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Transcript: Marco Rubio Remarks at G20 Summit Press Briefing in Atlanta 

In this press briefing at the close of the G20 Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in Atlanta, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio outlines the U.S. agenda of returning the G20 to its economic roots, with a focus on freedom of navigation, food security, critical minerals, and supply chains. He takes questions on Iran’s attacks on commercial shipping, Russia’s participation and the war in Ukraine, the Quad, the Black Sea grain proposals, North Korea, Greenland, and the upcoming G20 Leaders’ Summit at Doral in December. Read the full transcript of this press briefing (November 1, 2026) below:

Opening Remarks: Atlanta and the G20’s Mission

MARCO RUBIO: Well, I want to thank the city of Atlanta. They did a great job hosting us this week. It’s one of America’s great business and innovative hubs, and it’s been an ideal location for us to not just showcase our country, but to focus on critical economic policy issues that are facing the world today.

Under President Trump’s leadership, the United States has established a clear mission for the G20 to get back to basics and to focus on the core purpose for why this forum was created in the first place. So this week in Atlanta, at the foreign ministers’ level, we executed on that directive.

We focused on core economic, energy, technology, and supply chain challenges, and we addressed practical solutions and real outcomes to benefit the citizens, not just of the countries represented here today, but of the world. We have a lot of complex interconnected problems in the world right now that impact our countries collectively, and we have to work together to find solutions to those problems.

That’s why it’s important to get this group together to have a serious, focused meeting. And I’m happy to say that this week we covered a lot of ground, and you’ll find everything we talked about in my chair statement that will be coming out if it hasn’t come out already.

Freedom of Navigation and Iranian Attacks on Shipping

One of the main issues we addressed, of course, was freedom of navigation. Safe passage of vessels in international waters is vital to the livelihood of the world, and we see the attacks, and that’s what they are. Let me understand. And under… I underscored this in my comments. I’ll underscore it with you now.

We now live in a world where the Iranian regime actively and openly targets commercial vessels for attack, not naval vessels. We’re not talking about naval vessels. We’re not talking about submarines. We are talking about them saying, “Here’s a commercial vessel with cargo, oil, natural gas, and we are going to try to sink it.” We’re going to try…

They are openly attacking vessels as a tool of statecraft. That’s the world we live in, and I think Central Command in the United States has done a phenomenal job of protecting this shipping. And today, the amount of fuel getting through there is comparable with what was coming out before the conflict.

But nonetheless, we’ve had to defend these ships from drones and missiles almost every single night. And we’re also seeing attacks, not just in the Straits now, but also in the Bab el-Mandeb and the hostile coercion, of course, that we see, maybe not as kinetic but certainly still concerning in the South China Sea and the Strait of Taiwan and elsewhere that also puts economies in danger.

Food Security and the Quad

One of the most severe consequence to sea lanes being under attack or under coercion is the rise of food security problems. When energy and fertilizer and agricultural products can’t reach their destinations, it threatens the most vital necessity for each and every one of our nations and for all the nations of the world.

And I’m grateful that this group was able to have purposeful meetings on this subject, but obviously, and that we are aligned at least in our goal and our understanding that it’s a serious problem, although I cannot say we are aligned on how to solve it. My closing comments on critical minerals really could have applied to this as well, that is that we all agree there’s a problem, but obviously there’s work to be done to find agreement collectively on solutions.

I’m also glad that on the sidelines of this G20 gathering, were able to get the Quad Group together again and discuss a myriad of topics, a myriad of issues. The Quad is something we’ve invested a lot of time in. I think this year alone we’ve met four or five times. It was my first meeting as Secretary of State when I took over in January 2025.

And we’re going to continue to work in that forum as it’s gone from a place where we just meet and talk about problems to a place where we identify areas to work together on and are actually being able to act on that. And hopefully, we’ll announcing very soon, if we haven’t already, that we’ll have a Quad leaders meeting in Manila in the… I guess today’s the thirty first… Next month.

So these are the issues that are important to the United States and to all the countries here today. We have a great relationship with all the members of the Quad and our partnership enables us to address these challenges in an effective, unified way that benefits the shared national interests of our respective countries.

Bilateral Meetings, Poland, and the Doral Summit

I also had great bilateral meetings. For example, we had a trilateral meeting with Japan and South Korea. We’ve done that a number of times as well. We signed a memorandum of cooperation on transnational Arctic Pacific partnership with them, and together we’ll ensure that the Arctic remains a region free of dominion or coercion and that it instead remains a place of peaceful relations and commerce.

We’re grateful for all of the invited participants who came to Atlanta here this week.