HIGH REPRESENTATIVE BORRELL: You know that it is our 17 meeting.
SECRETARY BLINKEN: Is that right?
HIGH REPRESENTATIVE BORRELL: Yes, 17 meeting. And you came to the Foreign Affairs Council five times.
SECRETARY BLINKEN: Yes.
HIGH REPRESENTATIVE BORRELL: Many more than anyone else.
SECRETARY BLINKEN: Well, I’m glad for and proud of that fact.
HIGH REPRESENTATIVE BORRELL: Many times more than any other guest, and it’s a real pleasure to welcome you here in Brussels in these troubled times.
SECRETARY BLINKEN: Thank you.
HIGH REPRESENTATIVE BORRELL: Thank you for having time to discuss our – the common situation. You have been a very good colleague and a close friend, invited to the Foreign Affairs Council so many times, and discussing – you might remember before the war in Ukraine, how many phone calls, how many meetings trying to avoid the war. We didn’t succeed in that. Now we should be able to make the war stop in a just (inaudible) manner for the Ukrainians. Thank you once again for this cooperation that we have had. It has been a real pleasure.
SECRETARY BLINKEN: Well, Josep, let me simply say how grateful I am both for your leadership, your partnership, and your friendship. It’s been a high point of my tenure as Secretary of State, and we’ve done a lot together between the United States and the European Union. And for us the European Union has been a partner of first resort on virtually every issue that we have to confront, the issues that affect the lives of the citizens that we represent, the issues that affect the lives of millions of people around the world. And I personally couldn’t be more grateful for that. We still have more to do, and in the two months that I have left I am determined to use every day to —
HIGH REPRESENATIVE BORRELL: You still do a lot of things.
SECRETARY BLINKEN: There’s still a lot to be done, and of course the world doesn’t stop just because any of our countries are in transition. So we’ll be working very hard every hour of every day to try to keep advancing the agenda that we’ve set together. But I just want to say to you personally thank you for your extraordinary leadership.
HIGH REPRESENATIVE BORRELL: Thank you for that.
SECRETARY BLINKEN: And we still have some work to do. Thanks, everyone.
