SECRETARY BLINKEN: First, let me say this. As I am sure you're all tracking, we're in the final stages of securing a ceasefire agreement for Lebanon. We're not there yet, but I believe we are in the final stages. This has been an intensive diplomatic effort by the United States, partners like France, working with Israel, working with Lebanon, over many months. And if we get to the conclusion that I hope we reach very soon, it will make a big difference.
It will make a big difference in saving lives and livelihoods in Lebanon and in Israel. It will make a big difference in creating the conditions that will allow people to return to their homes safely in northern Israel and in southern Lebanon. And I also believe that by de-escalating tensions in the region, it can also help us to end the conflict in Gaza; in particular, Hamas will know that it can't count on other fronts opening up in the war. So we're tracking this very closely, and I hope and believe that we can get this over the finish line.
Now to the business of the G7. This is my final G7 as Secretary of State, and I really want to begin by thanking all of my counterparts in the G7 who have been such remarkable colleagues and have become good friends over these four years. Here in Italy, I particularly want to thank my friend, the foreign minister, Antonio Tajani, and also Prime Minister Meloni, both for their leadership of the G7 while Italy has had the chair but also because, over the last few years, we built the strongest possible partnership between Italy and the United States. And that is no small measure a tribute to the leadership we've seen from the prime minister, from the foreign minister, and of course from President Biden.
Over the last four years, G7 partners have met a moment of unprecedented testing, and we've transformed the group into a steering committee for the world's leading democracies. We've also strengthened ties with our partners beyond the G7 - in the Indo-Pacific, the Middle East, and more - so that we can work together to find shared solutions to shared challenges.
Our work has shown that when we come together, when we act in common purpose, we can better the lives of the people we represent and indeed better the lives of people everywhere. We boosted global investment in food security. We've done the same for sustainable infrastructure. We've advanced common rules of the road for artificial intelligence. We've generated ambitious commitments and investments for deploying clean energy, and so much more.
Today, our G7 partners pledged steadfast support for Ukraine into and through 2025, continuing what has been a truly unprecedented partnership - sharing the burden, determined to do everything that we can to help Ukraine deal with the ongoing Russian aggression.
The U.S. is continuing to surge security assistance to bolster Ukraine's defenses in the east and to respond to the escalation by Russia and in particular now the involvement of troops from North Korea.
And let me say on that that this is a matter of grave concern for all the members of the G7, both because of what it means for Ukraine, what it means for broader European security, but also what it means in the Indo-Pacific. We see that the security between the Indo-Pacific and the Euro-Atlantic community are joined. The relationship between Russia and North Korea is a two-way street. We see what North Korea is doing for Russia in Ukraine right now with the troops, but we also are looking attentively at what Russia is and may be doing for North Korea, including potentially boosting its missile and nuclear capacity. So this was a shared concern among all the G7 partners.
But in our support for Ukraine, we're also finalizing getting out the door the $50 billion that had been secured on the basis of the Russian sovereign assets that are frozen. Last week, the United States unveiled its latest sanctions on Russia's financial sector, including Gazprombank. And we, I think, can anticipate further action by G7 countries as well.
The G7 and partner countries have committed more than $2 billion to the energy sector in Ukraine since Russia escalated its attacks on that sector. As we head into the winter, we have G7+ donors supporting, among other things, repairs for damaged power plants to restore over two gigawatts of generation capacity, the delivery of over 18,000 generators to help heat homes, hospitals, and schools.
The G7 has also led the global push for enduring security commitments to Ukraine. Twenty-seven countries have now signed bilateral security agreements with Ukraine to help provide for their deterrence and defense capacity over the next decade.
Today, the G7 had the opportunity to speak with Foreign Minister Sybiha about these and other lines of effort to further ensure that we're strengthening Ukraine's military and economic position going into and through 2025. We're determined that Ukraine has the money, the munitions, and mobilized forces to fight effectively in 2025 or to negotiate, but from a position of strength.
We've also built on the G7's efforts to promote a free and open Indo-Pacific. As I mentioned, this focus today on the presence of North Korean troops in the aggression that Russia is committing against Ukraine, we spent a lot of time on that, but also on China's ongoing support for Russia's defense industrial base - all of which is allowing Russia to continue the aggression against Ukraine, both of which are reminders that European and Indo-Pacific security are joined. And one of the hallmarks of our administration has been to build bridges between Europe, the Indo-Pacific, and other regions, because so many of the issues that we have to face are shared issues, shared concerns, whether they're challenges and threats, or whether they're opportunities.
The G7 is increasingly aligned on our view of economic and security risks posed by the People's Republic of China, the policies it's pursuing, even as we recognize the need for constructive engagement. Over four years we have forged much greater convergence, more than ever before, on common approaches to China - a shared commitment, for example, to economic and security de-risking, dealing with over-capacity and unfair trade practices coming from Beijing, focused together on export controls on the most sensitive technology, working together on investment screening, standing against economic coercion, building mineral supply security, supply chains more generally and their security resilience, and helping to build sustainable infrastructure together around the world.
The bottom line is this: We are much stronger, we're much more effective, when we're acting together, not alone. And just to cite the obvious example in the economic area when we're dealing with policies of concern by China, any of our countries acting alone compared to when we're acting together simply cannot be as effective. In the case of the United States, we're 20 percent or so of world GDP. When we're acting together with our G7 partners, it's more like 50 percent, and that weight is a weight that can't be ignored.
As a result of the historic investments that we've made at home in the United States as well as in our partnerships abroad, we're now engaging China and the challenges it poses from a position of strength, and that's something that we'll be able to hand off to the next administration.
We also spent time discussing the opportunity and indeed the necessity to end conflicts in the Middle East and lay the foundation for a more durable peace now that Israel has achieved its strategic goals in the wake of October 7th. In Gaza, we remain committed to bringing the hostages home and ending the humanitarian crisis that Gaza's children, women, and men are facing every single day.
We agreed with Arab partners that we cannot end the conflict without a plan for the post-conflict - something that we're working on intensely as we speak.
We also reiterated deep concern with Iran's nuclear activities and continued failure to cooperate fully with the IAEA.
One other important area of focus over these last two days, and that's Sudan - the worst humanitarian crisis in the world. This horrific war has produced suffering for tens of millions of people, over 20 million forced to flee atrocities, facing famine, facing violence. I had an opportunity yesterday to visit with the World Food Program and to get an up-to-date report on the situation on the ground and what they're facing in terms of trying to deliver assistance to people in need.
Now, we've made some progress over the last few weeks, particularly in terms of humanitarian access. Today, the World Food Program announced that for the first time pretty much since the conflict has kicked off, they're getting trucks to famine-isolated areas like Zamzam, an IDP camp. With partners we've also made progress to expand lifesaving access to emergency food and medicine in other places, including the opening of the Adre border crossing and the establishment of humanitarian flights.
I had a very good meeting with partners from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Egypt on the next steps that we all will endorse and need to take. The G7 and its partners, like these countries, are committed to expanding humanitarian access in Sudan and at the same time working toward ending the conflict and the suffering of the Sudanese people.
We also addressed efforts to mitigate other conflicts and other humanitarian challenges around the world. We agreed on the need to continue increasing support for the Multilateral Security Support mission in Haiti for the contingent that's there as well as for the Haitian National Police, and on the importance of turning this mission into a formal peacekeeping operation.
We also worked to ensure effective follow-on peacekeeping forces in Somalia.
Many other things were on the agenda. I just wanted to focus on those and to conclude by saying that from my perspective these last two days and in fact these last four years are a reminder that we can navigate an increasingly complex world much more effectively when we're doing it together, when we're working with partners, with allies.
The G7 has set us up for success on issues that matter to the citizens of each of our countries and that matter to people around the world. Our greatest strategic asset, our most significant force multiplier, individually and collectively, is our ability to come together and work in common cause, and from my perspective that's never been more important. It remains essential that we keep working together to get results to deliver for the people that we have the honor and privilege of representing.
Thank you. And with that, I'm happy to take some questions.
