This was Blinken after his meeting with South Africa's Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor:
"If we allow a big country to bully a smaller one, to simply invade it and take its territory, then it's going to be open season, not just in Europe, but around the world, and it will have repercussions here and repercussions everywhere."
Pandor said no one in South Africa supported the war in Ukraine but that the prescripts of international law were not being applied evenly.
"We believe that all principles that are domain to the United Nations Charter and international humanitarian law must be upheld for all countries not just some. As much as the people of Ukraine deserve their territory and freedom, the people of Palestine deserve their territory and freedom."
South Africa abstained from a United Nations vote denouncing the invasion of Ukraine.
And like other African countries has resisted calls to condemn Russia.
Meanwhile, earlier on his South Africa trip On Sunday (August 7), the U.S. Secretary of State visited the Johannesburg Hector Pieterson memorial.
The museum is named after an 11-year-old boy who was killed while protesting apartheid and segregation in 1976.
He was among the first of more than 500 people killed in months of battles between protesters and police.
It caused international outrage and heralded the eventual end of apartheid in South Africa.
Blinken met with Pieterson's sister Antoinette Sithole and young African leaders during his visit.
"Hector's story is one that really resonates because we have our own struggle for freedom and equality in the United States, and South Africa's story is unique but there are also so many common elements, and that resonates powerfully."
Blinken will be leaving South Africa on Tuesday (August 9) and continues his trip to the Democratic of Congo and Rwanda.
