Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s Remarks to the Press at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Center

SECRETARY RUBIO:  Hello, boys and girls. 

QUESTION:  Good evening, Secretary.

SECRETARY RUBIO:  Hello.  How are you doing? 

QUESTION:  Mr. – are you doing remarks? 

SECRETARY RUBIO:  Should I?  (Laughter.)  Sure enough.  I’m sure we’ve covered all your questions.  Go ahead.

QUESTION:  We have a long — 

QUESTION:  What was your message to the Russian foreign minister today?  And what is the Trump Administration’s strategy now to end the Ukraine war?

SECRETARY RUBIO:  Our strategy is to continue to engage all the parties that are involved in finding an outcome to this conflict.  We will engage anytime that we have an opportunity to do so, like we did today.  I echoed what the President said – both the disappointment and frustration at the lack of progress in peace talks or in a path forward.  So, we’ll continue to engage. 

We shared some ideas and comments, which I’ll take back to Washington as early as this evening in terms of calls and reflected, and perhaps there’s something to build on there.  So – but it was a frank conversation.  It was an important one.  We had it, and we talked about some other items as well unrelated to the war in Ukraine, but that was the – obviously, the first and foremost topic that we discussed.  And look, the President’s been pretty clear.  He’s disappointed and frustrated that there’s not been more flexibility on the Russian side to bring about an end to this conflict.  We hope that can change, and we’re going to continue to stay involved where we see opportunities to make a difference. 

QUESTION:  Mr. Secretary —

QUESTION:  Without speaking for the foreign minister, which I know you don’t want to know to do — 

SECRETARY RUBIO:  Which foreign minister?

QUESTION:  This one. 

SECRETARY RUBIO:  Oh, Sergei Lavrov.

QUESTION:  Mr. Lavrov.

SECRETARY RUBIO:  Yes.

QUESTION:  Yeah.  Without speaking for him, do you get the sense that they’re moving towards flexibility or —  

SECRETARY RUBIO:  Yeah, I’m not going to characterize our conversation other than to tell you that I expressed what the President said publicly, which is that we feel as if we’ve dedicated a lot of time and energy to this matter and just not enough progress has been made.  We need to see a roadmap moving forward about how this conflict can conclude, and then we shared some ideas about what that might look like.  And obviously, I’ll take that back to the President here as early as this evening, and hopefully there’s something that we can build on there.  But we’ll — 

QUESTION:  Secretary —   

QUESTION:  Mr. Secretary — 

QUESTION:  — a couple of months ago, you said that what was necessary to end this war would be a conversation between President Trump and President Putin, but there have now been multiple phone calls between the two of them, and yet the war in Ukraine goes on.  Does this speak to any weakness, in terms of the President’s ability to negotiate an end to this conflict?  Or why does it persist, despite them having spoken? 

SECRETARY RUBIO:  Well, this is a war that the President inherited, right?  He got elected, and it had already been going on, and no progress had been made up to that point towards peace of any kind.  In fact, there had not even been any meetings between the Ukrainians and the Russians for quite some time.  So, while there’s been some humanitarian exchanges made – obviously, that’s our goal here is to end this war and any role we can play. 

So, this is not a war that started under President Trump.  It’s a war that wouldn’t have happened had he been president, but now it’s here.  And we’ll continue to engage and do everything we can and hopefully make progress.  As I said, and I said repeatedly, look, we are – if we see an opportunity to make a difference in this, we’re going to take it and we’re going to pursue it.  And that’s what the President has done.  And he deserves tremendous credit for having multiple phone calls with leaders from both countries —  

QUESTION:  With sanctions? 

SECRETARY RUBIO:  — and anybody else. 

QUESTION:  Mr. Secretary —  

QUESTION:  Mr. Secretary, Poland —  

 QUESTION:  — the – Russia has launched its most massive attacks in the last three days.  And you, of course, saw your counterpart today.  Are you willing now to put stronger sanctions on Russia? 

SECRETARY RUBIO:  Well, the President has said that that’s an option that’s available to him – both under existing authorities, but primarily if the Senate and the House can pass legislation that gives him the opportunity to do that.  So, we’ve been engaging with Congress on what that bill would like.  Obviously, the President needs flexibility on how those sanctions would be applied and when, because it gives him maximum leverage in any conversation and negotiation.  So, he has talked about that as being a real option. 

And now obviously, we’ll – we’ve been engaging with the Senate in particular over the last week on what that bill would look like, and the leaders of both chambers have said that they’re prepared to begin to move forward on that.  We’ve expressed this to the Russians weeks ago.  We told them that the moment would come where something like this could happen, and we’ll continue to express it because that’s the reality. 

QUESTION:  But has the moment come, or not yet?

SECRETARY RUBIO:  Well, again, that’s the President’s decision to make.  We are – obviously, he’s frustrated by the fact that more progress has not been made. 

QUESTION:  Mr. Secretary —  

QUESTION:  Mr. Secretary —  

QUESTION:  — there were reports earlier this week that you and the President were unaware that the Pentagon had made a decision to at least temporarily halt the arms shipments to Ukraine.  Were you – what’s your take on that decision by the Pentagon?  And what is your general take —  

SECRETARY RUBIO:  Well, I think that decision has been —  

QUESTION:  — on the arm shipments?

SECRETARY RUBIO:  Yeah, that decision unfortunately was mischaracterized.  It was a pause, pending review, on a handful of specific type munitions.  That frankly is something that is logical that you would do, especially after an extended engagement that we saw both in defense of Israel and in defense of our own bases.  And so, it was a very limited review of certain types of munitions to ensure that we had sufficient stockpiles.  And it’s typical when you do these reviews that there’s a short term pause because if, in fact, the review comes back that you have a shortage, you can’t pull it back once it’s been sent.  But generally speaking, aid to Ukraine continues along the schedule that Congress appropriated. 

QUESTION:  Mr. Secretary —  

QUESTION:  Which types were paused? 

SECRETARY RUBIO:  Huh?

QUESTION:  Which types of weapons were paused? 

SECRETARY RUBIO:  Largely defensive in nature.  Some were offensive.  But again, the ones that were expended in recent conflicts in the Middle East – and again, not because there is a shortage but because it’s prudent to look at it and say, okay, do we have enough of these in our stockpiles for all of our obligations around the world – both in defense of our bases in the Middle East but also our obligations to our Indo-Pacific partners and any other contingencies that might arise. 

But in the end, I would say that the overwhelming majority of defense – of military aid that the United States provides Ukraine has never been paused and continues along the same schedules that it’s been. 

I think there’s a broader issue unrelated to the pause, and that involves the defense productive capabilities of the West, not just us but of Europe.  As an example, one of the things that the Ukrainians need is more Patriot batteries.  There are Patriot batteries available in multiple countries in Europe, yet no one wants to part with them.  So, I hope that will change.  If, in fact, Ukraine is the priority that so many in countries – so many countries in Europe say it is, they should be willing to share batteries that right now they don’t have a need to use. 

So, hopefully, we’ll be able to convince some of our NATO partners to provide those Patriot batters to Ukraine, because there are a number of countries that have them, but no one wants to part with what they have, so perhaps that’ll change.  That’s important. 

QUESTION:  Mr. Secretary, you mentioned wanting to see a roadmap for how this conflict can conclude.  What concrete ideas have been presented, and how did Russia respond in this meeting? 

SECRETARY RUBIO:  Well, I – again, these things are best negotiated – I don’t want to – in private, and that’s how these things generally work.  There were some ideas exchanged today, some viewpoints that they expressed to us that I’ll take back to the President for his consideration, and hopefully it will lead to something.  I don’t want to over-promise something.  Again, as I said, this is a conflict that’s been going on now for three – over three years, and as has already been pointed out by one of the questions here, we’ve seen an acceleration of attacks.  I think it’s the – probably the largest drone attack in a city close to the Polish border, actually.  So, it’s a pretty deep strike. 

And again, I mean, it’s – every time you see this in the headlines and people die, it reminds you of why the President wants this war to end.  As he has said from the beginning, his number one interest here is to stop people from dying and the destruction that’s ongoing every single day.  They’re going to be having a conference – maybe it starts today, if I’m not mistaken – about reconstruction and the rebuilding of Ukraine.  Every time one of these strikes is launched, the price of reconstruction goes up, right?  There’s also the destruction of the country’s capabilities, the country’s economic capabilities, that has to be added to this. 

But obviously the loss of life is something of grave interest – of great interest to the President.  It’s important to note that since January of this year, as an example just to give you, on the Russian side, they’ve lost 100,000 soldiers – dead – not injured – dead.  And on the Ukrainian side, the numbers are less but still very significant.  And so that’s – the President doesn’t like wars.  He thinks wars are a waste of money and a waste of lives, and he wants them to end.  And he’s going to do everything he can within his power to end this war and any other war he has a chance to end, as you’ve seen in the past. 

And so, we’re going to continue to work at it.  We understand that these things take time and patience, but obviously we’re also frustrated that more progress has not been made.  And hopefully, based on today and in the days to come, we’ll have more clarity about what exactly the Russian position and priorities are in this regard, and can begin to make some progress.  But it’s been difficult, as you’ve seen. 

QUESTION:  May I ask an ASEAN question? 

QUESTION:  China’s been supporting Russia.  Will you meet with your Chinese counterpart here this week to speak with him about —

SECRETARY RUBIO:  I think we’re working on that.  Maybe – maybe we’ll meet, and obviously we’ll talk about it.  I think the Chinese clearly have been supportive of the Russian effort, and I think that generally they’ve been willing to help them as much as they can without getting caught.  But people in Europe and other parts of the world have noticed.  But in the end, this peace, if it’s possible and doable, will happen between Ukraine and Russia, and we are willing to do whatever we can to help bring it to an end. 

QUESTION:  Can I ask an ASEAN question?

QUESTION:  These ideas that Russia —

SECRETARY RUBIO:  A what? 

QUESTION:  An ASEAN question?

SECRETARY RUBIO:  Yeah, of course.  That’s why we’re here, right? 

QUESTION:  Can I ask you one more quick question on Russia?  Just these ideas that were put on the table today, would you characterize them as new ideas from the Russian side that the Trump Administration had not heard before? 

SECRETARY RUBIO:  Yes.  Well, I think maybe – yes, I think it’s a new and a different approach.  Again, I wouldn’t characterize it as something that guarantees a peace, but it’s a concept that we’ll – I’ll take back to the President today and – here as soon as I finish with you. 

QUESTION:  I just wanted to know – what was your sense today after your meeting, the PMC meeting with the ASEAN foreign ministers, about how big an irritant tariffs are to U.S. relations, both with ASEAN as a bloc but individual countries?

SECRETARY RUBIO:  Well, I think – look, there are two things to understand.  Number one is these letters that are going out and these trade changes, they’re happening with every country in the world – I mean, basically every country in the world.  The President’s been very clear, and he has been – frankly, if you go back to videos of him speaking in the ’80s about his feeling that the state of global trade is unfair to the United States, that for far too long we allowed these imbalances to develop.  We are the world’s largest consumer.  We’re a huge market, where people export things to us, and these huge and unsustainable imbalances have developed with countries all over the world. 

And so, this is a globalized effort to reset U.S. trade in a way that’s beneficial to the United States, and not just in dollars and cents but also in our own domestic industrial capacity.  So, this has been made clear to countries around the world.  We were coming up upon June – about the middle of this month, and the markets demand certainty, and so these letters set a baseline. 

Now, obviously that does not foreclose the opportunity for individual countries to enter into negotiations that perhaps can adjust those numbers.  But in the end, the President still remains very committed to a rebalancing of trade that’s fair to America and also, at the same time, protects our own industrial capabilities. 

QUESTION:  Right.  But you’re here today meeting with ASEAN countries, and those countries, almost all of them, got letters.  So, I’m just wondering —

SECRETARY RUBIO:  But anywhere in the world – well —

QUESTION:  I understand that, but —

SECRETARY RUBIO:  My point to you is anywhere in the world I would have traveled this week, they got a letter.  So, everybody got a letter, and in some cases, some of these countries got a letter where their tariff rate is lower than some of their neighbors or maybe a country somewhere else in the world that might even serve as an advantage.  But of course, it’s raised. It’s an issue, but I wouldn’t say it solely defines our relationship with many of these countries.  There are a lot of other issues that we work together on, and I think there was great enthusiasm that we were here and that we’re a part of this.  A reminder that next week, we’ll have another high-ranking delegation, including Secretary Lutnick.  Deputy Landau from the Department of State will be traveling to Japan for the World Expo there, and they’ll be involved in talks there as well.

You know my very first meeting – I don’t know if you know this, but when I was sworn in I went to the State Department, I gave a speech on the steps, and then my first meeting right out of the box was with Japan, South Korea, and India.  And we’ve repeated that meeting numerous times since then with that group (inaudible).  We have a running internal joke with my counterpart from Japan:  I have literally now seen him about 8 to 12 times, and our joke is that we see each other more than we see our own – our own families. 

And so, these engagements are very important to us.  And we’re going to continue to stay very committed, because this – as I said to all of our partners, this notion or idea that the United States would ever be distracted by the Indo-Pacific or even Southeast Asia is impossible.  You can’t be – maybe it doesn’t always – wars get more attention, but it’s impossible to not be focused.  This is where much of the story of the 21st century is going to be written.  This is where two thirds of economic growth is going to happen over the next 25 or 30 years. 

And many of the countries of Southeast Asia – not only are they some of the youngest countries in the world, but they’re about to see an enormous expansion of their labor markets, their labor pool, number of workers.  This is a historic, once-in-a-generation opportunity not just for these countries to revolutionize themselves from an economic standpoint, but further strengthen our relationship.  We have over 6,000 American companies that have invested heavily in these economies over the last 20 or 30 years.  These are – we’re not abandoning those relationships.  On the contrary, we want to strengthen and build upon them. 

And there are a bunch of other issues.  And certainly, trade is part of it, but there are a lot of other issues that we work together on, and we continue to highly prioritize that.  The story of the 21st century will be written in the Indo-Pacific.  And the countries represented here today, along with others that have joined to be a part of this, represent some of the – not just important markets, some of the most important partners we have in the world.

QUESTION:  Secretary Rubio —

MODERATOR:  Last question.

QUESTION:  This is obviously a very quick trip.  Do you intend to come back to Asia or to Southeast Asia —  

SECRETARY RUBIO:  Sure.

QUESTION:  — maybe on a longer trip sometime in the future, near future?

SECRETARY RUBIO:  Sure, absolutely.  This was a great trip because we got to see 12, 13, 14, 15 countries that are all here.  So, these forums – there’ll be a leaders forum here in October, which we look forward to being a part of it.  We’ve also engaged with many of our colleagues here at different forums – many of them, for example, not just at the G7 foreign ministers, they also attended on the sidelines of NATO at the foreign minister level and also at the leaders level.  So, we’ll continue to engage with the region, both in Washington and other places around the world, and in our return travel here.  And so, we’ll be back. 

In addition – and it’s not just me.  The Secretary of Defense has been out here, the Deputy Secretary of State will be here next week.  So, we’ll look for other – obviously, the leaders forum will be here in October as well.  So, we’ll be here, we’ll be engaged, as we do every single day.

MODERATOR:  (Inaudible).

QUESTION:  Secretary, there’s a review right now by the administration of the AUKUS deal that the last administration forged, and I think that raises some question among Asian-Pacific allies and partners about the U.S. defense commitment here in Asia.  What do you say to people who are —   

SECRETARY RUBIO:  Yeah.  Well, look, anytime a new administration takes over, there’s a review of all policies.  I mean, policies are reviewed; doesn’t necessarily mean you’re against it.  We did a review at the State Department of our diplomatic presence around the world, because I wanted to know which consulates and embassies could be adjusted both in their size and in their presence, could we consolidate their presence.  We did a review; we haven’t closed any embassies.  But we did a review.  So just because you’re reviewing something doesn’t mean you’re going to necessarily act on it.  It means you’re a new administration, and you want to take an audit, an account, about all the policies that you’ve inherited – and policies, how they’ve changed since the last time you were in office when it comes to the Trump administration.

So – but our policies on AUKUS have not changed.

MODERATOR:  Thank you.

SECRETARY RUBIO:  What else?

QUESTION:  Are you hopeful on a Gaza ceasefire in the next few days?

SECRETARY RUBIO:  Well, we’re hopeful.  I mean, in the end, we’re hoping they’ll move to proximity talks.  It appears that generally the terms have been agreed to, but obviously now you need to have talks about you implement those terms.  And I spoke to Steve Witkoff last night, and he’s optimistic that proximity talks will begin fairly soon, expedited and facilitated by the Qataris and the Egyptians.  And so – but we’ve seen talks fall apart in the past at that stage of proximity talks. 

So, I think we’re closer, and I think perhaps we’re closer than we’ve been in quite a while, and we’re hopeful.  But we also recognize there are still some challenges in the way, and one of the fundamental challenges is Hamas’s unwillingness to disarm, which would end this conflict immediately.  If they just released the hostages – there shouldn’t be a single hostage.  There shouldn’t be a single hostage body still left.  If they released that and disarmed, this would end. 

But that said, the Israelis have shown some flexibility here, and so I think we’ve – we’ve seen progress made.  So, we’re hopeful, but we also understand that these things are – have been difficult for a reason.  But we are – we’re hopeful that they can move to proximity talks pretty quickly and go from there, and have a ceasefire in place in the near future.

QUESTION:  Are there any sticking points from the Israeli side, such as on aid or the withdrawal of Israeli troops?  Where does that stand?

SECRETARY RUBIO:  Well, the sticking point would be on the Hamas side.  I mean, Hamas – they should want Israel to withdraw completely and allow them to go back to being Hamas.  Obviously, the Israelis aren’t going to agree to that. 

I think the easiest way to end this – that’s not what the agreement is, but the easiest way to end this is for all the hostages to be released and for Hamas to disarm.  Absent that, the Israelis and Hamas, through the intermediation – in the intermediation of Qatar and Egypt, have reached an understanding: a 60-day ceasefire, and some elements of that with regards to humanitarian aid through international agencies resuming, and so forth.  But now you’ve got to have talks about how you implement that.  And that’s where this has fallen apart in the past.  We’re hopeful that’ll work out.  We’re doing everything we can.  We’d like to see a ceasefire.  The President’s been clear he wants to see a ceasefire, and we’ve invested a lot of time and energy.  I know Steve Witkoff works every – hours every single day on this topic alone.  So, we’ve invested a lot of time into that.  We’d like to see it happen.

Okay?

QUESTION:  The AI impersonator of you, anything you can say about who is behind that? 

SECRETARY RUBIO:  No – no, I mean, anybody – it could happen to anybody and every – especially if you’re a public figure, there’s got to be – like, they could take the interview I did here today and change it around, so – but as soon as I found out about it last week, I referred it to the FBI, Diplomatic Security, and others.  It won’t be the last time you see me or others, for that matter – maybe some of you will be impersonated, but it’s just a reality of this AI technology that’s going on, and it’s a real threat.  But —

QUESTION:  How did you find out? 

SECRETARY RUBIO:  Oh, somebody called me – the senator that called me and said, “Hey, did you just try to reach me?” and actually sent me a voice recording – it didn’t sound – I don’t think it really sounded like me.  Maybe he fell for that call, but – but maybe there was a better one that I didn’t see. 

QUESTION:  It was on Signal, right?  So does this —

SECRETARY RUBIO:  I don’t know how they got it or if it was a voicemail.  No, it doesn’t matter what form you use.  I mean, it doesn’t matter if it’s Signal or anything else.  

QUESTION:  But there are more secure methods, though.  On Signal, you can create an account with an email address, and that is one of the reasons that they were able to reach out to people and then use the voicemail messages to imitate your voice. 

SECRETARY RUBIO:  I’ve had people in the past ask me if I texted – like, within days of becoming Secretary of State, I had foreign ministers calling the State Department asking if I had just texted them.  So, I don’t know, guys.  This is just the reality of the 21st century with AI and fake stuff that’s going on.  It’s – generally I communicate with my counterparts around the world through official channels for a reason, and that’s to avoid this.  So —

QUESTION:  Do you have any sense of who the perpetrator is? 

SECRETARY RUBIO:  No.  I mean, the perpetrator is somebody with an AI software.  That could be anybody in the world.  My sense is the target really isn’t me.  The target is the people they’re reaching out to, to try to trick them into a call or whatever.  And who knows what they do with it?  But you’re going to hear about this for a long time, and not just me.  It’ll happen to other people, because all you need is a recording of someone’s voice and you can come up with it.  So yeah, it’s just one of the other great challenges posed to us by AI.  I’m sure there’s a lot of positive aspects to AI as well, but this ain’t one of them. 

QUESTION:  You said, Secretary, that the weapons pause by the Pentagon, in the narrow scope in which it occurred, made sense.  But was it a decision on which the State Department was consulted, or what was the level of —

SECRETARY RUBIO:  No, it wasn’t a – I know, I said it was a review, a pause pending a review.  And so, you – we’re constantly – the Pentagon is constantly reviewing stockpiles, especially after an engagement such as the one we had in the Middle East.  So, my point is that there wasn’t a policy decision not to give weapons to Ukraine.  It was a review in which certain munitions were temporarily paused for that review and for that purpose.  And this reporting out there that there was no awareness of it is not true.  Now – but no policy decision was made, in essence.  No one ever said we’re not sending weapons to Ukraine.  That’s been appropriated by Congress, and that’s continued, and that continues to this very day. 

But when you’re doing a review, there’s some period of time in which during that review, it’s possible that some shipping is slowed down – not stopped, but because it’s being reviewed, someone would say, okay, well, let’s not send it today, let’s wait a couple days because we’re conducting a review of that particular munition.  So that’s what happened here, and I think it was not appropriately reported, initially.  But nonetheless, it’s pretty clear now that review has occurred.  And as the President’s made clear, there has been no change to our posture with regards to providing what we have available. 

Now, I would remind everybody – again, I go back to the point I made, and that is that there are certain things that Ukraine needs like Patriot batteries.  Those are available.  There are multiple countries in Europe that possess Patriot batteries that they could share with Ukraine, and we’re actively talking to countries about doing that. 

QUESTION:  Anyone specifically?

SECRETARY RUBIO:  Well, the Spaniards have them.  They’re really far from Ukraine and they have one.  The Germans have, others have them – I’m not singling them out, but I’m just telling you those are two that I know.  There are other Patriot batteries, and there are other opportunities.  Countries that have ordered Patriot batteries that are about to receive shipments of them, it’d be great if one of them volunteered to defer that shipment and send it to Ukraine instead.  So, we’re looking for creative ways to provide them these defensive weapons that they would need. 

Now, that’s not going to help them with the drone attacks.  That’s a very different technique that we use in order to bring those down.  But it would help them with some of these missile attacks that we’re seeing.  Again, these are defensive weapons. 

QUESTION:  The reduction in force of the State Department, is that something that we should expect to happen while you are traveling, or is it something you want to be in Washington, D.C. while it happens?

SECRETARY RUBIO:  No, I mean, we’ve already notified that to Congress.  Understand our reduction in force was done – I’m very proud to say, I think, I would argue, probably in the most deliberate way of anyone that’s done one.  We went very specifically through and reorganized the State Department.  And when you reorganize the State Department, there were certain bureaus we wanted to empower, the regional bureaus, and there were certain bureaus, these functional bureaus, that were closed.  And so, it made sense to – so that’s been notified to Congress and to the workforce for some period of time.  And so, we’ve been ready to implement it pending a court decision, which now has been reached. 

There’s some timing associated with how you do that, how you actually implement it, but our intent is to move forward with the plans that we’ve notified Congress of weeks ago and that we took months to design. 

QUESTION:  Will the numbers be the same as what was notified to Congress?

SECRETARY RUBIO:  Sure.  I mean, our plan that we notified to Congress is what we intend to do, and then we’ll have (inaudible) our – again, the reduction of force is a consequence of the reorg.  It’s not a consequence of getting – trying to get rid of people.  But if you close the bureau, you don’t need those positions.  Understand that some of these are positions that are being eliminated, not people.  Some of them are unfilled positions for potential – or positions that someone took early retirement, and therefore are now – or about to be unfilled.

So – but we took a very deliberate step to reorganize the State Department to be more efficient and more focused.  That’s been publicly noticed to Congress months ago; we’ve been prepared to implement it.  And the thing that slowed us down was a court decision by a district judge in the northern district of California.  The Supreme Court has ruled on that, and so we’re prepared to act on it.  It’ll come as no surprise, and that is our reorg.  That’ll be the extent of what we intend to do, and we’re already operating under the new organizational structure as-is for the most part.  So, this will further enhance that. 

Okay?  Thank you. 

QUESTION:  Thank you.