Secretary Antony J. Blinken And Qatari Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani Before Their Meeting

SECRETARY BLINKEN:  Good afternoon, everyone.  It’s as always a great pleasure to welcome my friend and colleague, the foreign minister of Qatar, here to the State Department, to Washington.  Mohammed, thank you for being here.  We have also as always a lot to cover because we are partnered on so many different regional and global issues, and it’s a partnership that the United States deeply, deeply appreciates.

Qatar is an important partner when it comes to diplomatic efforts to solve challenges from Lebanon to Libya to Israel and the Palestinian territories and other parts of the region.  And I would just note today among so many other things Qatar’s incredible generosity when it comes to trying to help those suffering terribly in Türkiye and northern Syria from the devastating earthquake.  It’s an excellent example of how Qatar constantly steps up when it comes to meeting some of the most urgent challenges we face.

So I know we’ll have a chance to talk about that and many other things.  Welcome, my friend.

FOREIGN MINISTER AL-THANI:  First of all, Tony, thank you very much for making the time to see me today.  I’m really glad to be here in this year among friends and partners, and I’m looking forward for our discussion today.  There are lots of important issues that we are looking forward to discuss here, a lot of regional and the global challenges we are facing.

But we really appreciate the partnership and the close coordination and consultation that we have with the U.S. and with all your colleagues here in State Department, so I believe that there is a very, very close and very good relationship and strong relationship between them and their colleagues in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Doha.  And we look forward for our discussion today and I am happy to be here.  Thank you.

SECRETARY BLINKEN:  Thank you.