I need everyone to follow me. Security council john kirby discussed two recently released videos of Close Encounters with the Chinese Military. One by air at the other in the taiwan straight. Youre just a plane crash in virginia in which all passengers aboard were killed after reaching d. C. Airspace. Esther kirby joined the White House Press secretary for the Daily Briefing with reporters. Ex good afternoon everyone. So, with all the Foreign Policy is happening this morning or throughout the day we wanted to have admiral kirby joins the Briefing Room to take some your questions. As you and the denmark Prime Ministers here meeting with the present currently soap he will give a preview of that. As you also know and are tracking the uk Prime Minister will be here on thursday as well. The admiral can take any questions that you all have with the busy Foreign Policy. All right the floor is yours. Hi how are you all today . So this after the present is meeting with the Prime Minister of denmark. They just started. Thats designed to help strengthen deep and enduring ties between the United States and denmark. This is a visit the president has been looking forward to for quite some time. There is a pretty full agenda obviously meant to review our efforts as nato allies and close partners to strengthen transatlantic security. Bolster economic prosperity. Theyre also certainly going to discuss her unwavering support for ukraine in the face of russias brutal aggression. And in that context he can certainly expect they will the issue of the f16s mutual consortium will put together to try to advance an initial step of ukrainian pilots. And of course they will coordinate on a range of other issues including energy security, Climate Change and other global issues that we will have readout for you when it is over. I would also like to highlight quickly you have seen from department of treasury and state the United States does not take additional action to combat russias malign influence in bold ova. The individuals designated today a part a plot to capitalize on protests. That were designed to conduct an opposition meeting. These factors promote, train oversight groups in democratic countries that conduct antigovernment protests, rallies demonstrations its going to continue to support the government and their people and their efforts to combat coercive activity that undermine democracy there. Lets welcome back. Parts good to see you. In the span of a week weve had to Close Encounters. When at sea, what in the air the Chinese Military. Are these isolated incident or is trying to become more aggressive . Quick tallies are part and parcel of an increasing level of aggressiveness by that pla the prc military and particularly in the area of the Taiwan Straits and the south china sea. When air interceptors are the south china sea. And sadly this is part again of a growing aggressiveness by the prc that we are dealing with and prepared to address you heard secretary often speak of that the dialogue just this past weekend. We are going to continue to keep the lines open with the chinese to make it clear how unacceptable those particular intercepts are perplexed handshake is there been any other conversation between u. S. And chinese . You know we have two officials in beijing right now senior director for china in dan from the state department are in beijing as we speak. The verdict care about the words you choose is the best way to describe what china is doing in the air and on the sea . I will try to give you an answer. I sure would like to hear beijing justify what they are doing. That said these are intercepts. Air maritime intercepts happen all the time but heck we do it. The differences we do we feel like we need to do some professionally done inside the International Law. Its done in accordance with the rules of the road. These two that use our recently but they have happened with more frequency that we would like. Not all them are unsafe and unprofessional but these two were. He saw the air intercept they forced our aircraft in c1 35 to basically go through the jet wash. Use of the bump in the cockpit that shows you how close the chinese fighter was to our jets. In the maritime intercepts the Taiwan Straits 140 your weather 50 yards speaking as an old sailor myself i would say thats pretty close when youre in open waters like that. You can see the head of steam that chinese vessel had audit as across the bow of one of our destroyers. There is no call for that its unsafe, its unprofessional. As to why they are doing it i think thats a great question to ask them. What i would tell you from our perspective is we are flying, we are sailing, we are operating in International Airspace international waters. Both of those incidents were complete compliance with International Law. Theres absolutely no need pla to act as aggressively as they did. I wont be long before somebody gets hurt. That is the concern these unsafe in a professional intercepts. They can lead to misunderstandings where they can lead to miscalculations. We have pieces of metal that size whether it is in the error on on the sea in their operative necklace together it would not take much for an error in judgment or a mistake to get nay in somebody could get hurt. That is got to be unacceptable it should be unacceptable to them as well. Jon he just said as part of a pattern of increasing level. Why was it appropriate to send to senior officials to visit china on the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre . It was not time to the anniversary of Tiananmen Square. Number two is not time specifically to deal with these intercepts. You can imagine a trip to beijing by u. S. Officials take some time to plan. That said both of the u. S. Officials use the opportunity to raise our concern over the two intercepts i just talked about. Absolutely raise the concerns we had barely raises concerns to our embassy as well this was not a new message the chinese for hearing. But you can also understand particularly when times are tense. Particular theres a risk of miscalculation in particular in the pla asking acting as aggressively as it is of no reason whatsoever that is the time you what to be able to have a conversation for weather conversations over the phone or facetoface. Without this visit was very much in keeping with their larger longer efforts keep lines of communication with the prc open. We will see where this goes after that. Administration for sending officials on that anniversary. With that decision in messe sigma step . I was not a misstep. It was a long planned trip. This is the way the schedule worked out. I think honestly people big criticizing the timing of Tiananmen Square to make a heck of a lot out of nothing. Wasnt time to anything with anniversary and again both of these officials were nothing about canada indirect with the intercepts they brought issues of human rights as we always do. Its important to have communication vehicles open for to have those kinds of conversations. I think were a whole lot less worse worried about the date on the calendar than what the agendas were talking to them. Sites are verbal concerns and communicate with beijing we get any kind of response to back china down from this increased aggression . We have continued to convey that message to them. I was so we are not in control of their military and the military assets of the military leaders. We urge them to make better decisions about how they operate in International Airspace. Whether they acknowledge the rules of the road or not they are the rules of the road. For nation like china that continues and touts International Law, sovereignty and territorial integrity you think they would understand when a vessel or aircraft is operating in International Airspace and see space bar going to keep setting up for those rules of the road. Were going to keep setting up of International Law. As a said earlier were going to keep flying, point keep sailing records operating wherever International Law allows a stupid clean up of navigation whether it is on the air or skiing is an important concept the red faces were send them four. They preferred on ukraine what is your understanding whether counteroffensive has begun . Im not talking to the credibility of that fit speaking stupid heard them say earlier today we are conducting of operations i wont go beyond that. What i can speak to us how hard work to prepare them to be ready. So that starting now, starting soon, whatever they decide to step up and decide to do the present is confident we could did everything we could or less six, eight months or more to make sure that all the equipment, training, capability to be successful. Expect to china do you think all these incidents are effort to intimidate or impact other channels of communication that you are trying keep open . Or do you see them part departmentalized the military setting blinken and yellen over there . Its hard to know for sure. Obviously when you fly and sell as aggressively. Saw the video for yourself. You do not need me today how aggressive it was. The chinese and kind of message. At the very least its a statement of a displeasure of our presence. What can the president said clearly we are a specific power. We are not going anywhere. We have cysts serious and the end of pacific. The vast majority of International Economic trade flows to the in the pacific. We are to stay there and continue to strengthen both alliances and partnerships. Again i cannot speak for the prc would not do it. If the message theyre trying to send us we are not welcome or are presidencies to be diminished but what if you stop flying, sailing and operating lot less likely to happen. Whack your continued to make progress in sending abbys visit for secretary boykin . Works we got to officials there we are talking is a good cyber he provides and so as i said now. In general without the next visit squidgy by whom or when we are feeling like we are making progress in terms of opening up additional lines of communication. Thank you. I have two questions. [inaudible] with china and russia for Nuclear Disarmament. We are or not. You think the Nuclear Disarmament is a possibility of issues . Will you continue to wait . Weve made it clear to kim jongun in the regime we are willing to sit down without conditions. This is not about waiting. We continue to send that message. But we havent gotten is any indication they are willing to engage in this kind of talks but the offer still stands. Is there some possibility of sequencing the visits differently so secretary delmas talked about sequencing being an issue sort of implied perhaps a blinken should go first . But any challengers in the political does it make sense to have economic visit first . But that is that part way ahead of the horse right now. We are glad we are able to visit beijing. We will do they come back with. Clearly one of the goals as advanced engagement the prc. See it we can do to the higher level visits in play. We are just not there about sequencing or specific scheduling. Donothing present tenant to speak with the danish Prime Minister about that today . Whether talks about having a woman question is not the purpose for the trip. Not the kind of deeds life in my Opening Statement they focused on three. Two different topics. How do interpret the decision to unilaterally cut production question because all of decision to cut production. Im making sure theres a balance between supply and demand. The price of those directly affected by this announcement. Of these additional cuts. The price of gasoline continues to come down. The president is going to say that the American People to making we are looking after those needs in terms of this. A separate topic i want to ask another visit from the leader this month. [inaudible] you had a very large focus on this administration between this questions of democracy. Teacher to articulate ex india is a Strong Partner on many, many levels with the United States. You saw in shangrila secretary often announce an additional defense cooperation we are going to pursue with india. There is an awful lot of economic trade between our two countries. Thats a member of the pacific quad. With an the pacific security. I could go on and on and on. As reasons why india certainly matters. Well tie and very many levels. Who talk about those issues to advance and deepen the partnership and the friendship. Following this administration concerned about the health of democracy . India is a vibrant democracy. They went to heaven to go to new delhi can do that for themselves. Certainly i would expect the strengthen health of Democratic Institutions will be part of the discussion. And look, we never shy away. Do that with friends youre supposed to do that with her and she never shy away from expressing concerns that we might have with Anyone Around the world. This visit is really about advancing what is now what we hope will be a deeper Stronger Partnership and friendship Going Forward. With ukraine being a fourth topic with the Prime Minister today in the uk here, when you consider the president investment in the United States and allies does the president went to see ukraine adhere to some the president s wishes with respect with reports of the covid action part of ukraine having the ability to act inside russia . Ukraine severity spoken to some of these quote unquote raids. Ive been denied participation in them so i will let them speak to that. What i can say, and we said this before we do not encourage we do not enable and we do not support. Strikes or attacks inside russia. Our effort we have been exceedingly plain about this with the it creates our effort is support them in their selfdefense independent there torturing their sovereignty but that is was invited by mr. Putin of russia and that is what we are helping them get back. Their independence, their territorial integrity that is where the focus is. I am not telling you anything here this Briefing Room that we have not said privately to the ukrainians in terms of expressing our concerns about that. They know our concerns for their provide us all we have to president zelenskyy assurances they will respect those concerns. Thank you. On taiwan President Biden in japan during his conference when asked about taiwan he said there is a clear understanding among our allies that if china were to act unilaterally there would be a response. What does he mean by response . Is that sanctions is that military intervention . Im not going to go beyond the president said. He has said that before we do not want to see the status quo changed unilaterally. Certainly do not want to see it changed by force. The other thing the president said and he said a gazillion times or is there is no reason to because nothing is changed about her when china probably do not support independence from taiwan we argosy do support their selfdefense capabilities and we will continue to do that theres no reason for the tension in the Taiwan Strait to evolve into the kind of conflict. Center city do not want to characterize weatherly to be getting a counteroffensive. But is this within the timeframe of when ukrainian officials told americans they can potentially begin are within the timeframe . Chris im just not going to go there, jeremy. They need to have the right and the responsibility to speak their own military operations and how they are conducting them where and when. It would not be appropriate for us to speak to that. Secondly, president zelenskyy told the wall street journal needs more patient middle missile batteries for the siblings and a crate the frontline troops from russian airpower. The dsm process and identifying additional patriot batteries or air defense . We have been prioritizing air defense for many, many months for this last package we talked about last week their interceptor missiles. Without getting ahead of announcements to come, i can assure your air defense remains top of defense of the kind of capabilities were going to make sure. I know batteries are topic is fairly scarce. There are there not a lot of them in our inventory or the inventory of nations and a purchase them. Again i do not want to get ahead of where we are. We do air defense is a priority we know how well the patriots have in performing side of ukraine which is why we provided some additional interceptor missiles last week. All he could tell his record to forward i just knowledge of the head. If you could help us understand whats going on. Think you have a sense of what happened can walk us through maybe was there involvement in this zeropoint ask i do not have a should have brought it with me. Do not have an exact tiktok minute by minute. I can walk you through the process. Before i do that though, i do want to express our deepest condolences to the family members the loved ones of those who died in that crash. Just terrible. Terrible news nobody wants to get that. We need to keep them front and center as we talk about and speed and altitude to enter restricted airspace then there are under the responsibilities to put aircraft up to again send a message and get a different outcome and thats what happened here. Six f16s from different airbases on the east coast certainly