Assistant Secretary Donfried’s Travel to Germany and Luxembourg
07/18/2022
Assistant Secretary Donfried’s Travel to Germany and Luxembourg
07/18/2022 09:02 AM EDT
Office of the Spokesperson
Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs, Dr. Karen Donfried, will travel to Germany and Luxembourg July 19 to 22 to reinforce the partnership we share in promoting human rights, democracy, and prosperity in Europe, as well as to reaffirm our shared commitment to Transatlantic solidarity in the face of Russia’s aggression against Ukraine.
Dr. Donfried will spend July 19 and 20 in Berlin, where she will meet with senior officials at the Chancellery and Foreign Ministry. She will engage with alumni and current participants of exchange programs in the United States, as well as transatlantic security policy experts. Dr. Donfried will also meet with business representatives on their operations in the United States and the overall investment climate.
Assistant Secretary Donfried will then travel to Luxembourg July 21 for meetings with Prime Minister Xavier Bettel, Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn, Finance Minister Yuriko Backes, and other Luxembourgish and EU officials to discuss strengthening transatlantic security and supporting Ukraine. Dr. Donfried’s engagement with Luxembourgish defense officials to discuss defense capabilities.
Secretary Blinken’s Meeting With Ukraine’s First Lady Zelenska
07/18/2022
Secretary Blinken’s Meeting With Ukraine’s First Lady Zelenska
07/18/2022 09:23 PM EDT
Office of the Spokesperson
The below is attributable to Spokesperson Ned Price:
Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken met today with Ukraine’s First Lady, Olena Zelenska, in Washington, D.C. The Secretary emphasized the United States’ comprehensive and enduring commitment to support Ukraine’s victory in Russia’s unjust and unprovoked war. The Secretary and First Lady Zelenska spoke about the immense and growing human costs of Russia’s full-scale invasion. The Secretary strongly condemned Russia’s brutal attacks, which continue to wound and kill innocent civilians and destroy homes, hospitals, schools, and other civilian infrastructure – including a July 14 strike on Vinnytsya that killed three children.
Secretary Blinken commended First Lady Zelenska’s work to help Ukrainians impacted by the war. He reiterated that the United States will continue to provide assistance to help Ukraine respond to the significant economic and humanitarian challenges it faces, including supporting the First Lady’s mental health initiative for citizens affected by the war . The Secretary reiterated that the United States remains dedicated to helping the people of Ukraine recover and rebuild from the devastation inflicted on them by President Putin’s unjust war.
Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs Michele J. Sison’s Travel to London and Vienna
07/19/2022
Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs Michele J. Sison’s Travel to London and Vienna
07/19/2022 10:20 AM EDT
Office of the Spokesperson
Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs Michele J. Sison will travel to London and Vienna July 20-26 for consultations on a range of U.S. multilateral priorities, including shipping, food insecurity, and humanitarian needs triggered by Russia’s further invasion of Ukraine.
In London, Assistant Secretary Sison will meet with the Secretary General of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) as well as consult with a group of likeminded partner nations on strategies to uphold and strengthen the multilateral system.
In Vienna, the Assistant Secretary will meet with officials of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), and the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB). Assistant Secretary Sison will also visit IAEA laboratory facilities in Seibersdorf, including those supported by the Joint FAO/IAEA Center of Nuclear Techniques in Food and Agriculture, as well as the IAEA Hydrology Lab in Vienna, to explore important initiatives related to reducing food insecurity and promoting global health.
For updates, follow @State_IO on Twitter.
Secretary Antony J. Blinken At a Virtual COVID-19 Global Action Plan Foreign Ministerial Meeting
07/19/2022
Secretary Antony J. Blinken At a Virtual COVID-19 Global Action Plan Foreign Ministerial Meeting
07/19/2022 10:49 AM EDT
Antony J. Blinken, Secretary of State
Washington, D.C.
SECRETARY BLINKEN: (Inaudible) thank you and Japan for your leadership role today as well as throughout. It is greatly appreciated, and I think I’m in violent agreement with pretty much everything you just said. Japan has played a critical role in our Global Action Plan on COVID, particularly the last-mile support like expanding the cold chain technology so more vaccines can actually be shipped to more places. And let me thank, as well, Director General Tedros of the World Health Organization for joining us today and for his leadership every single day in this global effort.
Back in February, when we foreign ministers last met on COVID, we launched the Global Action Plan to try to accelerate progress across six key lines of effort that were focused on the areas of the greatest need, where we identified the biggest gaps: getting more shots into arms, strengthening our supply chains, closing information gaps to try to increase confidence in vaccines, providing more support to frontline workers, increasing access to treatments and therapeutics, and finally, building a stronger, more effective global health architecture for the future. And you heard Foreign Minister Hayashi touch on virtually all of those lines.
And what is so inspiring is that countries stepped up to take responsibility for individual lines of effort based on their unique capabilities, with rigorous coordination across all of these lines of efforts. Because ultimately, that’s the only way that we’ll finally succeed in ending the acute phase of this pandemic. So I think it’s fair to say that since then, we’ve achieved real progress on all six lines of effort that we decided on together.
Just on shots in arms, for example, among the 92 low- and middle-income countries supported by COVAX’s Advance Market Commitment program, vaccination coverage in that time has jumped from 28 percent at the end of January to 48 percent today. That is real, significant – insufficient, but real significant – progress.
We’re seeing individual countries make major strides. For example, Malawi, which recently focused on vaccinating elderly people with a campaign that reached more people in two days than all previous efforts combined – targeted campaigns like these are critical to trying to close the vaccination gaps. To that end, the United States began distributing pediatric vaccine doses last month. This is for children ages five to twelve. We’ve already donated more than six million doses to eleven countries and we’re going to do more, because kids everywhere deserve protection from COVID-19.
On supply chains, our countries have begun working on an international clearinghouse platform for medical supplies that will make it easier for suppliers to actually connect with buyers, and that will produce much greater efficiency in this effort.
On closing the information gaps, we have campaigns underway in a number of countries to combat misinformation and disinformation. To cite a couple of examples, in the Philippines, the United States worked with religious leaders to boost vaccine confidence. These leaders incorporated COVID-19 messages into their prayer services. They reached more than half a million people in two parts of the country. Now 97 percent of eligible people in those places have been vaccinated.
On support for health workers, among the 92 low- and middle-income AMC countries, 75 percent of health workers have now been vaccinated.
On increasing access to treatments, this is the next challenge that we have to address together, and Foreign Minister, Hayashi also touched on this. And we do that, we think, by accelerating our work on robust test-to-treat programs that can connect a patient with treatment when they test positive. That reduces hospitalization; it saves lives.
And finally, on enhancing global health security more broadly, last month the World Bank helped establish this new financial intermediary fund that Foreign Minister Hayashi mentioned, and we appreciate very much, Yoshi, Japan’s initial contribution. That’s going to help strengthen national, regional, and global capacities to prevent the next pandemic – or if not to prevent it, to make sure that we have in place what’s necessary to mitigate it and to help people.
Several donors have already stepped forward, including the United States. We’ve made a pledge of $450 million. We hope more will contribute because, as we’ve seen with COVID-19, sustainable financing is necessary to break the cycle that we often see: a panic when something happens and then neglect after a little while. That’s what too often characterizes global health security.
All of these efforts will help us tackle other outbreaks happening around the world, like monkeypox and other diseases. The health of our people is simply more secure when we’re doing this, when we’re working together. And I think we’ve already demonstrated that in the months since the Global Action Plan took off.
Let me just commend everyone and every country that rose to the challenge and showed leadership across all of these different lines of effort. Our list of partner countries has grown. This meeting is actually significantly larger than it was six months ago. That’s also an encouraging sign of the world’s commitment.
Now, again, to echo my friend the foreign minister, we have to keep going but with even greater urgency. We’re seeing a rise in infections in every region, as well as new variants that are more transmissible, even as vaccination remains a strong defense against hospitalization and death. Many of you are battling higher infection rates from BA.4 and BA.5, just as we are in the United States. These variants will continue to threaten us until we’ve vaccinated more people everywhere.
So we can’t be complacent. We have to continue to marshal attention. We have to continue to marshal commitment to ensure that ending COVID-19 remains a top focus for our governments and for our citizens. And we’ve got to continue to coordinate relentlessly with each other, because this is the definition of a challenge that no country can solve alone.
We’ve got two months until we all gather at the UN General Assembly, so I would just urge that we accelerate our work so that when we meet in New York, we have new progress to announce, new ideas to discuss, new innovations to share.
Again, to everyone here today, thank you for being part of what really is a worthy enterprise on behalf of all of the people the world. Thank you.
Secretary Antony J. Blinken And Moldovan Prime Minister Natalia Gavrilita Before Their Meeting
07/19/2022
Secretary Antony J. Blinken And Moldovan Prime Minister Natalia Gavrilita Before Their Meeting
07/19/2022 04:07 PM EDT
Antony J. Blinken, Secretary of State
Washington, D.C.
Treaty Room
SECRETARY BLINKEN: Good afternoon. It’s a real pleasure to welcome the prime minister of Moldova here to the State Department. The United States is, in fact, trying to return a little bit of the hospitality of the prime minister and the president showed me in Moldova last year.
We’ve seen remarkable support from the Moldovan people for the many refugees from Ukraine as a result of Russian aggression in Ukraine. I think there’s something like 85,000, 86,000 Ukrainian refugees in Moldova, 90 percent of whom have been taken in by Moldovan families, which is remarkable.
And we see a government with a very strong agenda continuing to strengthen democracy, to fight corruption, to build energy security – all of which the United States strongly supports.
And of course, we want to applaud your status now as an EU candidate. That’s, I think in and of itself, a remarkable gage of the efforts, the success, the work that Moldova is doing, that the government is doing.
So we have a lot to talk about. But mostly, welcome. It’s great to have you here.
PRIME MINISTER GAVRILITA: Thank you very much, Secretary Blinken. It’s great to be in Washington and to discuss the many issues on our bilateral agenda. We have a very strong partnership, and the U.S. is a strong supporter of Moldovan reforms.
We, of course, are living through a very difficult international context and security context after the Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Moldova stands with the Ukrainian people and does everything possible to help, so we received warmly the refugees with the assistance of the entire society. Everybody mobilized – nongovernmental organizations, private sector, companies, volunteers.
We also recently had quite a logistics crisis that we are managing to support Ukrainian goods to go through the border, and we’re working very closely with our Romanian partners on this, and we are working on contingency plans for this winter. We are concerned about evolutions of the energy market, the prices.
Inflation is hitting our citizens very hard, and under these difficult circumstances it is particularly important to have good friends and the support of our partners, first of all in the European Union, who is now the – our family of countries, and in the United States. So thank you.
SECRETARY BLINKEN: Good. Great to have you here. Thank you.
PRIME MINISTER GAVRILITA: Thank you.
Secretary Blinken’s Meeting with Moldovan Prime Minister Gavrilita
07/19/2022
Secretary Blinken’s Meeting with Moldovan Prime Minister Gavrilita
07/19/2022 06:10 PM EDT
Office of the Spokesperson
The below is attributable to Spokesperson Ned Price:
Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken met today with Moldovan Prime Minister Natalia Gavrilita in Washington, DC. Secretary Blinken and Prime Minister Gavrilita discussed continued U.S. assistance to support Moldova’s democratic reform agenda, energy security, and its humanitarian response to Russia’s unprovoked war against Ukraine. The Secretary congratulated Moldova for obtaining EU candidate status and its progress on continued reforms to advance its European integration. Since February 24, the United States has committed nearly $75 million in humanitarian assistance and almost $124 million in economic and security assistance to Moldova. The Secretary and the Prime Minister also discussed the announcement at the Moldova Support Platform in Bucharest on July 15 that the U.S. government, working with Congress, plans to program an additional $64.5 million to support Moldova’s long-term democratic and economic resilience and to help Moldova defend its sovereignty.
Secretary Blinken’s Call with Lithuanian Foreign Minister Landsbergis
07/20/2022
Secretary Blinken’s Call with Lithuanian Foreign Minister Landsbergis
07/20/2022 04:21 PM EDT
Office of the Spokesperson
The below is attributable to Spokesperson Ned Price:
Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken spoke today with Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis. Secretary Blinken and Foreign Minister Landsbergis discussed our shared commitment to support Ukraine and hold Russia to account for its unjustified war.
How We Will Combat Trafficking in Persons
07/20/2022
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FROM THE DESK OF
Secretary Antony J. Blinken
U.S. DEPARTMENT of STATE
This week we released the 2022 Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report, which is meant to effect positive change and encourage governments to increase and improve their anti-trafficking efforts each year. You can read the remarks I gave at the 2022 TIP Report Launch Ceremony, alongside the Acting Director of the Office of Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, Kari Johnstone, and the 2022 Trafficking in Persons Heroes.
Today, we’re releasing the 2022 Trafficking in Persons Report. It assesses how 188 countries and territories, including the United States, are performing in terms of preventing trafficking, protecting victims, and prosecuting traffickers. It is one of the most comprehensive sources of information anywhere on anti-trafficking efforts by governments – what works, what doesn’t, and how we can continue to do better.
None of this would be possible without the extraordinary efforts of many people, starting with the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, under Kari’s remarkable leadership. I’d like to thank her for everything she and her team are doing every single year, but also the many diplomats, journalists, advocates, academics, and especially survivors who contribute to our understanding of this terrible crime.
Thank you to our colleagues across Congress. We’re grateful for the partnership that we have with Congress on combatting trafficking.
Thank you, too, to members of the U.S. Advisory Council on Human Trafficking and on the Human Trafficking Expert Consultant Network. These are two platforms that make it possible for us to work directly with survivors to shape more effective anti-trafficking policies.
And finally, again, thank you to our six 2022 TIP Report Heroes. Five are here with us in person, as Kari said, and we’ll honor them later this afternoon. So I’d just like to mention the one hero who’s not actually with us today, for obvious reasons. Let me just say a few words.
Kahtehrynah Chehrehpahkha leads the Ukrainian chapter of the anti-trafficking NGO La Strada. As we all know, since the start of Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, millions of Ukrainians have had to flee their homes – some internally within Ukraine, some leaving the country altogether – many, most with just what they were able to carry – and that makes them highly vulnerable to exploitation. La Strada has a hotline. It’s received an unprecedented number of calls over the past five months. The organization has given literally thousands of Ukrainians the information and assistance that they need to try to stay safe as they’re forced from their homes.
Kahtehrynah – and all of our TIP Heroes – are making a huge difference in the lives of people around the world.
I think most of you know this, but it’s worth repeating: The scale of this problem is vast. There are nearly 25 million people currently victims of trafficking. The United States is committed to fighting it because trafficking destabilizes societies, it undermines economies, it harms workers, it enriches those who exploit them, it undercuts legitimate business, and most fundamentally, because it is so profoundly wrong.
Trafficking in persons violates the rights of all people to be free: free to do what you want, be who you want, make the life that you wish.
Earlier this year, I had an opportunity to chair the first meeting of President Biden’s Interagency Task Force to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons. We brought together 20 agencies across our government to talk about how to implement the National Action Plan that the President released last November. This is a three-year strategy that includes strengthening prosecutions of traffickers, enhancing victim protection, and preventing the crime from occurring within our borders and abroad.
This report is a key part of our strategy. It’s something that we do every year, and as I said, a huge amount of work goes into actually bringing it to fruition.
So here’s where we are. I think if you look at the report, you’re going to see a mixed picture of progress. Twenty-one countries were upgraded a tier, because those governments made significant, increasing efforts to combat trafficking at home as well as for their citizens abroad. Eighteen countries were downgraded a tier, indicating that they either didn’t make significant, increasing efforts to combat trafficking – or worse, that their governments have a state-sponsored policy or pattern of trafficking.
As the report details, corruption continues to be a top tool of traffickers. Complicit government officials may turn a blind eye to illicit activities, provide false documents for workers, tip off traffickers to impending raids. Corruption allows traffickers to continue to act with impunity.
Meanwhile, in 11 countries, the government subjects its own people to trafficking – for example, as retaliation for political expression or through forced labor on projects of national interest.
That can look like subjecting people, including children, to forced labor in key sectors – mining, logging, manufacturing, farming – or sending members of ethnic minority groups to be “deradicalized” in camps.
It can also mean deploying workers around the world without telling them where they’re going or what they’ll be doing, confiscating passports and salaries, forcing them into dangerous work conditions, and constantly monitoring their movements.
That’s what happened to Zhang Qiang, a Chinese laborer who signed onto a Belt and Road project in Indonesia last year. He was drawn by the higher pay, which he promised his daughter would be used to buy her a bed. But when he arrived in Indonesia, he was stripped of his passport, instructed to sign a contract for a longer duration and lower pay than he’d been promised. Armed guards patrolled the workers’ camp, making escape virtually impossible. After failing to get help from the Chinese embassy in Jakarta, he managed to board a boat to escape Indonesia via Malaysia, but then was apprehended by Malaysian authorities. By the last reporting, he was on track to be deported back to China.
Another challenge that you’ll see laid out in this year’s report is the climate crisis and the instability that it helps accelerate and create. As we’re seeing in our hemisphere, climate is a key driver of mass migration, which can create, alas, ideal conditions for traffickers. And according to the UN Environment Programme, natural disasters – as well as the loss of livelihoods that they produce – may increase trafficking by up to 30 percent.
Even the higher demand for clean energy can have unintended consequences.
Consider, for example, the Democratic Republic of Congo, home to much of the world’s cobalt, which is a critical component for lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles – something very important for our efforts to combat climate change. Some of that cobalt is mined by children, who are then pushed into work through coercion, through fraud, through force.
I make this point because we need to be aware that as we tackle issues like climate and corruption throughout our – through our diplomacy, we also have to address how they intersect with trafficking in persons. Traffickers seize every opportunity to exploit victims for profit. We’ve got to be just as determined – in fact, more determined and more creative – to stop them.
Now, the report also identifies several interventions that are making anti-trafficking efforts more effective. And one is this year’s theme: more survivor engagement.
Survivors of human trafficking know – through deeply painful experience – the tactics that traffickers use, the obstacles that survivors face as they get free, the support that can help the most as they work to rebuild their lives. So what the report emphasizes and what I want to emphasize the need for us to listen – listen to them, empower them, partner with them at every level of our work.
We’re seeing more organizations around the world ask survivors to serve as advisors – for example, the Albanian Coalition of Shelters for Victims of Trafficking, which provides victims and survivors with safe housing. They helped create an advisory board of survivors to make sure that their interventions are designed to actually fit the real-world needs of the populations that they’re serving.
Our own United States Advisory Council on Human Trafficking is comprised entirely of survivors who make recommendations on federal anti-trafficking policies to the President’s interagency task force.
Another important tool is better data collection, making sure that our practices and bringing this together to help track cases, to help allocate resources, to measure the effectiveness of anti-trafficking policies. And so we’re focusing on that.
In the Philippines, to cite one example, the government launched a technology platform so that multiple agencies can work together to manage cases of victims as well as prosecute their traffickers.
In Uganda, the government partnered with two NGOs to launch the Trafficking in Persons mobile app platform. That helps investigators share details of cases they’re working on. That helps bring more traffickers to justice.
These examples highlight the kind of information-sharing and partnership that we believe will bring us closer to our goal of a world that is free from human trafficking in all of its forms. And that’s precisely the kind of information-sharing and partnership we hope this year’s TIP Report will spur for governments as well as for advocates around the world.
Traffickers don’t respect borders. The harm caused by this crime is vast; it’s varied. And it will continue to take relentless diplomacy, coordination, advocacy, and commitment, which is in this room and on this stage, if we’re going to stop it.
I appreciate those who have taken the time to write to me in the past several months. To share your thoughts – please write to me and my team at EmailTeam@State.gov.
Sincerely,
Secretary Antony J. Blinken
Note to Readers
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This email was adapted from Secretary Blinken’s remarks at the 2022 Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report Launch Ceremony on July 19, 2022.
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Belgium National Day
07/21/2022
Belgium National Day
07/21/2022 12:01 AM EDT
Antony J. Blinken, Secretary of State
On behalf of the Government of the United States of America, I send my warm wishes to the people of the Kingdom of Belgium as you observe your National Day.
As founding members of NATO, we established a cornerstone of peace, prosperity, and stability, which the Transatlantic community has enjoyed for more than 70 years. Our close and continuing cooperation in response to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine has deepened our bilateral ties, and we welcome Belgium’s announcement to spend two percent of its GDP on defense by 2035.
Our strong trade and investment relationship has continued to flourish on both sides of the Atlantic, including through the U.S.-EU partnership and the recent trade mission led by Princess Astrid. Together, we have worked to combat the global pandemic, and millions of communities around the world have benefitted from the fruits of our scientific cooperation. We appreciate partnering with the people of Belgium to advance our shared values, such as on human rights, equity, diversity, and the environment.
I look forward to our continued collaboration to create a more secure and prosperous future for our citizens. Best wishes to the people of Belgium on the occasion of your National Day.
Secretary Blinken’s Call with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Kuleba
07/22/2022
Secretary Blinken’s Call with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Kuleba
07/22/2022 02:12 PM EDT
Office of the Spokesperson
The below is attributable to Spokesperson Ned Price:
Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken spoke today with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba. The Secretary expressed his appreciation for Ukrainian First Lady Olena Zelenska’s trip to Washington, D.C. this week, noting that her visit offered an important opportunity to recognize the human cost of Russia’s war and emphasize the United States’ continued commitment to humanitarian aid and recovery assistance to Ukraine. The two leaders also spoke about efforts to resolve the global food security crisis resulting from the Kremlin’s deliberate blockage of Ukrainian agricultural exports. The Secretary previewed further security assistance for Ukraine as it continues to defend itself against Russia’s brutal and unjustified war of choice. He reiterated the United States’ condemnation of the atrocities committed by Russia’s armed forces and stressed the enduring U.S. focus on ensuring accountability.
Biden-Harris Administration Announces New U.S. Military Assistance for Ukraine
07/22/2022
Biden-Harris Administration Announces New U.S. Military Assistance for Ukraine
07/22/2022 04:31 PM EDT
Antony J. Blinken, Secretary of State
The people of Ukraine inspire the world as they defend their country and their freedom in the face of Russia’s brutal and unprovoked aggression. The United States continues to stand with Allies and partners from more than 50 countries in providing vital security assistance to support Ukraine’s defense of its sovereignty and territorial integrity against Russia’s aggression.
Today, pursuant to a delegation of authority from the President, I am authorizing our sixteenth drawdown since August 2021 of up to $175 million in arms and equipment from U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) inventories for Ukraine’s self-defense. Today’s announcement includes more HIMARS advanced rocket systems and other weapons that Ukrainians are using so effectively on the battlefield to defend their country. This drawdown, combined with an additional $95 million announced separately today under DoD’s Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, will bring total U.S. military assistance to Ukraine to approximately $8.2 billion since the beginning of this Administration.
Our commitment to the people of Ukraine will not waver. We stand united with Ukraine.
Quadrilateral Deal for Safe Passage of Agricultural Goods on the Black Sea
07/22/2022
Quadrilateral Deal for Safe Passage of Agricultural Goods on the Black Sea
07/22/2022 06:16 PM EDT
Antony J. Blinken, Secretary of State
The United Nations, the Republic of Turkey, Ukraine, and Russia have committed to a plan for resuming Ukrainian exports through the Black Sea and getting millions of tons of Ukrainian grain to those who need it around the world. The United States welcomes this deal and commends UN Secretary-General Guterres and Turkish President Erdoğan for their committed diplomatic efforts to mediate these discussions. Today’s UN-brokered deal is a positive step towards addressing the far-reaching impacts of Russia’s war. The international community must now hold Russia accountable for this deal, ending its effective blockade of Ukraine’s ports and ensuring Ukrainian agricultural goods — including grain, oilseeds, and sunflower oil — reach world markets.
Russia has weaponized food since the beginning of this crisis. An end to Russia’s blockade of Ukraine’s agricultural exports through the Black Sea is, therefore, only one of the many steps Russia needs to take to ensure that food from Ukraine makes it to global markets. Global food security will remain at risk for as long as Russia continues its unjustified and brutal aggression against Ukraine.
The world’s hungry cannot wait, and we expect the implementation of today’s deal to commence swiftly and proceed without interruption or interference.
The United States Strongly Condemns the Russian Missile Attack Against Odesa
07/23/2022
The United States Strongly Condemns the Russian Missile Attack Against Odesa
07/23/2022 04:43 PM EDT
Antony J. Blinken, Secretary of State
The United States strongly condemns the Russian missile attack on the Ukrainian port of Odesa today. Just 24 hours after finalizing a deal to allow the resumption of Ukrainian agricultural exports through the Black Sea, Russia breached its commitments by attacking the historic port from which grain and agricultural exports would again be transported under this arrangement. The Kremlin continues to show disregard for the safety and security of millions of civilians as it perpetuates its assault on Ukraine. Russia is starving Ukraine of its economic vitality and the world of its food supply through the effective blockade of the Black Sea.
This attack casts serious doubt on the credibility of Russia’s commitment to yesterday’s deal and undermines the work of the UN, Turkey, and Ukraine to get critical food to world markets. Russia bears responsibility for deepening the global food crisis and must stop its aggression and fully implement the deal to which it has agreed.
