Transcript: NPR Interviews Secretary Of State Rex Tillerson

Transcript: NPR Interviews Secretary Of State Rex Tillerson Enlarge this image toggle caption Ariel Zambelich/NPR Ariel Zambelich/NPR In his first interview with NPR, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has a wide-ranging interview with Morning Edition's Steve Inskeep. We're on the very front end of our relationship with the Xi government and we have put in place some mechanisms to begin this exchange of understanding each other better and seeing if we cannot chart a pathway forward that accommodates the interest of China but also accommodates the interest of the American people — our own national security — but stability for the region and the world as well. I think our mission here is to deliver on the president's policies to secure — to provide the national security needs of the American people, and to advance America's economic interest around the world. I think what the president has said — I'm willing to look at a broad range of options, but I want to know at the end of it that the American people have won, and that we have come out with a stronger national security for the American people, and we've come out with a stronger economic posture and a better future for prosperity. If it is going to solve serious national security threats to the U.S., if it's going to put us on a stronger economic future and prosperity because of stability — we don't prosper well in an unstable world — then the president's going to be open, I think, to any plan.