MODERATOR: (Via interpreter) Ladies and gentlemen, let us welcome His Excellency Luis Abinader, the constitutional president of the Dominican Republic; and His Excellency Marco Rubio, Secretary of State of the United States of America. (Applause.)
Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. We welcome you to the ambassador’s hall, the seat of Dominican government, where we welcome His Excellency Marco Rubio, U.S. Secretary of State, the U.S. delegation, on his official visit to the Dominican Republic. We will immediately start with press conference. His Excellency Luis Abinader, constitutional president of the Dominican Republic, has the floor.
PRESIDENT ABINADER: (Via interpreter) We welcome Marco Rubio, his delegation, Madam Vice President, foreign minister, ministers – thank you all for being here.
It is an honor for the Dominican Republic to welcome the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, on this visit that reaffirms the goal to strengthen bilateral relations with the United States of America. In our meeting, we discussed issues of great importance to both countries, highlighting cooperation in security, migration, and trade – areas where our relationship has shown significant progress.
I thank the U.S. for its support in the fight against drug trafficking, organized crime, and irregular migration, which shows our shared commitment for a Caribbean that is safer and more prosperous. Given the growing threat of synthetic drugs and as a result of our bilateral conversations, I have decided to appoint Vice Admiral Cabrera Ulloa as our drug czar in charge of leading our joint efforts with the United States to stop the expansion of this substance which has taken many lives in your country. Cabrera Ulloa’s great record prepare him to lead this new initiative successfully. In their security, the DR has shown itself to be a strategic ally in the region. We have a holistic plan for migration control and for fighting criminal structures, which include strengthening our armed forces, implementing advanced technology for biometric identification, hardening measures against criminals, and strengthening our legislation to go against drugs and transnational crime. We also have international legal cooperation that is high level, with robust cooperation and extraditions and enforcing the law, which is unprecedented in the region. The DR’s commitment to regional stability is firm in this regard.
We discussed the crisis in Haiti. This is a situation that requires a coordinated, solid response from the entire international community. We have reiterated that there is no Dominican solution for the Haitian crisis. That is why we have highlighted the urgent need to have greater financial support for the multilateral support led by Kenya, the goal being to expand its operational capacity and ensure effective actions. We also highlighted the important – importance of re-establishing humanitarian assistance to avoid a worsening of the crisis and a possible uncontrollable migration wave that would affect both the Dominican Republic and the United States.
We agree that there is no time to lose, Mr. Secretary. The Haitian situation is a threat to security in the entire region, including that of the United States. Every day that passes is a day of fire and blood. Haiti is drowning while a significant part of the international community is passively watching from the sidelines without showing the commitment that the serious situation requires. We both know that we must not shirk our responsibility to have firm determination. Given the situation in the case of Haiti, the leadership of the U.S. is fundamental and there is no substitute.
Regarding the Tenth Summit of the Americas that will be held in December in Punta Cana, we agreed that it is important to strengthen regional integration as a road for the social and economic development of our peoples – always marked by democracy, freedom, and the respect for the fundamental values that unite us. One of the key issues in our conversation was also the development of rare earths, a resource that has great potential for the Dominican Republic.
In this case, there are new opportunities for growth and investment and would make us more competitive in international markets. Our country continues to become consolidated as a place for tourism par excellence with a favorable business climate and important modernization of this area. In spite of the challenges that we still face, we are very willing to go towards a more prosperous, safe, and equal Dominican Republic. In closing this visit, Secretary Rubio strengthens the relationship of mutual respect, cooperation, and friendship among our countries. We are committed to continue working together in order to promote peace, well-being, and progress in hopes of a shared future of prosperity and stability in our region.
Thank you Secretary Rubio for your visit, for your ongoing commitment, and your favorable opinion of the Dominican Republic. Let us continue to move forward together with a vision, with determination, and a great feeling of hope in the future. Thank you very much.
MODERATOR: (Via interpreter) We thank the words of the Honorable President Abinader of the Dominican Republic. Now we give the floor to His Excellency, Mr. Marco Rubio, Secretary of State of the United States of America.
SECRETARY RUBIO: (Via interpreter) Thank you so much. I will say a few words in Spanish and then switch to English. In Spanish – in Cuban, and then I’ll switch to English. First of all, Mr. President, thank you so much for your inviting me to the palace to have the chance to spend so many hours with you and your team and for this opportunity to reinforce the partnership we have.
I’ll start with the economic issue, which is very important, and we have tackled many important issues and the impressive measures you have undertaken, and the work we want to do with you regarding also the rare earths. We want to make the Army Corps of Engineers, which we know they have worked with you to identify these rare earth elements, and this is going to be so important for the modern economy – where we are not ready to announce anything official at this point, but we will discuss the opportunity, the possibility, of doing something very significant for the history of both countries.
At the same time, we need to discuss energy security. We have a chance to not only have a power supply for the Dominican Republic to continue to make progress, but this will be of benefit to – great benefit to Puerto Rico. They are North American, and there’s a chance to take use of semiconductors. This is going to be key for modern technology, and everything that has been said about medical, defense technologies as well. And you have a chance to become a hub for these type of industries. We will work together and we will consider ideas to see how to expand the presence of that industry here so close to the United States and in a country that is a friend and that is safe.
On the other hand, I want to highlight the anti-corruption, anti-drug work we’ve done together. Impressive work. We have seen the figures you have been able to achieve in so few years, stopping drugs – same for the United States – large numbers of drugs that could have caused great damage to our country; also our cooperation. And to see how to expand this cooperation, I’d like to announce today that we know that many of the programs have been frozen by virtue of President Trump’s executive order. We are willing to provide waivers so that programs can continue, and also we want to see how to expand the programs.
I am happy to announce today that we have entered into an MOU to formalize the presence of a CBP agent, Customs and Border Patrol from the United States, to work together with the national police to improve our efforts. And we will see how we can enhance access to certain technologies which will allow to grow what you are doing, and we will do this together.
On the other hand, we cannot forget the issue of Haiti. I’d like to make a few points clear. First of all, the United States is committed to continue to work with the international mission there. They’re having interviews that are not truthful about the current position. Last week, we signed a permit to continue being part of the mission. We will continue to support the mission. I spoke with the Kenyan president today to reinforce that commitment. The government in the U.S. has freeze order, but there is a chance to have exceptions, and that will be an exception. The same with regards to problems that contribute to the security of the United States and the hemisphere as a whole, like this does.
But we need to be clear. The solution – I believe this is the policy of the United States, and we will never ask the Dominican Republic to accept a migratory wave from Haiti. This was my position as senator and is – it is my position as Secretary of State.
Secondly, the solution for Haiti is in the hands of the Haitian people, in the hands of the Haitian elite. But we will help. We cannot ignore the problems there. Their future, their destiny is in their hands. Unfortunately, today a large part of the territory is under the control of armed, dangerous gangs, and we have to face that. The first goal is peacemaking there, and that is the objective of the mission, the mission which we’ll continue to support.
But we have to understand that the mission needs to be broadened for it to be able to eliminate these gangs. If that can be achieved, we need to discuss the future of Haiti, the opportunity they have to become a place where so many industries that are located today in other continents – like manufacturing, textiles, those things that already exist – they could be expanded; they could reach more people; they could give rise to jobs; they could give an investment opportunity. But that is impossible if there’s no security, so the first issue to tackle is the violence and insecurity, because we see this large territory ruled by gangs.
As you know, as a senator I worked on HOPE/HELP. I was one of the sponsors of that draft bill. Now another senator is working on that. The idea is to continue with that law so that those opportunities can be there for Haiti and its future. Haiti is an issue of great importance. We care about it. And I know it is a matter you cannot ignore here, and you have not ignored it; you have done a lot, and we will do our part as well.
Finally, I’d like to say that the summit in December will be key. We hope to join all of the democratic governments in the region to discuss these issues – to discuss, however, not only the challenges the hemisphere faces but also the opportunities available. We will do everything possible for the summit to be successful.
Thanks for this opportunity.
(In English) If I can (inaudible) in English and talk about a number of things that we discussed today. The first is economic development. There are rare earth valuable minerals that have been found here, thanks to the work contracting with the Army Corps of Engineers. While we don’t have any specific proposal ready to announce, I say that we have the potential here to do something historic and very unique in partnership with the Dominican Republic, and it’s something we’ll have more to say about in the near future.
I also think the Dominican Republic has an opportunity to play an enormous role in energy security and the generation of power, not just for its economy but also for the economy of Puerto Rico, which impacts, obviously, Puerto Ricans, who are American citizens. We hope to continue to work on that and get the permits necessary to make that possible.
And of course the opportunity for nearshoring, which we all talked about, bringing important and key industries closer to the United States, into our hemisphere, and the opportunity to do that in particular with things like semiconductors. The Dominican Republic has expressed an interest in being a leader and a hub for semiconductor development, and it’s something we hope that we can continue to contribute towards and be helpful.
On the cooperation that we have against drugs and crime, the Dominican Republic has yielded some extraordinary outcomes very recently – historic numbers of seizures of drugs destined for the streets of the United States. Today, I’ll sign a waiver of our programs, our foreign aid programs, that work in conjunction with our partners here that have been successful so those successes can continue. And we’re going to look for opportunities to expand upon those programs by making available new technologies that will allow them to even be more effective in stopping these drugs. This is an example of the kinds of programs that make America safer and stronger, and so we issued those waivers today, and we look to expand upon those programs in the future.
We also think that – and obviously I want to mention the extraordinary cooperation on extraditions, number two in the whole hemisphere. If someone is wanted for a dangerous crime, no nation in the hemisphere has been more cooperative than the Dominican Republic in extraditing dangerous criminals wanted for transnational crimes.
Last but not least is the issue of Haiti, which we cannot ignore. It’s a tragedy. It’s horrifying, and it needs to be dealt with. I want to be clear: The future of Haiti belongs to the people of Haiti, and they and their – the elites in that society have to make up their minds and have to think through what they want their future to look like, because that is their country, and their future belongs to them. But we are going to help.
There’s been some misreporting about the U.S. role in support of them, of the mission there. So let me be clear and so it’s understood. Last week, in the middle of last week, I signed a waiver to make sure that our programs there continue. And as of last Friday, they are active and have been working. And they are – and I reiterated that this morning in my call with the president of Kenya, who we appreciate, by the way, that nation’s willingness to stand up and lend security forces.
I think it’s also important to note, however, that that mission as currently constructed will not be enough. It needs to find new direction in order to be successful at rooting out these armed groups that today have taken possession of large portions of Haitian territory and endanger the lives of people and the stability of the region.
I think it’s also important to be clear we cannot and will not ask the Dominican Republic to accept or be expected of them to accept an uncontrolled migratory wave. No country in the world should be asked to do that, and this country should not either. And we will not be asking for that.
And I also think it’s important to begin to think about Haiti’s future, its economic future, and what we can be doing now to set the stage for an economic renaissance that allows the people of Haiti to live in peace and prosperity. And so the security element – key, because none of this is possible without that. But beyond that, there’s a real opportunity for Haiti to grow into a hub of near-shore manufacturing, near-shore light manufacturing. They are – that presence already exists there now. That can be expanded. They have a young and strong, vibrant workforce.
And so that’s why I hope Congress will pass a bill that I sponsored when I was in the Senate and I hope will pass this year extending the HOPE/HELP Act. If we can get rid – if we can deal with the security challenges and pass legislation to give investors certainty about the future, we hope to see more investments that bring those industries from other continents here to our hemisphere, shortening supply chains, and creating prosperity and opportunity for the people of Haiti.
And last but not least, we are committed to making the upcoming Summit of the Americas here in December very, very successful. It comes at a key moment in the history of our hemisphere, and we will do everything possible to work with our partners and our allies here in the Dominican Republic to make sure that that summit is a success. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. President. Muchas gracias. (Applause.)
MODERATOR: (Via interpreter) We thank his excellency, Marco Rubio, U.S. Secretary of State for his remarks. Now we will move to our Q&A session. First two questions will be for U.S. journalists, Simon Lewis from Reuters and Michael Crowley from The New York Times.
QUESTION: Can you hear me? Yeah. Hi. Mr. Secretary – hello? Yeah, okay.
Secretary Rubio, you said that you’re going to skip the G20 Foreign Ministers Meeting in South Africa because of your disagreements with the government there. Could you tell us whether the whole Trump Administration, the whole U.S. Government, is going to skip all of the G20 events in South Africa this year? And do you feel that by doing this, by missing this meeting, you’re ceding global leadership to other countries, like the BRICS countries and China specifically?
And secondly, just on Gaza, because you addressed it yesterday during your press conference – during your comments, you mentioned the plan that the President set forward would only move Gazans, Palestinians from Gaza, out temporarily. The President has said – I think it’s pretty clear from his comments today – that he’s talking about permanently resettling Palestinians from Gaza. Could you tell us whether this administration is planning to facilitate the forced displacement of those Palestinians?
SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, on the first point of the G20, I think the whole topic of the G20 gathering is one that I don’t think we should be focused on, talking about global inclusion, equity, and these sorts of things. I think we should be focused on things like terrorism and energy security and the real threats to the national security of multiple countries. So we’ll have representation there of some sort, I’ll imagine, but I’m just not attending it, because instead I’ll be hopefully traveling to parts of the world and meeting with leaders and others during that time period where we can focus on the issues that are directly before us and that I think should be the top priority because they align with our national interest.
As far as your question about the Gaza piece, let me go back and say that place right now – and I think the aerial images confirm – is not habitable, not just because of destruction due to the conflict and the fact that the Hamas cowards hide underground, but also because there are unexploded munitions; there are all kinds of weapons, including Hamas weapons, in the location. It’s – that all has to be cleaned up. I think President Trump has offered to go in and be a part of that solution, and if some other country is willing to step forward and do it themselves, then that would be great. But no one seems to be rushing forward to do that, and that has to happen. That’s the reality.
That place – Gaza right now has unexploded munitions, lots of rockets and weapons and other things that the Hamas was using there, and that needs to be dealt with. And it’s very difficult to do that when you have populations on top of you. If some other country is willing to step forward and do that job themselves, then I encourage them to do so. But it seems to me that there are a lot of countries in the world that like to express concern about Gaza and about the Palestinian people but very few were willing in the past to do anything concrete about it. And so I think President Trump is trying to stir that and hopefully get a reaction from some countries who do have both the economic and technological capacity to contribute to a post-conflict region.
QUESTION: Will be able to return or not?
SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, again, I mean, that area – when you’re removing munitions that are unexploded, I don’t think you want people living next to unexploded munitions and weapons depots that have been left behind or are in place because of what Hamas has done. So I think that’s just a realistic reality, that in order to fix a place like that, people are going to have to live somewhere else in the interim. And there are countries in the region who express a lot of concern about the Palestinian people, and we encourage them to step forward and provide a solution and an answer to that problem.
QUESTION: Thank you, Mr. Secretary, Mr. President. Michael Crowley with The New York Times. Mr. Secretary, there’s some confusion today about American diplomacy with Panama now, as you must be aware. Wondering if you could clarify for us. As you surely know, after the State Department announced last night that Panama had supposedly agreed to waive fees for U.S. Government vessels transiting the canal, the Panama Canal Authority quickly denied this, and today President Mulino, who seems rather upset, called the State Department statement on this “lies and falsehoods.” Can you tell us your understanding of how we reached this point of confusion and where you understand the situation to be right now? Is there an agreement? What’s the point of confusion here?
And on USAID, if I may quickly, we are hearing from employees abroad who are confused, anxious, and in some cases actually panicked, about the order to return within 30 days, which is not that much time to uproot and relocate from a foreign country. Do you plan on offering these employees any more guidance on this process? And in particular, are you able to say whether people can serve out their administrative leave in their mission country, or are they required to return home, even if they’re not using government resources?
And Mr. President, please – you said that the leadership of the U.S. is fundamental and there is no substitute in finding some sort of a solution for Haiti. The president of Haiti’s transitional council seems very concerned about this, said a couple of weeks ago he believes that President Trump does not care about Haiti and that the Trump Administration’s policies will be a catastrophe for his country. Can you just give us a sense of your confidence level that the Trump Administration will follow through and exercise the sort of leadership role you described? Thank you.
SECRETARY RUBIO: What was your – let me answer the first two, because I think they were for me, but what was the first one again? I apologize.
QUESTION: Can you help us understand what’s going on with Panama and the state of the diplomacy?
QUESTION: What led to the confusion and where things stand now?
SECRETARY RUBIO: And then the second one was USAID. Okay.
QUESTION: Yes, please. Thanks.
SECRETARY RUBIO: I’m not confused about Panama. We had conversations. I felt they were strong first steps. We have expectations we made clear in those conversations. I respect very much that Panama has a process. They’re a democratically elected government. They have rules; they have laws; they’re going to follow their process. But our expectations remain the same. In particular on that, I would just say that the United States has a treaty obligation to protect the Panama Canal if it comes under attack. That treaty obligation would have to be enforced by the armed forces of the United States, particularly the U.S. Navy. I find it absurd that we would have to pay fees to transit a zone that we are obligated to protect in a time of conflict.
Those are our expectations. They were clear. They were clearly understood in those conversations. But I respect very much the fact that Panama has a process of laws and procedures that they need to follow as it relates to the Panamanian port – the Panamanian canal authorities. We’ll allow them to work through those processes. We intend to make it amicable, the way our visits were.
As far as the USAID, a couple points. The goal of our endeavor has always been to identify programs that work and continue them and to identify programs that are not aligned with our national interest and identify those and address them. So we have sent out guidance to those deployed abroad that they should – they will be on leave of absence – not fired, leave of absence – as of Friday, and that we made very clear in the message. It says – and it’s written in the message that was posted – that if there are exceptional circumstances regarding family or displacement or maybe the person, their spouse is employed in the embassy, so they’re co-located and their children are in school, there’s room and space for that.
We also made clear in the guidance that there would be specially designated programs that would not be a part of that order, and we are working through the process of identifying them now, what those specially designated programs are. And we will continue to work through the process of finding them.
The third point I would make is that people were given 30 days to – that we would help bring them home if they so desired during that 30-day period, and at the same time the expectation, as I said, that if they have a special condition or something’s going on – we didn’t list them all, but we’re willing to listen to those. We’re not trying to be disruptive to people’s personal lives. We’re not – this is – we’re not trying to – we’re not being punitive here. But this is the only way we’ve been able to get cooperation from USAID.
I have preferred not to do it this way. When we tried to do it from the top down by getting cooperation from the central office and USAID, what we found instead are people trying to use the system to sneak through payments and push through payments despite the stop order. We found people that were uncooperative in terms of giving us information and access, all very consistent with some of the things we experienced while we were in Congress. And so we’ve had to do this other route instead. But we are going to get – we are going to do foreign aid. The United States will be providing foreign aid, but it is going to be foreign aid that makes sense and is aligned with our national interest.
And I know the last question wasn’t for me, but I want to address that as well. Number one, the United Nations is sitting on $100 million in their fund. The United States has provided 15 of the $100 million for that fund. Okay, that – only 13 million of that is currently frozen. That means they still have $85 million plus the 1-point-something million they spent that we already have in there available for the mission. That’s clear, and that’s not an impediment to the mission continuing. Beyond the UN fund, I’ve issued a waiver providing for the use of I think it’s close to $40 million of additional support. And those contracts are out there and they’re working now. They’re providing logistical support both to the mission and to the Haitian National Police. Those are facts.
So I could just say that’s a pretty strong commitment, and it’s certainly a lot stronger commitment than some of the other rich countries around the world who aren’t doing nearly as much. By the way, it’s a credit to Kenya, who has come halfway around the world and are willing to stand up and do something about it – when countries in our own hemisphere, they’re not willing to do anything about it. Now, I don’t want to go through and list all of them and start some diplomatic fight my – two and a half weeks into my term here, but I’m just telling you, there’s some rich countries out there and they’re not doing nearly enough about it, and they could be doing more. So I encourage them to do more.
PRESIDENT ABINADER: Yeah, can you repeat the question so I can fully understand?
QUESTION: Repeat the question?
PRESIDENT ABINADER: Yes, please.
QUESTION: The president of Haiti’s Transitional Presidential Council has said that he does not believe President Trump cares about his country, and that (inaudible) policies would be catastrophic (inaudible). And I just wondered how concerned you are (inaudible) regarding leadership. Is it something that you think is important? (Inaudible.)
PRESIDENT ABINADER: But we just heard the policy of the United States with Haiti. So I am pretty confident of this policy that the Secretary of State just mentioned. So we are pretty confident of what Secretary Rubio said, and if we follow that, we will see a peaceful Haiti in a couple of months.
MODERATOR: (Via interpreter) We thank Michael Crowley and Simon Lewis for their words. Now we will listen to the Dominican journalists, Huchi Lora and Nelson Rodríguez.
QUESTION: (Via interpreter) With your words, you have addressed a couple of questions I’ve had – I had, but you – I have one left. You’ve discussed Haiti, the fight against drug trafficking, and you’ve discussed rare earth elements. I’d like to know whether the interest of the U.S. Government in the rare earth elements found here has to do with the fact that there are some signs that they are here in such an amount that they could be exploited.
SECRETARY RUBIO: (Via interpreter) Well, that is a project the president can talk about that is based on investigations carried out with the U.S. Corps of Engineers. But the idea is the following: Those rare earth elements belong to the Dominican Republic and its people. But I know that the world will need access to rare earth elements for all of the new technologies, technologies that are used for defense but in other kinds of advanced technology in this new era. And I know that having an ally with access to these elements in the hemisphere is very good. We want to help develop this wealth of the Dominican Republic.
This is your country and this is yours, but we want to help you develop it, because it’s better that these elements are in the hands of an ally rather than in the hands of a country that’s not an ally on the other side of the world.
PRESIDENT ABINADER: (Via interpreter) Huchi, we can actually share with you preliminary information. It’s preliminary, but quite positive. We have gross reserves – then we will see what the net reserves are, but the gross reserves are of about 100 million tons. That is significant. In about two, three months, we will have the numbers with precision, but what we’ve seen so far is quite positive. It is –we feel optimistic. This is an advanced technique and we require technology and help. This is why we have created a public company, a state company, to be able to explore these rare earth elements. But the market is in the United States. There is an international price, but you always need advising so as to explore with them in an efficient way and with economic sense. Thank you so much.
QUESTION: (Via interpreter) Good afternoon, President Abinader, Secretary Rubio, and respected delegations. It’s been said here that the Summit of the Americas at the end of year is one of the tasks that will start. I’d like to know whether we’ll have President Trump here then. But let’s remember what happened in Los Angeles in the Summit of the Americas in June 2022. The secretary of state at the time exerted lots of pressure to exclude Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua. He did not reach consensus amongst Latin America countries, and the United States did not invite Cuba, Venezuela, or Nicaragua.
Secretary Rubio, you just said that those three governments are enemies of humanity. That is very strong. Dominicans would say well, let’s take it down a notch. So we could really be a bit softer. But if you keep that high tone, would the U.S. be ready to exert pressure so that those three governments cannot be invited to the Summit of the Americas? Or if these three governments were enemies of humanity, they will be invited. I know the decisions of President Abinader on this matter. So the United States would not share with those governments?
SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, that decision who to invite lies with the Dominican Republic. The Dominican Republic will be hosting. I do not know how else to talk about a regime that has forced about 8 million citizens to leave Venezuela. They imprison, they torture innocent individuals. In the case of Cuba, significant portions of the population have left the country. They have imprisoned over 500 persons, including children and women because they were part of demonstrations in the streets. And Nicaragua imprisoning political opponents. Every candidate has been pursued by justice in Nicaragua. They are even deporting nuns. They have a fight against Catholic Church, a fight against religious representatives. And there is a co- presidency and it’s kind of a family dynasty.
I do not know how else to describe those regimes. They are not just doing that to their own people, but these three regimes have contributed to the instability of the region. Every country in the region has had to pay the price of instability in these countries. In the case of Venezuela, which cooperates with Iran, with Hizballah, with Hamas; in the case of Cuba, which has allowed Russian presence, Chinese espionage. This is my opinion. I don’t think there will be a change in those countries between now and December, but that is the way in which I refer to those countries based on the reality of their behavior. I wish it wasn’t the case, but it has been the case for a long time, unfortunately.
QUESTION: (Via interpreter) So you would – would you share a table with them?
SECRETARY RUBIO: (Via interpreter) Well, the governments there could change. The regimes could change. They could stop abusing human rights, violating human rights. But I believe politics works well when we speak clearly, and we are not confused and I am not confused.
MODERATOR: (Via interpreter) The questions of Nelson Rodríguez and Huchi Lora, Dominican journalists, have been answered. We will bring this press conference to a close during the visit to the Dominican Republic of His Excellency Marco Rubio, Secretary of State of the U.S., United States. Thank you for being with us. Have a good rest of your afternoon. (Applause.)
