SECRETARY BLINKEN: Well, good evening, everyone. We just concluded two very productive days of meetings here in Münster, and I first want to thank very much our German hosts for their incredibly warm hospitality, and also recognize Germany and especially my friend and counterpart, Foreign Minister Baerbock, for her leadership over what has been a very challenging but also very consequential year.
When the G7 foreign ministers met almost a year ago in Liverpool, we sent a clear message that if President Putin invaded Ukraine, we would together impose, and I quote, "massive consequences and severe costs." President Putin bet that we wouldn't back up our words with actions. We proved him wrong.
Since February, our nations have led a coalition of dozens of allies and partners in providing substantial security support for Ukraine's brave defenders as they fight for their territory, for their democracy, and for their people. We've imposed unprecedented sanctions and export controls that have directly impacted the Russian military's ability to wage war. These efforts, coordinated in large part through the G7, have strengthened Ukraine's battlefield capabilities and weakened Russia's. They're also a key reason that Ukraine has momentum in this war.
We're also working together to impose sanctions on those supporting President Putin's war. That includes Iran, whose combat drones are killing Ukrainian civilians and destroying civilian infrastructure, and whose personnel in Crimea are assisting Russia in carrying out these brutal attacks.
The G7 is also providing economic and humanitarian support to Ukraine as President Putin tries to make up for Russia's defeats on the battlefield by targeting civilian infrastructure that provides Ukrainian men, women, children, and elderly people with heat, water, and electricity. Russia has destroyed some 40 percent of Ukraine's energy infrastructure, including thermal energy plants that provide many Ukrainian homes, schools, hospitals with heat in the wintertime, when temperatures can drop to 20 degrees below Celsius. President Putin seems to have decided that if he can't seize Ukraine by force, he will try to freeze it into submission. This is just the latest crime that President Putin is committing against the people of Ukraine. It was not enough to fill mass graves in Bucha and Irpin. It was not enough to cut off food, water, and medicine to the residents of Mariupol. It was not enough to violently uproot tens of thousands of Ukrainians from their homes and deport them to Russia through so-called filtration operations. On top of all of this, President Putin is also fearmongering about nuclear weapons.
As the G7 has done at every step, we're addressing Russia's latest escalations together and standing firm with Ukraine. On infrastructure, the G7 agreed to create a new coordination group to help repair, restore, and defend Ukraine's energy grid - the very grid that President Putin is brutalizing. And we're focusing more of our security support on helping Ukraine protect against these attacks, strengthening air defenses, and ramping up defense production.
When President Putin claimed that Ukraine was making a so-called dirty bomb at three sites, Ukraine asked the IAEA to investigate. Yesterday, its experts debunked Putin's false claim. Together with the G7, countries around the world are making clear to President Putin that any use of a nuclear weapon would be catastrophic for him and for Russia.
All our countries are making sacrifices to sustain this critical support, and we're supporting each other in doing that. On energy, for example, the United States has exported 53 billion cubic meters of liquified natural gas to Europe. That's nearly two and a half times what we exported in 2021 and will provide our friends with a vital reserve as they head into the winter. Over the last year, the G7 has also come together to meet other global challenges that none of our nations can address alone. We discussed several of these here in Munster, including the unprecedented global food crisis driven by climate change, by COVID, and conflict, including Russia's war in Ukraine. In June, President Biden and other G7 leaders announced that our countries would invest $4.5 billion in strengthening food security with more than half of that coming from the United States, and we pledged billions more since that time.
We're grateful for the efforts of the United Nations and Turkey to bring Russia back into the Black Sea Grain Initiative. In just over three months, that initiative has allowed over 10 million tons of grain to leave Ukraine's ports, helping drive down prices everywhere. Two thirds of the wheat shipped, the primary food for the world's poor, has gone to developing countries. But the truth is we shouldn't have to negotiate constantly with President Putin to allow food to get out to the world. That's why the international community is sending a clear message to Moscow that it should stop using hunger as a bargaining chip, and extend the grain deal long before it expires later this month.
We also discussed relations with China. The G7 stands together in defense of the rules‑based international order so that all nations can choose their path - free from intimidation, coercion, or unfair trade practices. We reaffirmed our abiding interest in peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait and our strong opposition to any unilateral changes to the status quo. We all recognize the need to cooperate with China on global challenges, like the climate crisis, which we cannot address without the world's largest emitter being apart of it, and global health security. But in our discussions here, we were also clear-eyed about the need to align our approach to the PRC in the face of growing coercion and push back together against Beijing's market distorting policies and practices, which hurt workers and industries in all of our countries.
Iran was also on our agenda. We're inspired by the courageous young women who continue to protest across the country, almost 50 days since the killing of Mahsa Amini, despite the regime's vicious crackdown. The next generations of Iranians are demonstrating that their desire to be free, to have opportunity, will not be extinguished even by the fiercest repression. We're working together to sanction those involved in the crackdown. We're also working with civil society and tech companies to provide digital services, so the Iranian people can communicate with one another and shine a spotlight on the regime's repression, even as it tries repeatedly to shut down the internet.
We also discussed the crisis in Haiti, where gangs' month-long blockade of ports is exacerbating a growing cholera outbreak, food and fuel shortages, and rampant violence. We're working together to hold these criminals and their patrons accountable through sanctions adopted by the UN Security Council, as well as new sanctions adopted by the United States and Canada that we announced today on two Haitian nationals, Joseph Lambert and Youri Latortue. We're grateful for Canada's leadership and focusing the international community on helping the Haitian people find a way forward, and we will continue to support these efforts. That includes building on our joint work to strengthen the Haitian National Police, who I understand have succeeded in retaking the Varreux terminal and port, which is vital for restoring the flow of food and fuel.
In our discussions on the DPRK, the G7 partners strongly condemned the latest escalatory launch of ballistic missiles and the destabilizing effects they're having in the region.
In addition to focusing on the immediate challenges today, the G7 continues to look over the horizon to how we can build the capacity to anticipate and prevent other crises going forward. African countries are vital partners in building this capacity, from boosting the global supply of renewable energy, to strengthening global health and food security; and our deepening cooperation was a central focus of the G7's meeting today with leaders from the African Union, Kenya, and Ghana.
The cessation of hostilities signed earlier this week between the Government of Ethiopia and the Tigray People's Liberation Front shows what we can achieve when we support African‑led solutions. We applaud the African Union, the governments of Kenya and South Africa for driving this process. And we appreciated the opportunity for the United States to offer support. The United States commends Prime Minister Abiy and the TPLF leadership for reaching this agreement, and we look forward to its swift implementation, particularly the unimpeded delivery of humanitarian aid and the protection of civilians. The situation is fragile; there will be challenges ahead. But the United States is committed to working with our partners towards a durable peace - a message that I underscored in my conversations over the last 48 hours with Prime Minister Abiy from Ethiopia, with Kenyan President Ruto, and South Africa's Foreign Minister Pandor.
The work the G7 has done here will lay the foundation for the issues that President Biden and his fellow leaders will discuss at the G20 Summit in Bali, in just over a week's time. And all are issues that Japan will carry forward when it takes over the G7 presidency in January.
As we saw here in Munster, when it comes to addressing the fundamental challenges of our time, the world's leading democracies are aligned, we're united; we are working together as never before. And when people around the world take a step back to ask - in this challenging time - which countries are helping solve their problems, rather than creating them, I think they'll find a clear answer. That's what we demonstrated here. That's what we'll continue to deliver on as we go forward - and go forward together. Thank you.
