Secretary Remarks

Loading Map... Photos From the Trip» Secretary of State John Kerry traveled to Cairo, Riyadh, Warsaw, Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Amman, Geneva, and Abu Dhabi from November 2 to November 11. In Cairo, Secretary Kerry held bilateral discussions with officials. In Riyadh, Secretary Kerry met with King Abdullah to discuss a wide range of bilateral and regional issues. He reaffirmed the strategic nature of the U.S.-Saudi relationship, given the importance of the work between our two countries...

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Regions: Algeria , Iran , Morocco , Poland , Saudi Arabia , Switzerland , United States

Topics: Human Rights and Democracy

Remarks John Kerry Secretary of State U.S. Mission Geneva, Switzerland May 2, 2016 AMBASSADOR HAMAMOTO: Secretary, it’s so great to have you back here in Geneva. After coming here numerous times over the last couple years, it’s now been about nine months since your last visit, and I will say we were starting to worry that we weren’t your favorite post anymore. (Laughter.) So thank you very much for coming back to Geneva to dispel that notion once and for all. We like being your favorit...

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Regions: China, Iran , Kenya , Korea, North , Korea, South , Libya , Russia , Saudi Arabia , Somalia , Switzerland , Syria , United Kingdom

Topics: Arms Control and Nonproliferation, Countering Terrorism, Economic Prosperity and Trade Policy, Energy, Human Rights and Democracy, The Ocean and Polar Affairs

Photos from the trip» Secretary of State John Kerry stopped in Munich, Germany, on Jan. 10 to meet with Sultan Qaboos of Oman to express his gratitude for their long-standing and strong relationship. Secretary Kerry then traveled to Ahmedabad, India, to attend the Vibrant Gujarat Global Investors Summit inaugurated by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The Secretary joined leading U.S. business executives and innovators at the Summit to highlight the critical role that U.S. technology plays in s...

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Regions: Bulgaria , France , India , Oman , Pakistan , Syria , United States

Topics: Economic Prosperity and Trade Policy, Energy, Human Rights and Democracy, Science, Technology, and Innovation

Remarks John Kerry Secretary of State National Women in the Arts Museum Washington, DC December 9, 2013 SECRETARY KERRY: Thank you. Thank you very, very much. I much appreciate your welcome. I will inform you that Winston Churchill once said the only reason people give a standing ovation is they desperately need an excuse to shift their underwear. (Laughter.) But I will believe that you had a much more noble goal. (Laughter.) Stuart, thank you. Stu, you are a marvel. And I tell you, I’m honored to...

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Regions: Iran , Israel , Philippines , United Kingdom , United States

Topics: Climate and Environment, Global Health, Refugee and Humanitarian Assistance, Science, Technology, and Innovation, Treaties and International Agreements

In a new video , Secretary Kerry discusses the initial agreement reached to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. In his own words, he explains what the agreement does and what it does not do. Full Text» After consulting with EU High Representative Ashton and the negotiating team on the ground, Secretary Kerry traveled to Geneva, Switzerland with the goal of continuing to help narrow the differences and move closer to an agreement. Following Geneva, Secretary Kerry traveled to London on No...

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Regions: Iran , Switzerland , United Kingdom

Remarks John Kerry Secretary of State Geneva, Switzerland November 24, 2013 QUESTION: Mr. Secretary, thank you for joining us. My first question: A lot of people say Iran is just going to be North Korea, a country that agrees to stop its nuclear ambitions in order to get sanctions lifted and then secretly goes ahead and continues with its program. Why do you think Iran is not North Korea? SECRETARY KERRY: Well, there are many reasons why it’s not. First of all, it’s a member of the NPT. Seco...

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Regions: Iran , Israel , Korea, North , Switzerland , United Kingdom

Topics: Arms Control and Nonproliferation, Countering Terrorism, Energy

Remarks John Kerry Secretary of State Geneva, Switzerland November 24, 2013 QUESTION: Thank you for joining us, Mr. Secretary. The big question right now: Will this agreement really stop the Iranian nuclear program in its tracks? We’ve already got some critics in Congress suggesting it won’t. Marco Rubio says it will not freeze the Iranian nuclear program, makes a nuclear Iran more not less likely. Lindsey Graham says unless the deal requires dismantling centrifuges, we haven’t gained ...

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Regions: Iran , Israel , Switzerland , United States

Topics: Arms Control and Nonproliferation, Treaties and International Agreements

Remarks John Kerry Secretary of State Geneva, Switzerland November 24, 2013 QUESTION: What does this actually do to prevent building a bomb? SECRETARY KERRY: Well, a whole bunch of things. Number one, they don’t have enough enriched material to be able to build a bomb. QUESTION: Yet. SECRETARY KERRY: They will destroy – correct, as of now. They will have to destroy the higher-enriched uranium they have, which is critical to being able to build a bomb. Once they’ve destroyed that, they ...

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Regions: Iran , Israel , Saudi Arabia , Switzerland , United Kingdom

Topics: Arms Control and Nonproliferation, Countering Terrorism

Remarks John Kerry Secretary of State Geneva, Switzerland November 24, 2013 SECRETARY KERRY: Well, good very early morning to all of you. It’s been a long day and a long night, and I’m delighted to be here to share some thoughts with you about the recent negotiations. I particularly want to thank the Swiss Government. I want to thank the United Nations. It’s been a (inaudible) and we’re honored to be here, even at this very early hour of the morning. I particularly want to thank my colleagues from the U...

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Regions: Afghanistan, China, France , Iran , Israel , Switzerland , United Kingdom , United States

Topics: Energy, Refugee and Humanitarian Assistance

Interview John Kerry Secretary of State Geneva, Switzerland November 10, 2013 QUESTION: Secretary Kerry, welcome back to Meet the Press. SECRETARY KERRY: Thank you. Good to be with you, David. QUESTION: The bottom-line goal here is to prevent Iran from producing or acquiring a nuclear bomb. You have said that in the interim, you want a complete halt on their weapons program. Clearly, there’s not a deal yet; they are not in a position to give in to that demand. Is that a fair statement? SECRETARY K...

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Regions: Afghanistan, France , Iran , Israel , Russia , Switzerland , United Kingdom , United States

Topics: Countering Terrorism, Energy

Remarks John Kerry Secretary of State Geneva, Switzerland November 10, 2013 SECRETARY KERRY: Thank you for hanging in here with all of us in what has obviously been a long and interesting process, but a very productive one if I can say so. I want to thank my colleagues from the United Kingdom, Turkey, France, Russia and China. And I particularly want to thank Lady Catherine Ashton for her leadership and for the European Union’s convening all of us here in order to perform this very important busin...

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Regions: China, France , Iran , Russia , Switzerland , United Kingdom

Remarks John Kerry Secretary of State Geneva, Switzerland November 8, 2013 Good afternoon, everybody. It’s great to be here. The P5 1 is doing some very important work right now, and I’m delighted to be here at the invitation of Cathy Ashton to try to work with our colleagues to see if we can narrow some differences. I want to emphasize there are still some very important issues on the table that are unresolved. It is important for those to be properly, thoroughly addressed. I want to emphas...

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Regions: Switzerland

Interview John Kerry Secretary of State Jerusalem November 7, 2013 MR. SHALABI: Mr. Kerry, thank you for giving us, my colleague Udi from Israeli Channel 2 and myself from Palestinian TV, this opportunity to talk to you in your busy schedule. Although I want to ask you: Do you have any good news for the people in the region regarding the peace process? SECRETARY KERRY: Well, the good news is that both leaders are committed to proceeding forward. Both leaders know there are difficulties, but we work thro...

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Regions: Iran , Israel , Syria , United Kingdom , United States , West Bank

Topics: Energy, Refugee and Humanitarian Assistance, Science, Technology, and Innovation

Remarks John Kerry Secretary of State Waldorf Astoria Hotel New York City September 23, 2013 SECRETARY KERRY: (In progress) and to the distinguished ministers, I want to thank you. I want to thank you for being here, all of you, very, very much. We appreciate it. As Cathy mentioned, this is the third high-level meeting of the Equal Futures Partnership, and we’re delighted to have former heads of state as well as some other distinguished leaders, foreign ministers. All of you are so (inaudible) to ...

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Regions: Bangladesh , Belgium , Italy , Japan , Mexico , United Kingdom , United States

Topics: Global Women's Issues, Science, Technology, and Innovation

Loading Map... Photos from the trip» Secretary of State John Kerry and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov met in Geneva, Switzerland, September 12-14, to discuss matters concerning Syria, including the use of chemical weapons and steps to address these developments. Secretary Kerry traveled to Jerusalem on Sunday, September 15 to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The purpose of the visit it to have an in-depth discussion with the Prime Minister on the final status negotiations betwe...

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Regions: France , United Kingdom

Remarks John Kerry Secretary of State Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov Intercontinental Hotel Geneva, Switzerland September 14, 2013 SECRETARY KERRY: Well, thank you very much for your patience, not just this morning, but over the last couple of days. We’re very appreciative and particularly grateful to Sergey Lavrov, who stayed extra time from what he had originally planned, hoping we’d finish sooner, and this gave us additional opportunity to be able to work through some of the issue...

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Regions: France , Iran , Korea, North , Russia , Switzerland , Syria , United Kingdom , United States

Topics: Arms Control and Nonproliferation, Combating Drugs and Crime, Economic Prosperity and Trade Policy, Energy, Science, Technology, and Innovation, Treaties and International Agreements

Remarks John Kerry Secretary of State Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, and UN Special Envoy Lakhdar Brahimi UN Offices Geneva, Switzerland September 13, 2013 The video is also available with closed captioning on YouTube. SECRETARY KERRY: Let me just say to everybody that we will not – we will each make a very brief statement. We’ll not be taking questions at this time. And we apologize for that, but we need to get back to the conversations that we’re having on the issue of chemi...

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Regions: Russia , Switzerland , Syria , United Kingdom , United States

Topics: Refugee and Humanitarian Assistance

Remarks John Kerry Secretary of State Intercontinental Hotel Geneva, Switzerland September 12, 2013 The video is also available with closed captioning on YouTube. FOREIGN MINISTER LAVROV: (Via interpreter) (In progress) – delegations that accompany us. Of course, we would like you to have unbiased ideas about what we are going to do. But I think that you understand well before we start to tell you what we are going to do, we should get down to a very serious work, the work which is dedicated to a ...

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Regions: Russia , Switzerland , Syria , United States

Topics: Arms Control and Nonproliferation, Countering Terrorism, Refugee and Humanitarian Assistance, Science, Technology, and Innovation

Press Statement John Kerry Secretary of State Washington, DC July 31, 2013 On behalf of President Obama and the people of the United States of America, I congratulate the people of Switzerland on your National Day this August 1, which marks the 722nd anniversary of Switzerland’s Federal Charter. We are proud of our heritage as “Sister Republics.” America’s Founding Fathers were inspired by the Swiss example of direct democracy and federalism, and the Swiss Constitution of 1848 is...

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Regions: Switzerland , United States

Topics: Human Rights and Democracy, Refugee and Humanitarian Assistance

Remarks John Kerry Secretary of State Chief of Mission Residence Tokyo, Japan April 14, 2013 SECRETARY KERRY: Good morning. Wonderful to be with you all. Hi. How are you? What’s your name? PARTICIPANT: (In Japanese.) SECRETARY KERRY: I’m happy to meet you. Hi. PARTICIPANT: Hi. I’m (inaudible). SECRETARY KERRY: How are you? (Inaudible.) How are you? Welcome. Nice to see you. How are you? PARTICIPANT: Hi. SECRETARY KERRY: How do you do? How are you? Konichiwa. (Laughter.) How are you. Ni...

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Regions: Egypt , Japan , United Kingdom , United States , Vietnam

Topics: Climate and Environment, Energy, Human Rights and Democracy, Science, Technology, and Innovation

Press Statement John Kerry Secretary of State Washington, DC March 22, 2013 I am deeply concerned about the fate of U.S citizen Saeed Abedini, who has been detained for nearly six months and was sentenced to eight years in prison in Iran on charges related to his religious beliefs. I am disturbed by reports that Mr. Abedini has suffered physical and psychological abuse in prison, and that his condition has become increasingly dire. Such mistreatment violates international norms as well as Iran’s o...

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Regions: Iran

Remarks John Kerry Secretary of State U.S. Embassy Rome, Italy February 28, 2013 SECRETARY KERRY: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. (In Italian.) That’s our nickname for him anyway. But I can’t go into all the stories, folks. Neither of us would be allowed to go home – probably be arrested in ex post facto. It’s an enormous privilege for me to be here with you. Thank you very, very much for turning out to welcome. And let me just begin by, first of all, saying notwithstanding our ...

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Regions: Afghanistan, Egypt , France , Iraq , Italy , Spain , Tunisia , United Kingdom , United States

Topics: Energy, Human Rights and Democracy, Science, Technology, and Innovation