'No sense of fatigue' when it comes to support for Ukraine, Blinken says
Visit our website:
http://www.france24.com
Like us on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/FRANCE24.English
Follow us on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/France24_en
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00 remarks. He insisted that Western allies have no intention to slow the pace of support for
00:05 Ukraine. He also, of course, addressed the conflict in the Middle East.
00:09 Antony Blinken saying the U.S. will be working to try and get both sides to extend the ceasefire.
00:15 He will also work to assure that what happened in Israel on October 7th never happens again.
00:20 And finally, they will be working to ensure that this conflict is not spread elsewhere
00:25 in the Middle East. For more on this, then, we'll cross now to France 24's Brussels correspondent
00:29 Dave Keating. Hi there, Dave. So what are the main takeaways from Blinken's comments?
00:34 Let's start first with Ukraine. Any surprises?
00:37 I mean, there weren't any surprises. This was certainly Secretary Blinken putting a
00:45 brave face on what is a bad situation in terms of the support that the West has for Ukraine
00:51 right now, because everyone can see that that support is faltering. We see the Republican
00:56 Party in the United States blocking further aid to Ukraine. We see here in Brussels Hungary's
01:03 Viktor Orban blocking further EU aid to Ukraine, specifically a 500 million euro trench of
01:09 military aid and a 50 billion euro trench of general aid. We also see politicians that
01:16 have not been supportive of supporting Ukraine being coming first in elections in Slovakia,
01:21 in the Netherlands. And in his press conference there, Secretary Blinken said all allies realize
01:27 the importance of supporting Ukraine and that it has to do with their own peace, their own
01:32 protection. He was really echoing a lot of what Secretary General Stoltenberg said in
01:38 his press conference before him, where he kept referring to all allies. But everyone
01:42 can see that all allies don't agree with that. Just yesterday, we had the Hungarian foreign
01:46 minister, while he was here in Brussels, at this meeting at NATO, saying publicly, casting
01:52 doubt on Ukraine's aspirations to join NATO. Certainly Hungary does not support continuing
01:58 to support Ukraine. So these affirmations that all allies are on the same page, I mean,
02:07 everyone can see that that isn't the case. Blinken was also talking about the situation
02:10 in Washington with the US Congress, saying that the Republicans do support aid to Ukraine.
02:16 Everyone can see that that's not true, that a significant part of the Republican Party
02:20 is opposed to that and has been blocking that. And the fact that we didn't get any major
02:25 announcements today of new support is worrying, because yes, they can say all of these words
02:31 that they're on the same page, but everyone can see that they're actually not, that there
02:36 are significant divisions within countries on this subject. Those divisions are increasing,
02:42 and we didn't get any major announcements today.
02:45 Now the meetings have of course been focused on Ukraine, Dave, but it's obviously impossible
02:50 to avoid the war in Gaza. The US Secretary of State, of course, is set to return to the
02:56 Middle East this week once his tour in Europe is finished. So what did he say about what's
03:02 happening there?
03:04 Yeah, the Gaza war was not on the agenda for this NATO summit. It's not necessarily a NATO
03:11 issue and Secretary General Stoltenberg didn't have very much to say about it in his press
03:15 conference. However, it was inevitable that Secretary Blinken would be asked about it
03:19 at his press conference. And in fact, actually, he proactively talked about it when he started
03:23 talking there. So we got a continued affirmation of the Biden administration's support for
03:29 a two-state solution. We did also hear optimism, I think, although he wouldn't directly say
03:34 it, optimism that the current ceasefire can extend and maybe could actually become the
03:40 new state of affairs. Now that is not what the Israeli government has been suggesting.
03:45 But Blinken was very, very keen there to trumpet the accomplishments of the ceasefire in those
03:49 hostage exchanges. And that he was talking about the day after the day after reiterating
03:56 his message from Tokyo, saying that a plan needs to be urgently developed here for the
04:02 rebuilding of Gaza after the destruction of this war, and also thinking about governance,
04:08 who is going to govern Gaza after this war ends, after this period of conflict ends.
04:14 And nobody seems to know. The Israeli government doesn't seem to have a clear answer on that.
04:18 I think the United States is getting impatient to get an answer on that. I think European
04:23 allies as well. This would have been a big topic of conversation in the sidelines of
04:27 this NATO summit, even if it wasn't a direct agenda item. So we're hearing, I think, increasing
04:34 impatience to try to get an answer on that question of what happens the day after the