Press Release
☷Secretary Antony J Blinken and Swedish Foreign Minister Ann Linde Before Their Meeting United States Department of State
U.S. Department of State ( By Press Release office)
May 04,2022
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SECRETARY BLINKEN: Good morning , everyone . It’s a great pleasure to have my colleague and friend Foreign Minister Linde here in Washington at the State Department , pursuing a conversation on work we’ve been doing for so many months . But Ann , welcome , and let me say this is a particularly important time for the longstanding and strong and vital partnership between the United States and Sweden . We are working together across so many different issues that have an impact on the lives of our people , starting with Euro - Atlantic security , but going through everything from standing together strongly for democracy , for human rights , for humanitarian assistance , not only in Europe but around the world . I’m grateful to Ann and to Sweden for its leadership last year of the OSCE , but now as well for its strong partnership and particularly its support of Ukraine and in opposition to the Russian aggression against Ukraine . We both believe strongly that we need to and we are standing up for the people of Ukraine , but also standing together and standing up for the principles of the international order that are also being aggressed by Russia in Ukraine . So we in the United States are grateful for this partnership , grateful for the work that we’re doing together . And I look forward to pursuing our conversations on all of these things in a few minutes . Welcome . FOREIGN MINISTER LINDE: Thank you very much , Mr . Secretary , dear Tony . I am so happy that we have managed to meet several times already , because now when we are in such difficult times it’s easier to continue our already very good relationship . It is actually a horrendous time with Russian invasion of Ukraine , which has made all of us to consider what is the most secure situation for our countries and our peoples . This is something we will discuss . I also thank you for your leadership when it comes to sanctions against Russia because of the invasion of Ukraine , and that we have been able to keep so close , from Sweden , from EU , together with U . S . Transatlantic link has maybe never been so important as it is now . And we also cooperate on other issues , I have to say , like Yemen , which both Sweden and the United States are so engaged with , and both on our level but also on our special envoys level we cooperate a lot . And that is because we have many of the same values: for people to thrive , people to be able to keep their own way in their own countries , and this is something we continue . So I’m looking forward to our discussions today . SECRETARY BLINKEN: Thank you . Again , welcome . Thanks , everyone . FOREIGN MINISTER LINDE: Thank you .
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