During a State Department press briefing, Principal Deputy Spokesperson Vedant Patel was asked about efforts to free Americans detained abroad following the major prisoner swap deal.
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NewsTranscript
00:01Canella, go ahead.
00:02Thanks, Ridaan.
00:03I think I can say on behalf of many of our colleagues that this is a great day for the
00:07State Department and across the administration.
00:10For the United States.
00:11The United States, so congratulations.
00:14I wanted to take a moment to ask you about the Americans that are still in Russia, in
00:21China, in Afghanistan, in other countries around the world.
00:26You have, as Jake mentioned, the American teacher Mark Fogle, who is still in Russia.
00:30I believe Jake said that the U.S. is going to work on getting him out as well.
00:35You have musician Michael Travis Leak.
00:38You have Russian-American dual citizens such as Ksenia Karolina and others in Russia.
00:44And you have, I can name only a handful of them, Mark Swidden and Kai Li, Henry Cai in
00:51China.
00:52These advocacy and human rights groups believe there are anywhere between 11 cases to as
00:56many as 200 Americans or dual Americans held in China.
01:00And of course, there's Afghanistan.
01:01You've got Ron Corbett, George Glesman, Mahmoud Habibi, three Americans held in Afghanistan.
01:08What is this department's message to the Americans who are still out there?
01:12And what does today bring any insights or any experience that will now be applied in
01:21trying to get more Americans home?
01:23So our message is pretty simple, and it is that while today is a good day, that the work
01:30doesn't stop.
01:31And to the American citizens who continue to be wrongfully detained or held hostage
01:37around the world, let me just be very clear that this government, this administration
01:43is not going to stop working.
01:44We're going to continue to work tirelessly around the clock to do everything we can to
01:49make sure that they, like Paul, like Evan, like Alsu, like Vladimir, can have a day
01:55where they can be reunited with their loved ones as well.
01:59Of course, in the case of Mark Fogle, we've spoken about this before, we have called for
02:04Mark's humanitarian release, and we will continue to engage and work through our team in Moscow
02:11and continue to have those conversations.
02:14And of course, look, there continue to be American citizens detained in legal systems
02:20around the world, not, of course, just in Russia.
02:24This is a responsibility that we take seriously.
02:27We are monitoring those cases and assessing additional ways that we can engage.
02:34And look, regardless of whether an American is designated as wrongfully detained or not,
02:38which of course, as you all know, is often the vast minority of cases, the State Department,
02:44the United States works hard to ensure that American citizens have appropriate consular
02:49access, that they have appropriate representation in the various foreign legal systems, and
02:56more.
02:57And that work will continue.
02:58That work did not stop, given the good news today.
03:04And thank you.
03:05Can you also give – you said that Blinken had spoken to those who've been released.
03:11He spoke to reporters not long ago as well.
03:15We got the audio of that.
03:17He understandably sounded very tired.
03:20Can you give any more color from the call with the released Americans?
03:26I don't have much more information.
03:30He had the opportunity to speak with Paul, Alstoo, and Evan.
03:34I understand that we're hoping for the Secretary to have an opportunity to connect
03:39with Vladimir at some point soon.
03:42Obviously, of course, the Secretary is coming off of a long trip in Asia.
03:49But from my readout of the conversation, the – our – Evan, Paul, and Alstoo sounded
03:55in good spirits.
03:56They obviously, of course, had the opportunity to speak to the President as well, and I'm
04:00sure they're very eager to see their families, which we know will hopefully happen very,
04:05very soon.
04:07Go ahead.