SECRETARY BLINKEN: Good evening, everyone.
It’s a pleasure to welcome Foreign Minister Lipavský here to the State Department, to
Washington.
The United States and the Czech Republic are longtime strong allies and partners across
so many issues, but we’ve seen the strength of that alliance and partnership right now
in the face of Russia’s aggression against Ukraine.
The Czech Republic has been a remarkable supporter of Ukraine in this effort.
It has taken in more than 300,000 refugees from Ukraine, making it the “home” in
quotation marks for Ukraine refugees, one of the largest in Europe beyond the immediate
border states.
And it has been a staunch partner in NATO as we work to shore up NATO’s defenses against
possible Russian aggression.
So in these ways and so many more, as well as assuming the presidency of the European
Union this summer, this is a vital time for the work that we’re doing together.
It’s great to have you here.
There’s another thing that brings you here that is greatly appreciating and quite frankly
moving to me, and that is tomorrow the services for Madeleine Albright, a proud daughter of
the Czech Republic but also of course of the United States, a person greatly revered in
this building, in this institution.
I’m grateful to you, Jan, for being here at this time as well – all of you.
FOREIGN MINISTER LIPAVSKY: Mr. Secretary, Antony, thank you for this opportunity to
meet and reiterate our good – great – relationship.
And we are meeting in extraordinary time.
The Putin wars against Ukraine, it’s something we have not witnessed, I think, since the
end of the Second World War.
It’s an attempt to attack the international order, and it is very important for Central
and Eastern Europe to know that we are not left alone, that being a member of NATO means
that there is a commitment to care for each other and that this is a policy of the United
States that we can – we can be sure that we have this partner, we have this partnership,
and that you care, that the United States care about Europe.
So in this extraordinary time it is really important for us to hear that and to of course
see the real actions behind that, which is the delivery of not only humanitarian aid,
because it’s nice to have a band-aid when something happens to you, but in a time for
war we – the weapons will decide – the will and weapons will decide the result on
the ground.
And sadly, Putin’s mind is a product of KGB Soviet era, and he really believes in
this Soviet – Soviet myth.
They do not consider Ukraine a sovereign state, which means they are against the international
order.
And this imperialistic vision tends to snowball, so would be left to go away with aggression
against Ukraine, we would pay much higher cost in the future for that, as we have seen
previously in history.
So I cannot stress it more and more forcefully: Thank you very much for your care for European
security.
SECRETARY BLINKEN: Thank you, Jan, very much.
Appreciate it.
Thanks, everyone.