Jake Sullivan.
Most war.
Almost all wars end in some kind of a negotiation.
The sort of World War two war where one side complete only annihilates.
The other is very, very rare in history.
What will that that end?
What will those negotiations look like?
The Chinese have put out this.
I don't know what they're call it, a peace plan.
It's just out it's a 12 point document detailing its position,
calling for the end of hostilities and the resumption of peace talks.
Is there anything to this?
What is your reaction?
Well, my first reaction to it is that it could stop at point one,
which is respect the sovereignty of all nations.
That's the first point in the 12 point plan.
This war could end tomorrow if Russia stopped attacking Ukraine
and withdrew its forces. Ukraine wasn't attacking Russia.
Naito wasn't attacking Russia.
The United States wasn't attacking Russia.
This was a war of choice by Putin waged upon Ukraine.
And it could end if he simply left Ukraine.
And that is the best way for this war to end.
Now, I cannot predict the future.
What I can tell you is that the United States
is not going to dictate to Ukraine how this war ends.
President Biden tells President Zelensky and our allies
at every opportunity nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine.
It is the Ukrainians who will decide how they proceed towards the end to this war.
Our job is to put them in the best possible position on the battlefield.
So they are in the best possible position
to be able to do diplomacy whenever they choose to do diplomacy.
And that is how we are going to proceed.
But I think there's one more important point as we approach this anniversary
and is actually the anniversary
has arrived in Ukraine, and that is Russia has already lost this war.
Russia's aims in this war were to wipe Ukraine off the map,
to take the capital and to eliminate Ukraine, to absorb it into Russia.
They failed at doing that,
and they are in no position to be able to do that as we go forward.
And it is important for everyone to remember that the courage and bravery
of the Ukrainian people has already accomplished that objective
and the support of the United States and our allies and partners around
the world has helped contribute to that.
But where this goes from here
is something that will play out over the coming months.
What we know is day by day We simply have to keep doing our job,
which is to give the Ukrainians the tools they need to defend themselves.
So whatever happens at the end of this war,
Ukraine is going to need a massive amount of reconstruction and assistance.
Does the world have the capacities?
The United States have the capacity for the kind of thing you know,
people talk about a Marshall Plan like there was after 1945 to help Europe
rebuild.
Is that the kind of scale we need to be thinking about?
Well, I think we associate the Marshall Plan with a moment, right,
just as we associate the end of the war or two with a moment.
And it looks as though recovery and reconstruction
in Ukraine, at least for the time being, is going to happen differently.
Just this month, earlier this month, the world Bank announced
$50 million to invest in the repair and restoration
of the transport networks, the transport infrastructure in Ukraine.
And that's how U.S.
aid is proceeding as we try to catalyze the involvement of the European Bank
for Reconstruction Development.
The big international financial institutions and to get the private sector
to be interested
in coming back to those parts of Ukraine that are relatively peaceful
and even to continue to make investments elsewhere.
We just struck a Public-Private partnership with Bayer,
which is building a new seed factory in Ukraine, which is going to employ
thousands of Ukrainians.
The more Ukrainians are employed,
the more revenue there is the less assistance will need to come from outside.
So this is going to be from within and from without.
But I think it's not necessarily going to be an on off switch.
It's something we want more Ukrainian refugees to be in a position
to come home to have infrastructure that awaits them
where they can live in buildings that have been repaired.
But, of course, the damage that some estimates is that the damage
so far has been $130 billion if you take arable land, homes, hospitals, schools.
So this is going to be a mammoth undertaking.
The other thing we want to do now is with an eye to those big ticket items,
which most of which will happen only when there is a negotiated peace.
But we have to
make sure that resources are going to be well spent.
When you have those huge investments
which go well beyond what is being provided right
now, that's when, of course, you want to make sure
that you have the safeguards in place so that all outside investors and donors
know that and can say to their citizens
that this is money that's going to be well spent.
But I think President Biden has spoken really eloquently, powerfully
to how much enthusiasm there will be when this war is officially over.
You know, a number of actors are on the outside
really wanting to be a part of the longer term solution.
But getting the institutional frameworks right is something we can be working on
right now.
In addition to these stopgap recovery efforts.
Jake, I got to ask you one final question.
We've talked all about the world, Russia, Ukraine.
We haven't talked about what's going on in the United States.
Do you worry when you hear voices like Governor DeSantis, Senator Hawley,
Senator Vance
questioning why the United States is doing this, asking why we should be spending
this money, wondering whether we should be
taking a more neutral position
What I find so interesting
about that perspective, we can't
operate in the world because we have to operate at home is it
presents a fundamentally false choice that is not at all who America is.
We can both invest at home
and provide for the safety and well-being of the American people.
And we can lead in the world.
And that's what we have done at our best
under Democratic and Republican presidents for decades.
The United States is capable as a powerful self-assured nation.
We have the resources, we have the talents,
we have the energies of our people to solve our own problems here.
And President Biden has done more in two years to invest in this country,
to build jobs, to provide for the social safety net,
to deal with the problems that people sit around their kitchen tables
and think about while at the same time mobilizing a coalition of free nations
to support the values that Americans hold so dear.
So what I would say to those senators is, yes, let's do these things at home.
But are you saying that America is incapable of also
helping to serve a powerful force for good in the world?
I don't think that the American people believe that.
I think the American people think we are capable of doing both.
And at our best, that is exactly what we have done.
And I believe that a lot of the moments I've seen in this last year in Ukraine,
from those flags waving in small towns that Samantha
was talking about to the people in the U.S.
government who are trying to support folks like you
who are on the front lines, that has been America at its best.
And so I think that there's a pessimism in this argument
that these senators are making.
President Biden has an optimistic view, which is we can do it and we should do it
and we are doing it. And as a result,
I believe that democracies in the world are getting stronger, not weaker,
as the president said, and autocracies are getting weaker, not stronger.
And that is better for every single person in this country.