Secretary Antony J. Blinken and EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice President of the European Commission Josep Borrell Before Their Meeting

SECRETARY BLINKEN:  Good afternoon, everyone.  It is a real pleasure to be able to spend some time with my good friend and colleague Josep Borrell.  We’ve spent a lot of time already in recent months working very closely together, but really today building off of the very important and productive U.S.-EU summit that President Biden took part in.  A lot of what we’ve been doing since then, including the establishment of the Trade and Technology Council, (inaudible) we look forward to in the coming weeks, and a lot to talk about about the work that we do together quite literally around the world, including, of course, Afghanistan, the Indo-Pacific, in Europe, and beyond.

So Josep, (inaudible) to see you as always and I look forward to our conversation.

MR BORRELL:  Thank you.  Thank you.

SECRETARY BLINKEN:  (Inaudible.)

MR BORRELL:  Thank you, Tony, for these meetings.  A great pleasure to meet you again.  We (inaudible) morning (inaudible).  We are crossing the (inaudible), and I am sure that we are going to talk about the recent issues with which we can build a stronger confidence from us following the conversations that have been taking place this morning (inaudible).  I’m sure we will (inaudible).

SECRETARY BLINKEN:  Thank you.  Good to see you.  Thank you very much.