00:00 Our first question will go to Associated Press.
00:02 Lita.
00:03 Hi.
00:04 Good afternoon.
00:05 Thank you so much.
00:06 Mr. Secretary, President Zelensky this morning made it clear that his country needs patriot
00:12 systems, not just the initiatives that go with it.
00:16 Can you say how much, if any, progress you all made today on that, considering a number
00:21 of allies have expressed reluctance in sending these systems that they just don't have
00:27 very many of?
00:28 And, Mr. Chairman, if I could switch to a different topic for you.
00:33 On Gaza, a lot of the aid agencies are very concerned about security in and around the
00:40 port, particularly as things move ahead to distribution of aid.
00:44 What assurances have you gotten from the Israelis about security at the port, including from
00:49 their own troops who have had incidents where they have killed aid workers?
00:54 Can you just talk a little bit about that?
00:58 Well, thanks, Lita.
00:59 In terms of patriots and what we'll be able to do going forward, it's left to be seen,
01:06 but I can tell you that we continue to work on this in a very earnest manner.
01:15 All of the countries that have patriots certainly value that capability, but I think going forward
01:24 we'll be able to hopefully work with a number of countries to put together additional patriot
01:30 capability.
01:31 And you may have noticed that in the last several days I've been talking one-on-one
01:38 with some of my European counterparts, actually discussing this issue and other issues.
01:44 But again, we're going to continue to work at this until we have the right kinds of capability.
01:52 Now, I would point out that it's not just patriot that, you know, they need.
01:59 They need other types of systems and interceptors as well.
02:02 And so I would caution us all in terms of making patriot the silver bullet.
02:09 I would say that it's going to be the integrated air and missile defense, as we've said so
02:14 many times before, that really turns the tide.
02:18 And so there are other capabilities that they need that we really pushed hard to get, and
02:23 we may be able to get to the Ukrainians a bit faster, but this work continues on.
02:30 And you know that Jen Stoltenberg talked to all the ministers of defense on this very
02:36 same issue a week ago.
02:38 And in addition to the point-to-point work that I'm doing with my colleagues, you know,
02:43 we'll continue to emphasize that countries are going to have – we're going to ask
02:49 them to accept a little bit more risk so that we can do what's necessary in Ukraine.
02:54 So.
02:55 SECRETARY TILLERSON: I appreciate the question.
02:57 One of the areas that we've been focused on as we move down the path of bringing our
03:02 joint logistics over the shore and build the port on the beaches of Gaza there is not only
03:08 the security of the port itself, the security of our forces, but also the security of the
03:12 distribution and also the aid workers.
03:16 And a couple things that we've done is engaged not only with our Israeli counterparts, but
03:21 also with some of the aid agencies as well.
03:24 And so as I've engaged with my counterpart, we've talked specifically about security
03:29 for the port area as well as the distribution.
03:34 After the unfortunate incident that killed the way their workers from the World Central
03:40 Kitchen, I've talked to my Israeli counterpart about the incident itself, the investigation
03:46 it did, and the corrective actions they were putting in place.
03:49 And that has been part of the discussion between – as United States Central Command leadership
03:54 has been engaging with the various agencies that will help with the distribution to provide
03:59 them the confidence that we've worked with – closely with the Israelis to provide for
04:04 their protection as – and ensure that they have the procedures in place so you don't
04:09 evidence that very similar to what occurred previously.
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