QUESTION: Secretary, thank you for the time today.
SECRETARY RUBIO: Thank you.
QUESTION: First, I’d like to ask you about the Iran situation. ASEAN countries have expressed concern about the situation in the Middle East, and recently U.S. has been carrying out attacks on Iran for more than 10 days. Do you believe that these attack can change Iran’s negotiation position?
SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, right now their negotiating position is they’re begging to make a deal. They constantly are reaching out saying they want to do a deal. But every time they make a deal, these guys either change their mind or violate the deal. And so they’re going to pay a price for that, and they’re going to – and the price is going to get higher every night. I mean, every day that goes by, they’re going to pay a higher and higher price. They don’t seem yet to realize that they have to make a deal or they’re going to face catastrophic collapse of their economy. But maybe they’ll be ready in a few days, but right now I can tell you that I don’t see a lot of promise in talking to them, because they don’t know how to make a deal or they’re not ready to make a deal. And it’s unfortunate; it’s unfortunate.
But what’s not going to happen is that they control the Straits of Hormuz and decide who goes through and who doesn’t go through, and I think the world should unite on that point. And every country in the world should be calling Iran and saying: you can’t do this or we’re also going to come after you. Because what they’re basically saying is they’re going to hold the world hostage, and we’re going to do everything we are doing to punish them for it. And they’re going to pay a big price.
QUESTION: I’d like to ask about the Houthis in Yemen.
SECRETARY RUBIO: Yeah.
QUESTION: They have claimed responsibility for attacking Saudi oil tankers. What’s your reaction?
SECRETARY RUBIO: Again, it’s part of the same – I mean, the Houthis are a proxy in many ways of the Iranians. Now, they were smart, they stayed out of this for a long period of time, but the Iranians were – figured out a way to sort of rope them into it by getting them into a renewed conflict with Saudi – Saudi Arabia. And so now they’re – it’s the same thing. I mean, if you think about it, it’s not surprising, because it’s the same tactics that we’ve seen the Iranians play out. I think the Houthis should wake up and realize that they shouldn’t be dragged into this – it could lead to their demise – and find a way to extricate themselves from Iran’s plots on this stuff.
QUESTION: It’s been five months since the war with Iran started. Do you have any regrets about U.S. starting this war? To end this war, what is the most important thing?
SECRETARY RUBIO: The only regret we were going to have is if Iran ever had a nuclear weapon, and that’s what they were aiming to have. And they were – they were going to hide behind tens of thousands of missiles and drones, which is what they were going to produce, what they were on scale to produce. A year from now, they could have had 15,000 mid-range missiles and 20,000 drones, and at that point they could have overwhelmed any defense system, and then they could do whatever they wanted with their nuclear program.
So we had reached a point where we had to address that, or they would have had a shield that they could have hide – were going to hide behind that conventional shield to pursue their nuclear program. And unfortunately, other presidents in the past have failed to address this threat, but President Trump did. And like – when you address things like this, there is a price to pay, but they’re going to pay a heavier – much heavier price.
QUESTION: So no regret by U.S. side?
SECRETARY RUBIO: The only regret is maybe we should have done it earlier before they – it could have been done earlier. But at least the President took action that other presidents didn’t do.
QUESTION: Japan also imports a lot of oil from the Middle East. What role do you expect Japan to play in helping to end this current situation?
SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, look, I think Japan has the Naval capabilities and others, and I think – not just Japan, but there’s a lot of countries that rely on the straits and should be outraged and troubled by the fact that Iran is sinking and – not sinking, but targeting ships that are transiting with fuel. A lot of countries should be concerned about that.
By the same token, I expect Japan is doing what they’re doing now, which is they are changing where they’re getting their energy from. And increasingly, they’re going to get less from the Middle East and more from us and other places, and that’s already happening all over the world, because this has been a very unstable part of the world for a very long time. And so – but that takes time; there’s an adjustment period that comes with it.
And we’re obviously going to do everything we can to help Japan, because Japan is a very close and important ally of the United States. We are already selling them more oil and natural gas than at any time in history. And we – there’s more that we can provide, which is an alternative to – and I think a much more stable alternative than buying it from the Middle East.
QUESTION: I’d like to ask about China-Japan relationship. Yesterday, you expressed concern about the current state of Japan and China relationship. What kind of relationship between Japan and China would you like to see?
SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, I – look, I’m concerned because the rhetoric from Beijing is very aggressive, and it seems to be particularly focused on Japan. Japan is an ally of the United States. It’s a country that we work very closely with. It’s a country we’ve been aligned with for a very long time now, and so that’s concerning to see that. That’s – but by the same token, we think one of the best ways to prevent conflict is deterrence. And the best way to have deterrence is to continue to build out our relationship.
And that – I’m also concerned, by the way – it’s not just military threats; it’s economics. Right now, Japan is being – so are we; so are other countries – but China has weaponized access to critical minerals and supply chains, and are using it against Japan perhaps more than any other country in the world. So I think that is why a partnership between the U.S., Japan, and others – we have the Quad that’s talked about this. We also had a meeting between Japan, South Korea, and the United States, and many countries around the world that I think all have an interest in diversifying our supply chains so we can never be held hostage again in the future by anybody.
QUESTION: You have said that you want President Xi Jinping’s visit to the United States in September to be a positive one. Does that mean there will be no approval of arms sale to Taiwan before his visit?
SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, I don’t think the arms sales and the visit are related. The arms sales, we just conducted the largest single arms sales in history to Taiwan back in December. Like any arms sales, we can’t sell – we can only sell weapons that we have. We have our own needs that we have to meet first. And so that arms sales to Japan is under review simply because we have production requirements for our own forces. Before we can sell things, we need to make sure we have enough for ourselves.
But I would say on the visit in general, look, China and the United States are the two largest economies in the world. Both are nuclear weapon powers. Both have growing powerful militaries – in the case of China – the most powerful military in the world in the case of the United States. So we have to have a relationship with China; we have to be able to communicate. And in areas where we can cooperate, we need to and should.
There will also be areas of disagreement. We know that; the Chinese recognize that as well. And those need to be managed, because any sort of dispute, be it economic or otherwise, between two great powers has the ability to dramatically, negatively influence other countries and have an impact on other countries. So we want to see stability and we want to see peace and we want to see prosperity. We don’t want to see the Indo-Pacific become a place of conflict. And so we want to manage that relationship and have positive interactions with them.
But we also recognize that we have big differences with Beijing, and those are things that we need to talk about and try to manage and ensure that they never devolve into some conflict. But there are areas where I think we’re going to have continued differences, and particularly when it comes to matters of trade and matters of freedom of navigation.
QUESTION: Is the success of Xi Jinping’s visit to the United States one of your top priorities right now?
SECRETARY RUBIO: Is what? Is —
QUESTION: Is the success of —
SECRETARY RUBIO: No – it’s an important – I mean, we have a lot of priorities. I mean, our number one priority is always the national interest of the United States, but it’s an important visit. We visited there earlier this year; he’s reciprocating with his visit. Now look, any time the leaders of the two most powerful countries and economies in the world are meeting, that’s a relevant meeting. And we want it to be a successful meeting, meaning we want – to the extent that we can have some deliverables from it that are good, we want that to happen. But by the same token, we’re not going to walk away from our commitments to our partners in the region. And on that point, we’ve been very clear.
QUESTION: Are you sure that U.S. policy on Taiwan never change?
SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, the U.S. policy towards Taiwan was reiterated during our visit to Beijing and remains unchanged.
QUESTION: You have midterm election in November, and gas price is still quite high. Do you believe the war with Iran will end before the election?
SECRETARY RUBIO: I don’t know. I mean, ultimately a lot of that depends on whether Iran comes to its senses. But I don’t think the war in Iran is in and of itself going to be the determinant of an election. As the Secretary of State of the United States, I’m prohibited by rule and law to be participating in our politics. So I’m not involved in the midterm elections because I can’t, but obviously we are aware of them and we understand there are many factors that are going to play.
The good news is the United States is now one of the world’s largest energy suppliers. We are not dependent on the Middle East for our oil. We can produce not only for ourselves but to export for our partners as well. That’s the good news, and I think it’s allowed us to sort of manage and stabilize it in ways that – I know other countries have not had that luxury, but we have. And so I think that in the end, those elections will be decided by many, many factors.
But fortunately, while energy will be a factor and it’s certainly more expensive than we would like it to be, the U.S. doesn’t have to face energy insecurity. We can provide for ourselves and for others. We have enough for ourselves and also to export.
QUESTION: I’d like to ask about the MOU with Iran. It doesn’t appear to be functioning, not right now. So in future, I don’t know, through their diplomatic negotiation, will it be that necessary to establish the new MOU, or would you prefer to return to the —
SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, look, the problem with the MOU is they agreed to it and then didn’t keep it, right? The MOU is very clear. You’re not supposed to be shooting at ships in the Straits of Hormuz, and yet that’s what they’ve decided to do. We complied with our – we lifted the blockade; we lifted the sanctions. Some of the sanctions we issued waivers for the oil, and they in turn decided, despite that, that they were going to shoot at ships. So they violated the MOU and killed it.
QUESTION: Okay. Lastly, you’re currently serving as Secretary of the State. I don’t know in future, in some day, would you like to visit Japan as the President of the United States?
SECRETARY RUBIO: (Laughter.) No – I mean, I’d love to visit Japan. I don’t know what capacity, but I’m just focused on this job. This job – I know I’m going to have this job, I have it now, there’s a lot of work to do, and I don’t spend a lot of time thinking about that stuff. You never know what the future holds, but we’re not planning on anything other than doing a good job as Secretary of State and coming back to Japan as many times as I can.
QUESTION: Thank you so much.
SECRETARY RUBIO: Thank you.
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