jo live at 7:00 eastern wednesday morning on c-span, c-s now, or online at c-span.org. >■/g place on the it just otside the white ho. it will include scholars related to emancipation in addition to various poems and other writings. watch live at noon eastern on c-span, c-span now, our free mobile videopp or online at c-span.org. >> u.s. secretary of state antony blinken and nato sea■pary-nestoltenberg held a ps conference at the state department. during his remarks, secretary of state blinken called on china to withdraw its support for russia's ongoing war in you reign. this is

about 45 minutes. >> good morning, everyone. in a few weeks time we will gather for nato's 75th summit, lely, looking forward to make sure nato is fit for purpose for the challenges of today and tomorrow. making sure this alliance continues to do what it has done effectively for the last 75 years, protect our people.

i think it's an opportunity as well tref our citizens about the power of collective defense. the power of collective defense is the best way to prevent conflict to deter aggression and avoid war. at the heart of nato is a commitment from each ally to come to the defense of any other ally that may be the victim of aggressor considering taken they pick a fight with all. that's thmost ef, powerful way to do what we all want to do, which is prevent war from occurring in the first ■÷@4place. these investments we are making in our defensive the best possible investments we can make in preventing conflict, avoidingaggression. secretary were together in prague with all of our allies a couple of weeks ago, working decisions ahead of the july summit and critically, the secretary was here with president biden yteworking to he details and very important ones,

we continue that conversation today. ious commitments we are making as an alliance going forward. we our support for ukraine and p in the alliance. we are establishing a ncommand,, security systems, equipment, its transfer and repair and maintenance. we are strengthening our elective deterrence and defense. we are in plummeting robust plan allies agreed to come up most robust planrrence since the col, that russia poses to the transatlantic alliance and to security. -- meeting the cllen russia poses and critically, you are president biden and the secretary-general to this yesterday, we are boosting our

every ally is standing up and carrying the ourse. 23 allies out of now meet the 2% 32 target. the target of spending % of gdp on defense, a target established 2014 at the wales summit when president biden took office in 2021. nine allies were meeting that mark. now it is 23. and we have also seen as the secretary general said yesterday , spending across the alliance in a decade. and it is necessary to twe're r alliance is strengthening partnerships with other countries, including countri ntic area, particularly deepening cooperation with partners in the the summit, as well as within the transatlantic

community■?ical partner. the alliance recognizes that security challenges in one part of the world impact another and vice versa. so what is happening in the transatlantic space has real consequences and implications for the indo-pacific anything happening in the indo-pacific spaceur allies. there is recognition of that and that strong partnerships. context of ukraine when he said what is happening in ukraine today may well be happening in east asia tomorrow. we are also adopting and building resilience to emerging threats,ls you will see underscored at the summit. have seen manifest themselves in different ways iregs like pande. nato has to be fit for purpose to deawitwo other points i wante

before quickly turning it over to the secretary-general. i mentioned already that the summit will focus on bolstering ukraine's long-term succes one,d evolved, so, too, has our ukraine. the alliance, the united states have all adapted and helped ukraine deal with what it had to deal with in terms of warding offhi supplemental which months, and it passed with overwhelming bipartisan support, we have now been working these rece■c weethat assistance to tht lines to make sure thatinians h. we have seen that would beerstad making sure that the russians could be stopped in their of course as we have said all

kes a big difference is that extraordinary courage and the residents o theh dealing with the challenges in kharkiv in the east, but also taking the fight as necessary sea. the bilateral assistance agreement of the u.s. and few days ago between president biden and president president zelenskyy,■ march the 17th bilateral security agreement signed since by that amount of this initiative a year a time oe nato summit, we expect nato countries and many mwith the ukraine. this is clear proof that all of our countries are with ukraine for the long haul. ■r that if mr. putin is counting on outlasting ukraine or any of us, he is misguided. is wrong. i think you will see in the summit, further emphasis on that.

we are aessary, imposing new sanctions on russia to keep the pressure on sot end. andlooking at countries supportg russia's ssia to continue to work,ding china. as president biden has made clear, we have a weapons being y china to russia, that is not what they are doing. providing critical support tove russia's defense industrial base . some 70% of the machine tools that russia's importing are coming from china. 90% of the micro electronics coming from china and that has enabled russia to keep that defense industrial base going and thear machine going. that has to stop. holy aseverything we can suppore

beyond the supplemental. theseether across the g7 and beyond to be able to use it effectively se of the russian sovereign assets that are primarily in europe and that now are being leveraged to provide some $50 billion ukraine in additional assistance and we will continue to look at that. we a very effective recovery conference just a few days ago as well lookin enduring supporte including the energy sector. line is this, the ukraine strategy that we have had and that we have been acting on individually and collectively now for nearly two and a half years is showing effective sults in making sure that ukraine can ward off russian aggression done that remarkably. keep in mind, from day one was o erase ukraine from the map and end■p its independent country. forward, we are going

to make sure that ukraine is a success. let it stand strongly at its own feet militarily, economically and democratically and that is exactly ukraine to do. that is the mark of success going the and more is to be said in a few weeks time. finally, heading into the 75th summit, we bigger, that is more for purpose than at any time in recent years, that is thanks to the effort every ally has made, the commienit is alsos to the leadership of one person standing beside me. secretary-generaly■the past decn stoltenberg. jens, you have let the alliance

at a time of historic change and historic challenge and the resuyone to see. this would not have happened without your er been extraordinary. now some o is particularly fond of numbelikes. i understand he even told one bring just one book to a desert island, it would be a book of sti have thingsould say about that, but i will not. but let's just remind a few statistics, because they do show what has over the remarkable decade under the secretary-general o leadership. four countries enters e alliance -- north macedonia, montenegro, finland, sweden. multinational battle groups in eight countries and him think. the citizens in allied nations say that nato is

important to their security. these numbers themselves. at every step, the secretary-general has setlt cone 32 countries. his vinto the future so . ■b his contributions ultimately can't be fully quantified but neither can the gratitude of the united states and of our allies. to you, mr. secretary-general. gen.: secretary blinken, thank you forrks and tr support throughout the years in erent ways. thank you also for your strong commitment to the nato transatlantic alliance and thank you for your tireless efforts to end the suffering in the middle east. nato was founded in washington 75rs.

since then, the alliance has r members. standingprevent war and preserve peace. being nato, thu. has 31 friends and allies. together, allies represent half of the world's economic and half of the world's military might. adva multiplying america's power. nato makes america stronger. y, as you mwith president bidene that nato allies aakthis year, g across europe and canada is up the biggest increase in decades. allies will meet the target of spending at least[b gdp

on defense. this is more than twice as many as just four years ago. since 20 14, the love andaded o0 extra in defense spending. this an historic improvement inure united states burden alone. and that the u.s. has strong alliance in which allies are stepping up year after year. and much of this increased defense spending found right here in the united states. over the past two years, european allies has signed ■mco■t worth billion transformation in our collective

defense in a generation. we have put in place the most comprehensive defense plus since the cold war. we have 500,000 troops at high readiness. we have double the number of battle groups in theasand with s members, we are stronger than ever. aine is autal assault on the pel democratic nation. this war is propped up by china, north korea, andran. they want to see the united states failto seek nato fail. if they succeed in ukraine, it will because more vulnerable and the world more dangero to ukrait charity, it is in our own security interest.

we all want this■8 war to end. about that? efficient of ukraine offers no, and capitulation to putin offers no war will end. which is why i welcome the 10 year bilateral security agreement between the united es and ukraine. europe is also doing its, matching u.s. efforts in ukraine. and at the nato summit this july here in washington, i expect european allies and canada to come forward witmorein■ supportt leaders will agree that nato takes the in coordinating the security assistance and training for ukraine. all of this will reduce the burden on the united states. secretary blinken, thank you in the u.s. for hosting the

summitwh attend. the 75th anniversary of the most suesant decisions for the future. thank you.■ >> first question with reuters. reporter: thank the secretary, mr. secretary-general, i am very glad that number of questions in true washington fashion. [lgh sec. blinken: number one is a very good number. [laughter] reporter: let me start with gaza and i will turn to the news. mr. secretary, israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu postbout an hour ago conveniently timed for thisess o talking about u.s. causing some weonlast week that u.s. is working to remove those bottlenecks. is this an accurate characterization of what you

him? if not, what did you tell him? will the u.s. remove ion these ? and have the cease fire negotiators made any progress sinceast week? are you more or less optimistic today about the of a deal? russian president vladimir putin is going to north, a first in 24 years, and the partnership seems to be solidifying and emerging as a front against the western rules-based water from how concerned are you about this partnership? mr. secretary general, particularly for you, do you see contain this emerging front and back to both of you again what specifics do you have on how much north korea is contributing to russia's war machine? and, what is your understanding that w thank you.

sec. blinken: on the questions regarding israel and gaza, first, it is important to remember that i was security relationship with israel goes well beyond. israel is facing a multiplicity of threats and the north from hezbollah, from iran, from the houthis in the red s■6eaagainsty cases, beholden to iran. so the president has been clear from day one that he will do evythito make sure that israel has what it needs to effectively defend itself against these threats. and a big p is making sure that in providing that assistance to israel, it ha a strong deterrent which is the best way to avoid more conflict, to avoid more war, to oid what we are already seeing in gaza spreading to other areas . that has been one of our objectives from day one.

we are committed to that. as you know, we are continuing to shipment that president biden stuff about with regard■aound bombs because of our concerns about their use in a densy pote rafahs under review. but everything else is moving as itormally would. and with the perspective of making sure that israel has everything ititself against thiy of challenges. with regard to cease-fire negotiations, you heard me talk about this in length truths, i will remind everyone once again, that the entire proposal president biden laid the entire world with one exception,■e hamas. hamas came back after everyone else had said yes, including , reconfirmed to me by prime minister netanyahu, with

no conditions, new demands included demands and conditions that actually went beyond what it had already previously accepted. so, we are working to see if we ]b bridge the gaps hamas has created by not saying yes to the proposal everyone else agree to that was endorsed by the uned nations and countries around the world. we havme and qatar particularly, working on it to see if we can bridge the gap. as i have said before and iou have seen i believe that gap is bridgetable but it doesn' be bridged because ultimately hamas has to decide and he could decide to continue to move the goalpost. to move the line up. if it continues to do that, the hat people will continue to suffer horrifically single day.

and you have to question whether one individual living, we believe, hundreds of feet underground, relatively safe, is putting his own interests and his own views i had of the teres needs of the people he purports to represent. there could be a cease fire right■" if they had said yes. i week ago. ■wso we will continue to work ts with we can bridge the gap, but i can tell you with convic i cannot tell you with conviction that we will ma■y■zs continues to hold the line, with regards to mr. putin and his travelw. to north korea, you have seen, as you said,/s try and gepe develop ann relations with countries that can provided with what iteeds and continue the war of gre secretary-general significant munitions to russia

and other weapons through eastern ukraine. iran has■[ been providing weapoy used against civilians and%h■ vindman infrastructure and as i mentioned, the concerns we have in terms of providing weapons but in providing what russiad to produ. particular, as i said before, it can't on the one hand say it once better relationshipscountre same time fueling the biggest security threat to eu■peend of d war. the president hrd tha biden, frm our european partners who are part of the last week are very much concerned about this because it is keepind

of the notion that he can ukraine's supporters. but also, if he knows that this fuel he needs for his war machine will not anymore. so is china in particular■+e a g interest in ending the war, if it will stop fueling the war machine and continue to do everything it oft countries like iran korea are providing. sec. gen. stoltenberg: sec. gen. stoltenberg: iy muchgr the secre has stated. éwhich in■essouth q -- north korea demonstrate and confirmed up close alignment between russia and iran. , and this also demonstrates that our security isot■á regional, it is global. what happens in europe matters

in asia and what happens in asia matters for us. it is clear in ukraine where hina are propping up in fueling against ukraine. so these -- we can divide security into regional theaters. it doesn't work anymore. these challenges together.and, also concerned about the potential support that russia provides to supporting missile and nuclear programs. we see how much military support russia gets from north korea but also from iran and how china is their war economy. this is also one of the reasons

summit next month, we will partnership with region, australia, new zealand, south korea and japan, also to address the fact that the challenges that we see in asia and the asia-pacificre directly linked to the challenges that we face in europe. )i also fully agree that china cannot havet bo ways, they can't continue to have normal trad©■5same time, fueled the bit war that we have seen in europe since the second world war. so at some stage, this has to have consequences for china. reporter: my question goes to both of you. norway today has a continued fish in cooperation with russia. ■y we should

approach this moving forward and if there you are concerned or we should be concerd abthem take advantage of this cooperation in light of russian intelligence. sec. gen. stoltenberg: sec. gen. stoltenberg: which country? reporter: norway. fishing cooperation. [laughter] sec. genstolerwhat i can say is that i expect all i to fully implement the greed within the e.u. framework and also individual allies.beyond tn how the implement the sanctions. sec. blinken: i agree with the secretary-general. thank you. reporter: abc. thank you very much. let's start with the inspector secretary -- attacks against have

talked about beforecularly in prague, and a few that need nato respond with collectively as is appropriate. what does that res■bponse look like? perhaps you can elaborate on whether there is a response already or is this something that you think should take place retaliate or try to prevent deterrence? i am interested in how that happens. and is create deterrence? etary of state, a was -- amos hochstein has been in the region over the lastcan you report any progressn de-escalating tensions between hezbollah? on gaza, an investigation by the associated press this week idtified 60 palestinian families in which at least 25 members haveof them involving fr generations of the same family, many with more than 50 family

members killed, and in family members killed. i interested to understand that am for palestinians who hear what you say about a continuing conflict for just cause, that to them it feels like destroy palen society, what do you say to those people and how those posi? thank you. sec. gen. stoltenberg: 1oon the russian hybrid actions against in europe, we have seen in the last weeks and months surge in hostile actions by and that includes several times, cyberattacks, also trying to use migration as a tool to coerce nato allies.

and we need to up assured way, t theí33f isly. that is also why nato allies have on response options that allies can take both individually and collectively. on that, this is about increasing sharing intelligence, making allies out that this is not individual, nof russian behavior over some time. and i■ also the u.s. sharing intelligence allies. it's about protecting our includinginfrastructure and we g several steps to increase the pr of critical infrastructure. and then, of course, many of these actions are actionsindivi.

so there have been several arrests across the alliance in thun kingdom,land and germany ae baltics. we have seen those behind this saboge actions being arrested and there are legalce so there is a mix of collective allies, taking the necessary legal steps to protect u.s. -- to protect us against this russian behavior. linken: on lebanon, as i mentioned earlier, one of our objectives from day one since october 7th has been to prevent this conflict from spreading, including nth. hochstein is in the region working on this and we all collectively have been working on this from any -- for

many months intently. no one was to see the conflict spread. one of the paradoxesment is i 'f that potential belligerents actually want t#? see a war or conflict spread, i don't beliesy doesn't because it would suffer the most. i don't belveyet you have because with the day, there is always the possibility of a miscalculation, one side not .ully seeing what the otis and it is very important to do everything w to address that and find a diplomatic enge that exists for israel, as well as for lebanon are something like 60,000 or 70,000 i■vsraeli% that have been forced from their homes and basically depopulated

a big part of northern israel beuse of the threat from hezbollah and because of hezbollah launching rockets at israel. are many lebanese in lebanon also not able to live in their homes. so we are working diplomatically to find a resolution to this so that people on both sides of the line have the confidence to be able to live in their homes and go back to where they live. now, here again, so much of this comes back to the the most immediate way to empower our plomacy and be able to reach an agreement that allows people to return to their homes with security would be to a cease-fire in gaza because hezbollah has tied the actions itting against israel to gaza. so if we get that cease-fire, i think that would make it more

likely that we cand crisis in the north. with regard to the palestinian families that you discussed. an level, the suffering of littlehi, men, women, and we see it every single day. caught in the crossfire of hamas's making thas started are suffering every single day, and for all of us, this is profoundly a human tragedy. i have met with palestinian americans who have lost mule gaza, who shared with me the

of their little niece orbrother or sisteras been killed in the months since october 7. and it is profoundly motivating in the lake of thi■qs we want to do everything we possibly can to bring this to an end. the fastest way to do that, and this has■ beethweeks, for monthh working to achieve. and the biggest obstato achieving that cease fire, again, remained hamaandremains s one man who is, we believe, hundreds of feet underground in relative safety while the people b#her suffering every single day -- while the peop hrepresent are sy

single day. wve to put the interests of these many, many innocent families and people first and foremost and that means that israel has to continue to do much more to protect civilians, to make sure they get the assistance they need. but first and foremost means that hamas has toactually lookir the intereststinian people? is it looking out for its own interests at thexpen of the interests of palestinians who are suffering every single za? the fastest way to bring this to a conclusion from the- tomorrow, is through this cease fire. ' achieve.

sec. blinken: yeah. on that, again, we havbeen on this as well from day one in trying to■÷ press israel to do everything it can to■h■x■m■'g in protection. and yes, we see this, too,. is without justifying any particular airstrike -- and ourselves as the goveme as the state department have reported on numerous incidents go where killed or egregiously injured including through the ai■r this terrain is a difficult, it may be uquelfficult because i, again, you have hamas that not only is hiding deep underground in tunnels while the people■qjcn@■g

-- and how confident are you that you will not need to ask mr. stoltenbergo answer'n israel, is not enough's characterization, is it true he said about that you him last week? mr. secretary general, china ways. what kind of consequences shoule long-term health to ukraine, you have been talking about the fund , if i understandt ec has been m to an fund. what is your next step there? and if you soon get to read some more stistict your possible successo

thank you. sec. blinken: regard to the bil signed our agreement lasteek, bt zelenskyy signed it together. but we are not alone. either concluded or will conclude bilateral security agreements aine. each of which basically says the same thing, that wedividually al as through the work that will be formalizedt the nato smisupporte that can ward off aggression and is necessary -- and, if necessary, deal with i projected over over a decade to message that each of u.s. is in the long haul. that is the determinati a the fy the supplemental funding bill wg

bipartisan support in both houses of congress, again, is indicative of depth and strength of the support in the united states. and poland continues to show strong support in the united states for helping ukraine making sure that it can stand on its own feet effectively becaus. any international agreement on oneind noer, always has a mechanism in it for one of the parties to you know pull out of that agreement. that is a standard operating fair in any of these agreements, but i think everything that we have seen, not just from the united s so many other countries, is an enduring sure he can stand strongly on its own feet, to change. with regard to the ok, i think many of us wis we had a feels that way. and i am confident that the alliance will come strong behind

the new secretary-general when the current secretary-general's term ends this a very strong secretary-general in place to pick up the baton and carried thextraoinary work that the secretary-general has done, forward into the future for the alliance. with regards to the last question on israel, i stand by exaca few minutes ago. thank you. reporter: -- sec. blinken: again, i have been as clear as i can possibly be. reporter: [inaudible] sec. blinken: i will not talk ay again, that we have a commitment to make sure israel has what it needs to i■2■tself against a whole variety of threats. gaza is part of it. but it's far some farces gaza in terms ofce.

the president is committed to that. we move these different cases through our system on regular order. we have onee, the president has talked about publicly,bs ane concerns we have about them being used in densely populated areas. that remains. but there have been no change o make has what it means to defend itself across these many threatg through our system are the ones that haveee order for, in to moe these things. and a number ofhe not get therer years. that is the nature of e way this works. but it is regular order with the exception of that once is thank you.ve tald sec-gen. stoltenberg: first on the question about china, what i

wanted to say itself, more and more allies recognize that it cann ctinue the way it is today, with china really trying to have a normal relationship with european and nato allies and at the russia to conduct war against the european country. in europe since the end of the second world war. and, of course, this is then about how -- unless china changes its behavior, what kind of consequences should this have for it is too early to say, but it is an issue we to address, because to continue as we do today is not viable. then on support for ukrai are discussing -- we are

addressing many deliverables on ukraine for the upcoming nato summit. agreed on a plan for the nato■ training and security assistance for ukraine. we have seen new announcements and i also more announcements of me litañí

confident we will have a good solution agr by the summit. normally, i don't say anything about my successor, because it is not for me to select my announcement by prime minister today, i think it's obvious that we to a conclusion in that alliance for the allies toelec is good n. i think mark■ rut is a good candidate. he has a lot of experience as prime minister. he is a close friend and eve , therefore, that very soon the alliance will have decided on my successor and that will be good for all of us,■o >> thank you.

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