SECRETARY RUBIO:\u00a0 What\u2019s up?\u00a0 All right, let\u2019s go.\u00a0<\/p>\n
QUESTION:\u00a0 Sir, The Wall Street Journal reported that Elon Musk is the one who made the decision to throttle Starshield and catch Ukraine off-guard.\u00a0 Is this something you were aware of?\u00a0 Can you \u2014\u00a0<\/p>\n
SECRETARY RUBIO:\u00a0 Starlink.\u00a0<\/p>\n
QUESTION:\u00a0 Starlink and Starshield.\u00a0<\/p>\n
SECRETARY RUBIO:\u00a0 Okay, again, there\u2019s this \u2013 all this confusion.\u00a0 These are two separate programs, okay?\u00a0 Starlink is a commercial \u2013 Starlink is the receivers you put on the roof of your house and you use for \u2013 it\u2019s used for commercial purposes.\u00a0 It\u2019s not a military system, although it could be used in order to guide drones and things of this nature and so forth.\u00a0 And then Starshield is different.\u00a0 It\u2019s a unique defense product that is sold and operated through the Department of War, as an example.\u00a0 It\u2019s two different items and it\u2019s important to distinguish one from the other.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I have not seen The Wall Street Journal reporting because I have not read it.\u00a0 I know that what \u2013 so I\u2019m not familiar with the story that you\u2019re referring to.\u00a0 But Starlink is a private company.\u00a0 They have a contract.\u00a0 They have contractual terms upon how that technology can be used.\u00a0 The important point is we cannot direct a private company as to the decisions they make or not make.\u00a0 What I can tell you with certainty is the President of the United States nor anyone in our system ever requested that any changes to that system be made, and that\u2019s what we said repeatedly.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know what the story reflects, but that is the case.\u00a0<\/p>\n
QUESTION:\u00a0 Isn\u2019t \u2013 even if it\u2019s a private company, I mean, this obviously is vital national security infrastructure for Ukraine.\u00a0 Isn\u2019t this something that the U.S. \u2013 you as National Security Advisor \u2013 should have been given a heads-up on before?\u00a0<\/p>\n
SECRETARY RUBIO:\u00a0 Well, again, I\u2019m not going to comment on what we knew that they might or might not do.\u00a0 Suffice it to say that the reporting out there was that somehow the United States Government was denying them something they needed in order to defend their country.\u00a0 That\u2019s not true.\u00a0 That\u2019s not accurate.\u00a0 And for leaders in Ukraine to continue to represent that is also not accurate.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I would also say \u2013 and again, I hark back on this statement that was made a few days ago.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know who this official was in the Ukrainian Government that went around saying that a bunch of people had died as a result of what America was denying them.\u00a0 Not only are we not denying them and it\u2019s not true, how many millions of people have been saved because of what America has already provided?\u00a0 No country in the world has done more to help Ukraine over the last four and a half years than the United States, including under the Trump Administration, and that continues to be the case.\u00a0 But ultimately, what the President wants here is an end to this war.\u00a0 That\u2019s what he\u2019s focused on.\u00a0<\/p>\n
QUESTION:\u00a0 Mr. Secretary, regarding the system in question, you said it\u2019s inaccurate to say that the administration told SpaceX to throttle this service, but you\u2019re not ruling out that the U.S. Government, if I understand correctly, knew about this decision.\u00a0<\/p>\n
SECRETARY RUBIO:\u00a0 Well, we\u2019ve seen the public reporting on it.\u00a0 We\u2019ve seen the Ukrainians reporting that they were no longer able to use basically the internet.\u00a0<\/p>\n
QUESTION:\u00a0 Knew about this decision beforehand.\u00a0<\/p>\n
SECRETARY RUBIO:\u00a0 Yeah, I\u2019m not aware that we knew about this decision beforehand.\u00a0 I certainly \u2013 but it\u2019s irrelevant.\u00a0 The bottom line is that that is \u2013 that is governed by a private commercial contract as to the \u2013 how their stuff can be used and what speeds they allow it to be used at.\u00a0 And so we\u2019ll continue to engage on the matter, but the reporting initially was that somehow this was part of a directive from the United States Government, and I\u2019m just here to tell you, as I\u2019ve said repeatedly from the very beginning and the President has made clear, at no point did he say deny them the use of this system because I\u2019m trying to punish them or teach them a lesson.\u00a0 That\u2019s just not accurate, and that\u2019s what I\u2019ve been addressing repeatedly.\u00a0<\/p>\n
QUESTION:\u00a0 But it doesn\u2019t mean there was no foreknowledge.\u00a0<\/p>\n
SECRETARY RUBIO:\u00a0 What do you mean, it doesn\u2019t mean there\u2019s no foreknowledge?\u00a0 I don\u2019t understand your question.\u00a0<\/p>\n
QUESTION:\u00a0 Well, just because \u2013 just because the President \u2013 you\u2019re not \u2013 just because the President doesn\u2019t tell Musk do this doesn\u2019t mean it wasn\u2019t discussed.\u00a0<\/p>\n
SECRETARY RUBIO:\u00a0 Well, I \u2013 again, I don\u2019t \u2013 the President has nothing to do with the decisions that are made by Starlink and Starshield and by Mr. Musk.\u00a0 That\u2019s a private company.\u00a0 The President doesn\u2019t run that company and can\u2019t direct that company to do anything.\u00a0 I\u2019m not aware of any foreknowledge, nor anyone \u2013 but again, the reporting was not about foreknowledge.\u00a0 I\u2019m telling you there was no foreknowledge, but beyond it, even if there was, we don\u2019t control what a private company \u2013 how they decide their product can be used.\u00a0 Now, if they\u2019re in a contract with the United States military, like Starshield, that\u2019s a different matter, because that\u2019s something we are purchasing and using for our use.\u00a0 But in the case of Starlink \u2013 we\u2019re arguing something that\u2019s just \u2013 it just makes no sense, the argument that people continue to make that somehow we had foreknowledge or directed it.\u00a0 It\u2019s not accurate that we somehow knew about this ahead of time or directed it in any way.\u00a0<\/p>\n
QUESTION:\u00a0 Sir, do you expect Foreign \u2014\u00a0<\/p>\n
SECRETARY RUBIO:\u00a0 And by the way, I\u2019m \u2013 by the way, we\u2019re no longer going to be defensive about this topic, okay, because what the United States \u2013 if it were not for the assistance of the United States, including under the Trump Administration, there would be no Ukraine right now.\u00a0 Ukraine as a sovereign state would not exist.\u00a0 That doesn\u2019t mean the bravery of the Ukrainian fighters should not be highlighted, because they have absolutely very bravely and \u2013 fought for their country and done extraordinary things with the aid that\u2019s been provided to them, standing up to a large \u2013 much larger country.\u00a0 But let\u2019s be very clear:\u00a0 There would be no Ukraine today were it not for the assistance the United States has supplied Ukraine in the billions of dollars going back to the Biden administration and going \u2013 and through this administration as well.\u00a0<\/p>\n
QUESTION:\u00a0 Do you expect Foreign Minister Lavrov to come to the G20 Summit \u2013 or foreign ministers\u2019 summit in Atlanta, and (inaudible)?\u00a0<\/p>\n
SECRETARY RUBIO:\u00a0 Well, the Russians are invited to be a part of the G20.\u00a0 The President made that decision.\u00a0 So obviously they\u2019re going to be represented at each of these summits.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know if he himself is coming.\u00a0 I expect he might.\u00a0 I think he told us he was in the last time we engaged with him, so they\u2019re part of the G20 and so they\u2019ll be at that meeting.\u00a0 And I know obviously there\u2019s the potential that Putin might come to the one in Miami as well, although we don\u2019t have confirmation on that.\u00a0<\/p>\n
QUESTION:\u00a0 Mr. Secretary \u2014\u00a0<\/p>\n
QUESTION:\u00a0 Secretary, just thinking about the \u2013 your \u2013 your final remaining meeting here in India with Reliance.\u00a0 Are you looking for anything specific from them in terms of an investment commitment or number or something about them changing what they do in terms of business regarding taking on more Venezuelan crude or making a greater investment in the U.S.?\u00a0 Anything specific along those lines?\u00a0<\/p>\n
SECRETARY RUBIO:\u00a0 Well, perhaps.\u00a0 I mean, we\u2019ll see how the meetings go.\u00a0 Obviously that\u2019s something that \u2013 on the energy field the Department of Energy would be very involved on the details of any specific ask.\u00a0 I think for us it\u2019s more an opportunity to see their operations and have a broader discussion about their presence globally at a time in which energy is featuring prominently in many of the geopolitical decisions that are being made.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
This is a very large and prominent energy company.\u00a0 They also have a pretty large investment already in the United States.\u00a0 They have extensive refining capacity.\u00a0 As I highlighted to you yesterday, this is a company, for example, that has the capability to refine the heavy crude that\u2019s produced in the Western Hemisphere, including from Venezuela, so I\u2019m sure that\u2019s a topic we\u2019ll discuss.\u00a0 It\u2019s \u2013 and I think through our conversations we\u2019ll hopefully identify other opportunities to partner and work together.\u00a0<\/p>\n
QUESTION:\u00a0 Mr. Secretary, staying on India but on a different subject, there are many protests from the opposition and students here in India, and UN experts have criticized the crackdown \u2014\u00a0<\/p>\n
SECRETARY RUBIO:\u00a0 Oh, the UN experts, yeah, my favorite.\u00a0 The UN experts are the oxymoron.\u00a0<\/p>\n
QUESTION:\u00a0 Do you have a comment on those protests and \u2014\u00a0<\/p>\n
SECRETARY RUBIO:\u00a0 No.\u00a0 It\u2019s a domestic political matter.\u00a0 I mean, I\u2019m not going to get involved in their politics.\u00a0 I mean, they have \u2013 this is a democracy.\u00a0 They have elections here, so I\u2019m not going to opine on their domestic political matters.\u00a0 We have protests every day in the United States because we\u2019re \u2013 I mean, people view protests \u2013 I mean, obviously I\u2019m not talking about the riots, like what you\u2019re seeing in Europe, where they\u2019re vandalizing and breaking into things and burning down buildings.\u00a0 I\u2019m not talking about that.\u00a0 But in many ways, the fact that people are out there expressing themselves \u2013 I\u2019m not talking about India; in any country in the world \u2013 is the sign that this is a country where there\u2019s political discourse and so forth and differences of opinion.\u00a0 So the fact that you \u2013 you just said a moment ago as part of your question \u201cthe opposition.\u201d\u00a0 Well, that \u2013 there\u2019s no \u2013 for example, like there \u2013 in Cuba there is no opposition, like \u2013 that can actually go out and do anything without going to jail and being oppressed or \u2013 and exiled.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
So \u2013 but we\u2019re not going to comment on internal political matters.\u00a0 That\u2019s for the Indian people to decide and navigate.\u00a0<\/p>\n
QUESTION:\u00a0 Sir, there were reports in Qatari media that Qatar and Pakistan have put forth a new proposal to Iran for the U.S. and Iran to come back to the negotiating table.\u00a0 Are those reports accurate?\u00a0 Is this something you\u2019re \u2014\u00a0<\/p>\n
SECRETARY RUBIO:\u00a0 I think there\u2019s a number of countries that have been engaging over a period of time with Iran, floating proposals.\u00a0 Ultimately any proposal that\u2019s offered by any country in the world \u2013 look, we welcome mediation efforts.\u00a0 Obviously these are countries that we have strong alliances and partnerships with.\u00a0 In the case of Qatar in specific, they\u2019ve been involved on this topic for a very long time.\u00a0 I understand that Field Marshal Munir was actually in Tehran yesterday.\u00a0 But in the end, any decision on what would be acceptable is on \u2013 is in the hands of the President of the United States, and I think he\u2019s been abundantly clear at the core of all of this is something very simple to understand, is the United States will not support any deal that creates a pathway for Iran to ever have a nuclear weapon.\u00a0 As long as President Trump is in office, they will never have a nuclear weapon.\u00a0<\/p>\n
QUESTION:\u00a0 There are reports that Witkoff is presenting Putin with an updated proposal from the U.S. side for a peace deal to end the war in Ukraine.\u00a0 Can you share any information on the details of that?\u00a0<\/p>\n
SECRETARY RUBIO:\u00a0 No.\u00a0 I\u2019m not going to.\u00a0 I mean \u2013 so Steve was in \u2013 I believe he just left Norway, but he met with Zelenskyy, and \u2013 so I think they floated some ideas.\u00a0 He wanted to go there first.\u00a0 He\u2019s on his way to St. Petersburg \u2013 my understanding, he might even be underway as we speak \u2013 and I think he\u2019ll share some ideas.\u00a0 This is how \u2013 this is how this works, right?\u00a0 You have to sort of see what the other side would be open to, and then you bring it to the other side and see if they\u2019d be open to it and start to sort of narrow the gaps and the differences between the two sides.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
This is a very difficult negotiation.\u00a0 I don\u2019t need to tell you that.\u00a0 And at its core, ultimately, has been the differences over Donbas.\u00a0 I mean, I don\u2019t try to oversimplify this, because this is a complex war for a lot of different reasons, but at the core of all this has been that part of Donbas that Russia demands but has not been able to take on the battlefield and that Ukraine currently holds and has done so very bravely and against all odds and against many predictions.\u00a0 Remember, people predicted this war would be over in five days, and we\u2019re going on five years, and a lot of that is credit to the fighters in Ukraine and their bravery and how hard they have fought.\u00a0<\/p>\n
That said, the fight now is really concentrated on what happens to the remainder of Donbas, and so I think there\u2019s some \u2013 been some creative ideas that have been put out there about how to resolve that difference, but obviously it has to be one in which both sides will have to agree to give up on something, and that\u2019s always very difficult conversations to have.\u00a0 I think for Ukraine the predominant desire is to ensure their long-term security and safety so that they\u2019re never re-invaded or re-attacked in the future.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
And so Steve is conditioning those ideas.\u00a0 He met with Zelenskyy a few hours ago.\u00a0 My understanding from the \u2013 what information he provided to me and the readout I got from it is that it was positive.\u00a0 Nothing unexpected, nothing surprising, and he\u2019ll now, armed with those ideas, be able to go to St. Petersburg and share them with the Russian side and let\u2019s if we can make some progress.\u00a0 But as I said, these things are complex, and this a \u2013 if this was an easy war to solve, it would\u2019ve been solved a long time ago.\u00a0<\/p>\n
QUESTION:\u00a0 Mr. Secretary, could you tell us if \u2013 are you hopeful that the Russians will release Stephen Hubbard?\u00a0<\/p>\n
SECRETARY RUBIO:\u00a0 Yeah, I don\u2019t comment on that, other than to say that we think Mr. Hubbard should be released as soon as possible.\u00a0<\/p>\n
QUESTION:\u00a0 Yeah.\u00a0<\/p>\n
SECRETARY RUBIO:\u00a0 We\u2019ve made that ask of the Russian system on a consistent basis, and we remain hopeful that that will happen.\u00a0 But that\u2019s \u2013 beyond that, I\u2019m not going to comment on that right now.\u00a0<\/p>\n
STAFF:\u00a0 Thanks, guys.\u00a0<\/p>\n
SECRETARY RUBIO:\u00a0 No, let me just give them one last one.\u00a0 This poor guy.\u00a0<\/p>\n
STAFF:\u00a0 All right, all right.\u00a0 (Laughter.)\u00a0<\/p>\n
QUESTION:\u00a0 Wanted to ask \u2014\u00a0<\/p>\n
SECRETARY RUBIO:\u00a0 He never gets questions.\u00a0 (Laughter.)\u00a0 Go ahead.\u00a0<\/p>\n
QUESTION:\u00a0 Last week, the President pushed out Ambassador Guilfoyle from Greece after the reports alleging unethical behavior.\u00a0 The next day, you sent a message to remind State Department employees globally about the standards that you hold them to in terms of obeying rules regarding ethics, gifts, all of the rules, the structure of the State Department in posts globally.\u00a0 Are you concerned that the kind of issues that we saw with Ambassador Guilfoyle go beyond her personally or there could be other \u2014\u00a0<\/p>\n
SECRETARY RUBIO:\u00a0 No.\u00a0 First of all, let me say that message that went out just happened to go out the next day, but it had been something that we had \u2013 I had ordered to go out like weeks in advance.\u00a0 For whatever reason, the \u2013 somebody who works for me couldn\u2019t get it out on time, because we asked them to do that weeks and weeks and weeks ahead of time.\u00a0 So \u2013 but this is a message we\u2019ve sent out multiple times.\u00a0 It\u2019s just a constant reminder of people, of who they work for.\u00a0 They work for the Government of the United States, they work for the people of the United States, and we expect everyone in our department to do so not just in accordance with the law but with the higher standards possible.\u00a0 Our ability to diplomatically represent this country is undermined and is sabotaged if there\u2019s any implications that what you are doing \u2013 and I\u2019m not talking about Kimberly in specific; anybody \u2013 you are undermined when \u2013 anytime there\u2019s the notion that somehow what you are doing is somehow in your interest but not in the interest of the country.\u00a0<\/p>\n
So we \u2013 it\u2019s not the first time we\u2019ve sent that message.\u00a0 That is something we repeatedly do because to me it\u2019s a very important principle of how we do our work.\u00a0 It just happened to go out the day after, but that is something that, frankly, had been drafted and that I had ordered sent weeks in advance and unfortunately did not go out when I wanted it to go out for whatever reason.\u00a0 But \u2013 and won\u2019t \u2013 it probably won\u2019t be the last time that a message like that is sent.\u00a0 It\u2019s something we just constantly remind people of just to set the right culture and standards.\u00a0<\/p>\n
STAFF:\u00a0 All right, thanks guys.\u00a0<\/p>\n
SECRETARY RUBIO:\u00a0 Okay, thank you guys.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SECRETARY RUBIO:\u00a0 What\u2019s up?\u00a0 All right, let\u2019s go.\u00a0 QUESTION:\u00a0 Sir, The Wall Street Journal reported that Elon Musk…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":889825,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":["post-889824","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-news","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/889824","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=889824"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/889824\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/889825"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=889824"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=889824"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=889824"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}