 60. Once you're at 60, you're 90 percent of the way there. You are in essence a threshold nuclear weapon state, which is what Iran basically has become. They are at the threshold of a nuclear weapon. If they decided to do so, they could do so very quickly. If they stockpile enough of that 60 percent enriched, they could very quickly turn it into 90 and weaponize it.
That's the danger we face right now. That's the urgency here. That's why Israel is - feels urgency about it and that's why we feel urgency about it, but not just us. Throughout the Gulf region, no country in the region wants Iran to have a nuclear weapon. And you also talk about not just a weapon; they have long-range missiles that they can deliver that weapon, those weapons, through. So this is a very grave risk. And they are enriching at that level, and they are openly doing it, by the way. In fact, their congress, for - their legislative branch actually passed a law requiring them to enrich at a certain level because JCPOA, the Obama deal with Iran, was canceled.
So we are at a - this is a critical moment. The President has made it a priority. And now people understand the urgency here because they are fairly close, too close for comfort, to a nuclear weapon. We have to roll that back one way or another, and we hope it's peacefully and through the process of negotiation.
QUESTION: All right. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, we appreciate you being with us. Thank you so much for joining us.
SECRETARY RUBIO: Thank you. Thanks, Sean.
