Boris Johnson and Rex Tillerson Briefings

Good afternoon everybody, thank you very much for coming over. The last

few days I as Foreign Secretary has been the Channel for innumerable

expressions of condolences from around the world in the aftermath of

the terrorist atrocity in Manchester. I have been struck by

how often our international friends and supporters have mentioned not so

much the crime as the response. The acts of instinctive kindness by

people in Manchester, the holding of hands, the gathering of thousands of

people in the centre of the city to show their indomitable pride and

resilience. In their unity and their determination to show that it is by

coming together that we can beat this scourge and, so I think the

people of Manchester are showing the way for the world and we have seen

again today what's happened to innocent people in Egypt as a result

of this challenge that we all face, this affliction.

That is why I'm grateful to Rex Tillerson, the US Secretary of State

for coming here today, again in an instinctive act of solidarity

between the US and the UK. We have talked about all sorts of things

today at lunch as you would expect a wide range of issues - Syria,

relations with Iran, the importance of the work we do together across

such a range of fields, including of course intelligence-sharing and

around the world you will find the US and the UK facing the same

problems together. And defending our ideals together. We defend democracy

and the rule of law. Our values and our freedoms not just because they

are ours, but because they are universal and if the world community

can unite I think in the way that the people of Manchester have come

together and united then I think together we can prevail and we will

prevail. Rex, your visit is an important sign of the closeness and

the harmony of our co-operation, thank you very much for coming.

Thank you Boris and good afternoon to all of you. I'm here today in

Britain on behalf of the American people. I can tell you that all

across America hearts are broken at the very thought of loss of life of

loved ones, the injured, the effect it has on their families and I know

that we share that grief with the rest of the world as well. Please

know that all of America's prayers are with those who have lost loved

ones and those that are injured. For all of us, life will go on. But for

those families, there will be forever a void in this world. That

will never be filled and they will have to live with that. So we pray

for their comfort and we pray for their healing. The British people

are renowned for their strength in times of darkness and we all know

that. And they will not be broken by terrorism and we know this. Even as

our ally and friend mourns, the fires for justice burn very hot in

our hearts. We will drive out the terrorist and extremist as President

Trump said this week in Saudi Arabia, we must drive Tex extremists

out of our communities. We must drive them out of any country that

will provide them safe haven and drive them off the face of the

earth. Isis's decision to target a concert full of children shows their

intentions are not offered by God. Isis worships death. Our mission to

defeat Isis we are grateful for the help of people of all faiths and the

many Muslim majority countries who have joined us to win this fight.

Every priest, every Reverend and every Rabbie and every Imaam must

condemn those who would carry out those attacks and the soul of any

who would consider carrying out such attacks. We will intensify our

efforts to defeat Isis on the battlefield and eliminate their

ability to operate their net woshs. We will not allow them to spread

violence and hatred without a fight and we will block their efforts to

recruit new followers whether on the ground or online. America stands

with the British people at this time of great sorrow and pain and we

pledge a greater resolve to defeat Islamist terrorism and extremism.

Thank you. Thank you Rex. We have got a couple of questions. In

January the Prime Minister said, the days of Britain and America

intervening in sovereign countries in an attempt to remake the world in

our own image are over. Isn't that an admission of failure and

confirming Jeremy Corbyn's comments, and Mr Tillerson, do you think there

will be lasting damage for information sharing between the UK

and the US because of the lanings this week. -- leaks this week. First

I have to say I find it extraordinary and inexplicable that

there should be any attempt to justify or to legitimate the acts of

terrorists in this way. This is a moment when as Rex Tillerson has

said, we should be coming together, uniting to defeat these people and

we can and we will, not just in Iraq and in Syria, but of course in the

battle for hearts and minds and winning the intellectual and

emotional struggle. We can and we will. Because they're wrong. Their

view of the world is corruption and it is a perversion of Islam. But now

is not the time, now is not the time to do anything to sub tract from the

fundamental responsibility of those individuals that individual in

particular who committed this atrocity and I think it is monstrous

that anybody should seek to do so. With respect to the release of

information inappropriately, information that was released by

someone, information that is vital to an ongoing investigation,

information is vital to capturing those involved, certainly we condemn

that, the president has been very strong in his condemnation and call

for an immediate investigation and prosecution of those who are found

to have been responsible for leaking any of this information to the

public. We take full responsibility for that. And we obviously regret

that that happened. In terms of how that that happened. In terms of how

it affects the relationship between the US and Britain, this special

relationship will certainly withstand this particular

unfortunate event. Thank you. Secretary Tillerson, Trump said,

President Trump said yesterday that NATO that the alliance should focus

on terrorism and immigration, the Manchester attack was carried out by

the son of immigrants here in that context, what advice does the Trump

administration have for how Britain should handle its large immigrant

community here, including those that are British citizens, Secretary

Johnson do you agree that immigration should be a focus for

NATO and is immigration a security threat for Britain? I think the

president's made a couple of, well he has made many important points on

this trip, given the extensive nature of the trip. And clearly

migration of people, movement of people, crossing back and forth

borders is a significant challenge. And how we confront acts of

terrorism. It is the challenge given our free society. I think the other

element of it that I have heard the president express throughout this

trip is our inability to assimilate people. That for whatever reason as

people immigrate into our countries, whether in Britain or the United

States or other countries, we seem to have difficulty assimilating

those people so they feel part of our society. And would never

consider supporting acts of violence against their fellow citizens. So I

think it an extremely complex issue, this mass migration of people. It is

not only a problem for Britain or for the United States. It is a

problem for countries all over the world. Its one that we have to learn

better how to address. There are two elements to your question. The first

is about mass migration and the role of NATO in helping to solve that,

NATO can have an important role in addressing the big movements of

people that we have seeing coming up from the southern Mediterranean

area, that is putting pressure on Europe and iftd is something that

the UK is in the lead in trying to deal W I think NATO has a role there

and the president is right in that respect. I also think that one thing

that the, on the second aspect, the US and the UK are countries that in

many ways are built on immigration. America is a fantastic country and

an economy that has prospered by the Statue of Liberty holding out its

beacon to the world. That has been an inspiring message for

generations. In our own country we have had successful ful integration.

My grandfather was a Muslim and came to Wimbledon in the early part of

the last century. You know, there you go. I went on to become the

mayor of London and indeed Foreign Secretary. So integration is

possible. It is what we should aspire to. It is what we can

achieve. If you look at the American common wealth and what has been

achieved, you look at the success of London, I think that is what we

should be aiming for. But I'm not going to pretend to you that every

individual and every community feels as well adjusted as they should and

that is something we need to work on. I'm not going to abandon the

goal of trying to get people to identify and to love the country

that they come to. That is the most important thing. When people come to

this country, they have to become British. And if they're going to

live and work here, they must become part of our society and espouse its

values. Thank you. Thank you.