Rice Joint Press Conference With German FM

Joint Press Conference With German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier and High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy and Secretary General of the European Union Javier Solana and European Commissioner for External Relations and European Neighborhood Policy Benita Ferrero-Waldner

Secretary Condoleezza Rice
Washington, DC
March 19, 2007

SECRETARY RICE: Good afternoon. I am very pleased to welcome to Washington and to the State Department my colleagues from the European Union Troijka. I am pleased to have with us Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the Foreign Minister of Germany, which is, of course, the presidency at this point of the European Union. My colleague Javier Solana, the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Benita Ferrero-Waldner, the External Relations Commissioner for the EU.

We've had extensive discussions today beginning in a session and then moving onto lunch. We've discussed the situation in the Middle East, including the Israeli-Palestinian issue. We have discussed Iran's failure to comply with its obligations to date and the work that is going on in the Security Council. We emphasized again that while the Security Council we hope will act very soon, we still hope that there are those in Iran who wish to take advantage of the offer to negotiate that has been put before the Iranian Government. We talked about the situation in Lebanon and in Iraq, Afghanistan, Darfur and Kosovo. We have had, as I said, very extensive discussions.

I think we find ourselves in substantial agreement. I thought that one of the most interesting comments was made by Javier who said that when we get together these days to talk, we're talking about things that we've been talking about almost every day. It shows the level of cooperation and the frequency of contact that we have here in the Transatlantic Alliance as we take on some of the most challenging issues of the day.

So thank you very much colleagues, for being here. I'm very glad we've had such good discussions and I look forward to further work. Frank-Walter.

FOREIGN MINISTER STEINMEIER: (Via interpreter) Dear colleague, dear Condi, thank you very much indeed for preparing today's meeting of the EU Troijka and the American Secretary of State in preparation of a EU-U.S. summit meeting to which we are looking forward and which will take place at the end of next month. I trust that this summit meeting is going to show very good results.

I don't know how often I've already been here in Washington in the course of this year, but I think it's an expression of the dense links between both our countries and it's also an expression of the fact that we have to deal with a great number of international conflicts where we have to cooperate closely, where we want to do so. And I think that we can be helpful whenever regional efforts are being undertaken to strengthen peace and stability and wherever these efforts are not enough, thus you need not be surprised. And of course you expect us to have talked about two matters in greater detail today.

Condoleezza Rice pointed to the fact that now that a national unity government has been formed by the Palestinians we have entered a stage where we are very carefully watching the declarations, the statements made by that new government, but also the first decisions and actions to be taken by that new government. And of course this is going to have an influence on the readiness of the Europeans to cooperate with that government. It's clear, ladies and gentlemen, that we stand by what we've said in the past, in the framework of the Quartet, we stand by the expectations that we've expressed there. And the Quartet has not really invented these matters on its own, but it's part and parcel of the roadmap process. We also talked in greater detail about after having had discussions in the course of the last two and a half weeks on how to proceed towards Iran. And with Iran, you may be aware of the fact that Mr. ElBaradei had to note -- take note of the fact that Iran continues to disregard the demands by the IAEA that the Security Council was called upon to think about how to proceed from here.

You may be aware of the fact that over the last few days we talked in great intensity about a text of a resolution. We're reaching the final stages here. And I take it that a resolution will be passed in the very near future. But this is not going to -- alter anything about the fact that we stand by the two-track approach. On the one hand, we speak out strongly to Iran. What we want to see about what we want to see, but at the same time, we continue to keep the door toward negotiations open. Kosovo also figure prominently on today's agenda, again with an eye to the Security Council. Now that the negotiations in Vienna, we analyzed them today, the Security Council will be tasked to look at the proposals of Mr. Ahtisaari. As a member of the Contact Group, we not only have an interest in, but also want to help bring about greater stability to the Balkans, a greater degree of stability and more peace. And I think that this requires a speedy decision on the future status of Kosovo.

I am very happy about the fact that we are meeting here today in the framework of the EU Troijka. I'm happy that we were able to talk about all these subject matters today and I'm also looking forward to a joint premiere right after this press conference. We will meet again with experts from the business community, from science, and also financial experts and talk with them about the way in which foreign politicians can defend their common interests and further develop their common interests in an energy partnership. Thank you very much.

MR. SOLANA: Thank you very much. I'm very, very pleased (inaudible) a very cordial meeting, very constructive meeting, long, and we have touched issues of great interest, practically in all the continents of the Europe, really, in which we are cooperating, the United States and the European Union. And that is something that should be underlined. We have been talking about things in formation, things which have taken place dramatically in Africa like Sudan, things which are close in the Middle East, things that are happened in Europe like the Balkans. And in all of them, I think we have made progress today.

Let me say that I had the opportunity also, for the first time, to discuss with my friends my last trip to the Middle East in which I've been in Lebanon, I've been in Syria, and I've been also in Saudi Arabia, three countries which are interested to know what is going on. And I had the opportunity to share my ideas, their ideas together, and I think we have learned from all this reflections together, moving toward the future.

So what I would say, in short, that it has been a very good meeting. As the Secretary has said, these type of meetings formalize -- take place every now and then, but informally takes place just about every other day. So we're in permanent contact and I think this is good not only for the Europeans and the Americans, but I think that is good for the world. When the Europeans and Americans work together, I think that the world is a little bit safer. Thank you.

FOREIGN MINISTER FERRERO-WALDNER: Thank you. Of the many, many items that have been discussed today, I would like to just take out three very shortly. First, I think on Israel-Palestine, it is very important that in this delicate moment, we at least can go on with our temporary international mechanism and that we prolong this for another three months in order to see that the Palestinian people will not suffer in this period where we have to, of course, make a judgment on the national unity government, one.

Two, I would like to say that we are working very, very closely with the U.S. on Afghanistan. Indeed, together with an ESDP Mission on policing, we, the Commission, will work extremely hard on a rule of law mission -- that means on judges -- on the ministry of justice and also on the prosecutor's office because we think thus, we can really have a different courts of judges, that there should not be impunity anymore, there should be less corruption, and there should be a high ethic code.

And third, I would like to say that also on Iraq, I think there matters of reconstruction and capacity-building for this Administration are of great importance and these are the three items where we are also very, very closely collaborating. Thank you.

STAFF: (Inaudible.)

QUESTION: First, to the Higher Representative. Mr. Solana, to give this new Palestinian government the best chance of success, do you think it's now time to lift the international aid embargo and if not, do you have a timeline for when you would like to see that happen? And to Secretary Rice, the coalition government platform includes a reference to the right of resistance. Do you read that as a code for terrorism and if so why?

MR. SOLANA: Should I start? As you know, we have been following from the very beginning the formation of this government and we have made already several statements in different meetings of the Quartet. We want to praise, once again, the efforts of the King Abdullah and the Saudis for mobilizing this effort. We hope very much that when the government is established and is already there that it will contribute no doubt first to the peace among the Palestinians, but we have to say also that the government does not comply fully with the principle that the Quartet had so many times said publicly they would like to have in this government. In any case, we expect very much that this government in the process will be taking the positions of the Quartet as much as possible and at the end take completely and they will have a total normalization of the relation with the government. And I think not only that, we will have the possibility of moving in the peace process at much faster rhythm.

We'd like to say that once again that we would like to continue working with the Palestinian people. We are not going to let the Palestinian people down and we hope very much to follow in great detail the facts -- the deeds -- that this government behaves is much more important what they do than what they say at this point in time. We are going to follow that. In any case, we will never let the Palestinian people down.

SECRETARY RICE: Well, I would put the question to the Palestinian government because after all for a generation now -- well, a political generation, the Palestinian leadership has adhered to the principles that would undergird a two-state solution, including renunciation of violence and the willingness to live side by side with Israel. It's in the roadmap. It is the foundation really of Oslo. And so I'm not going to try to interpret what the right of resistance means, but I'll tell you, it doesn't sound very good to me, when one talks about all forms of resistance. So I would put the question to the Palestinian government and to its prime minister: Do you mean the right of resistance by violence and let's get an answer.

QUESTION: Mr. (inaudible). Madame Secretary, how do you react to the strong suggestions from Berlin that you should not go it alone when it comes to the missile defense shields?

(Via interpreter) Do you think, Minister, does this constitute a burden on German-American relations?

SECRETARY RICE: We're not going it alone. We have allies who wish to participate in missile defense. And let's remember what missile defense in this context means. We are not in the Cold War any longer. We're not in a context of missile defense to try and somehow degrade the retaliatory capability of a Soviet Union that would worry about a first strike against the Soviet Union and then the ability to survive a retaliatory strike. That's not the world that we live in. That is by the way the world that I made my living in quite a long time ago during the period of arms control when the only -- really the only common agreement between the United States and the Soviet Union was that we didn't want to annihilate each other, and we had these very elaborate concepts of strategic stability that really meant we had to leave ourselves vulnerable to one another. That's what was meant. But that's not the world that we live in now.

We live in a world in which Russia and the United States have a good working relationship in which I think very few would even contemplate the notion of somehow a nuclear exchange between the United States and Russia -- on what basis, on what political basis? Rather, we live in a world in which we face small nuclear threats, small potential missile threats from, for instance, Iran. And in that world, a limited missile defense that can deal with small threats is very much a stabilizing factor, not a destabilizing factor. We are working with our allies, including with Poland and the Czech Republic to talk about what kind of deployment makes sense.

But I just want to be very clear, we have talked to the Russians repeatedly starting in the spring of 2006 about what this would mean. We have had briefers to Russia from the missile defense, the head of the Missile Defense Agency. We have had -- I myself have had discussions with my Russians colleagues, Don Rumsfeld with his, Bob Gates with his. We are continuing to consult with the Russians. But the notion that somehow this is aimed at Russia is simply not borne out by the facts and we are not therefore going it alone. We're simply trying to deal with a new threat -- a threat, by the way that is there for all of us.

FOREIGN MINISTER STEINMEIER: (Via interpreter) I fully underline and support what the American Secretary of State just said at the outset of her statement. The Cold War has come to an end. It's over. We all live in new circumstances, under new conditions and that is what is decisive about this and this is why last Sunday -- and I trust you saw that -- published an article in a leading German paper and said in that article that the American need to defend itself against such possible threats by possible threats by possible long-distance weapons is something that one has to respect.

Another point that I'd like to make and I think that here understanding has been shown on the American side, that such a defensive shield ought to be extended to Europe and that requires discussions and we as the presidency of the European Union do have an understandable interest in seeing the European positions be harmonized and staying as close as possible -- as close as possible really, if not identical. And this is what I'm working for. This is my objective.

My -- the first sentence of that article, I remember a word you said when you came to Berlin, the discussion that we have on this subject matter ought to be intensified. At the time I said the right place for such a discussion in my eyes would be NATO, but of course I didn't want to avoid a discussion amongst the EU member-states about this, but I think that that would be the suitable place for such a discussion. NATO has become a very intensive debate, more intensive than in the last few months and years indeed. And today again we heard that the discussion amongst the Americans and the Russian Government have been resumed, continue. Now we have to wait and see where we're going with this, but it's not a disruption of American-German relations, none whatsoever.

QUESTION: (Inaudible) for Secretary Rice and Mr. Solana, President Abbas has publicly and repeatedly appealed to the Quartet to lift its aid embargo. Do you not worry that if you refuse or if this drags on, that his inability to deliver despite his close relationship with the United States and the European Union will undermine his standing and that of other moderates among the Palestinian people?

SECRETARY RICE: Well, let me start by repeating something that Benita said and that Javier said as well. We are going to continue to help the Palestinian people. We've been helping through humanitarian assistance. We have the temporary international mechanism. I think if you look at the numbers, you'll see that actually, the amount of assistance going into the Palestinian people has -- it's gone up over the last year.

And so we're going to continue to help the Palestinian people and we're going to continue to deal with Abu Mazen. I'm going to the region at the end of the week. I intend to see him, to talk with him, and to continue to try to work on bettering the lives of the Palestinian people as well as trying to push forward on a political horizon so that the Palestinian people can see the pathway to the establishment of a Palestinian state.

Now the Quartet principles are there not to be obstructionists, but because they are the foundational principles for peace. You cannot have a peace agreement or a peace process when one party does not recognize the right of the other party to exist or will not renounce violence. And that's why there has been so much concern in the international community that any government of the Palestinian people would reflect those principles, because those principles are critical to getting to a two-state solution. And I should add they have been at the foundation of where Palestinian leadership has been since Oslo.

And so we will continue to insist that those principles be respected. We're going to continue to help the Palestinian people. And we're going to continue to deal with Abu Mazen. And I think that that is the right place to be so that Palestinians understand what is before them in order to gain full acceptance for their government.

MR. SOLANA: Well, I have a little to add -- to say once again that the Palestinian people will never be let down by us and for the European Union. As has been said, we have been increasing our contribution the last three years. We will continue in the future. And we see the government people that we trust and we know well, that we have been working with them. And as I said before, we hope very much that this will be a process that will lead to the acceptance of all the principle, because it would be beneficial for them, beneficial for us, for the peace process.

As we have said many, many times, we will continue, the Quartet will continue to engage in trying to define the political horizon so that the peace process can move forward. (Inaudible.)

QUESTION: I have a question to our Foreign Minister and also to Javier Solana, but first, to our Foreign Minister. I'm very happy how you describe now your position on missile defense here, but it is very different from what has been written in German newspapers over the weekend, what the spin of what you said and wrote is. In German newspapers, it is described as a dire warning against the United States not to go it alone and not to have discussions enough with the Russians and this is the start of a new arms race.

So do you feel (inaudible) because normally, as my normal colleagues in Berlin and normally talk to people from the ministry before they write such analysis, could you please clear which side is now really the message? The warning side or what you said here, the merit side and that America has the right to do this and it's not directed against United States?

And Javier, as you have been the NATO General Secretary and have a lot of knowledge about these strategic issues, what is your take on this discussion? As far as you know this missile defense planning and as we know it here, ten missiles probably not directed to intercept 3,000 Russian warheads and even with it's positioned geographically can't even be useful that it's probably designed against Iran. But I would like to learn your take and what you feel -- how (inaudible) in the rest of Europe? Is it as German -- angst-driven as in Germany or is it different in the rest of Europe? Thank you.

FOREIGN MINISTER STEINMEIER: (Via interpreter.) The same applies here as on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. You are responsible for what you have said and not for what others make out of it. You know, when you take a look at the text that I published with a great deal of consideration, you will find the sentence that I just uttered here, the legitimate right of America -- that it is America's legitimate right to protect itself from possible long distance missiles wherever they may come from and to protect itself in a suitable way.

And this does in no way contradict me saying that of course, we have to be aware of the fact that -- had a discussion. If it leads to deployment decisions also on the part of Europe, that in the course of such a discussion, the necessary questions are being clarified in order to avoid misunderstandings that might have undesirable consequences. And that is what is in the text that you have referred to.

MR. SOLANA: (Inaudible) working about theater missile defense. You remember. You remember very well that we're discussing NATO. It never came to an end to that, but it's -- we hope that it will be -- continue to be discussed because the protection of a force that is deployed in the mission, which we -- mission of peacekeeping in order to be protected from potential missile from al-Qaida country, which -- don't want that to continue.

But what I'd like to say is that these issues are complicated issues, they are not simple issues, and would require that -- I will explain to everybody. The United States Secretary of State has told us on several occasions, including today, once again, that that has been explained to our American -- I mean, to our Russian friends. That is true that the Russian sensitivity -- hypersensitivity of having infrastructure move to the east, move to their borders. We know that. I know that very well because I discuss -- not only discuss, I negotiated with the -- at the time, Prime Minister Primakov the first agreement between NATO and Russia. And I knew very well the sensitivity of that issue.

Therefore, the more we talk, the more we explain, the better. But I think that when we talk and when we finalize the discussion, it will be understood by everybody the final sense of direction of this project. That does -- not necessarily has to agree -- everybody with it, but I think that, in general terms, will be something that will be understood by the Russians and by the United States, of course.

SECRETARY RICE: You didn't ask me, but if I could just make a closing comment on this. Look, we are prepared to have and have had discussions of our missile defense plans with all affected parties, I do think with our allies in particular. Because frankly, even though there is a long -range threat, there is an intermediate-range threat also that concerns us for Europe and for our allies. One of the hardest things to do is to look out, to see future threats and to react in time to actually be able to deal with them by the time they fully materialize. And we know that there is a growing Iranian missile threat, first of an intermediate character and then of potentially of a long-range character. It's something we have to deal with and we have said to the Russians that we would be delighted to also engage in missile defense cooperation. And I think that would be a very useful thing to do.

Thank you very much.

2007/206

ENDS

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