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Secretary of State Blinken tells Scott Pelley about the challenges facing the U.S. around the world; Former GOP Rep. Denver Riggleman says there is “irrefutable” proof of a plot to overturn the 2020 presidential election; Rescuing the world’s coral reefs.
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After humiliating defeats in Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin told his people that the U.S. is bent on destroying the Russian homeland. On Wednesday, he drafted 300,000 reservists and threatened nuclear war. “This is not a bluff,” he said. Ukraine dominated this past week’s annual gathering of the U.N. General Assembly in New York — attended by President Biden and more than 120 world leaders. Friday, we met the U.S. secretary of state, Antony Blinken, to talk about a world of challenges and Putin’s nuclear threat.
Scott Pelley: How concerned should Americans be about the prospect of nuclear war?
Antony Blinken: Scott we’ve heard a lot of irresponsible rhetoric coming out of Vladimir Putin, but we’re focused on making sure that we’re all acting responsibly, especially when it comes to this kind of loose rhetoric. We have– been very clear with– the Russians publicly and– as well as privately to stop the loose talk about nuclear weapons.
Scott Pelley: Privately, the United States has been in communication with the Kremlin about these threats of nuclear war?
Antony Blinken: Yes. It’s very important that Moscow hear from us and know from us that the consequences would be horrific. And we’ve made that very clear.
Scott Pelley: You call the nuclear talk “loose talk.” But isn’t Vladimir Putin telling us what he’s going to do if he is backed any further into a corner?
Antony Blinken: Vladimir Putin has a clear way out of the war he started and that’s to end it. If Russia stops fighting, the war ends. If Ukraine stops fighting, Ukraine ends.
Scott Pelley: Is there anyone in the Kremlin who can tell Vladimir Putin “No” if he decides to launch a battlefield nuclear weapon?
Antony Blinken: They have a chain of command. Whether it works or not– to be seen. But I think what you’re pointing to is a larger challenge. And that is the Achilles heel of autocracies anywhere, there is usually not anyone who has the capacity or the will to speak truth to power, And part of the reason I think– Russia has gotten itself into the mess that it’s in is because there is no one in the system to effectively tell Putin he’s doing the wrong thing.
Scott Pelley: In our interview last week, President Biden told us that he had a message for Vladimir Putin on the use of nuclear weapons.
President Joe Biden, last week: Don’t, Don’t, Don’t.
Scott Pelley: He went on to say, the U.S. response would be consequential. What did he mean by that?
Antony Blinken: I’m not gonna get into what the consequences would be- any use of nuclear weapons would have catastrophic effects for — of course the country using them– but for many others as well.
Scott Pelley: If you can’t give us specifics about a U.S. response, can you tell us that the administration has a plan?
Antony Blinken: We do.
Scott Pelley: Is it a plan that would prevent World War III?
Antony Blinken: President Biden has been determined that as we’re doing everything we can to help the Ukrainians defend themselves, as we’re doing everything we can to rally other countries to put pressure on Russia, we’re also determined that this war not expand, not get broader.
As we were speaking to Secretary Blinken, news broke that a U.N. investigative commission had found evidence of rape and torture of children in Russian-occupied Ukraine.
Scott Pelley: The panel goes on to say, “Based on the evidence gathered by the commission, it has concluded that war crimes have been committed in Ukraine.” What does justice look like for Ukraine?
Antony Blinken: Justice looks like accountability, accountability for those who perpetrated these war crimes, these atrocities, as well as for those who ordered them. And it’s one of the reasons, Scott, why– we’re doing everything we can to support those who are trying to compile the evidence. And to investigate. And ultimately, to prosecute those responsible.
Scott Pelley: To prosecute? You believe there should be war crime trials?
Antony Blinken: I was in Ukraine a couple of weeks ago. One of the places I visited was a city called Irpin, And I saw residential buildings, building block after building block, totally bombed out this was the totally indiscriminate use of force. wherever the Russian tide recedes, what’s left in its wake is very clear evidence of atrocities and war crimes.
Atrocities were laid before the U.N Security Council last Thursday, drawing from the Russian foreign minister a dubious defense.
Scott Pelley: When Sergey Lavrov says that, the atrocities have been staged and it is Russia that is the victim, Tony Blinken is sitting there thinking what?
Antony Blinken: This is “Alice in Wonderland.” It’s the world upside down. Up is down, white is black– truth is false. But here’s the thing, Scott. All of these words, all of these words ring totally hollow to every member on the Security Council. So this spewing of words– is not having an effect. On the contrary, I think it just shows the total disconnect between Russia and virtually the entirety of the rest of the world.
At the moment we spoke to the secretary, Russia was hurrying through what it calls “elections” to force these areas of Ukraine’s occupied east and south into the Russian Federation.
Antony Blinken: These so-called elections are a sham, period. They go in. They put in puppet governments, local governments. And then they proceed with a vote, which they’ll manipulate in any event in order to try to declare the territory Russian territory. It is not. It will never be recognized as such. And the Ukrainians have every right to take it back.
Blinken came to our interview after meeting China’s foreign minister. China has been raising pressure on the democratic island of Taiwan which, in our conversation last week, President Biden pledged to defend with force.
Scott Pelley, last week: So unlike Ukraine, to be clear, sir, U.S. Forces, U.S. men and women would defend Taiwan in the event of a Chinese invasion?
President Joe Biden, last week: Yes.
But official U.S. policy is, and has been for decades, to remain ambiguous about defending the island.
Antony Blinken: China has acted increasingly aggressively when it comes to Taiwan. That poses a threat to peace and stability in the entire region.
Scott Pelley: The Chinese foreign minister must have asked you to explain the President’s remarks.
Antony Blinken: Well, we had a conversation about our different approaches– to Taiwan, and I reiterated what– what the President has said, and what he’s said clearly and consistently. Our continued adherence to the– the One China Policy– our determination that– the differences be resolved peacefully– our insistence– that peace and stability be maintained in the Taiwan Straits, and our deep concern that China was taking actions to try to change that status quo. That’s what the issue is.
Blinken warns that turbulence in the Taiwan Strait would wash around the world.
Antony Blinken: Taiwan itself, were anything to happen, it is where virtually all the semiconductors– are– are made. One of the– one of the reasons we’re now investing so heavily in our own capacity to produce semiconductors here in the United States. We designed them, but the actual production is done in a handful of places, and Taiwan produces most of them if that’s disrupted the effects that that would have on the global economy could be devastating.
Last week on 60 Minutes, the president of Iran told Lesley Stahl he would consider re-entering the deal to restrict Iran’s nuclear weapons program. The Trump administration had canceled it. Blinken doubts that Iran is serious.
Antony Blinken: Iran has continued to try to add extraneous issues to the negotiation that we’re simply not going to say yes to. We will not accept a bad deal, the response that they’ve given to the last proposals put forward by our European partners have been a very significant step backwards. And so, I don’t see any prospects in the very near term to– to bring this to a conclusion.
Antony Blinken is 60. One of his grandparents was born in Ukraine, his stepfather survived the Holocaust. And his father was a U.S. ambassador. Blinken has spent 30 years in foreign policy for Democrats mostly in the Senate and the White House. He was in the back of the room during the strike on Osama Bin Laden. His philosophy on American diplomacy is robust engagement with what he calls, humility and confidence.
Antony Blinken: If we don’t engage, if we’re not leading, then one of two things, either someone else is and probably not in a way that’s gonna advance our interests and values, or no one is, and then you tend to have chaos. You get a vacuum that’s filled by bad things before it’s filled with good things. Because the world does not organize itself. There’s not a single big problem that’s affecting the lives of our citizens that we can effectively solve alone. Whether it’s climate, whether it’s COVID, whether it’s the effect of all of these emerging technologies on our lives, we have to be working with others to try to shape all of this in a way that’s actually gonna make our people, as well as other people, a little bit more secure, a little bit more prosperous, a little bit more full of opportunity.
Scott Pelley: Given January 6th, given the fabricated controversy over the election results, do you find that countries around the world are worried about the stability of the United States?
Antony Blinken: It’s no secret that we have challenges within our own democracy. They’re playing out before the entire world. We don’t sweep them under the rug, even when it’s painful. So I’m able to say to other countries that bring these up, yes, we’ve got our problems, but we’re confronting them. We’re dealing with them. You might do the same thing.
Scott Pelley: Your father was U.S. ambassador to Hungary. And as we sit here on Friday afternoon, he passed away last night. And I wonder why you decided to keep such a busy schedule the day after that tragedy in your family.
Antony Blinken: My dad was 96 years old. He was in so many ways my role model. he built a remarkable business, one of the leading investment banks in this country over many years, He led a life of dignity, of decency, of modesty that is something I’ve very much aspired to. And so I– I guess I thought that — honoring everything that he shared with me, the best way to do that was to continue doing my job.
That job, for the foreseeable future, will be consumed with a question that has defeated generations of diplomats—how to keep a small war in Europe from igniting the world.
Scott Pelley: Are there any talks currently that we may not have heard about?
Antony Blinken: There are no talks because Russia has not demonstrated any willingness in this moment to engage in meaningful discussions. If and when that changes, we will do everything we can to support a diplomatic process.
Scott Pelley: Is Vladimir Putin losing this war?
Antony Blinken: He’s already lost in terms of what he was trying to achieve. Because keep in mind, what he said very clearly from the start is, his objective was to erase Ukraine’s identity as an independent country, that has already failed. Ukrainians are fighting for their own land. They’re fighting for their own country. The Russians are not. And these Russian soldiers who are being thrown into this conflict, often not knowing where they’re going or what they’re doing– this is not something that they want to be fighting for. The Ukrainians are fighting for their own future. They’re fighting for their own land. They’re fighting for their own lives.
Produced by Aaron Weisz and Pat Milton. Associate producer, Ian Flickinger. Broadcast associate, Michelle Karim. Edited by April Wilson. Thanks to Pamela Falk, CBS News.
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Secretary of State Antony Blinken came to his interview with 60 Minutes after meeting China’s foreign minister. China has been raising pressure on the democratic island of Taiwan, which President Biden pledged to defend with force in a conversation with 60 Minutes last week.
“China has acted increasingly aggressively when it comes to Taiwan,” Blinken told correspondent Scott Pelley. “That poses a threat to peace and stability in the entire region.”
During President Biden’s own interview with Pelley, Mr. Biden said U.S. forces would defend Taiwan, “if in fact there was an unprecedented attack.”
“So unlike Ukraine, to be clear, sir,” Pelley said to Mr. Biden, “U.S. forces, U.S. men and women would defend Taiwan in the event of a Chinese invasion?”
“Yes,” the president said.
After the interview, a White House official clarified to 60 Minutes that U.S. policy on Taiwan has not changed. Officially, the U.S. maintains “strategic ambiguity” on whether American forces would defend Taiwan, but the Taiwan Relations Act obligates the U.S. to help equip Taiwan to defend itself.
Secretary of State Blinken told 60 Minutes he was determined to solve differences with China peacefully.
“The Chinese foreign minister must have asked you to explain the President’s remarks,” Pelley said to Blinken.
“Well, we had a conversation about our different approaches to Taiwan, and I reiterated what –what the president has said, and what he’s said clearly and consistently. Our continued adherence to the– the ‘One China Policy,’ our determination that the differences be resolved peacefully our insistence, that peace and stability be maintained in the Taiwan Straits, and our deep concern that China was taking actions to try to change that status quo. That’s what the issue is,” Blinken said.
Blinken says there’s too much to lose in the Taiwan Strait.
“Taiwan itself, were anything to happen, it is where virtually all the semiconductors… are made,” Blinken said. “[Which is] one of the reasons we’re now investing so heavily in our own capacity to produce semiconductors here in the United States. We designed them, but the actual production is done in a handful of places, and Taiwan produces most of them… The effects that that would have on the global economy would be devastating.”
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U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told 60 Minutes the Kremlin has a nuclear “chain of command” but it’s uncertain whether anyone would tell Russian President Vladimir Putin “no” if he decides to launch a nuclear weapon.
“And that is the Achilles heel of autocracies anywhere,” the secretary of state said. “…There is usually not anyone who has the capacity or the will to speak truth to power. And part of the reason, I think, Russia has gotten itself into the mess that it’s in is because there is no one in the system to effectively tell Putin he’s doing the wrong thing.”
Putin drafted 300,000 reservists and threatened nuclear war last Wednesday, and emphasized, “this is not a bluff.” In an address to his people, Putin told his people that the West is bent on destroying the Russian homeland.
Blinken said Putin’s rhetoric is “irresponsible” and added that the U.S. expressed their concerns to Russia about its threats.
“We’re focused on making sure that we’re all acting responsibly, especially when it comes to this kind of loose rhetoric,” Blinken told Pelley. “We have been very clear with the Russians publicly and, as well as, privately to stop the loose talk about nuclear weapons.”
“Privately, the United States has been in communication with the Kremlin about these threats of nuclear war?” Pelley asked.
“Yes,” Blinken said. “It’s very important that Moscow hear from us and know from us that the consequences would be horrific. And we’ve made that very clear.”
“You call the nuclear talk ‘loose talk,’” Pelley said, “But isn’t Vladimir Putin telling us what he’s going to do if he is backed any further into a corner?”
“Vladimir Putin has a clear way out of the war he started and that’s to end it,” Blinken said. “If Russia stops fighting, the war ends. If Ukraine stops fighting, Ukraine ends.”
As President Biden did in his 60 Minutes interview last week, Blinken declined to share specifics on how the U.S. would respond to the use of nuclear weapons. He did say, though, the administration had a plan.
“Is it a plan that would prevent World War III?” Pelley asked.
“President Biden has been determined that as we’re doing everything we can to help the Ukrainians defend themselves, as we’re doing everything we can to rally other countries to put pressure on Russia, we’re also determined that this war not expand, not get broader,” Blinken explained.
Meanwhile, a U.N. commission found evidence of rape and torture of children in Russian-occupied Ukraine. Blinken said he saw very clear evidence of war crimes first-hand when he visited Ukraine a couple weeks ago.
“One of the places I visited was a city called Irpin,” Blinken said. “And I saw residential buildings, building block after building block, totally bombed out. Wherever the Russian tide recedes, what’s left in its wake is very clear evidence of atrocities and war crimes.”
“We’re doing everything we can to support those who are trying to compile the evidence. And to investigate. And ultimately, to prosecute those responsible,” Blinken said.
Last Thursday, when atrocities in Ukraine were laid out before the U.N. Security Council, the Russian foreign minister said they were staged and claimed Russia was a victim. Blinken responded to Lavrov’s claims in Pelley’s interview.
“This is ‘Alice in Wonderland.’ It’s the world upside down. Up is down, white is black– truth is false,” Blinken said. “All of these words, all of these words ring totally hollow to every member on the Security Council… So this spewing of words is not having an effect. On the contrary, I think it just shows the total disconnect between Russia and virtually the entirety of the rest of the world.”
Blinken said the “elections” to force areas of Ukraine into the Russian Federation are a sham and would never be recognized. He also said there were no meaningful negotiations currently with Russia to bring about the end of the war in Ukraine.
“There are no talks because Russia has not demonstrated any willingness in this moment to engage in meaningful discussions,” Blinken said. “If and when that changes, we will do everything we can to support a diplomatic process.”
To Blinken, Putin’s war in Ukraine has failed.
“What he said very clearly from the start is, his objective was to erase Ukraine’s identity as an independent country, that has already failed,” Blinken said. “Ukrainians are fighting for their own land. They’re fighting for their own country. The Russians are not. And these Russian soldiers who are being thrown into this conflict, often not knowing where they’re going or what they’re doing– this is not something that they want to be fighting for. The Ukrainians are fighting for their own future. They’re fighting for their own land. They’re fighting for their own lives.”
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The United States does “not yet know the motive for the attack” on a US convoy in Nigeria Tuesday, but has “no indications at this time that it was targeted against our Mission,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday.
According to the top US diplomat, “the convoy was carrying nine Nigerian nationals: five employees of the US Mission to Nigeria and four members of the Nigeria Police Force.”
“They were traveling in advance of a planned visit by US Mission personnel to a US-funded flood response project in Anambra,” he said in a statement.
At least four people were killed in the attack by “unknown assailants” on the two vehicle convoy, Blinken said, and the other five remain unaccounted for.
Local police told CNN on Tuesday that two of the people killed were US Mission workers and two were police officers.
Blinken extended his condolences “to the families of those killed in the attack,” as well as vowed “to do everything possible to safely recover those who remain missing.”
“US Mission personnel are working urgently with Nigerian counterparts to ascertain the location and condition of the members of the convoy who are unaccounted for,” he said, adding: “We condemn in the strongest terms this attack. We will work closely with our Nigerian law enforcement colleagues in seeking to bring those responsible to justice.”
Hours before the attack on the US convoy Tuesday, Blinken spoke with Nigerian President-elect Bola Ahmed Tinubu about the US’ “continued commitment to further strengthening the US-Nigeria relationship with the incoming administration,” according to a State Department readout.
“The Secretary noted that the US-Nigeria partnership is built on shared interests and strong people-to-people ties and that those links should continue to strengthen under President-elect Tinubu’s tenure,” the readout said.
The leaders, according to the readout, “discussed the importance of inclusive leadership that represents all Nigerians, continued comprehensive security cooperation, and reforms to support economic growth.”
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CNN
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US Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke Sunday with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and called for the “immediate release” of detained Americans Evan Gershkovich and Paul Whelan, according to the US State Department.
“Secretary Blinken conveyed the United States’ grave concern over Russia’s unacceptable detention of a U.S. citizen journalist,” a readout from the department said.
“Secretary Blinken further urged the Kremlin to immediately release wrongfully detained U.S. citizen Paul Whelan,” the readout continued, adding that the secretary and Lavrov “also discussed the importance of creating an environment that permits diplomatic missions to carry out their work.”
Gershkovich, a Wall Street Journal reporter based in Russia, was detained last week on charges of espionage – the first time an American journalist has been detained on such accusations by Moscow since the Cold War. US officials in Moscow had not yet been granted consular access to Gershkovich as of Sunday.
The Journal’s editor-in-chief, Emma Tucker, said Sunday that the call between Blinken and Lavrov was “hugely reassuring.”
“We know that the US government is taking the case very seriously right up to the top,” she told CBS News.
Whelan, meanwhile, is serving out a 16-year prison sentence for the same charges, which he strongly denies. His brother David Whelan said in an email to the press Thursday that his family was sorry to hear “that another American family will have to experience the same trauma that we have had to endure for the past 1,553 days.”
Whelan has been designated as wrongfully detained by the US State Department, and Gershkovich is expected to receive the same designation but had not yet as of Sunday morning. Tucker said she hopes the US government will act swiftly to label Gershkovich as wrongfully detained, saying it will be anofficial recognition that the charges against the reporter are “entirely bogus.”
The Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement that Sunday’s phone call was initiated by the US and that Lavrov told Blinken that Gershkovich’s fate would be determined by a Russian court.
Lavrov also blamed Washington and the Western press for politicizing the arrest.
“It was emphasized that it is unacceptable for officials in Washington and Western media to hype up [the issue] with the clear intention of giving this case a political coloring,” the statement said.
Gershkovich is currently being held in the notorious Lefortovo pre-detention center until May 29. He faces up to 20 years in prison on espionage charges.
Sunday’s call was only the third time that Blinken has spoken with his Russian counterpart since the war in Ukraine began, and all of those conversations have discussed detained US citizens. The two spoke in person for the first time since the war broke out on the sidelines of the G20 foreign ministers meeting in India last month, and Blinken said he raised the issues of the war, Russia’s suspension of its participation in the New START nuclear agreement, and Whelan’s ongoing detention.
The chairman of the House Intelligence Committee on Sunday expressed support for the Biden administration’s efforts to negotiate with Russia for Gershkovich’s release.
“Certainly the Biden administration should continue its efforts to negotiate and to try to get the release of this journalist, but overall, people should be very cautious about staying in Russia,” Republican Rep. Mike Turner of Ohio told CNN’s Dana Bash on “State of the Union.”
Turner noted that the US government “gave people notice that they should get out of Russia” and said he would continued to encourage people to do so. The Biden administration has echoed those assessments. While the Kremlin has asserted that Russia is safe for accredited journalists, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told CNN on Friday, “Russia is not safe for Americans.”
Turner appeared on “State of the Union” on Sunday from southern Poland, where he said he is “meeting with those who are active in intelligence and meeting with our servicemembers who are active in the support of Ukraine.”
Pressed by Bash on remarks by Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley that the war in Ukraine will likely not be won this year, the Ohio lawmaker appeared to agree.
“One thing I can tell you is that Russia is not going to win either,” he said. “This is a war that Russia is not winning, and they’re not winning it because Ukraine realizes that they’re standing up for democracy, they’re fighting for their country. And as they continue to do so, the United States’ assistance and certainly the assistance of our NATO allies and partners are making a huge turnout for the battlefield.”
This story has been updated with additional reaction.
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The US State Department on Monday officially designated Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich as wrongfully detained by Russia.
“Today, Secretary Blinken made a determination that Evan Gershkovich is wrongfully detained by Russia,” State Department principal deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel said in a statement.
The designation gives further backing to the assertions by the US government and the Wall Street Journal that the espionage charges against the reporter are baseless. It will empower the Biden administration to explore avenues such as a prisoner swap to try to secure Gershkovich’s release.
His case will now be handled at the State Department through the Office of the Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs, which has played a key role in the release of US citizens held hostage and wrongfully detained around the world.
Both of the Americans who have been recently brought home from Russia – Trevor Reed and Brittney Griner – had been designated as wrongfully detained and were freed in prisoner swaps.
Paul Whelan, who has been imprisoned in Russia for more than four years on espionage charges that he and the US government deny, has also been declared wrongfully detained.
In his statement, Patel said the “U.S. government will provide all appropriate support to Mr. Gershkovich and his family.”
“We call for the Russian Federation to immediately release Mr. Gershkovich,” he said. “We also call on Russia to release wrongfully detained U.S. citizen Paul Whelan.”
The editor in chief and publisher of the Wall Street Journal on Monday said they “are doing everything in our power to support Evan and his family and will continue working with the State Department and other relevant U.S. officials to push for his release.”
“He is a distinguished journalist and his arrest is an attack on a free press and it should spur outrage in all free people and governments around the world,” the statement from Emma Tucker and Almar Latour said.
Gershkovich was detained in late March and formally charged with espionage last Friday. As of Monday, officials at the US Embassy in Moscow had not been granted consular access to Gershkovich.
“It is a violation of Russia’s obligations under our consular convention and a violation against international law,” Patel said at a State Department briefing Monday. “We have stressed the need for the Russian government to provide this access as soon as possible.”
The official determination that Gershkovich is wrongfully detained comes after a bureaucratic process played out within the US government.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said last week they were “very deliberately but expeditiously” carrying out that process, but “in (his) own mind, there’s no doubt that he’s being wrongfully detained by Russia.”
The arrest of the journalist – the first of its kind in Russia since the Cold War – prompted the top US diplomat to make a rare call to his Russian counterpart.
“Secretary Blinken conveyed the United States’ grave concern over Russia’s unacceptable detention of a U.S. citizen journalist,” a State Department readout of the April 2 call said.
That call was only the third time that Blinken has spoken with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov since the war in Ukraine began, and all of those conversations have discussed detained US citizens. The two spoke in person for the first time since the war broke out on the sidelines of the G20 foreign ministers meeting in India last month, and Blinken said he raised the issues of the war, Russia’s suspension of its participation in the New START nuclear agreement, and Whelan’s ongoing detention.
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US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told CNN that the US is attempting to strengthen “lines of communication” with China to avoid conflict between the two superpowers.
“We are working to put some stability into the relationship, to put a floor under the relationship, to make sure that the competition that we’re in doesn’t veer into conflict,” Blinken told CNN’s Fareed Zakaria in an interview that aired Sunday. A conflict, the secretary added, “would not be in our interest, their interest, or anyone else’s.”
Blinken, who was speaking on the sidelines of the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado, made a highly anticipated trip to China last month, becoming the first secretary of state to travel to the country in five years and the most senior US official to make such a mission since President Joe Biden took office in 2021. His visit was followed by similar trips by other high-level Biden administration officials, including Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and US climate envoy John Kerry.
“We weren’t doing a lot of talking before. Now we are. We have different groups that are engaged, or about to engage, on discrete issues … that are problems … in the relationship where I believe we can, I think, get to a resolution,” Blinken said. “Now these are early days. The proof will be in the results.”
After days of talks with senior Chinese officials in Beijing, Blinken touted that “progress” had been made toward steering relations back on track.
The two global powers have been increasingly at loggerheads over a host of issues ranging from Beijing’s close ties with Moscow to American efforts to limit the sale of advanced technologies to China.
Earlier this year, a Chinese surveillance balloon that was detected floating across the US and hovering over sensitive military sites before ultimately being shot down by an American fighter plane sent relations plunging to a new low and resulted in Blinken scrapping an earlier Beijing visit.
“I was very clear with my Chinese counterparts,” Blinken told Zakaria, referring to his trip last month. “We will continue to do and say things that China will not like just as they’re going to continue to do and say things we won’t like.”
“The test for us is whether we can manage our way through that, to make sure that we sustain these lines of communication, that we continue to talk, and that we work on, as I said, both dealing with the differences and seeing if we can cooperate,” the secretary said.
CNN previously reported that one of the key issues that did not get resolved during Blinken’s trip was the restoration of military-to-military communications between US and China. Contacts between the countries’ top military officials remain frozen, and Chinese Defense Minister Li Shangfu continues to be under US sanction dating back to 2018 over the purchase of Russian weapons by China’s Equipment Development Department, which Li was in charge of at the time.
Asked by Zakaria whether the US should lift the penalty to alleviate tensions, Blinken said, “Those sanctions don’t prevent the minister from engaging or us engaging with him,” adding that “it is a political decision, in effect, for China to decide whether or not he should be engaging.”
China rejected a meeting between US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Shangfu during a security forum in Singapore earlier this year, although the two did speak briefly.
“We’ve made very clear that we think it’s a responsibility to have these military-to-military contacts, to have this dialogue, especially to avoid any miscalculations, any misperceptions of what we’re each doing,” Blinken said. “So, we’ll see where China comes out on this.”
On the Ukraine front, Blinken told Zakaria that Russia has “already lost” the war “in terms of what Russia sought to achieve and what (Vladimir) Putin sought to achieve.”
“The objective was to erase Ukraine from the map, to eliminate its independence, its sovereignty, to subsume it into Russia. That failed a long time ago,” the secretary said.
Blinken acknowledged that Ukraine’s mission to regain territory captured by Moscow would be “a very hard fight.” He predicted that the counteroffensive against Russia would continue for “several months.”
However, he said, along with the aid, military equipment and training Ukraine is receiving from various countries, Kyiv’s cause represents “the decisive element.”
“Unlike the Russians, Ukrainians are fighting for their land, for their future, for their country, for their freedom,” Blinken said.
CORRECTION: This story has been updated to reflect that Blinken’s prediction about a conflict continuing for “several months” was a reference to the Ukrainian counteroffensive.
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The United States is “engaged with Syria, engaged with third countries” to try to bring detained journalist Austin Tice home, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday.
“We are extensively engaged with regard to Austin, engaged with Syria, engaged with third countries, seeking to find a way to get him home. And we’re not going to relent until we do,” Blinken said in remarks at a Washington Post event on World Press Freedom Day.
Tice was taken hostage in Syria in 2012. President Joe Biden declared last year that the US government knows “with certainty that he has been held by the Syrian regime” and called on Damascus to cooperate on efforts to release him.
The government of Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad has not publicly acknowledged they are detaining Tice. The US does not have diplomatic relations with the Syrian regime and has voiced opposition to rapprochement with Assad.
Blinken did not provide details about the engagements to bring Tice home. White House and State Department officials would not confirm a report from the Wall Street Journal that US officials had held talks with Syrian officials in Oman.
“We cannot confirm any specific meetings past or present. As you know in general meetings and negotiations to secure the release of wrongfully detained Americans, that is incredibly sensitive,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said at a White House briefing. “We want to be really, really careful and mindful and don’t want to confirm any specific conversation from the past or in the present.”
CNN reported last August that the Biden administration had direct engagements with the Syrian government in an effort to secure Tice’s release. In 2020 under the Trump administration, Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs Roger Carstens secretly traveled to Damascus and met with Assad regime officials.
Austin Tice’s mother Debra Tice told CNN Monday that she thinks that the administration is committed to bringing her son home but “they stumble over what needs to be done.” She said she had no doubt that her son would walk free.
Biden paid tribute to Austin Tice and other wrongfully detained Americans, including Evan Gershkovich and Paul Whelan in Russia, in remarks at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner on Saturday.
A number of family members of wrongfully detained Americans – many of whom have joined forces in an organization called the “Bring Our Families Home” campaign – as well as those who had been freed from detention gathered in Washington, DC, this week to seek a meeting with the president and call on the US government to do more to secure the release of their loved ones.
“Although our loved ones are wrongfully detained and held hostage abroad, including China, including Russia, including Iran, Syria, the United Arab Emirates and Venezuela, our voices are stronger together,” said Harrison Li, the son of Kai Li, who is detained in China.
“Although each case has its own idiosyncrasies, we all need the same things: for President Biden to meet with us, and to use all tools to bring them home,” he said.
“We have asked for a meeting with the president for so long now that I frankly don’t know how else to ask or what else to say,” Hannah Sharghi, whose father Emad Shargi is detained in Iran, said at a news conference Wednesday.
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