US Secretary of State Marco Rubio admitted that America is running out of sanctions to impose on Russia, highlighting the limits of pressure after targeting major Russian oil companies. President Trump also confirmed that most significant Russian targets have already been hit, with enforcement mechanisms like the shadow fleet becoming the next focus. The admission underscores challenges in sustaining sanctions and the need for new strategies to pressure Moscow. #US #trump #russia #apt
00:00Secretary, on Russia's sanctions, to what extent did that come up to further strengthen sanctions?
00:07Well, there's not a lot left to sanction from our part.
00:09I mean, we hit their major oil companies, which is what everybody's been asking for.
00:12Obviously, those have to be implemented, and it'll take some time to begin to feel it.
00:16But, you know, I mean, I don't know what more there is to do.
00:20I mean, we're running out of things to sanction in that regard.
00:23Well, Shadow Fleet is an enforcement mechanism, and obviously, sanctions have to be enforced.
00:27So, you know, we don't put sanctions in and not enforce them.
00:30We're interested in enforcing them as well.
00:32But that's more of an enforcement matter.
00:34And Shadow Fleet has come up because I do think there are things that the Europeans can do on Shadow Fleet,
00:39since a lot of these are happening in areas much closer to them.
00:42Mr. Secretary, on the Pacific.
00:44Who is your Mexican counterpart?
00:45Yeah.
00:46And you've talked about Mexico helping more than ever before.
00:50There's been a high-profile assassination in recent weeks of a mayor of a town in the state of Michoacán in Mexico.
00:57How concerned are you about Mexico's public security situation?
01:00What more can the U.S. do to help Mexico to take on the scourge of the cartels and the violence?
01:05Well, we're willing to provide them any help they want.
01:07You know, obviously, they don't want us to take—we're not going to take unilateral action or go in and send American forces into Mexico.
01:12But we can help them with equipment, with training, with intelligence sharing, with all kinds of things that we could do if they asked for it.
01:17They've got to ask for it.
01:18But look, you asked about one mayor.
01:20It's not just that there's been other mayors.
01:22There's been journalists.
01:23There's been politicians.
01:24There's been judges.
01:25These cartels are very powerful.
01:27One of the things that no one is discussing enough is the rise of these transnational terrorist organizations.
01:34And just because they're not ideologically driven does not mean they're not terrorists.
01:37You don't have to be ideological to be a terrorist.
01:39And they're terrorists because they possess, in many cases, more weapons, better training, better intelligence, and more capabilities than nation-states do.
01:47In the case of Ecuador, these terrorist organizations are threatening the Ecuadorian state.
01:52I mean, planning IDFs and attacking—sorry, planning IEDs and attacking the presidential convoy.
02:02In Mexico, there are areas of the country that are, frankly, run by and governed by.
02:06These cartels are more powerful than local law enforcement or even the national forces are.
02:10So these are a concern throughout the hemisphere.
02:12In the case of Haiti, the Haitian problem is not with some ideological movement.
02:18The Haitian problem is with armed gangs that, in many cases, are stronger and more capable than the Haitian forces are to be able to stand up against them.
02:26So this is something that—it's probably the most serious endemic problem in the region is that these aren't just criminal organizations.
02:34They are terroristic organizations because they threaten the viability and the capabilities of nation-states.
02:39They undermine—and they're trying to—in the case of Haiti, they're trying to make Haiti have no government at all.
02:44It's just a playground for them.
02:45That's sort of what the Maduro regime has become in Venezuela, and they would have empowered, and obviously in areas of Mexico as well.
02:51But the level of cooperation between the U.S. and Mexico today is at an all-time high, and it's growing, and it's positive.
02:57And it's driven by what they ask for, what they need, and by helping them improve their own capabilities if they ask us for that help.
03:03And they have in some cases, and others, you know, they have those capabilities already.
03:06So we have a very good relationship with them.
03:08We've made incredible strides in the first ten months of this year.
03:11But it's a big problem that's been existing for a very long time, so we're taking on something that's been there for a long time.
03:16So it's going to take a while to see measurable progress.
03:18In some cases, we already have.
03:20We're getting extraditions faster than we ever have, for example.
03:23Not always, but in many of these cases.
03:26So we have no complaints on the level of cooperation we've had from Mexico, and the work we're doing with them is historic, right?
03:32But there's more to be done.
03:34On Haiti, did you get any commitments today at the G7?
03:37Well, I mean, the Canadians have stepped up already.
03:39For the gang force?
03:40Yeah, so we have two challenges in Haiti.
03:41The first is we have to finish out the transition period to the gang suppression force.
03:44So there's another three months early next year that has to be funded.
03:47We have agreed to fund the first half of the transition phase, which takes us to the end of this calendar year.
03:52And now the money needs to be raised from international partners to fund the second three or four months transition.
03:57Then we need to raise money for the UN office and the gang suppression force.
04:00And we have to get countries to volunteer to send forces.
04:03We can't just have the Kenyans doing it alone with 2,000 troops.
04:06So there's a lot of work to be done.
04:07We work on it every single day.
04:08We have a whole crew that's working on that every single day.
04:11And we're asking for three things.
04:12Money for the remaining transition phase.
04:15We covered half of it.
04:16The rest of the world should be able to cover the other half.
04:18Second is money for the UN office and the gang suppression force.
04:21And third are the forces.
04:23Countries make a commitment to bring forces to bear so that they can rise to 5,000 as opposed to 2,000.
04:30And we're very grateful to what the Kenyans have done already.
04:32So we don't want to see them abandoned.
04:34And we welcome them and we encourage them to remain a part of the gang suppression force.
04:37Is someone ready to take over for their Kenyans?
04:39Well, other countries will join it is what we hope.
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