Secretary of State Marco Rubio Remarks to the Press

QUESTION: I know you're meeting your Indian counterpart on Monday. (Inaudible) in terms of (inaudible)?

SECRETARY RUBIO: Am I going to raise that issue?

QUESTION: Do you think - do you think that they'll (inaudible) the sanctions on their companies? Do you think that's going to get the response (inaudible) -

SECRETARY RUBIO: We're still talking. I mean, we've got broader trade issues that we're working on as well, so - but they'll always be our allies and friends. We're just working through some - but I think (inaudible).

QUESTION: (Inaudible) have expressed concern about Pakistan and the greater relationship, stronger relationship between the U.S. and Pakistan (inaudible). (Inaudible) Pakistani (inaudible). And is this something that (inaudible)? Is it something that the Indians raise as a concern?

SECRETARY RUBIO: They really haven't - I mean, we know they're concerned for obvious reasons because of the tensions that have existed between Pakistan and India historically. But, I think they have to understand we have to have relations with a lot of different countries. We see an opportunity to expand our strategic relationship with Pakistan, and I think we've made - that's our job, is to try to figure out how many countries we can find how we can work with on things of common interest. So, I think the Indians are very mature when it comes to diplomacy and things of that nature. Look, they have some relationships with countries that we don't have relationships with. So, it's part of a mature, pragmatic foreign policy. I don't think anything we're doing with Pakistan comes at the expense of our relationship or friendship with India, which is deep, historic, and important.

QUESTION: I'm wondering what your sort of takeaways were from the visit - like, the meeting with Netanyahu. You're pretty confident that they're going to - the ceasefire is going to hold, like for now at least?

SECRETARY RUBIO: No, this is part of this.

QUESTION: Yeah.

SECRETARY RUBIO: I think every night brings a new challenge. You're talking about on the other side of that line is an organization that has dedicated itself to not just killing Israelis and murdering Israelis, but the destruction of the Jewish state. On the other side of that red line you're dealing with hundreds of thousands of civilians that have just gone through two years of very difficult circumstances. So, there's a reason why this hasn't happened before: because it's hard. And every night will bring new challenges on how to keep it together. So we recognize that, but we also feel like we've made tremendous progress in the last 12 or 13 days.

This is not unique to this ceasefire. I mean, it - you've seen it in others. I remember in the early hours and days after India and Pakistan stopped fighting, there were skirmishes. With Cambodia and Thailand, we're still experiencing that. We're still experiencing challenges with DRC and Rwanda. And none of those were as complicated as this.

So, we recognize that every night you're dealing with a situation that's going to require constant maintenance, and there'll be challenges and struggles. Every day brings some unexpected challenge, but also brings some unexpected hope that we'll be able to make some progress. We recognize this is not going to be easy. That's why I was here. That's why the Vice President came. That's why I believe General Cain will be here next week. And that's why I - we - I just spoke to the prime minister again a few minutes ago.

QUESTION: On the phone?

SECRETARY RUBIO: Yes. Yeah, he's not on the plane. (Laughter.) That would be a story. (Laughter.)

QUESTION: You're meeting the Qataris, or you're - with the President?

SECRETARY RUBIO: Yeah, we're doing it at the refuel stop. The President will be meeting with them; I'll be part of that.

QUESTION: All right. That's just sort of convenient because we're going through, or is there something -

SECRETARY RUBIO: Yeah. I mean, we're going to be there, so - and I think it was at their initiative, and I'm sure the President is happy to see them, and it'll be important. We'll talk about all of this, and other things.

QUESTION: So talking about, like, the ceasefire monitoring and stuff, do you have, like, a direct sort of deconfliction channel with Hamas? I'm imaging that a lot of these incidents that are happening, you've got PIJ, other gangs and things who might be coming across the Israelis and having clashes.

SECRETARY RUBIO: Yeah, so there is a - part of this effort is there is a sort of a cell that's been created among the multiple mediators, as well as us and the Israelis, where information flows in about a possible imminent threat. You saw that last weekend, where it looked like there might be an action that took place. It went through the cell. We put out a message through State Department, sent it to our mediators as well, about an impending attack, and it didn't happen.

So that's the goal here, is ultimately to identify a threat before it happens, work through the mediators to keep it from happening, and that - we've seen the instances drop off. Now, that may spike up again. We're not being cavalier about it. But that's the goal as we get through all of this. Ultimately, you're going to have a stabilization force that will be standing on that line that will help address some of this, but we're not at that stage, so right now it's just about keeping this alive. And it's a nightly task.

QUESTION: And is Hamas, like, sending messages like, "This wasn't us" for some of those clashes, for example?

SECRETARY RUBIO: The mediators, they'll argue that - I mean, in some cases they'll argue that it wasn't them. One of the arguments they made last week is that these were people in tunnels that didn't know the war was over. Obviously, that's - I think at this point everyone knows that now, so that's not - so you'll get some of that. There are still thousands of people on the other side of that line with weapons in their hands, and that's why this is an ongoing nightly challenge.

QUESTION: Insofar as helping with the CMCC, which countries - has Qatar contributed in terms of troops, in terms of -

SECRETARY RUBIO: We're not giving - in terms of the stabilization force?

QUESTION: Yeah.

SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, we've had a lot of countries that have expressed an interest, and I think they'd want to know what's the mandate, what's the mission, what are the rules of engagement, what is this force supposed to do. All of that's being worked on. At some point I think we'll have to have an - come very soon, we'll have to have an international mission around it, whether it's an international agreement through the UN. Many of the countries that have expressed interest in participating at some level, be it money or personnel or both, are going to need that because their own domestic laws require it. So, we have a whole team just working on that outline of it.

But a lot of countries have expressed interest. Of course, I think they want to know what it is they're signing up for, and which is a very reasonable thing. So, we're working through that. We have a whole team working through that right now.

QUESTION: And it's not possible yet to say which countries are signed up?

SECRETARY RUBIO: No, I wouldn't do that yet. Because in some cases some of these countries haven't even socialized that in their own internal systems. But we're very pleased with the number of countries that have expressed an interest in being involved. Obviously, they want to know more details about it.

QUESTION: To go back for a moment to what we were speaking about earlier on the topic of India and your meeting with your counterpart, do you think that in order to get a broader trade deal with the U.S., India will be willing to really shove off its purchases of Russian oil?

SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, I think India has already expressed an interest in diversifying their oil portfolio and who they buy from. And, so, India only needs so much oil. So, if they diversified their portfolio, the more they buy it from us, the more they'll buy it from someone else. But I wouldn't prejudge or - I'm not negotiating trade deals, so I'm not going to speak on that because - but I know they've already expressed a desire to diversify their oil portfolio, even before all of this came up. So, obviously the more we sell them, the less they'll buy from someone else. And, but, we'll see where we wind up on all that.

QUESTION: With Colombia, we saw obviously the sanctions announced yesterday, the sanctions on President Petro and his family and one of his closest advisers. Is there an intentionality in terms of the tariffs - skip the tariffs - the sanctions being individual sanctions versus broad tariffs that would affect the entire Colombian economy?

SECRETARY RUBIO: Yeah, because we have an excellent relationship with the people of Colombia and with many of the institutions in Colombia. Some of our strong - and remain some of our strongest partners at the institutional level are Colombian security forces, many Colombian political figures. In fact, 72 hours ago the Colombian senate I believe voted overwhelmingly to designate the regime in Venezuela as a cartel and a narco-terror organization.

So the politics of Colombia are not actually reflected by the current president. And so our problem with the current president, in addition to his behavior, which has been erratic and counterproductive, is that in fact he is not cooperating on our counter-drug, and we felt that was best addressed at the individual level. And not to mention the guy standing in New York City with a bullhorn asking National Guard troops to disobey the orders of the Commander-in-Chief - completely unacceptable behavior on his part. And he has said things that are really outrageous the last few days.

But we separate that from our excellent relations with which - Petro will come and go as president. Our relationships with the people of Colombia, the economic sector of Colombia, the majority of people in politics in Colombia, and their institutions, in particular their defense institutions, are strong and enduring, and they're going to be strong and enduring long after this individual is no longer the president there.

QUESTION: I'm wondering if you - I'm also married to a Colombian, like you, so it's a personal interest. But I'm wondering - like, Petro is not very popular, as you're saying. They've got elections coming up next year. Like, are you concerned that potentially kind of turning this into a U.S.-versus-Colombia thing can actually strengthen him? I think with Lula we've seen like a little bit more - he's got a bump in popularity from, like, facing off against the President.

SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, this is not a U.S.-versus-Colombia thing. This is a - this is us reacting to the actions of what's turned into a hostile foreign leader. But we separate that from - that's why you don't see tariff action. That's why we don't want to harm the Colombian economy, because the Colombian economy is heavily reliant on the United States and is largely made up of people - everyday Colombians, individuals - who love the United States and like doing business with the United States. Why are we going to punish them for the actions of a leader that's not reflective of what we know that country is all about?

QUESTION: Can you rule out tariffs, then, as an answer, as a response?

SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, I don't make tariff decisions, the President does. But obviously the President was aware of the options available to him and chose these instead.

QUESTION: And also in terms of - I know the President has tasked you in particular with Brazil on the trade issue, which I know broadly is not one that you are in charge of, but with Brazil, given the tariffs, where do you think that stands in terms of the possibility -

SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, we'll meet with them. The President will meet with Lula for - he'll interact with him at - I believe in South Korea, if I'm not mistaken, or maybe it's in Malaysia. But he'll be interacting with him over the next few days. They had a very positive phone call a few days ago. I met with the foreign minister about a week ago.

Look, Brazil is a big, important country. We think that long term it's beneficial to Brazil to make us their partner of choice in trade instead of China - because of geography, because of culture, because of an alignment in so many ways. We obviously have some issues with Brazil, particularly how they've treated some of their judges, have been treating the digital sector in the United States, the individuals located in the United States through social media posts. We'll have to work through those as well. That's become entangled in all of this.

But the President is going to explore whether there's ways to get through all of that, because we think it'll be beneficial to do it. It's going to take some time.

QUESTION: Would you say the -

QUESTION: When you say an interaction with President Lula, do you mean in sort of a bilateral meeting or -

SECRETARY RUBIO: Yeah, I think they'll be meeting. It -

QUESTION: I think it's in Malaysia. That's what I heard.

SECRETARY RUBIO: Yeah, that's where he'll be - they'll be meeting. They'll be seeing each other. They saw each other briefly at the UN. They had a very good phone call about two weeks ago - a productive call. But these things - they're a big, big economy, so it'll take time to work through some of these issues on the trade front.

QUESTION: Just to come back to Gaza, where you sort of - obviously you have, like, the yellow line, and there's this kind of Israeli-controlled zone there. Do you imagine that line remaining, like under the - there's going to be the international force. Will that eventually operate on the other side of the line? But the Israelis are, like, going to stay up till where this yellow line is?

SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, I think ultimately the point of the stabilization force is to move that line until it covers hopefully all of Gaza, meaning all of Gaza will be demilitarized. What you call the green area behind - we call the green area, which is the area behind the Israeli line, that's a demilitarized zone. That is a place where there is no Hamas or there isn't going to be any terrorism, where expanded humanitarian aid is already flowing, and where hopefully reconstruction efforts will begin very soon. That could be the future for all of Gaza.

So ultimately the more of Gaza is demilitarized, the more of Gaza is - terrorism is removed from, the more that it's going to look like that green zone, and that line will move as a result of it. That's the long-term plan. Ideally, is for all of Gaza to look the way - that way. But that's going to take some time, but that's the goal of the stabilization force, is to be able to stabilize the situation and for Hamas to live up to the commitment they made. They made a commitment to demilitarize. That's part of this deal; they have to keep it. If they don't keep it, then the area that they're in will never really see the benefits of the deal.

QUESTION: A key part of that must also be the Israelis withdrawing from that area, right? Like, the -

SECRETARY RUBIO: Yeah. I mean, ultimately the Israelis - the Israelis have made abundantly clear they have no interest in occupying Gaza, they have no interest in governing Gaza.

QUESTION: Some Israelis want to have - return settlements to some of those areas, right? Are you going to -

SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, there may be elements in Israel that make that argument, but that's not -

QUESTION: You would be opposed to it?

SECRETARY RUBIO: This deal was struck with an Israeli Government that made clear that they have no interest in governing Gaza. What they have an interest in is a Gaza that's demilitarized and no longer poses a security threat to Israel. That's what they're interested in. That's what the goal of this plan is.

QUESTION: And that's Gaza, but its old borders, like the Gaza that you see on maps where - because the Israelis at the moment have kind of - they're controlling more and more into - into what we see as the Gaza Strip, right? So -

SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, their military forces are involved in securing that area because they don't want that area to pose as a launching pad for attacks or threats against Israel. But this deal does not contemplate them governing Gaza, and I think they - from everything we've ever picked up on in our conversations, they would love to get out of there as soon as they possibly can, but they can't do it at the expense of their security. But hopefully, as more and more areas of Gaza become demilitarized, the tunnel system is destroyed - possibly - normal life is restored for people, and Hamas is no longer part of the mix, then I think that's the ideal line. But that's - obviously there will be areas that are going to take longer, like Gaza City.

QUESTION: Your visit to Israel this week seems like it came together quite quickly. Last week it seemed like there was a - at one point there had been a thought to go to Budapest, and then there was the decision to go to Israel instead. Was there anything that made you decide that it was important to go so quickly off the Vice President's visit?

SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, I mean, it wasn't timed after the Vice President's visit. It was timed after the fact that if I didn't go this weekend, I'm not going to be able to get back there for quite a while, and so much was happening in the short term. We have State Department people going every day in that. We need that - the civilian-military center has just been stood up. I think it required us to be able to pop in and see how it was working, identify the challenges that we're facing - and there are challenges - so that we can address it and we can make sure it's staffed up appropriately on the civilian side.

So we wanted to come. And if I didn't come now - because I'm on this trip in Asia, and then we have Orbán the following week coming to Washington, I may not even be able to get over there until the second week in November, and I didn't think I could wait that long to get here. So, I'm glad the Vice President came in the early half of the week, and then I was able to come in the back end of the week. And even from his visit to mine, just in that two-day gap, we saw progress - things he identified and we were able to address and achieve progress.

So, look, this has never been done before. I can't say that this center is supposed to look like this, something that's occurred before. This is a brand new thing. And so, we're learning as we go, but I think we're making really good progress.

QUESTION: You mentioned a couple of times trying to get a UN resolution, right? Do you see -

SECRETARY RUBIO: Potentially that would be the route we go, yeah.

QUESTION: Like through the Security Council that would be?

SECRETARY RUBIO: Right, right.

QUESTION: Is there, like - do you think you can get the votes for that?

SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, anyone who votes against that is voting against the peace plan. I mean, we had - if we can get all the countries in the region to say this is a good idea, we want to do this, why would anyone object to that unless they want to see another war? The alternative to making this work is go back to war, which everyone was telling us they wanted to end. So I can't imagine why anybody would object to it. And that may be the route we go, but we'll need something internationalized because many of the countries that want to be a part of this can't do it without that.

QUESTION: Like the mission in Haiti has a UN element, right? There's a -

SECRETARY RUBIO: We just passed a Haiti resolution on a gang suppression force, and which we needed for countries to be able to participate in.

QUESTION: Right. There's different levels -

SECRETARY RUBIO: Another tough one, no?

QUESTION: But the UN is kind of - you say it's, like, under consideration, so it depends on how the regional - like the Arab countries who are going to contribute to the force kind of -

SECRETARY RUBIO: Yeah. I mean, that's the info we're getting right now. I mean, we'll discuss it now when we see the Qataris. Jared has been talking about it with them as well, with the Emiratis, the Turks, the Egyptians. The Israelis will be in this force. We've talked to multiple - and other countries that have expressed an interest in potentially being a part of this, like Indonesia or Azerbaijan.

But they've inquired. They want to know what is it that you're working on, maybe we'll be interested in participating, we need to know more. So we're taking all of that input and obviously take that into account in reconstruction, whatever we do.

QUESTION: If I could ask one more South Asia question. They're speaking about -

SECRETARY RUBIO: This guy is obsessed with South Asia. (Laughter.) Go ahead.

QUESTION: It's a huge, huge interest for us in terms of India, in terms of its demographics, economy.

SECRETARY RUBIO: He's got his APEC shirt on. Look. (Laughter.) Go ahead.

QUESTION: This is actually my guayabera from Yucatan. But - so I wanted to ask you about the relationship with Pakistan. It seems like it's been so strengthened this year. Was that based on their recognition of the U.S. role and the President's role in resolving and in avoiding potential war between India and Pakistan? And what do you think was the turning point to -

SECRETARY RUBIO: No, I think they appreciated - anytime you work with someone, you get to know them and you interact with them, and so I do think there was some sense of happiness about it. But even before that conflict had started, I had already reached out to them and said look, we are interested in rebuilding an alliance, a strategic partnership with you. We think there are things we can work together with them on.

Look, we're fully aware of the challenges with regards to India and everything else, but our job is to try to create opportunities for partnerships with countries where it's possible. And we've had a long history of partnering with Pakistan on counterterror and things of that nature. We'd like to expand it beyond that, if possible, and understanding that there'll be some difficulties and some challenges. But I think it's a very encouraging thing that that relationship has strengthened the way that it has, and I don't think it comes at the expenses or instead of a good relationship with India, or anybody else for that matter.

QUESTION: Since we're going to ASEAN, is there anything particular about the Regional Forum? Another interest of mine - I used to live in Myanmar, so I'm kind of interested in what the approach is going to be.

SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, they'll be there, you know.

QUESTION: Are they - I thought that -

SECRETARY RUBIO: The -

QUESTION: The general's not coming, but -

SECRETARY RUBIO: No, they'll send a representative (inaudible).

QUESTION: So a military representative of -

SECRETARY RUBIO: We think ASEAN - and we've said this, and I said this when I went to the ministers meeting - is the preeminent forum in which we want to engage with this region. The Philippines will chair it next year. I think Malaysia has done a good job of chairing it this year. We used that chairmanship where we were able to work with that chairmanship to de-escalate and ultimately end the Cambodia-Thailand conflict, and in fact we're hopeful that something will be signed here. I know there was a royal family death.

QUESTION: The Queen Mother, yeah.

SECRETARY RUBIO: The mother had passed, so they've asked us to move up the timing on that. So, we think it's a very important forum, one that we want to give attention to, and one that sometimes American presidents don't go to. So one of the things we often hear from people in the Indo-Pacific is, "Is the U.S. truly committed to the region?" And I think our presence here - my presence a couple months ago, and now the President coming, not just there, but ultimately to APEC - is a testament to that.

QUESTION: There's been some anxiety when we hear from officials in Taiwan looking ahead at the bilateral between President Xi and Trump that somehow Taiwan could become a negotiating or bargaining chip in terms of reaching a broader agreement. Is that valid concern?

SECRETARY RUBIO: No, I don't - I mean, I don't understand why there would be concern. Taiwan has a lot of things that they're - that they're worried about, and rightfully so because of the situation they find themselves in. But the conversations the President's had have largely - in addition to the necessity for the U.S. and China to remain diplomatically engaged with one another because of the size and importance of our countries, is on the trade front. And I don't think you're going to see some trade deal where - what people are worried about is we're going to get some trade deal where we're going to get favorable treatment on trade in exchange for walking away from Taiwan. That - no one is contemplating that.

QUESTION: Just coming back to the ASEAN. One of the dynamics has been that some of the ASEAN countries are keen on Burma, Myanmar - some of the ASAEN countries are keen to kind of have a more normal relationship, maybe welcome them back in. Are you guys sort of - is a part of what you do in this summit is, like, pushing back on that and saying it's not time to - it's not time to re-engage with the junta there?

SECRETARY RUBIO: Yeah, well, I think we'd like to see some - we have real concerns about some of the things that they've done and some of the actions they've undertaken. But ultimately that's why this forum is so useful. This is what we'd like to see - some of these issues worked out regionally that we can participate in. We're not a member, but we're there as a partner. And that's why we think investing in this forum with our time, with our attention, is so useful for situations just like the one you (inaudible) with Myanmar.

QUESTION: Is there a sort of a policy towards Myanmar in this administration, or haven't really sort of -

SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, see, and I think we're formulating. We'd like - we don't want to do it unilaterally. We'd like to do it with - in conjunction with regional partners. We've certainly been pretty - we've expressed openly our concerns about the junta and their activities. But we also think that this is an opportunity to allow forums such as this to work and to find solutions that we can be a part of, as opposed to dictating answers.

I've got to run and do a phone call.

QUESTION: One more. You've gone around the world. I know how much the Western Hemisphere has been a long-term issue that has - that's been of importance for you. With the conversation with Brazil, do you think there is an opportunity for Lula to play any kind of intermediary role given his historic ties to the government in Venezuela to convince and to persuade Nicolás Maduro that the time has come to step aside?

SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, even Lula doesn't recognize Maduro as the winner of the election or the legitimate leader of Venezuela. So, I don't know if they can be helpful or not. But I want to - it's interesting. We have deployed U.S. assets and interests all over the planet, but when we do it in our own hemisphere, which is logically where you probably spend most of your time and energy because it's the hemisphere you live in, everyone sort of freaks out.

We are involved in a counterdrug operation. The President has made this very clear. Unfortunately, the regime that governs, but is not the government of Venezuela, is a transshipment organization. They allow cocaine from Colombia and other places to be shipped through national territory - not just with the cooperation, but in many cases, with the participation of elements of this regime. This is why Nicolás Maduro, and others in his regime, were indicted - not indicted by Marco Rubio or President Trump; indicted by the Southern District of New York. And then with subsequent pleadings to add even more information on that.

So this is a very serious problem for the hemisphere and a very destabilizing one, and that has to be addressed. But that's the issue. The issue is we've got a drug cartel operating. Now, it's not just from there. As you've seen, the efforts have expanded to the eastern Pacific as well.

The difference between - with Venezuela and some of these other places is those are cooperative jurisdictions. If you go to the Dominicans, if you go to the Jamaicans, if you go to Trinidad, if you go to Ecuador, increasingly - as we've seen with our partnership with Mexico - they cooperate. They work with you. We have no drug cooperation with the regime in Venezuela, primarily because they're not legitimate and because they're part of it. They're part of the drug operation.

All right. Thank you, guys.

QUESTION: Thank you, Mr. Secretary.

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