美国国务院
发言人办公室
华盛顿哥伦比亚特区
2021年12月21日
安东尼·布林肯国务卿在记者会上发表讲话
 
各位下午好。很高兴见到你们大家。
我想你们大都期待着这个以辛勤工作换来的假期。这真是不寻常的一年。
当我在就任国务卿的第一天走进国务院时，世界各地都在为抗击2019冠状病毒病（COVID-19）实施关闭和限制措施。
当时美国只有不到1%的人接种了疫苗，而如今已超过60%。
我们当时正在应对自大萧条（Great Depression）以来最严重的经济危机。
气候危机正在加速。
我们同我们的盟友及伙伴的关系也很紧张。
而且很多人质疑美国是否有意愿——甚至是否有能力——再次引领航向。
几个指导性的前提激励了我们今年的工作。
一个是美国的参与——美国的领导力——事关重大。
世界不会自行组织起来。
当我们不参与时，当我们不引领时，会发生以下两种情况之一：要么是其他一些国家试图取代我们的地位，但可能不是以一种推动我们的利益和价值观的方式，要么是无人引领，那就会出现混乱。
不论是哪种情况，都不利于美国人民。
另外一个前提是寻求以新方式同其他国家合作及协调比以往任何时候都更加重要，因为我们所面临的并且影响到美国人民生活的极其重大的挑战——从COVID到气候再到新技术的颠覆性影响——没有一项是任何国家所能独自解决的，甚至连美国也不行。
我们今年的工作大都围绕着重建美国对外政策的根基。
这始于恢复并重振我们的同盟及伙伴关系网络——并重新参与多边体系，在这方面进行了许多日复一日的外交工作。
自1月20日以来，我们为同关键盟友的交往重新注入了活力：同北约（NATO）、欧洲联盟（European Union）、联合国（United Nations）、经济合作与发展组织（OECD）、七国集团（G7）、二十国集团（G20）以及东南亚国家联盟（ASEAN）。我们创立了美英澳三边合作关系（AUKUS）；我们通过两次领导人级别的峰会提升了四方伙伴关系（Quad）；我们发起了重建更美好世界（Build Back Better World）全球基础设施倡议。
与一年前相比，我们在几乎每个问题上都同我们的盟友和伙伴更加一致，其中包括在俄罗斯针对乌克兰及其邻国的挑衅上、在伊朗的核项目上，以及在中国试图挑战基于规则的国际秩序上。
我可以通过我在全世界每个地区同有关官员的几十次面对面的会谈来证实，他们很高兴——坦率地说是感到放心——因为美国再次参与而且再次发挥领导作用。
在今年年初，我们曾说过我们要引领终止COVID-19疫情的全球性努力。
从那以后，我们已向110多个国家捐助了超过3.3亿剂疫苗，并向明年捐助12亿剂疫苗迈进。
这比全世界其他国家的总和还多。
我们还引领世界为COVID-19疫苗全球获取机制（COVAX）提供资金，这个全球性伙伴关系在全世界公平地分发安全的疫苗。
就在今天上午，我宣布再提供5.8亿美元COVID援助资金，向遭受严重影响的地区提供拯救生命的卫生及人道主义援助。
这使美国的援助总额达到近200亿美元。
而且重要的不仅仅是我们的援助数额，还有我们的援助方式——植根于科学，基于需求，协同国际和区域机构，并且不附加任何政治条件。
我们做到这一切的原因是——正如我们看到目前正在发生的，随着奥密克戎（Omicron）变种的蔓延——在所有人都享有安全之前，没有人是安全的。
要战胜这场疫情，我们还有很长的路要走。
但让我们不要忽略我们，全世界和美国，在过去一年中取得了长足进展的事实——在美国的领导作用下——为更有效力的全球性COVID-19应对措施及拯救生命奠定了基础。
我们将继续努力实现拜登总统在他于九月召集的全球COVID峰会上制定的目标：到明年秋季为全世界70%的人口接种疫苗。
而且我们将继续引领和促进全球卫生安全，以便更好地预防、发现并应对今后的疫情。
我们曾说过要恢复美国在气候危机中的领导作用。
在第一天，我们就重新加入了《巴黎协定》（Paris Agreement）。
我们通过对气候进行重大投资——包括将我们自己的融资增至四倍——提升了削减排放的全球雄心。
经过一年不懈的外交努力，总计占全球GDP 65%的国家已致力于将全球升温幅度限制在1.5摄氏度的目标。
我们引领了将甲烷排放削减30%的全球承诺，并帮助主导了到本十年末终止并逆转毁林现象的努力。
超过100个国家加入了上述两项承诺。
我们还确保很多世界大型经济体承诺摒弃为海外的化石燃料项目提供资金。
我们曾说过我们会应对影响到美国劳动者和美国家庭的种种问题。
这以COVID和气候问题为首，但不止于此。
由于美国的领导作用，我们的港口的拥堵以及关键物资的短缺正在缓解。
我们汇集了136个国家以确保一项全球最低税率（Global Minimum Tax）来终止公司税率的逐底竞争，阻止公司企业将工作机会转移到海外，并创收数十亿美元投资于国内。
我们正在为新型技术的治理制定规范，以使它们服务于民主体，而不是损害民主体。
而且正如在其他所有事务上一样，我们同我们的盟友和伙伴合作，包括通过我们今年发起的美国–欧盟贸易和科技委员会（U.S.-European Union Trade and Technology Council）。
拜登总统承诺终止美国为时最长的战争。今年夏天，我们兑现了这一承诺，结束了坚定支持行动（Operation Resolute Support），并领导一个国际同盟从阿富汗撤离了超过12万人。
我们知道其艰巨性。确实如此。我们正在为了今后的工作汲取这次撤离及重新安置行动的经验教训。
但这也是20年来第一次没有美国军人在阿富汗度过岁末假日，而且我们不会派出第三代美国军人到那里作战牺牲。
我上次在这个简报厅里接受了一些应有的提问，有关我们继续为美国公民以及我们对其有特殊承诺的其他人员的撤离提供便利的能力。
在那以后的几个月里，我们兑现了这一承诺，其中包括我们为任何希望离开的美国公民提供帮助的承诺。自9月1日以来，我们已帮助近500名美国人离开阿富汗。这包括了几乎每一位在8月31日之后还在阿富汗并表示希望离开而且已做好准备的蓝色护照持有者——我们还将继续努力。
我们还将继续努力应对阿富汗日益恶化的人道主义局势——通过我们的援助以及我们的外交工作，我们是向阿富汗人民提供援助的最大单一援助方。
最后，我们已投资于国务院——让它成为一个更加强大、更有效力、更加敏捷、更具多元化的机构，能在一个复杂性和竞争性日增的世界里为美国人民服务。
我们正在建设我们的能力以便在今后的年月里在对于我们的人民将越来越重要的外交领域发挥领导作用，例如全球卫生、气候、技术和经济事务。
而且在我们这样做的时候，我们绝不会在事关战略竞争、维护我们的民主价值观和人权以及为和平而努力的事务上偏离重点。
我们启动了一个全面广泛的现代化日程，包括我们计划设立一个新的网络安全和数字政策事务局（Cybersecurity and Digital Policy Bureau），以及关键和新兴技术事务特使（Special Envoy for Critical and Emerging Technology），以帮助我们确保数字革命服务于我们的人民、保护我们的利益、增强我们的竞争力，并维护我们的价值观。新的资源使我们得以完成十年来规模最大的人员增聘以及大幅增加我们的信息技术预算；我们增加了全职从事经济和气候事务的外交人员；新的行动计划使我们能够赢得人才竞争并促进多元化、包容性、公平性和机会均等。
今年，我们还任命了国务院的首位多元化和包容性首席官员（Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer），因为我们的外交使团应当体现出我们国家的全面的多元化、才华和经验。
在我们从事的每一项工作中，我们的首要重点都是我们的人员的安全和福祉。
今天晚些时候，我将前往约翰斯霍普金斯（Johns Hopkins）行政医疗中心（Executive Medical Center），我们的一些受到异常健康事件伤害的同事们正在那里接受治疗。
国务院各部门以及整个美国政府机构都极其重视查明此类事件的原因和肇事者，照护那些受到影响的人，并保护我们的工作人员。
我们正在对国内加大投资，包括教育、基础设施、研究开发以及卫生领域，这对于我们的对外政策的成功至关重要。
国内的振兴驱动我们的竞争力，并提升美国在全世界的地位。
综上所述，毫无疑问的是我们现在已比11个月以前更加强大。
我们在世界上更加强大。我们在国内更加强大。我们在应对COVID、气候以及其他迫切挑战方面地位更加稳固。
我们处于一种更稳固的地缘政治地位来应对中国和俄罗斯这样的国家，在他们试图破坏我们所建立并领导的国际体系之时——这个体系已使全世界更自由、更繁荣、更安全、更互联互通，并让我们的国家和人民繁荣发展。
对于我们事关重大的是要维护这一体系，捍卫法治、民主价值观和人权，以及一个让人人都享有公平机会来参与竞争并取得成功的公平的竞争环境。
我们将继续推动这一积极愿景——同我们的盟友和伙伴并肩努力。
我今天在这里提到的几乎所有工作都将在2022年继续进行：终止这场疫情并增强全球卫生安全；确保新技术的标准、硬件和政策能够保障我们的竞争优势并改善我们人民的生活和生计，同时确保他们的安全以及我们的民主的强大；保卫并增强基于规则的秩序并防范那些试图摧毁它的人；建设一个准备好发挥领导作用以应对21世纪的种种挑战的国务院。
与我们开始时所处的情况相比，我们现在处于有利得多的地位来取得稳固进展以应对这些挑战，因为我们正在今年所奠定的基础之上努力。
我为我们的所有外交人员和发展事务专家感到骄傲，并对他们表示感谢，这些成就来自你们的辛勤努力，你们代表着我们国家最杰出的人才。
今年，我们告别了美国外交界的两位巨人——乔治·舒尔茨（George Shultz）和科林·鲍威尔（Colin Powell）。他们都热爱国务院。国务院也热爱他们。
他们都相信外交的力量。
他们都知道国务院不是为解决其他地方的问题而存在、其工作重点不在于外部世界——而是为了造福于美国人民，解决影响他们生活的挑战，并创造机会以使他们的未来更加光明。
这些就是我们在本届政府中竭诚采纳的信念。而且我知道它们也跨越党派得到分享。因此，我要感谢国会在周末批准了一大批被提名的外交官。迄今为止，获得批准的大使和其他高级外交官的人数少于美国历史上任何一届政府。我们迫切需要一个完整的团队，在世界各地保护我们的利益和我们的人员。
作为我们杰出的外交队伍的一员，在这一年为美国人民服务令我感到荣幸。与你们在座的很多人一同出访，并时而站在这个讲台上回答你们的提问，也令我感到荣幸。感谢你们不辞辛劳、坚持不懈地工作，让美国人民和全世界人民对于我们在这里从事的工作知情，并对我们问责。
我希望你们都能度过一个非常健康的、养精蓄锐的假期。祝大家新年快乐。我期待明年继续开展工作。
 
欲查看原稿内容：https://www.state.gov/secretary-antony-j-blinken-at-a-press-availability-9/
本译文仅供参考，只有英文原稿才可以被视为权威资料来源。

Secretary Antony J. Blinken at a Press Availability
 
 

REMARKS
ANTONY J. BLINKEN, SECRETARY OF STATE
PRESS BRIEFING ROOM
WASHINGTON, D.C.
DECEMBER 21, 2021
SECRETARY BLINKEN:  Good afternoon, everyone.  Good to see you all.
I suspect that most of you are looking forward to what will be a well-deserved break.  It’s been quite a year.
When I walked into the State Department on my first day as Secretary, we had COVID-19 lockdowns around the world.
Less than 1 percent of the United States was vaccinated, compared to more than 60 percent today.
We were dealing with the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.
The climate crisis was accelerating.
Our relationships with our allies and partners were badly strained.
And many questioned whether America would – or even could – lead again.
A few guiding premises animated our work this year.
One is that American engagement – American leadership – matters.
The world doesn’t organize itself.
When we’re not engaged, when we don’t lead, then one of two things happens: either some other country tries to take our place, but probably not in a way that advances our interests and values, or no one does, and then you get chaos.
Either way, it doesn’t serve the American people.
Another premise is that finding new ways to cooperate and coordinate with other countries is more important than ever, because none of the really big challenges that we face and that affect the lives of Americans – from COVID to climate to the disruptive impact of new technologies – can be solved by any one country working alone.  Not even the United States.
So much of our work this year has been about rebuilding the foundations of American foreign policy.
That started with restoring and revitalizing our network of alliances and partnerships – and reengaging the multilateral system, where so much of the day-in, day-out work of diplomacy takes place.
Since January 20th, we’ve reinvigorated our engagement with key allies, with NATO, the European Union, the United Nations, the OECD, the G7, the G20, ASEAN.  We created AUKUS; we elevated the Quad with two leader-level summits; we launched the Build Back Better World global infrastructure initiative.
We’re much more aligned with our allies and partners now than we were a year ago on nearly every issue, including Russia’s aggression toward Ukraine and its neighbors, Iran’s nuclear program, and China’s efforts to challenge the rules-based international order.
And I can attest from my dozens of face-to-face meetings with counterparts in every region of the world that they’re glad – frankly, relieved – that the United States is once again engaged and once again leading.
At the start of the year, we said that we would lead the global effort to end the COVID-19 pandemic.
Since then, we’ve donated more than 330 million vaccine doses to more than 110 countries, on our way to 1.2 billion donated doses next year.
That’s more than the rest of the world combined.
We’ve led the world in funding COVAX, the global partnership that distributes safe vaccines equitably around the world.
And just this morning, I announced another $580 million in COVID relief funding, to provide life-saving health and humanitarian assistance to places where the suffering is acute.
That brings total U.S. assistance to nearly $20 billion.
And it’s not just the amount of our assistance but how we’ve done it – rooted in science, based on need, with international and regional institutions, and with no political strings attached.
We’ve done all this because – as we see happening right now, with the rise of the Omicron variant – none of us will be safe until all of us are safe.
We still have a long way to go to beat the pandemic.
But let’s not lose sight of the fact that we’ve come very far, the world, the United States this past year – with American leadership – in building the foundation for a more effective global COVID-19 response and saving lives.
We’ll keep working toward the goal President Biden set in September at the global COVID summit that he convened: vaccinating 70 percent of the world by next fall.
And we’ll keep leading the push for greater global health security, to better prevent, detect, and respond to future pandemics.
We said we’d restore American leadership in the climate crisis.
Well, on day one, we rejoined the Paris Agreement.
We raised global ambitions to reduce emissions through major investments in climate finance – including quadrupling our own funding.
After a year of dogged diplomacy, countries accounting for 65 percent of the world’s GDP are committed to targets that will keep global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
We led the global pledge to cut methane emissions by 30 percent and helped spearhead the effort to end and reverse deforestation by the end of the decade.
More than 100 countries have joined both of those pledges.
And we secured commitments by many of the world’s major economies to move away from financing fossil fuel projects abroad.
We said we would take on issues that affected American workers and families.
That starts with COVID and climate, but it doesn’t end there.
Thanks to American leadership, the logjams at our ports and the shortages of critical goods are easing.
We brought 136 countries together to secure a Global Minimum Tax to end the race to the bottom on corporate tax rates, prevent corporations from shifting jobs overseas, and generating billions of dollars to invest here at home.
We’re shaping the governance of new technologies, so that they serve democracies, instead of undermining them.
And as with everything else, we’re doing it with our allies and partners, including through the U.S.-European Union Trade and Technology Council, which we launched this year.
President Biden pledged to end America’s longest war.  This summer, we made good on that promise, bringing Operation Resolute Support to a close and leading an international coalition to evacuate more than 120,000 people from Afghanistan.
We knew this would be challenging.  It was.  And there are lessons from the evacuation and relocation that we’re learning for the future.
But this is also the first time in 20 years that no U.S. troops are spending the holidays in Afghanistan, and we’re not sending a third generation of American soldiers to fight and die there.
The last time I was in this briefing room, I faced some appropriate questions about our ability to continue to facilitate the departure of American citizens and others to whom we have a special commitment.
In the months since, we’ve made good on that promise, including our pledge to help any U.S. citizen who wants to leave.  Since September 1, we’ve helped nearly 500 Americans depart Afghanistan.  That’s virtually every blue passport holder who remained in Afghanistan after August 31st who has said they wanted to depart and was ready to do so – and we’ll keep at it.
We’ll also keep working to address the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Afghanistan – through our aid, as the single largest provider of assistance to the people of Afghanistan, as well as through our diplomacy.
Finally, we invested in the State Department – to make it an even stronger, more effective, more agile, more diverse institution that can deliver for the American people in what is an increasingly complex and competitive world.
We’re building our capacity to lead in areas of diplomacy that will matter more and more to our people in the years ahead, like global health, like climate, like technology, like economics.
And as we do, we’ll never take our eye off the ball when it comes to strategic competition, upholding our democratic values and human rights, working for peace.
We launched a sweeping modernization agenda, including our intent to establish a new Cybersecurity and Digital Policy Bureau and Special Envoy for Critical and Emerging Technology, to help us make sure that the digital revolution serves our people, protects our interests, boosts our competitiveness, and upholds our values.  New resources to enable the largest hiring increase in a decade and a significant increase in our IT budget; Foreign Service positions dedicated to economic and climate issues; and new initiatives to win the competition for talent and advance diversity, inclusion, equity, and accessibility.
This year, we also appointed the State Department’s first Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer, because our diplomatic corps should reflect our nation’s full diversity, talent, and experience.
And across everything we do, our number-one priority is the safety and well-being of our people.
Later today, I’ll visit the Executive Medical Center at Johns Hopkins, where some of our colleagues who’ve suffered from anomalous health incidents are getting treatment.
All of us at the State Department and across the U.S. Government are intently focused on getting to the bottom of what and who is causing these incidents, caring for those who’ve been affected, protecting our people.
Critical to the success of our foreign policy are the investments we’re making in ourselves here at home – in education, infrastructure, research and development, and health.
Domestic renewal fuels our competitiveness and it elevates America’s standing in the world.
Put it all together, and there is no question that we’re stronger now than we were 11 months ago.
We’re stronger in the world.  We’re stronger at home.  We’re on stronger footing when it comes to COVID, climate, and other urgent challenges.
And we’re in a stronger geopolitical position to deal with countries like China and Russia, as they seek to undermine the international system that we’ve built and led – a system that has made the world freer, more prosperous, more secure, more connected, and has allowed our country and people to thrive.
We’ve got a profound stake in upholding that system, in standing up for the rule of law, for democratic values and human rights, a level playing field that gives everyone a fair chance to compete and to succeed.
And we’ll continue to drive that positive vision – with our allies and partners right alongside us.
Just about all the work that I’ve named here today will continue in 2022: ending this pandemic and strengthening global health security; making sure the standards, hardware, and policies for new technology secure our competitive edge and improve the lives and livelihoods of our people while keeping them safe and our democracy strong; defending and strengthening the rules-based order against those who would tear it down; building a State Department ready to lead on 21st-century challenges.
We’re much better positioned to make strong progress on those challenges than we were when we began, because we’re building on the foundation we laid this year.
And I’m proud and grateful to all the diplomats and development experts who’ve worked so hard to make that happen and who represent the very best our country has to offer.
This year, we said goodbye to two giants of American diplomacy – George Shultz and Colin Powell.  They both loved the State Department.  The State Department loved them.
They both believed in the power of diplomacy.
And they both knew that the State Department doesn’t exist to deal with problems elsewhere, to focus out there on the rest of the world — but rather to deliver for the American people, to solve the challenges that affect their lives, to create opportunities that will make their futures brighter.
Those are beliefs that we wholeheartedly embrace in this administration.  And I know they’re shared across our political aisle.  So I want to thank Congress for confirming a large slate of our nominees over the weekend.  No administration in American history has had fewer confirmed ambassadors and senior officials than ours.  And we need our full team on the field right away to protect our interests and our people.
It has been an honor to serve the American people this year as part of our outstanding diplomatic workforce.  It’s also been an honor to travel with many of you here in this room, to take your questions up here at this podium from time to time.  Thank you for your dedicated, persistent work to keep the American people and people around the world informed about what we do here and to hold us to account.
So I hope you all have a very healthy, restorative break.  I wish you all a very happy New Year.  I look forward to getting to work next year.  But meanwhile, I’m happy to take some questions.
MR PRICE:  Michele.
QUESTION:  Now you’ve had a few months to reflect on what went wrong in Afghanistan, and I wonder what regrets you have about how you handled the diplomacy surrounding it and what concerns you have – whether you’ve lost credibility among your allies in the way that it ended and what you intend to do to head off a humanitarian catastrophe there given that the U.S. still has a lot of Afghanistan’s money frozen in bank accounts here.
SECRETARY BLINKEN:  When it comes to regrets, to looking back, there’ll be a lot of time for that in the years ahead.  Right now, we’re focused on what we’re doing, what we need to do, on action to move our foreign policy forward, to move our national security forward, to deal with the challenges that are in front of us.
Now, I also ordered a review of our Afghanistan policy and the implementation of that policy, starting in 2020 and going through the relocation and evacuation.  As I think you know, one of our most respected now retired diplomats, Dan Smith, will be leading that effort, and I look forward to learning what he and his team learn in terms of the lessons to take from that experience.  Others are also rightly looking at the last 20 years of our policy in Afghanistan to try to draw lessons from that – what went right, what went wrong, and how we take that going forward.
But to your point, what I am focused on right now is the situation in Afghanistan, including the humanitarian situation.  We continue to be the largest single provider of humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan.  We’ve issued multiple now general licenses to make sure that other countries, institutions, can feel free to move forward with their assistance and not be concerned about the application or implementation of sanctions against them.
We’ve participated in the release of about $280 million recently in the Afghan Trust Fund monies that are there.  And we are looking intensely at ways to put more liquidity into the Afghan economy, to get more money into people’s pockets, and doing that with international institutions, with other countries and partners, trying to put in place the right mechanisms to do that in a way that doesn’t directly benefit the Taliban but does go directly to the people.
We’re very conscious of the fact that there is an incredibly difficult humanitarian situation right now, one that could get worse as winter sets in.  And so that’s an area of intense focus for us working closely with allies and partners.  We’re also, of course, focused on ensuring that the Taliban make good on the expectations of the international community when it comes to continuing to allow people who wish to leave Afghanistan to do so, when it comes to upholding the rights of all Afghan citizens but notably women and girls and minorities, when it comes to not engaging in reprisals, when it comes to making good on their commitments to counter terrorism coming from Afghanistan.
So all of those things are front and center on our agenda.  We’re working them virtually every day with international partners around the world.
MR PRICE:  Andrea.
QUESTION:  Thank you very much, Mr. Secretary.  Russia is increasing its demands on NATO.  Today, the defense minister is saying that U.S. mercenaries are plotting a provocation in the Donbas, which some would say could be a pretext for some sort of invasion.  The question is:  Since the President talked to President Putin, it seems as though the buildup is continuing, the threats are continuing from Vladimir Putin.  So at this point, how do you counter the Russian aggression?  Are you concerned about something that would be less than a military invasion, in some sort of a grey area where it might be more difficult?  What would the U.S. response to that be in the Donbas for instance?
And there are reports that the U.S. and the UK are on high alert for a potential Russian cyber attack on critical infrastructure in Ukraine, which has happened in previous years during the holiday season to either weaken the Zelenskyy government as a predicate before an invasion or as an alternative to a military or economic attack, which would be harder to retaliate against.
So the bottom line is:  How is diplomacy going to deal with this increasing Russian threat which doesn’t seem to be minimized at all by the talks, by the presidential talks, and a threat —
SECRETARY BLINKEN:  Andrea, we’re engaged in diplomacy and deterrence at the same time.  These two things go hand in hand.  As you know, just to step back for a second, President Biden when he first met with President Putin in Geneva some months ago – and you were there – said to President Putin that our strong preference is for a more predictable and stable relationship between Russia and the United States, but if Russia continues to engage in reckless or aggressive actions we will respond and we’ll respond strongly.
Since then we’ve seen this buildup again around Ukraine that is of deep concern not just to us but to allies and partners in Europe and beyond.  And we’ve seen plans that Russia has to commit renewed acts of aggression against Ukraine that it could implement on very short order.
And so we’ve done two things.  We have worked in very close coordination with allies and partners not only to show the shared concern but to put in place what would be a very meaningful and massive response if Russia commits renewed acts of aggressions.
We’ve seen, and I think you’ve seen, statements coming out of NATO, the European Union, the G7, all making clear that there would be massive consequences.  That’s the language used: “massive consequences” for Russia if it engaged – engages in further acts of aggression against Ukraine.
At the same time, President Biden has made clear that there is a much better path, and that is diplomacy.  And we’re committed to engaging in that if Russia is too.  And to that end, the President spoke to President Putin, as you know, a couple of weeks ago by video conference.  There were follow-on conversations, notably between the National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan and his Russian counterpart.
And as the White House noted yesterday, we have said and Russia has also said that we’re prepared to engage diplomatically through multiple channels, the existing Strategic Stability Dialogue that we have with Russia between Russia and the United States, through the NATO‑Russia Council on issues of particular concern to NATO, and through the OSCE, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe that has as its members among others all of our European allies and partners Ukraine, the United States, and Russia.
And I think you’ll see relatively early in the new year engagements in all of those areas to see if we can advance the differences diplomatically.  Russia has said – and it put out some papers on this – that it has grievances, demands, concerns.  Well, so does the United States and all of our European partners about Russia’s conduct, the actions it’s taken.  All of that will be on the table.  And if we can make our way forward diplomatically, that is far preferable.
The last thing I’ll say on this is that in all of this we are in absolute solidarity, coordination, consultation with allies and partners.  We are doing nothing about them – without them.  All of this is being done together.  And we’ll see which direction President Putin will take.
QUESTION:  Isn’t one of his demands though —
MR PRICE:  We’re going to move around a little.
QUESTION:  — to not deploy troops in any of the NATO countries?
SECRETARY BLINKEN:  There are some very obvious nonstarters in things that the Russians have put on the table.  There may be other issues that are appropriate for discussion and conversation, just as there are things that we would put on the table that Russia needs to respond to.
But look, the President’s been extremely clear for many, many years about some basic principles that no one is moving back on:  the principle that one country does not have the right to change by force the borders of another; that one country does not have the right to dictate the policies of another or to tell that country with whom it may associate; one country does not have the right to exert a sphere of influence.  That notion should be relegated to the dustbin of history.  And those principles are inviolate.  They’re very clear.  The President’s held them for a long time.  That’s not going to change.
MR PRICE:  Kylie.
QUESTION:  Just to go off of that, you’ve just reiterated that the United States is prepared to engage diplomatically with Russia in multiple different venues, different channels.  We’ve been hearing that over the last few days.  I wonder if a meeting between President Biden and President Putin is one of those options that the Biden administration would consider and if there would be any preconditions that Russia would have to take before another meeting between President Biden and President Putin.
SECRETARY BLINKEN:  Well, of course, the presidents have met twice – once face-to-face in person in Geneva and then just a couple of weeks ago by video conference.  And the next steps on the diplomatic track, as I said, are through the Strategic Stability Dialogue that we’ve already established that is between Russia and the United States, the NATO-Russia Council, and the OSCE.  And let’s see if and where any of these conversations go, whether we can actually make progress diplomatically.
At the same time, when it comes to Ukraine itself, we’ve said – we’ve long said – that the best way to resolve the conflict in eastern Ukraine and to restore to Ukraine the border that it’s entitled to is through the so-called Minsk process, the agreements that Russia and Ukraine reached many years ago now to resolve the – these differences peacefully.  And there we’re very much prepared to try to facilitate that, to act in support of what France and Germany are doing with Russia and Ukraine in what’s called the Normandy format.
So we’re working on all of those lines.  Whether that leads to at some point or another a meeting between the President and President Putin, I leave that for another day.  But no plans to do that now.
I think we have to see if, in the first instance, there’s any progress diplomatically.  We also want to see Russia de-escalate, to move forces back from the border with Ukraine, to take down the tension.  It’s much more appropriate to have a conversation in those circumstances than it is when escalation is happening, not de-escalation.
MR PRICE:  Will.
QUESTION:  Thank you and happy winter solstice to you.
SECRETARY BLINKEN:  Thank you.
QUESTION:  I wanted to ask about the Indo-Pacific, if I may.  The Build Back Better program seems to have melted down in Congress.  It’s unclear whether bits of that will be put back together next year, and this administration has presented domestic renewal as almost a precondition for competing and – with and presumably confronting China, if need be.  So where does that leave your foreign policy, the fact that that has gone a bit by the wayside?
And what do you hope to achieve with allies and partners in the region next year?  Your Southeast Asia trip was cut short.  And then what do you hope to achieve with the Quad or other countries in the region?
SECRETARY BLINKEN:  Thanks.  I’ll preface this by saying I don’t do politics.  I don’t do domestic politics, but what I can say is this, because it’s what I’ve heard around the world:  First, countries around the world have seen the investments that we’ve already made and that are on the books, including a historic investment in infrastructure, something that goes directly to our competitiveness; including the recovery from COVID and the support that was provided to the American people in that instance; and they also see what remains on the agenda ahead.
But that does speak powerfully already to people around the world, and I think the President’s commitment to reinvest in education, in research and development, in infrastructure resonates.  In each of these areas we used to lead the world.  We’ve fallen way, way back, and the President wants to change that.  And I think as we continue to work on that, building on what’s already been done, that will resonate.
And yes, it’s true that it does make a difference if we’re able to get things done, to demonstrate, as the President said, that democracy can actually deliver.  That’s not only important for people here at home, it is important for our standing around the world, and he’s already shown powerful examples of that.  Let’s see where we get in the year ahead.
In the Indo-Pacific, we’ve had extensive and extended engagement almost from the start of the year right through to last week, including with the trip that a number of you were on, but not just me – the President, of course, engaging with ASEAN, elevating the Quad Leaders’ Summit, having as his first visitors the leaders of Japan and South Korea, and so on.  The Vice President’s trip to Singapore and Vietnam; virtually every senior official in this department and other relevant departments, including the Commerce Department, the Treasury Department, engaging with allies and partners in the region, and that will continue.
When I was there just this past week in Indonesia, in Malaysia, coming off of the G7 meetings in Liverpool, one of the things I was able to do was lay out our vision for the region, the basic approach we’re taking to the Indo-Pacific.  A lot more of that’s going to get fleshed out in the weeks and months ahead, but at least in the responses that I got, it seemed to resonate.  So we’re – the foundation is there, we’re going to be building on it.
And speaking of Build Back Better, we have Build Back Better World, which is a program that was announced at the G7 by the President and our G7 partners to make significant investments in infrastructure, including in Southeast Asia and the Indo-Pacific but as a race to the top, not a race to the bottom, an affirmative vision of what those investments can and should be, making sure that as they’re made, countries don’t assume a huge debt burden that they can’t afford, that we make sure that projects are done to the highest standards with respect for the environment; for workers, that we actually transfer knowledge and skills as we’re doing it, that we allow local workers to build things and don’t import our own.
And we are now working to rally not only partners and allies to this, but also, and importantly, the private sector.  That’s our comparative advantage.  That’s what we really bring to the table – the ability to be a catalyst for private sector investment.  And these projects are going to focus on things that also help us deal with the climate crisis in terms of green technology, green infrastructure, also building a stronger health security system throughout the region and beyond, as well as dealing with infrastructure for new technology.
So all of that got, at least from what I heard, a very strong reception in Southeast Asia.  And again, what I also heard – but you have to check with your own sources – genuine satisfaction that the United States, across the board, was showing up, was re-engaged, and had a real vision for the region.  We are a Pacific country.  We are a Pacific power.  It matters to us.  So much of the future is going to be there.  Fifty percent of the world’s population is already there.  Some of the most dynamic economies, certainly pre-COVID, bouncing back now as we continue to work through COVID.  We see the future in the region.  And our policy, our resources, our focus are being directed accordingly.
MR PRICE:  We have time for one more question.  Francesco.
QUESTION:  Thank you, Mr. Secretary.  On Iran, you’ve been saying for the past weeks that the runway is getting shorter and shorter, that you won’t let Iran drag its feet at the negotiation table while developing its nuclear program, but can you be a little bit more specific?  Are you ready to wait until January, February, March, or beyond?  And doesn’t that weaken your position to keep saying those things while not giving a deadline to Iran?  Thank you.
SECRETARY BLINKEN:  Thanks.  I’m not going to put a time limit on it or give you the number of meters remaining on the runway, except to say yes, it is getting very, very, very short.  And being able to recover the benefits – the full benefits of the JCPOA by returning to compliance with it is getting increasingly problematic by the advances that Iran makes every single day in its nuclear program.
Now, we are where we are because of what I consider to be one of the worst decisions made in American foreign policy in the last decade, and that was getting out of the Iran nuclear agreement, the JCPOA – an agreement that had put Iran’s nuclear program in a box.  And in getting out of that agreement, we were promised that it would be replaced by a stronger one, and, at the same time, maximum pressure being exerted against Iran would curb its malicious activities throughout the region.  And instead, of course, we’ve seen just the opposite.  There hasn’t been a new and improved agreement.  To the contrary, Iran has broken loose from the constraints imposed on it by the JCPOA, and at the same time, it continues to act aggressively in country after country in the region.
So that’s the reality of what we’re dealing with, but we are dealing with it.  We will deal with it.  We continue to have a strong interest in seeing if we can put the nuclear program back into the box that it was in.  But if we can’t do that because Iran will not engage in good faith, then we are actively looking at alternatives and options.
And what will not endure is Iran playing for time at the negotiating table by not engaging in good faith and with speed, while, at the same time, continuing to build up its program.  That is not a sustainable proposition, and it simply won’t be.
Thank you.
MR PRICE:  Thank you, Mr. Secretary.
SECRETARY BLINKEN:  And to all, a very Happy New Year.
QUESTION:  Thank you.  Happy Holidays.
QUESTION:  Happy Holidays to you.
SECRETARY BLINKEN:  Happy Holidays.  Thanks.