YouSaid · the spoken record

Blinken

lines on the record: 75
first: 2021-09-23
most recent: 2023-10-24
sittings or episodes: 6
sources: un-security-council

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“I had a window into that horror myself when I travelled to Irpin just a few weeks ago to meet with Ukrainian investigators who were compiling evidence of war crimes committed there. I saw up close the gaping holes left in residential buildings by Russian shelling — indiscriminate at best, intentional at worst. As we assemble here, Ukrainian and international investigators continued to exhume bodies outside Izyum, a city Russian forces controlled for six months before they were driven out by the Ukrainian counter- offensive. One site contains 440 unmarked graves. A number of the bodies unearthed there so far reportedly shows signs of torture, including one victim with broken arms and a rope around his neck.”
2022-09-22 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9135 (2022) · source
“Defending Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity is about much more than standing up for one nation’s right to choose its own path, as fundamental as that right is. It is also about protecting an international order where no nation can redraw the borders of another by force. If we fail to defend this principle, when the Kremlin is so flagrantly violating it, we will send a message to aggressors everywhere that they can ignore it too; we will put every country at risk; and we will open the door to a less secure and less peaceful world. We see what that world looks like in the parts of Ukraine controlled by Russian forces. Wherever the Russian tide recedes, we discover the horror that is left in its wake.”
2022-09-22 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9135 (2022) · source
“Rather than change course, however, President Putin has doubled down, choosing not to end the war, but to expand it; not to pull troops back, but to call 300,000 additional troops up; not to ease tensions, but to escalate them through the threat of nuclear weapons; and not to work towards achieving a diplomatic solution, but to render such a solution impossible by seeking to annex more Ukrainian territory through sham referendums. That President Putin picked this week, as most of the world gathers at the United Nations, to add fuel to the fire that he started shows his utter contempt for the Charter, the General Assembly and the Council. The very international order that we have gathered here to uphold is being shredded before our eyes. We cannot and we will not allow President Putin to get away with it.”
2022-09-22 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9135 (2022) · source
“We hear a lot about the divisions among countries at the United Nations. Recently, what has been striking is the remarkable unity among Member States when it comes to Russia’s war in Ukraine. Leaders from developing and developed countries — big and small, North and South — have spoken at the General Assembly about the consequences of the war and the need to end it. And they have called on all of us to reaffirm our commitment to the Charter of the United Nations and its core principles, including sovereignty, territorial integrity and human rights. Even a number of nations that maintain close ties with Moscow have said publicly that they have serious questions and concerns about President Putin’s ongoing invasion.”
2022-09-22 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9135 (2022) · source
“Mr. Blinken (United States of America) (spoke in French): I thank you very much, Madam President, for bringing the members of the Security Council together at this extremely grave time to discuss the crisis in Ukraine caused by Russia. (spoke in English) I also thank the Secretary-General for his determination and the moral clarity that he has brought to ending this brutal war and defending the United Nations core principles, as well as his personal engagement in securing the vital Black Sea route for grain to flow once again from Ukraine. I would say to Mr. Khan that we are grateful for the efforts of the Office of the Prosecutor to investigate objectively and professionally the atrocities being committed in Ukraine by Russian forces and for its support for, and coordination with, Ukrainian investigators and prosecutors.”
2022-09-22 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9135 (2022) · source
“I have no doubt that the response to my remarks here today will be more dismissals from the Russian Government about the United States stoking hysteria or that it has no plans to invade Ukraine. Let me make this simple. The Russian Government can announce today, with no qualification, equivocation or deflection, that Russia will not invade Ukraine. Russia should state that clearly and plainly to the world and should then demonstrate it by sending its troops, tanks and planes back to their barracks and hangers and its diplomats to the negotiating table. In the coming days, the world will remember that commitment or the refusal to make it.”
2022-02-17 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8968 (2022) · source
“This morning we received a response, which we are evaluating. Earlier today I sent a letter to Russia’s Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov, proposing that we meet in Europe next week, following on our talks in recent weeks, to discuss the steps that we can take to resolve this crisis without conflict. We are also proposing meetings of the NATO-Russia Council and the OSCE Permanent Council. Those meetings can pave the way for a summit of key leaders, in the context of de-escalation, to reach understandings on our mutual security concerns. As lead diplomats for our nations, we have a responsibility to make every effort for diplomacy to succeed and to leave no diplomatic stone unturned. If Russia is committed to diplomacy, we are presenting every opportunity for it to demonstrate that commitment.”
2022-02-17 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8968 (2022) · source
“If Russia is prepared to sit with the Ukrainian Government and work through the process of implementing those commitments, our friends in France and Germany stand ready to convene senior-level discussions in the Normandy format to settle these issues. Ukraine is ready for that, and we stand fully ready to support the parties. Progress towards resolving the Donbas crisis through the Minsk agreements can reinforce the broader discussions on security issues in which we are prepared to engage with Russia, in coordination with our allies and partners. More than three weeks ago, we provided Russia with a paper that detailed concrete reciprocal steps that we can take in the near term to address our respective concerns and advance the collective security interests of Russia, the United States and our European partners and allies.”
2022-02-17 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8968 (2022) · source
“If Russia makes that choice, we have been clear, along with allies and partners, that our response will be sharp and decisive. President Biden reiterated that forcefully earlier this week. There is another choice that Russia can still make if there is any truth to its claim that it is committed to diplomacy. Diplomacy is the only responsible way to resolve this crisis. An essential part of that is through the implementation of the Minsk agreements — the subject of our meeting today. There are a series of commitments that Russia and Ukraine made under the Minsk agreements, with the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and the Normandy format partners involved as well.”
2022-02-17 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8968 (2022) · source
“One should remember that, while Russia has repeatedly derided our warnings and alarms as melodrama and nonsense, it has been steadily amassing more than 150,000 troops on Ukraine’s borders, as well as the capabilities to conduct a massive military assault. It is not just we who are seeing that. Allies and partners see the same thing. Russia has been hearing not only from us. The international chorus has grown louder and louder. If Russia does not invade Ukraine, we will be relieved that Russia changed course and proved our predictions wrong. That would be a far better outcome than the course that we are currently on. We will gladly accept any criticism that anyone directs at us. As President Biden said, this would be a war of choice.”
2022-02-17 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8968 (2022) · source
“We have information that indicates that Russia will target specific groups of Ukrainians. We have been warning the Ukrainian Government of all that is coming. Here today we are laying it out in great detail with the hope that, by sharing what we know with the world, we can influence Russia to abandon the path of war and choose a different path while there is still time. I am mindful that some have called into question our information, recalling previous instances where intelligence ultimately did not bear out. But let me be clear: I am here today not to start a war but to prevent one. The information that I presented here is validated by what we have seen unfolding in plain sight before our eyes for months.”
2022-02-17 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8968 (2022) · source
“Secondly, in response to that manufactured provocation, thehighestlevelsofthe Russian Government may theatrically convene emergency meetings to address the so-called crisis. The Government will issue proclamations declaring that Russia must respond to defend Russian citizens or ethnic Russians in Ukraine. Next, the attack is planned to begin. Russian missiles and bombs will drop across Ukraine. Communications will be jammed. Cyberattacks will shut down key Ukrainian institutions. After that, Russian tanks and soldiers will advance on key targets that have already been identified and mapped out in detailed plans. We believe that such targets include Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, a city of 2.8 million people. Conventional attacks are not all that Russia plans to inflict upon the people of Ukraine.”
2022-02-17 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8968 (2022) · source
“It could be a fabricated so-called terrorist bombing inside Russia, the invented discovery of a mass grave, a staged drone strike against civilians or a fake, even a real, attack using chemical weapons. Russia may describe such an event as ethnic cleansing or a genocide, making a mockery of a concept that we in this Chamber do not take lightly, nor do I take lightly based on my family history. In the past few days, Russian media have already begun to spread some of those false alarms and claims, maximize public outrage and lay the groundwork for an invented justification for war. Today that drumbeat has only intensified in Russia’s State-controlled media. We have heard some of those basic allegations from Russian-backed speakers here today.”
2022-02-17 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8968 (2022) · source
“Russia says that it is drawing down those forces. We do not see that happening on the ground. Our information clearly indicates that those forces, including ground troops, aircraft and ships, are preparing to launch an attack against Ukraine in the coming days. We do not know precisely how things will play out, but here is what the world can expect to see unfold. In fact, it is unfolding right now, today, as Russia takes steps down the path to war and reissued the threat of military action. First, Russia plans to manufacture a pretext for its attack. That could be a violent event that Russia will blame on Ukraine or an outrageous accusation that Russia will level against the Ukrainian Government. We do not know exactly the form that it will take.”
2022-02-17 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8968 (2022) · source
“This crisis directly affects every member of the Council and every country in the world, because the basic principles that sustain peace and security, principles that were enshrined in the wake of two World Wars and a cold war, are under threat: the principle that one country cannot change the borders of another by force; the principle that one country cannot dictate another’s choices or policies or with whom it will associate; and the principle of national sovereignty. This is the exact kind of crisis that the United Nations, specifically the Security Council, was created to prevent. We must address what Russia is doing right now to Ukraine. Over the past months, without provocation or justification, Russia has amassed more than 150,000 troops around Ukraine’s borders and in Russia, Belarus and occupied Crimea.”
2022-02-17 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8968 (2022) · source
“The Security Council is convened today to discuss the implementation of the Minsk agreements, a goal that we all share despite Russia’s persistent violations. Those agreements, which were negotiated in 2014 and 2015 and signed by Russia, remain the basis for the peace process to resolve the conflict in eastern Ukraine. The Council’s primary responsibility, the very reason for its creation, is the preservation of peace and security. As we meet today, the most immediate threat to peace and security is Russia’s looming aggression against Ukraine. The stakes go far beyond Ukraine. This is a moment of peril for the lives and safety of millions of people as well as for the foundation of the United Nations Charter and the rules-based international order that preserves stability worldwide.”
2022-02-17 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8968 (2022) · source
“But these efforts and the investments they will require from all of us also present an unprecedented opportunity to expand access to affordable, clean energy, build green infrastructure and create well- paying jobs, all of which could spur long-term economic growth, reverse growing inequities within and between our nations, and improve the lives of people around the world. Even as we are clear-eyed about the threat, let us not lose sight of this once-in-a-generation global opportunity. Let us be driven not only by the fear of all the damage the climate crisis can inflict and already has inflicted, but also by the imagination of all the ways our response can actually make people’s lives better now and into the future.”
2021-09-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8864 (2021) · source
“But let me just say, in closing it would be a mistake to view this only through that lens. We agree that to prevent cataclysmic consequences, all our nations must take immediate, bold actions to build resilience to adapt to the unavoidable impacts and move swiftly to a net-zero world. That is our shared charge for the twenty-sixth session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, which is now only weeks away, and, if we are to keep within reach the goal of limiting global warming to 1°5C, every nation will need to bring its highest possible ambitions to the table.”
2021-09-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8864 (2021) · source
“Thirdly, the United Nations system should further integrate climate-related analysis into its conflict- mediation and conflict-prevention efforts, particularly in fragile States and areas of active conflict. The decision of the United Nations Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs to include climate security in the strategic plan in 2020 for the first time and the creation of the climate security mechanism are very positive examples of just this. To any who doubt the merits of these steps, I just encourage them to ask some of the United Nations force commanders, the special envoys, the negotiators, the peacebuilders and others who are out there grappling with the impacts of climate in their everyday efforts. They are hungry for many more tools like these. I focused today on the threats posed by the climate crisis.”
2021-09-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8864 (2021) · source
“That is the story of Syria, Mali, Yemen, South Sudan, Ethiopia and many other places beset by strife. By agreeing that the issue belongs here in the Security Council, we will also send a clear message to the international community of the serious implications that climate change has for our collective security. Secondly, United Nations field missions should consistently incorporate the effects of climate change into their planning and implementation, as was done in the mandates for, inter alia, the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq, the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali and the United Nations Office for West Africa and the Sahel. Doing that will advance mission activities, foster stability and build resilience.”
2021-09-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8864 (2021) · source
“We urge other Governments, particularly those that, like the United States, are the biggest emitters, to step up in making these investments. The Security Council also has a vital role to play in three ways, which I would like to briefly suggest. First, we have to stop debating whether the climate crisis is a subject that belongs in the Security Council and instead ask how the Council can leverage its unique powers to tackle the negative impacts of climate on peace and security. That is an argument that should have been settled a long time ago. If we look at almost any place where we see threats to international peace and security today, we find that climate change is making things less peaceful and less secure, making it even more difficult to respond.”
2021-09-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8864 (2021) · source
“These mounting impacts, together with the synthesis report of the Framework Convention on Climate Change released last week and the comprehensive report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released last month, underscore the urgent need to dramatically cut our emissions and build our resilience for the inevitable changes to come. One way to do that is by helping others to do their part. Back in April, President Biden announced that the United States would double our public international financing for developing countries most affected by the climate crisis. Earlier this week, here at the United Nations, he announced that we will work with the United States Congress to double that number again (see A/76/PV.3).”
2021-09-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8864 (2021) · source
“More than three inches of rain fell in Central Park in a single hour, breaking a record set only a few weeks earlier. If we look at any one of our countries, we will see record-breaking extreme weather events like this. The climate crisis is not coming; it is already here. And clear patterns are emerging in its impacts. The consequences are falling disproportionately on vulnerable and low-income populations, and there are worsening conditions in human suffering in places already afflicted by conflict, high levels of violence and instability.”
2021-09-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8864 (2021) · source
“We are taking into account how every bilateral and multilateral engagement we have and how every policy decision we make will impact our goal to put the world on a safer, more sustainable path. That is not only because of the devastating and, in some instances, irreversible implications of climate change for our majestic planet. It is also because of the cascading effects on virtually every aspect of our lives, from agricultural to infrastructure and from public health to food security. We have heard some of those effects described already. Right here in New York City, where we are gathered today, earlier this month, a punishing storm caused by the remnants of Hurricane Ida killed dozens of people, including a 2-year-old boy, and inflicted tens of billions of dollars in damage.”
2021-09-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8864 (2021) · source
“I would like to thank Secretary-General Guterres for his presence and his leadership on the climate issue. I also wish to thank you, Sir, for convening today’s discussion and for putting the connection between climate and security on the Security Council’s agenda. Moreover, I thank Ireland and the Niger for the important work being carried out by the Informal Expert Group on Climate and Security. I also want to applaud Ms. Elman’s very powerful testimony, which we were grateful to hear today. From day one, President Biden has made addressing the climate crisis a top priority of our Administration, including by directing me and every one of our diplomats to ensure that it is a core element of United States foreign policy.”
2021-09-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8864 (2021) · source