SECRETARY BLINKEN:  (Inaudible) be with my colleague, my friend, Foreign Minister Baerbock.  And as always, Germany is, for the United States, the indispensable ally, the indispensable partner.  We are working together on virtually every major challenge, not just in the transatlantic community, but quite literally around the world, including, of course, the conflict between Israel and Hamas. 

But we also discussed Ukraine and the ongoing Russian aggression and all the support our countries have given and need to continue to provide.  We talked about the Pacific and other critical areas.  In fact, there probably isn’t a part of the world we haven’t touched on, either in this conversation or in past conversations.  So as always, Annalena, it’s not only good to be with you, it’s just important, because the United States and Germany together are facing challenges, and we’re stronger when we face them together.

FOREIGN MINISTER BAERBOCK:  Of course, thank you from my side for the close exchange today, but within the last two years in office.   We all thought that after the Russian war there won’t be any further crisis.  Now, we see how important our close cooperation is, not only with regard to the Russian war in Ukraine but also now in the Middle East and looking not only at politics from the governmental side, but always from the human side. 

We are addressing both the dimension of the suffering of the people, of innocent civilians in Israel, being held still as hostages, and innocent people in Gaza.  So our cooperation with regard to humanitarian efforts but also for ending this war is, for us, of high importance.  So thank you very much.