SECRETARY BLINKEN: Well, good afternoon again, everyone. It’s a great pleasure for me to be able to meet with Prime Minister Conille. We had a chance to see each other in Washington a few months ago. I greatly admire the work that he’s doing and the leadership that he’s showing in a very challenging situation, but also one that I think is promising for the future of Haiti.
Just in the last few months, standing up the presidential transition council, standing up the government with the prime minister, and critically, having the deployment of the Multinational Security Support mission with now about 380 colleagues from Kenya who are already here supporting the Haitian National Police to work to establish security – these are very important steps and real progress.
Security is the foundation for everything that needs to happen going forward, including getting on a pathway to elections next year, but also delivering services to the Haitian people, allowing development to go forward, allowing life to return to a greater semblance of normalcy. But in all of these efforts and so many more, the government and the prime minister are critical actors. The United States is resolutely here in support of Haiti, but so are many other partners and many other countries. And of course, we’ll have an opportunity as well in New York at the UN General Assembly to continue to build on that support.
But for today, it’s important to have an opportunity with the prime minister to take account of the progress that’s been made, but also the critical work that remains, and there’s a lot of it.
PRIME MINISTER CONILLE: (Via interpreter) Thank you so much. We’re so happy to welcome the Secretary of State here in Haiti. We’re so grateful to the American people for their continued friendship and solidarity. I personally am grateful to the Secretary of State for his personal commitment. The task ahead, as pointed out, is extremely complex, but we feel quite confident that if our partners bear with us, commit to working with us, we will achieve our goals.
The progress we’ve achieved so far is actually quite remarkable in under a hundred days. The presence of the force here has been essential. We’re working closely with the police so that we can start solving a very difficult situation. So obviously, we’re learning more and more as we move forward in terms of what’s needed, how we need to adjust.
At the same time the government is very – is working very hard on the humanitarian issues. As you know – very difficult – and one of the big objectives for us will be back to school in October, and we’re doing that with our partners. I’m very happy with the level of engagement I’m getting from other partners as well, and we’re looking forward to continued discussions on how best to work together to be able to provide real solutions to Haitians that have suffered for way too long. Thank you so much.
SECRETARY BLINKEN: Thank you, Prime Minister.
