(AGENPARL) – mer 02 novembre 2022 You are subscribed to Department Press Briefings for U.S. Department of State. This information has recently been updated, and is now available.
11/02/2022 07:29 PM EDT
Ned Price, Department Spokesperson
Washington, DC
2:01 p.m. EDT
[]MR PRICE: Good afternoon, everyone. Good to see everyone. I think as everyone knows and everyone can see, we have a very special guest with us today. He’s someone who needs no introduction, especially to this room. Many of you know him; all of you know of him. Secretary Kerry, our Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, is going to offer some opening remarks as we look forward to COP in the coming days, and then he will take some of your questions.
So without further ado, Secretary Kerry.
SECRETARY KERRY: Ned, thank you very, very much. Great to be back with almost everybody. No Matt Lee, and a few others.
So let me share a few thoughts with all of you about the COP upcoming. I am about to depart this evening on winding my way there with a few other stops. But at this year’s COP, we’re working very closely with all of our allies, with many, many countries, and around the world in order to principally raise climate ambition. That’s the fundamental goal. And we left Glasgow keeping alive the possibility of holding the Earth’s temperature increase to 1.5 degrees. That’s the goal, the scientifically established goal. And we secured very significant commitments from about 65 percent of global GDP to do exactly that, to keep the temperature increased to the 1.5 degrees. And we also are trying to solicit important commitments from countries around the world on enhancing resilience to climate impacts as well as being able to build out adaptation for the longer term to some of those impacts, and we are doing major lifting with respect to providing new climate finance.
I have found as I’ve had the privilege of traveling the world on behalf of President Biden and our country that the single biggest restraint on our ability to be able to move rapidly is our inability to summon the significant amounts of money that have to come to the table to implement this transition.
But we are making progress, and I thank President Biden for his patience as well as his leadership that produced the Inflation Reduction Act, a very, very significant piece of legislation that is already having an impact on a global basis. Because people see what the United States is doing, and it has spurred other countries on – some competitively, and some because they see it as a responsibility.
So in addition to that, the United States Senate happily ratified the Kigali agreement, which in and of itself, when applied, will save about .2 degrees Celsius in the rise of temperature. It’s very significant, the President has signed it, and the papers have been sent to New York for appropriate filing.
So at COP27, in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, we have defined four very specific priorities. Number one: We seek a collective message out of the COP that the world is going to remain strong on climate ambition and will build on, not go backwards, from the pledges that were made in Glasgow. As we know, according to the International Energy Agency, if all the promises of Glasgow are indeed fulfilled, we would by 2050 be at about 1.8 degrees of warming. The fact that the pledges to date with only 65 percent of GDP can achieve that is really quite remarkable, and it says to all of us, if we do what we pledge to do, and if we now do more, we can actually win this battle. And it gives hope.
We recognize that there have been significant upheavals in the global marketplace. And there’s a lot happening, obviously, playing out with respect to energy because of Ukraine and President Putin’s illegal and grotesque invasion of Ukraine. So to be clear, we’re not tone-deaf as a nation or as an administration to the pull and tug that has taken place with respect to the marketplace – from COVID, from the impacts of inflation, and the impacts of inflation which came significantly through the war and the cut-off of major energy supplies and realignment thereof.
So the second thing we’re working to do is to get closer to that 1.5. Sixty-five percent is not enough; we need more people, more countries participating. So we have spent a great deal of time over the course of this last year working with countries all around the world to get them to raise their NDCs, and many are. And they will be announced over the next few days.
I was just in Mexico a few days ago, and we will have a major announcement with President López Obrador has agreed to with respect to what Mexico is now going to undertake. And that will be significant because that is not where we were in the time of Glasgow.
In addition, we’ve been working with Indonesia, with South Africa, with India, with other countries to try to work on these Just Energy Transition Partnerships. And we’ll have more to say about that in Sharm el-Sheikh. We’ve also been trying to accelerate the transition, particularly in partnership with the EU, with Germany and the European Bank for Redevelopment. And we have now reached an agreement with Egypt for a reduction in use of gas. That gas will be able to be transferred to Europe to help them during a difficult winter, and in addition we will have an ability to build out about 10 gigawatts – a significant amount of renewable. And there’ll be more that we will say about that when we get to Egypt.
Third, we are pursuing various multilateral initiatives that will contribute to accelerating the reduction of emissions, and also facilitating the long term transition. We are speeding ahead with the implementation of the Global Methane Pledge that you know we debuted in Glasgow. 122 nations have now signed up. It’s a 30 percent reduction in methane emissions over the course of – by 2030, the next seven years. If that happens, folks, it is the equivalent of every car, every truck in the world, every ship, every airplane in the world all going to zero by 2030. It’s an enormous gain, and we have massive participation in this effort by countries around the world. We welcome these efforts, and we’re calling on countries to include those kinds of efforts in their NDCs.
With Norway, we are spearheading something called the Green Shipping Initiative. If shipping were in and of itself a country, it would be the eighth largest emitter in the world. So we have now got a special relationship that’s working with both Panama, which will host the next Our Ocean Conference, and Greece, which will host the Our Ocean Conference after that – two very important shipping nations – and they are committed to helping to create these green shipping corridors. We also are working on the propulsion of those ships and the construction of them. We’re adding significant participant numbers to the First Movers Coalition, which is a willing effort by major corporations around the world to send a demand signal to the marketplace by setting goals for the green products that they will buy so Maersk Shipping is going to – has committed that the next eight ships that they build or buy will be carbon free. Volvo, General Motors, Ford have committed that 10 percent of the steel that they buy to make their cars will be green steel. So this market messaging is critical to helping people to make a transition with confidence, and we think that’s going to have a profound impact.
Fourth and last, we are showcasing a host of U.S. Government deliverables related to mitigation and adaptation. We’re working very hard to promote adaptation and resilience to climate impacts that are already being felt globally. And given that this COP takes place in Africa, and 17 of the 20 most impacted climate countries in the world are in Africa and yet they contribute barely nothing to the emissions, it is critical that all of us together – developing and developed worlds – step up together in order to facilitate the building of resilience and adaptation itself. We are going to highlight President Biden’s plan for emergency adaptation and resilience known as PREPARE, and we’re going to be cohosting in Egypt with Egypt an adaptation event in the early days of the COP. We’re also supporting the UN secretary-general’s plea, his call to provide early warning systems for all nations – all vulnerable nations within the world within five years, and we are committed to achieving that. And following our announcement in Glasgow of our first ever contribution to the adaptation fund of 50 million, we plan to move 25 million this year now with the other 25 million coming next year to help with the adaptation fund to be able to administer these efforts.
We are also committed to engaging constructively on real steps to avert, minimize, and address loss and damage in the multilateral climate discussions of COP 27. And consistent with the Paris Agreement, the United States recognizes that we have to make increased efforts to avert and minimize the impacts, the loss and damage. We intend to do that, and we believe we can build on significant climate achievements, that with other countries we can transform our economy for the better, creating unbelievable numbers of good jobs, and we can commit to furthering climate action during this decisive decade. So there’s much on the line as we go to Sharm el-Sheikh and lay the groundwork for the next COP after that which will take place in the UAE. With that, let me open it up to any questions.
MR PRICE: Shaun.
QUESTION: Thank you, Mr. Secretary. Could I follow up on a couple of the things you said? The loss and damage issue – you said that you want that to be discussed at COP. Does the United States think that the existing structure in place is sufficient for that? Could there be a new mechanism warranted to actually commit for loss and damage? Or do you think what we have now is enough? Should there actually be a – how much of a commitment do you actually want on loss and damage?
And could I actually follow up – you mentioned Mexico will come forward a bit. Could – if you have any more details on that, but could I also ask you about Brazil – had an election a couple of days ago. Lula has taken a very different approach on deforestation. How much of an impact do you think that will have on the overall climate ambitions of the world? Thanks.
SECRETARY KERRY: Sure, well, let me begin on the loss and damage. I just had a very good conversation with the prime minister of Barbados, and we had a deep discussion. I think we found a lot of agreement on where we’re heading and what we have to do here. We need to come together, all of us, to recognize that not enough is happening – even though I’ve cited an enormous amount of things that are happening, it is not enough to be able to, on its own, achieve our goals, particularly without a number of other countries being at the table and raising their ambition similarly.
So we are anxious to see the loss and damage issue dealt with upfront and in a real way at the COP. We anticipate that it will be an agenda item, and we’re perfectly comfortable helping it to be that, which means at some point you’ve got to have an outcome. And we anticipate trying to work towards that outcome according to what we decided in Glasgow. That would be over the course of a two-year period, but maybe it could be done faster. We’re not sure. I think we have to get there and have the conversation. And we certainly support coming out with some kind of structure that provides for appropriate financial arrangements which we hope to arrive at. So we have to get there, and we’ll work in good faith to do that.
With respect to – and let me just say one other – I think we are anxious to do this in a very cooperative, nonconfrontational way. We don’t feel that this has to be an issue that’s pounded at people because we agree, as do almost all nations now, that much more has to happen faster and we have to find more money to put into the system in order to deploy the technologies and help the countries be able to do what they need to do to meet the challenge. So I think you’re going to see some impactful and important initiatives in order to try to help provide that finance.
One example would be the MDB reform. We can’t talk about it anymore; we have to do it. And we’re the largest shareholder, the United States. I know President Biden is seized by this issue. I know that Secretary Yellen has twice given three major speeches on it and most recently raised it at the fall meetings of the development banks. And I think we’re very, very committed to trying to get that reform in place because that will significantly increase the amount of available concessionary money and low-interest money that can leverage the kind of deployment of the technologies that we need.
On Brazil, we have set up with the environment minister a working group that includes the FBI, the DHS, the Department of Justice, the EPA – a whole large group of American agencies and departments that have some responsibility for some components of what happens to promote deforestation or to allow it to take place. Under the Bolsonaro government, regrettably, the level of deforestation increased in the Amazon, and it is at perilous high levels today.
President-elect Lula is committed. He’s already shown that commitment previously with a program that he had in place, but now I hope we’ll be able to refine that program and move forward even more rapidly with the reforms that are necessary in order to try to save the Amazon. There are about 25 million people who live there. They don’t have a lot of income other than, today, cattle or logging. And so we in the rest of the world are going to have to recognize that if we’re going to value this great forest, we have to help them to be able to preserve it. And I think there are many countries ready to step up to do that. So we’ll reach out to the incipient to the Lula government as soon as it’s appropriate.
MR PRICE: Yes, (inaudible).
QUESTION: Thank you. Thank you, Secretary Kerry. Can you talk about if you are expecting to have any kind of interaction with your Chinese counterpart after China has suspended the climate talk? You – back then, you said China is punishing the world, but China replied by saying that it will stay committed to its climate goals and actively participate in international cooperation on climate change. With this commitment, are you confident that you can still reach your goal?
SECRETARY KERRY: Well, we have said from day one that we stand ready to sit down with China on the climate issue and work together to solve what is not a bilateral issue, but what is a universal, global, existential issue. And there is no solution to the problem of climate change without China, without Russia, without India, without large countries, large economies being at the table.
So we’re hopeful. We’re hopeful as we take off and go to Sharm el-Sheikh that we can renew the important and good conversation that we were having. I met with my counterpart in the Chinese delegation in Davos in May. I met subsequently in Berlin at a conference that took place there, and then I met again at yet another conference in Sweden, at Stockholm+50. And we had very good meetings – very constructive, very clear where we were going to go. So I remain hopeful that at some point in the near term we can resume that because, as I said, you cannot – no one – not China, not we, who are the two largest emitters – can solve this problem without cooperation and without global effort.
MR PRICE: Yes.
QUESTION: Mr. Secretary, news reports said that after COP27 you will be leaving your position. Is that correct?
SECRETARY KERRY: You trying to get rid of me?
QUESTION: And why?
SECRETARY KERRY: I don’t have any plans whatsoever except trying to make COP a success. That is my focus exclusively and I have no other plans.
MR PRICE: Jen.
QUESTION: On COP, Greta Thunberg has said that she’s not going to attend. She’s accused COP and summits like it of being a chance for people in power to use greenwashing —
SECRETARY KERRY: Who? I’m sorry.
QUESTION: Greta Thunberg.
SECRETARY KERRY: Oh, Greta.
QUESTION: Yes. So she said she’s not going attend. Other climate activists, of course, are following suit. I just want to give you a chance to respond to those allegations.
SECRETARY KERRY: Well, I have great respect for Greta Thunberg. I’ve met with her and I like her and hugely appreciate the passion she has brought to this cause and the many, many people she has motivated to be engaged and involved. Everybody has a right to make their own decision about what they want to attend or where they think something important may or may not be happening. I have always said for years now, from my first foray in this arena back in 1988 when we first learned what was happening from a scientist, Jim Hansen. Two – many of us in the Senate, or a group of us in the Senate, went to Rio in 1992 for the first summit, out of which came the UN process that we’re now still attending.
So while many of us are chagrined that it has taken so long for us to get to a place where more and more people are accepting what’s happening, we are there. And the only way to be able to organize ourselves and get the job done, when you have 200 or so nations that are involved in this, is to come together somewhere and work at it.
Now, she’s not a government official and therefore doesn’t have the same role to play in that regard. But I completely respect her choice and, most importantly, am grateful that somebody has cared as much as she has cared and has put herself on the line as forcefully as she has.
MR PRICE: Let’s take a final question or so. Yes, please.
QUESTION: Thank you, Mr. Secretary. The – hoping to get your bird’s-eye view here. You signed the Paris Climate Agreement in 2015 with your granddaughter on your knee. Since then, a lot has happened, not only that scientists have said the flood, droughts, hurricanes, wildfires, you name it, have got worse, but also we’ve lived through an administration here that has harbored climate skeptics and deniers. We’ve lived through populism. We’ve lived through alternate facts and post-truth. Would you say, from when you signed that agreement in 2015 to now, are we or are world leaders in a worse situation or better situation when it comes to the battle of trying to convince people to fight against climate change?
SECRETARY KERRY: Well, this may sound incongruous to you, and I’m sorry for that, but we’re actually in both. We are in worse shape in that the melting is taking place faster, the fires are more frequent and bigger, the droughts have been longer and more pronounced, the extreme heat has been higher. And we are now losing maybe 10 million people a year, up from five, to extreme heat every year. Fifteen million people a year we lose to the quality of air, which is not quality at all – it’s air that is polluted by virtue of greenhouse gases.
So the danger to us in not moving yet faster, which we know we must do and can do, is enormous. And every economic analysis will show you that it is far more expensive to not do things today than to do them. And we will pay down the road. We’ve had 15 $1 billion climate events during this past year. Before that, we had about 10 – $10 billion or so. I mean, it is getting bigger and worse in that regard because Mother Nature doesn’t measure whose emissions they are or where they come from. It’s the total emissions that have the impact, and the total emissions have gone up despite the fact that we have set ambitious targets to be able to bring them down.
Now, that’s the worse sort of side I’ve shown, that the looming possibility of greater catastrophe is greater today. But – and there is a significant “but,” and it’s important, it’s critical to us – more is happening. Many more countries are at the table. Much more effort is being made to transition than at any time in human history. And oil companies, gas companies are now investing in renewables and talking about not being an oil and gas company but being an energy company. Now you have new technologies with maybe a trillion dollars of venture capitalists chasing those technologies. And we’re seeing great advances in battery storage and direct air carbon capture and green hydrogen, blue hydrogen.
There’s so many – and fusion, even. I went out to California recently to learn what was happening, and I was struck by the scientists who for all my time in the United States Senate, almost 30 years, they would always say to you, “Well, fusion is 30 years away.” Every 10 years, “Thirty years away.” They don’t say that anymore. We’re going to have a fusion prototype reactor in about two years, three years, that’ll be working to see if we get proof of concept at a scale. And you’re seeing many other things happen that, to me, say to us: we can win this battle.
When the IEA tells us if you do everything you said you’re going to do in Glasgow, you could get the Earth’s temperature down – we started at the possibility we were going to hit 2.5 degrees or 3.7 degrees. That’s where we began. And if all of a sudden we have pledges on the table that could keep it at 1.8, and that’s with only 65 percent, you bring the other percentages on board, we can go down to 1.6, whatever. That is enormous, if we get there.
Now, obviously Ukraine has created a challenge with respect to the immediate ability of big economies like Germany and France, others, to be able to keep their economy moving. And because the gas is cut off, they’ve begrudgingly – not with great fervor, but they’ve said we’ve got to keep a few coal plants open in case; we have to keep a nuclear open in case. So some of their decisions are being adjusted, but they’re determined. Germany is now moving to 80 percent of all their power coming from renewables. That’s incredible. A powerful country like that with all of its industry.
Ford Motor Company and General Motors and other companies around the world have spent hundreds of billions of dollars retooling their plants. Why? Because they’re going electric. And by 2035 that’s all we’re going to have in America, electric cars being manufactured – not on the road, but being sold and new cars. That’s President Biden’s goal. By 2035, he wants the power sector of America to be carbon-free.
So if we accelerate these efforts, which is what technology and entrepreneurial activity help us to do, this is going to change even faster. And so that’s where I draw enormous hope and some optimism, because I believe we can still make this happen. But we have to make the right decisions and implement those decisions. President Biden’s passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, which will have significant tax credits and production tax credits, will direct industrial behavior. And by virtue of the money that goes through the Department of Energy that will go to our national laboratories, we will be pushing the curve of R&D and deployment more than at any time in our history.
We’re looking at a transition that is as big, if not bigger – bigger, I would say bigger – than the Industrial Revolution. We’re going to change the way we provide energy. We’re going to change the way we move. We’re going to live cleaner, hopefully, and, believe me, safer because we don’t have to send young people off to defend our energy interests in some other part of the world when we make it right here at home.
So I am excited about those possibilities and I think the private sector is going to have a profound impact on our ability to solve this problem. Why? Because no country in the world has enough money to effect this transition. You have to get trillions of dollars in play. That’s what the UN finance report says. Somewhere like two and a half to four and a half trillion dollars every year for the next 30 years. Where’s that coming from? Well, if we bring the private sector to the table, provide the right incentives, and do the right things, we can deploy trillions of dollars of investment in those new energy production facilities and the new transportation facilities and the rest will be history.
So on the one hand, on the other – and we have to make the right choices. Thank you all very much.
MR PRICE: Mr. Secretary, thank you very much. Hopefully we can have you back after COP. Appreciate it.
I feel like I can pack up for the day. There are a couple of things we would like to get to, so we’ll spend a few minutes answering your questions.
[] First, and importantly, the African Union’s announcement of the signing of a cessation of hostilities between the Government of Ethiopia and the Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front represents an important step towards peace. We applaud the parties for their commitment to peace and reaching this agreement.
We commend the African Union Panel – former President Obasanjo, former President Kenyatta, and former Deputy President Mlambo-Ngcuka – on their extraordinary leadership and determined efforts to facilitate this peace process. We commend as well the work of the African Union: its Commission Chairperson Faki, South African President Ramaphosa, and Foreign Minister Pandor as hosts and international partners, including the United Nations and IGAD.
The United States remains committed to supporting this African Union-led process and to partnering to advance peace in northern Ethiopia.
[] And next and finally before we turn to your questions, today is the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists – a day in which we reaffirm our condemnation of crimes against journalists and promote accountability for those who attack press freedom. As all of you in this room know well, journalists are the bedrock of an independent and free press. Journalists provide the public with the chance to know the truth about ourselves, about our countries, about our governments, and often they do so when facing danger and adversity.
Since 1992, over 1,500 journalists and media workers have been killed in pursuit of information, with most of these cases remaining judicially unresolved. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, 294 journalists were languishing in jail for doing their work as of last December. Increasingly, journalists face threats and attacks online – where female journalists are disproportionately targeted. Per UNESCO survey, 73 percent of women journalists have been harassed online due to their work.
The UN Plan of Action on the Safety of Journalists was established 10 years ago to protect journalists through legislation, mechanisms, and guides aimed at creating a secure and just environment for media. Despite these efforts, the international community must continue to take a stand against physical attacks, against intimidation lawsuits, against transnational repression, and regulatory pressures that silence media – both online and offline.
So please join us today in renewing that commitment to an open and free press around the world. We know that’s something you all in this room do each and every day.
With that, happy to take your questions. Shaun.
[]QUESTION: Let’s start with Ethiopia —
MR PRICE: Sure.
QUESTION: — just to follow up.
MR PRICE: Sure.
QUESTION: Just a couple aspects of that – the disarmament that these partners announced – the TPLF – how optimistic are you for that? Is there – in terms of the monitoring of that, how significant do you think that is? And also, looking at the deal, how optimistic are you for withdrawal of Eritrean forces? That’s always been something that’s been of concern to the United States.
MR PRICE: So a couple things, Shaun. First, news of this agreement between the parties has just emerged in the past couple hours. This news is coming from the African Union. The United States has been engaged directly with the parties. Mike Hammer, our Special Envoy for the Horn of Africa, has been a participant and an observer in these talks over the past several days in South Africa, but we’re going to let the African Union as the convener of these discussions speak to the details of it. But we’ve invested in this process. We invested in this process precisely because we saw it as an opportune venue, as an opportune mechanism that we thought, we hoped, to some degree we expected, and to a large degree we were validated in investing in that process because of the news that’s emanating from South Africa today.
This, as in other diplomatic achievements the United States has supported, is not one where our role has been necessarily at the front, necessarily at the center. But our role has been consistent, our role has been constructive. We’ve made clear to the parties over the course of these talks in South Africa and before that, that we are there; we are there to support diplomacy. We are there because we know that diplomacy is the means by which this conflict has to be resolved. And today was an important step forward.
Now, you raised a couple questions. They are questions that the parties themselves and the AU will be speaking to, but I think at the core of your question was a notion that today we had an announcement. What we will have to see is follow-through. And the United States will be there. We will be there to continue to working with the African Union. They will continue to lead this process, but we will continue to engage directly with the African Union, to engage with those in the region who are facilitating this dialogue, and to continue engaging with the parties themselves.
QUESTION: Just one more —
MR PRICE: Sure.
QUESTION: — on the relationship with the Ethiopian Government. Obviously, there’s been some very strong criticism from this building toward Ethiopia, the suspension of the trade privileges as well. Could this be a reopening of a relationship with Ethiopia? Is that premature? How do you see that affecting the relationship with Addis Ababa?
MR PRICE: These discussions have provided an opportunity for a number of things. In the first instance, they provided an opportunity which we hope to see realized of a cessation of hostilities. We’ve invested so heavily in this process because we believe it’s the most opportune and effective mechanism through which to achieve a cessation of hostilities, to help enable the delivery of much needed humanitarian assistance to the people of northern Ethiopia, to the people of Tigray. We hope and expect that will follow from today’s announcement.
Attendant with the violence and the conflict that has raged in recent weeks, we’ve seen reports – continued reports of human rights abuses and atrocities. It’s our hope that what was announced today will see an end to those reports and ultimately the underlying abuses and atrocities that we’ve seen.
So the agreement that is set today does set the stage for opportunity when it comes to the humanitarian plight of the people of northern Ethiopia, of the people of Tigray. It does present an opportunity – a bilateral opportunity for the United States and Ethiopia. Of course, we’ve made no secret about the concerns that we have had emanating and stemming from this conflict. And if today’s agreement is in fact able to set the stage for a durable cessation of hostilities, set the stage for an end to the human rights abuses and atrocities that we’ve noted, to set the stage for an end to provocations by the TPLF and the Ethiopian Government, that would be a very good thing. It would be a very good thing first and foremost for the people of Ethiopia, specifically the people of northern Ethiopia, but also for our bilateral relationship.
Yes, Alex.
[]QUESTION: Thanks so much. A couple of questions, but before that, one follow-up on the impunity day you started your statement with. There have been a couple of – a number of times calls on the administration to appoint a special representative on press freedom to address exactly the problems that you have been reading out. The numbers are really grim – 294 reporters. Is this something the administration has been entertaining? You have special representatives on corruption issues, on plenty of other issues, but not press freedom.
MR PRICE: It’s – we are considering the means through which we can most effectively support the cause of press freedom, of freedom of information, and to hold to account those who are responsible for some of the crimes against journalists, the repression of journalists, in some cases the violence against journalists that in some cases have led to the loss of life and physical injury.
There are offices in this building, including in our Bureau of Democracy, Rights, and Labor; our Under Secretary for Human Rights Uzra Zeya is – works very closely with USAID Administrator Power and her team on these issues as well. And ultimately, this is something that Secretary Blinken cares deeply about. He cares deeply about it because, first and foremost, he’s a secretary of the United States. It is the responsibility of the United States to speak out when the universal values that we cherish and we protect and we promote around the world come under threat, as they do with media freedom, when that itself comes under threat. But this is also something that Secretary Blinken has taken a personal interest in as someone who is a – as he likes to call it, a recovering journalist himself, someone who started his career in the profession and someone who maintains a deep affinity for reporters and journalists. It’s something that he feels very deeply and personally.
[]QUESTION: Thanks so much. On Russia-Ukraine, if I may, Russia is back to the grain deal, but Putin today said he can leave it again. How to secure the deal moving forward so that this doesn’t happen again?
And secondly, we can’t just pretend that last three days didn’t happen. It did already affect millions of people. The food prices have gone up. How to hold Russia accountable for the last three days as well so that it doesn’t repeat what it just did?
MR PRICE: Well, first and foremost, we welcome the fact that through dint of efforts by the UN secretary-general, by our Turkish allies as well, that the Black Sea Grain Initiative will resume, it will resume with ships, according to the UN, transiting the Black Sea again later this week.
This is something that we’ve spoken to the utility of it over the past couple days. It is our hope – and I guess the saying is true that you don’t fully recognize the value of something until it’s at risk or gone, and perhaps the world over the past couple of days has taken note even more so of the value, of the importance, of the indispensability – and I don’t think that is overstating it, the indispensability – of this particular mechanism. It is responsible for some 420 vessels setting sail from Ukrainian Black Sea ports since it went into effect on August 1st. It’s responsible for 9.8 million – nearly 10 million – metric tons of grain, the vast majority of which, two-thirds, has gone to the developing world; nearly one-fifth of that and nearly one-fifth of it has gone to the world’s least developed countries.
So if this has caused the world to recognize the value of this initiative, perhaps that is, although unintended, a welcome side effect of what is happening. But what is most important to us is that this deal gets back on track. Of course, the Russians are speaking to resuming the deal this week. We also know that the deal comes up for renewal later this month. Even before the statements that emanated from Russia this weekend, we were focused on efforts to renew this grain deal. This is not something that quite literally the world can live without. In the short period where this grain deal has been in doubt over the past couple days, we’ve seen grain prices rise; we’ve seen shippers and insurers question – call into question the viability of their operations in this region.
It’s our goal to see to it that there is predictability, that there is stability in this marketplace, and by setting this initiative back on track, by working and supporting the Turks and the UN and the other parties to see that this initiative is not only set back in motion but it’s renewed later this month, that will ultimately inject even more predictability and stability into this marketplace, and most importantly, apply downward pressure to food prices.
Michel.
[]QUESTION: Ned, on Egypt, do you have any comment on the death of Alaa al-Salami in Egypt prison after starting a hunger strike to protest the conditions of his detention? And any reaction to the hunger strike that Alaa Abd el-Fattah has started today, I think?
MR PRICE: So we are closely following the case of Alaa Abd el-Fattah. We’ve followed it throughout his pretrial detention, his conviction, and his subsequent and current incarceration. We’ve raised repeated concerns about this case and his conditions in detention with the Government of Egypt. We have made very clear at the highest levels, including at the very highest levels, to the Egyptian Government that progress on protecting human rights and fundamental freedoms, that will buoy – it will bolster, it will reinforce, ultimately will strengthen our bilateral relationship with Egypt. These are conversations that have been ongoing since the earliest days of this administration, and they will continue in the coming days.
QUESTION: Will the President and the Secretary raise this issue with Egyptian authorities when they visit Egypt?
MR PRICE: We’ll have more to say on the visit as it approaches. I will just say as a general matter that in virtually every senior engagement we have had with our Egyptian counterparts, we have raised human rights in a prominent way. The Secretary did so when he first met with President Sisi last May, as I recall. There was a long, productive discussion with the president and his team and certainly human rights was on our agenda with the president then.
Yes, Joseph.
[]QUESTION: Turning to the Israeli elections, with Netanyahu poised to win a majority, previously he campaigned to quote/ unquote “neutralize” the Lebanon-Israel maritime border deal, which the U.S. brokered and worked for over ten years to reach. Today Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister said the U.S. as a sponsor of the deal had given some guarantees that regardless of what happens in the Israeli elections, this deal would stay – stay put. What’s your comment, what’s your reaction? What guarantees did the – did the U.S. give any guarantees that regardless of what happens this deal would stay put? And just second on that, are you guys prepared to release a statement as soon after as the elections – the election results are announced as you are with the Brazilian elections? Because that was very rapid.
MR PRICE: Well, I understand – in fact I know – that Ambassador Nides in Jerusalem has already released a statement. Election processes are different in every country. Of course, in Brazil, the process there allowed the results to be tallied and fully certified, and of course it’s not a parliamentary system, so it’s quite different. I would be reluctant to compare any two countries, but as you’ve heard from Ambassador Nides, as you’ve heard from us today, we were pleased to see such strong voter turnout for the Knesset election. It’s too early to speculate on the exact composition of the next governing coalition until all the votes are counted. I think that also applies to specific issues about which the next Government of Israel may be in a position to make decisions. But we look forward to working with the Israeli Government on our interests and values. There are many of them.
QUESTION: Did you —
QUESTION: Yes, could I just —
QUESTION: Sorry, just a follow-up. And did you guys provide any guarantees that regardless of what happens that this deal – the U.S.-sponsored maritime deal would stay in place?
MR PRICE: Ultimately, the United States was the facilitator of this deal. This goes back to the comment I made in the context of Ethiopia. Our role was to support the parties. The parties over the course of more than a decade had sought to come to an agreement on their maritime border not because it was in the interest of the United States or just in the interest of Israel or just in the interest of Lebanon, but because it was jointly in the interests of Lebanon – excuse me – jointly in the interests of Israel and Lebanon for them to do so. And because it was in the interests of both countries, it was in the profound interest of the United States. We seek to see a more stable, a more integrated region, and this maritime border – the agreement regarding it – helps to advance that.
The United States is going to stay closely engaged with the parties, not only as a facilitator of this original agreement, but because we are close partners to both Israel and Lebanon. We’ve heard from the current governments in both Israel and Lebanon that this is profoundly in their interests. It’s in their economic interests in the first instance, but beyond that it is in their security interests as well. Scarce resources, we know from history, have the potential to create tensions and potentially to escalate tensions into in some cases the brink of conflict. We want to see those tensions de-escalated. The implementation of this maritime border agreement helps to do that, and we will do everything that we can to see to it that Israel and Lebanon both gain from this deal, as they stand to do.