- Good morning, everyone.
It's an honor to be here in New York
for the 73rd United Nations General Assembly,
my first as Secretary of State.
Kind of the Super Bowl of diplomacy.
Americans can be proud of how our entire team
is executing on the field today.
I'm thrilled to be here
with my friends Nikki and John, as well.
Americans expect the United States to assert bold leadership
on the world stage that reflects our values.
And under President Trump,
we are certainly leading from the front.
This was clear from just the first meeting this morning,
in which we issued a call for
Global Action for the World Drug Problem,
the scourge of drug trafficking, narcotics production,
and substance abuse is intensifying on a global scale.
Within the United States, President Trump is leading
a massive and effective counterattack against it.
It's now time for every country to follow our lead.
Later today, the President will hold bilateral meetings
with President Moon of South Korea,
President Al-Sisi of Egypt, and
President Macron of France.
Whether it's security issues, economic issues,
human rights or anything else, the President is asking
for countries to exert their sovereignty
to solve challenges and listening
to what America can do to help.
This emphasis on sovereignty was, of course,
the theme of President Trump's speech
to the General Assembly last year.
That theme will endure in his speech tomorrow,
along with a recap about how his call
for every nation to do its part has paid dividends
for the United States and the world
over this past year.
For example, President Trump's leadership,
combined with efforts of countries
to enforce the pressure campaign,
has deescalated tensions with North Korea
and brought us closer to our final goal:
the final, fully verified denuclearization of the DRPK,
as agreed to by Chairman Kim Jong Un.
Last week's summit between President Moon and Chairman Kim
yielded another positive step forward,
but the President remains resolute:
Now is not the time to ease pressure.
And as you've heard too, President Trump will address
the threat of nonproliferation at the Security Council,
on Wednesday, and the need for responsible nations
to stop the spread of weapons and technologies.
Among the topics that meeting will cover are
North Korea, Syria, and Iran.
You can bet the President will have
well-deserved strong words for the Iranian regime,
which is among the worst of violators
of U.N. Security Council resolutions,
if not the absolute worst in the world.
He'll call on every country to join our pressure campaign
in order to thwart Iran's global torrent
of destructive activity.
Whether it's Venezuela, South Sudan, Syria, Burma,
China, the estimated 2.5 million victim --
excuse me, 25 million victims of modern slavery
around the world can also count on America's support.
Today is shaping up as a great first day.
Lots more work to come this week.
President Trump and our entire diplomatic corps
look forward to the days ahead with our foreign counterparts
as we work on achieving shared victories for all.
Ambassador Haley.
- Good morning.
Happy UNGA.
We got a great start today
with the President's event on counter-narcotics.
Really, to understand this event is to understand the fact
that it wasn't just a bunch of people getting into a room.
Every country that attended had to sign
a Global Call to Action, which basically said
that they were going to implement something
within their own countries that dealt
with how they were going to deal
with the supply and demand of drugs,
the international cooperation they were going to do
with other countries to stop illicit drugs,
and then also treatment that can be done
within their own countries.
And so the idea that the President was able
to get 130 countries to sign on means
that we are now having a global drug conversation
that needed to be had for a long time.
As we go through UNGA, you are seeing over 140 heads
of delegations that are here at the United Nations.
We certainly are looking forward
to the President's speech tomorrow.
As you can tell, last year we started UNGA,
and it was trying to figure out
what the U.S. presence was going to be.
This year, we're here with a bang.
Not only is the President doing his speech,
he's going to be doing a Security Council meeting.
Secretary Pompeo is also doing a Security Council meeting.
The Vice President is doing an event on Venezuela.
And so it's all hands on deck by the United States.
He will be meeting with the Secretary-General.
It's been an interesting time knowing that,
since the Secretary-General's meeting last year,
we have pulled out of the Paris Accord.
We have pulled out of the Global Compact.
We have pulled out of the Iran deal.
And all of that is to say that the United States
is determined to obviously be involved
in multilateral organizations where we see it,
but not in the way that they're mandated
on what the United States does
or that infringes on the American people.
So with that, he will be hosting the reception,
obviously tonight, with the heads of delegation.
And then tomorrow night, he and the Vice President
and the Secretary have agreed to host
our Security Council members,
as well as their foreign ministers.
And you know, with everything we've been able
to get accomplished, whether it's the arms embargo
with South Sudan, whether it's the idea
that we were able to get three sanctions packages
passed in North Korea, that we've got massive reform efforts
that were done this past year and peacekeeping mandates
completely rolled over.
We would not be able to do that without
the Security Council, and so that meeting is going
to be very important.
But we look forward to a great week.
Everyone is excited.
The United Sates is always very happy to host this.
New Yorkers may not be,
but we're going to make it a great UNGA.
Thank you very much.
- Well, thanks.
I'm just delighted to be here.
Everybody have a copy?
I've got mine.
It's a little worn, but I still got it.
I just wanted to take a second
and talk about one of the themes
in the President's remarks tomorrow.
And I have been around long enough to know
that I'm not going to step on any of his lines,
but he is going to talk and elaborate
on his views on sovereignty.
And I just wanted to explain that this is--
why this is so important for Americans,
because many people consider sovereignty a kind
of abstract concept.
It derives, obviously, from the word "sovereign,"
meaning the monarch.
But it's one of the reasons I think America is exceptional,
and that is we understand sovereignty
not to be vested in the head of state;
we understand it as the Framers said
in the Constitution itself: "We the People."
We the people are sovereign in America.
So that infringements on our sovereignty
are not infringements on abstractions
or infringements on the government,
they're an infringement on the people themselves.
We express our sovereignty through the Constitution,
through our political process.
It's why that's so important.
And it's why we believe--and of course,
I'm speaking in secular terms here--
that the Constitution is the highest authority
that we recognize.
So in a number of different ways, the President is going
to address this issue.
And again, it's the continuing theme of his--
as Secretary Pompeo said, it was a theme
in his last address to the General Assembly,
will be this year, and in a variety
of other contexts that you'll see.
Thank you.
- [Lindsay] With that, we'll open it up to questions.
Steve Holland.
- [Steve] Mr. Secretary, will you raise with the Russians
what you're calling an "escalation"
of sending these S-300 missiles to Syria?
- So there are many topics that we'll talk about
with the Russians.
I am very confident that their latest decision
to move the S-300 will be amongst them.
Ambassador Bolton has had the most recent conversation
when he met with his counterpart now three weeks ago
perhaps four weeks ago.
As I said yesterday, we're trying to find every place
we can where there is common ground,
where we can work with the Russians.
We're finding lots of places
where they're working against American interest,
and we will hold them accountable for so doing.
- [Steve] And will you meet with Lavrov while you're here?
- Yes. I'm sure Sergey and I will have our time together.
- [Lindsay] Matt Lee from the AP.
- [Matt] I really don't have anything to ask.
I'm in the middle of writing something here.
(laughter)
But I will, I guess.
Ambassador Bolton, when you talk about sovereignty
and your threat to prosecute
the International Criminal Court,
do you expect the President will repeat the threat?
And exactly what is the legal basis
for saying that you will prosecute
ICC prosecutors or judges?
- Well, as I said a moment ago,
I'm not going to say anything specific
about what he's going to comment on.
And the authorities that I referred to in my speech
to the Federalist Society are largely drawn
from the American Service-Members' Protection Act of 2002.
- [Lindsay] John Roberts, Fox News.
- [John] Two questions.
The first one is not exactly in your purview.
But as you spent the morning with the President,
do you have any idea what's currently going on
with Deputy Attorney General?
- We don't have any comment.
You'll have to talk to the White House about that.
- [John] Okay, then let me ask my second question.
North Korea; you're having a lot of talks with North Korea.
You're not seeing what you need to
in terms of denuclearization.
How long do you leave the door open before
you decide this isn't working?
- Yeah, John, look, you have to remember this is a process
that will move forward.
To set a date certain would be foolish.
But make no mistake about it--
the conversations that we're having are important.
They're putting the opportunity to complete
the denuclearization in place.
And we will continue
at every level to have those conversations.
Some of them you will be aware of;
some of them you won't know are taking place.
There's lots going on so that we can get to the place where-
in this place, this week, right?
These are the U.N. Security Council resolutions
that demanded that North Korea give up
its nuclear weapons program and, even more broadly,
its nuclear capabilities.
Those aren't United States demands;
they are the United Nations demands.
And we're working to assist in implementing them
and to help Chairman Kim get to the right place
to honor the promise that he made to President Trump
in Singapore.
- [John] Are you optimistic
that he will come through on this?
- Yes.
- [Lindsay] Errol Barnett, CBS.
- [Errol] Secretary Pompeo, just to follow up on that point,
President Trump said earlier today the second meeting
will take place quite soon.
So my specific question to you is:
What does North Korea need to do
before securing that meeting?
Or has it already achieved that privilege?
- I'm not going to get into the details about it,
but the President said this morning they'll meet quite soon.
I'm confident that that will happen.
I expect I'll be traveling to Pyongyang before too long,
as well, to make the final preparations for
that second meeting between the two leaders.
- [Enroll] Will that be before the end of the year?
What is soon?
- Yes, Lord willing, I'll be traveling
before the end of the year.
- [Lindsay] Francesca Chambers
- [Francesca] Thank you, Lindsay.
I'll start with you Secretary Pompeo.
North Korea says that it's looking for reciprocal actions
from the United States
in order to enter into a nuclear deal.
What at this point would the United States be willing
to give up to North Korea, since you guys have said
that sanctions are not on the table?
And then, I have a second question,
on a second topic, but you might want to answer that first.
- So I have said repeatedly and I shall remain steadfast:
We're not going to talk about the state of the negotiation-
it would be inappropriate for us to do that--
or our North Korean counterparts to talk about
particular deal points, things we're working on.
But the fundamental principles remain the same.
We expect the full, complete, verified
denuclearization of North Korea.
And until such time as that occurs,
the economic sanctions--the sanctions that have been
put in place by the United Nations Security Council--
will remain in place.
That's the core proposition that the President
agreed to in Singapore, and it's the one we're going
to continue to honor through the whole process.
- [Francesca] Okay, and then the second topic.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau
is among the US allies who is not getting
a private sit-down with the president this week,
it would seem.
So what does that say about the relationship
between the United States and Canada right now?
And what does that say about the possibility
of securing a trade deal with Canada?
- The President's schedule is very compressed this year
in New York, and
so there were a lot of requests
and a lot of desires by the President to have bilaterals
that simply couldn't be accommodated.
He speaks with Prime Minister Trudeau by phone all the time.
And it's always possible here in New York
that they would have time for a pull-aside, as we call it.
But there is full and open, complete communication
between Prime Minister Trudeau and President Trump.
That I can assure you.
- [Lindsay] Emerald Robinson, One America News.
- [Emerald] Thank you, Lindsay.
This is for either Ambassador Haley or Secretary Pompeo.
In an update on Pastor Brunson,
there's rumors that he could be released next month.
Any comment on that?
Is that true?
And are there conversations going on this week
in regards to him and Turkish sanctions?
- Yes, he could be released this month.
He should have been released last month,
and he should be released today, in fact.
We've talked to the Turks; they know the expectation.
Pastor Brunson and the other US persons that are being held
by Turkey all need to be released by Turkey.
And they need to be done--that needs to be done immediately.
And I'm sure there will be some conversations this week
in furtherance of that.
But make no mistake, there will be nothing
that we share with them here that we haven't shared
with them already about President Trump's demands
that these innocent people--these people
who have truly done nothing wrong--
not be detained wrongfully in Turkey
- [Lindsay] We can move to the back of the room.
- [Majeed] Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Secretary Pompeo, my name is Majeed Gly.
I'm from Rudaw Media Network.
I have a question for you, Ambassador Bolton,
or Secretary Pompeo, to answer about Iraq.
Ambassador Haley last week elaborated very well
at the Security Council of how Iran
is practically taking over Iraq
and influencing what's going on there.
Iran now is appointing the Speaker of the Parliament.
They're planning to appoint the Prime Minister of Iraq.
They're taking over the country.
What is the US planning to do
in order to counter Iranian influence?
Do you have specific plans with that regard?
Thank you.
- Thank you.
You're speaking about the government formation process?
Yes, sorry, I wanted to make sure I had the question right.
This administration took over at a time
when Qassem Soleimani and the Ayatollah
were running rampant through five capitals
in the Middle East.
And we have engaged in significant activity
that has begin to counter the Iranian threat.
Today they remain the world's largest state sponsor
of terror.
It is our fervent effort to make sure
that that not remain the case.
We've put a number of restrictions in place.
We will re-impose another set of sanctions
come this November.
Our actions in and around the Middle East
have made clear we will not continue
to accept Iran's bad behavior.
In Iraq, we have been working to achieve a government
that is an Iraqi national government.
And we're hoping that the leaders--
the people of Iraq have spoken.
They had their chance to vote.
And now they're in the process of forming that government.
And we are working diligently to make sure
that the Iraqi people, the voice
that they gave during their election,
is who ends up in leadership there.
- [Kim] A follow-on.
Kim Dozier from the Daily Beast.
Rudy Giuliani over the weekend called for
regime change in Iran.
Does that follow with the Trump administration's
desires of policy?
- As I've said repeatedly, regime change in Iran
is not the administration's policy.
As Mike Pompeo just said,
we've imposed very stringent sanctions on Iran.
More are coming.
And what we expect from Iran is massive changes
in their behavior.
And until that happens, we will continue
to exert what the President has called "maximum pressure."
That's what we intend to do.
- [Lindsay] Jim Acosta, CNN.
- [Jim] Yes, Ambassador Haley, you're the lone person here
that has been with the administration since the beginning.
In the story about Rod Rosenstein on Friday,
it was mentioned that he had been involved in
circulating discussions about invoking the 25th amendment
to have the President removed from office.
Were you ever involved in any of those discussions?
Were you aware of any of those discussions?
And I did have a North Korea follow-up for the Secretary.
- I mean, I said yesterday, on the Sunday shows,
that, literally, I have never once been
in the White House where that conversation has happened.
I am not aware of any Cabinet members
that are even talking about that.
It is completely and totally absurd.
No one is questioning the President at all.
If anything, we're trying to keep up the pace with him,
in the fact that he's got a lot he wants
to accomplish very quickly, and we're going to continue
to support him in the way that he does that.
- [Jim] I appreciate that.
And, Secretary Pompeo, if I may ask you a follow-up
on North-Korea.
Before you went into the summit with Kin Jong Un
in Singapore, you did not have an agreement really in place
for complete denuclearization.
Why should you have another summit with Kim Jon Un--
a second summit the President talked about this morning--
if you don't have the details in place?
It just seems, even to the layman,
that you sort of have the process backwards;
that you would want the details in place
before having a summit.
And here you may do it for a second time.
- Two things.
Fact check: I've been with the administration
since the beginning too.
Not that that's relevant.
But I'll add, no discussion with me
about the 25th Amendment anywhere either.
- So you can now report that there are two senior leaders
that have said that your statement--
your question was ludicrous.
(laughter)
Second point, with respect to North Korea: Look, we went--
- [Jim] Well, if it's so ludicrous--if I may ask,
if it's so ludicrous--and I apologize for not remembering
that you were the CIA Director.
Obviously, you were the CIA Director.
If it's so ludicrous, why did the Deputy Attorney General
have discussions about it behind the scenes?
- I find the question ludicrous.
I've been involved--
I've been at the center of this administration,
along with lots of other folks, from virtually day one.
I think that it was actually day three or four.
I've never heard anyone talk about it, whisper about it,
joke about it in any way.
I've been in a lot of meetings with a lot
of senior officials from this government.
Your question on North Korea: remember the history.
We went at this the other way for decades,
and North Korea continued to build its nuclear program.
Right?
We tried to do details.
We tried to do step-for-step.
We tried to do trade-for-trade.
Each of those failed.
We're coming at this from a different direction.
We're bringing the two senior leaders,
the individuals who can actually make the decisions
that will move this process forward,
bring them together so we can continue
to make progress towards what the UN Security Council
has demanded and what Chairman Kim has promised he would do.
That's the effort.
There remains work to be done.
There will be some time
before we get to complete denuclearization for sure.
But we've been at this the other way
for an awfully long time and failed,
and put America in the position it finds itself today:
At risk from North Korean nuclear weapons.
- [Jim] And wouldn't it be ludicrous to have another meeting
with Kim Jong Un if you don't have the details in place?
- Absolutely not.
If we can continue to make progress and have conversations,
I think there's enormous value in that.
- [Lindsay] In the back.
- [Reporter] Yeah, hi.
Secretary Pompeo, in your terms about denuclearization
you left out the word "irreversible."
Was that a mistake or deliberate?
- Complete mistake.
Completely irreversible.
Thank you.
Thank you for correcting me.
- [Lindsay] Thank you all for attending today.
Thank you.