Condoleezza Rice Interview With NRK Norway

Interview With NRK

Secretary Condoleezza Rice
Oslo, Norway
April 26, 2007

QUESTION: Madame Secretary, welcome to our program.

SECRETARY RICE: Thank you.

QUESTION: The United States and Norway have been allies for more than 60 years. What do you see at the core of this relationship?

SECRETARY RICE: Oh, there's no doubt that the core of this relationship is shared values. When you believe strongly in democracy and freedom, when you believe in compassion to those who are less fortunate, that gives you a good, solid foundation. And even when the circumstances change, as they have very much since the end of the Cold War -- for the better -- the relationship is still very strong because of the common values are there.

QUESTION: Yes, you mentioned the Cold War. During the Cold War, the High North was regard -- at the utmost strategic importance, but not anymore. Has the High North become irrelevant to NATO and the United States of America?

SECRETARY RICE: Oh, by no means has the High North become irrelevant. In fact, what I think has happened is that things have changed and the strategic significance has changed, and we want to continue to be cognizant of and concerned about defense relationships and we, of course, are part of the great North Atlantic Alliance, the most successful military alliance really probably in human history, an alliance of democracies.

But I had a very, very interesting discussion today with the Foreign Minister about the energy implications of the High North and the very important relationship that the United States and Norway will soon have as a transatlantic energy relationship, and we agreed that it would be important to deepen and broaden our dialogue on energy matters.

So quite to the contrary; rather than going away as an issue, I think it's changed, but it’s given us a new basis of cooperation.

QUESTION: Do you see any danger of a return to the confrontation between East and West with repercussions for this (inaudible)?

SECRETARY RICE: I think it's very hard to imagine a return to the Cold War. Let's put it this way: We've had one Cold War, that's plenty; we don't need to do that again. We have indeed a good relationship with Russia. We here for the NATO ministerial will have a NATO-Russia Council meeting. It would have been unthinkable even 20 years ago to have a NATO-Russia Council meeting. And so we have a lot to work with. We generally and broadly cooperate with Russia. We have our differences, but we're going to continue to improve those relations and improve them in the context of NATO as well.

QUESTION: You mentioned energy. The High North is quite promising when it comes to oil and gas, and indeed the (inaudible) being developed in that area (inaudible) will produce natural gas for the American market. Why is this important for the United States?

SECRETARY RICE: Well, it's important because the United States -- for the world economy to grow, the United States economy needs to continue to grow. And energy is an engine for economic growth. Fortunately, natural gas is, of course, a clean energy source, and so we look forward to developing the energy relationship further with Norway. Norway is blessed with tremendous resources and with the ability to export them with the very best technology, and so we look very much forward to continuing development of this very important part of the economic relationship.

QUESTION: Norway has an unsolved border issue with Russia and the disputed area is about half the Norwegian landmass itself. What, if any, is the American position on this disagreement?

SECRETARY RICE: Well, we've encouraged Norway and Russia to resolve these differences. I would hope that in the context of the post Cold War era that it would be possible now to make some progress. Russia should be willing and I would think would have an interest in trying to do so because, again, the relationships in this region very much now touch on developments on energy and the economy. So we've been encouraging of the efforts and would like to see them continue.

QUESTION: On the Russian side, you have the enormous Shtokmanovskoye -- you've heard about it -- and the Russians have excluded an international partnership in that field. What signal do you see in this sort of nationalistic declaration?

SECRETARY RICE: Well, we've been very concerned about the direction of the development of Russian policy on energy. We understand that Russia sees its energy resources as critical to Russia's development and that they want to get the best of their energy resources for Russia and for the Russian people. But we believe in an open architecture for the development of energy. We believe in the sharing of technology through energy companies that can form partnerships, can do so in an open market environment.

The fact is that the -- a field like Shtokman is not easy to develop. It requires very sophisticated Western technologies that really right now are only available in the West. And I would hope that we could encourage Russia to consider more open policies on investment. That is the way that the energy resources of the entire international community are going to grow, and frankly the way that Russia is going to get the greatest benefit from its own energy resources.

QUESTION: Today you once again discussed Norwegian policy in the Middle East with new Norwegian counterpart. How deep is the disagreement between the United States and Norway on the question of normalization of relations to the Palestinian Government?

SECRETARY RICE: Well, let me start with where we agree, which is a substantial area of agreement, and that is that we need to move to a two-state solution. President Bush is the first American President to talk about a Palestinian state as a matter of policy, and I think we all believe that the Palestinian people have waited long enough for their state and that the Israeli people have waited long enough for the peace and security that will come from a good and democratic neighbor.

And we and Norway share that goal, and in fact Norway and the United States also share the view that the Quartet principles, so-called Quartet principles, meaning the recognition of the right of Israel to exist, the faithfulness to past agreement and the renunciation of violence, are all foundational principles for peace. And I think we would agree that a Palestinian government that accepts those principles will be helpful to peace.

We have taken a different view of this government. We do not believe that recognition of it is going to contribute to moving forward on a two-state solution. Nonetheless, we have recognized the importance, as Norway has, of helping Abu Mazen, somebody who is committed to the Quartet principles. We have recognized that it is important to get economic resources to the Palestinian people and we're looking for ways that the international community can encourage the Palestinian unity government to finally adopt these principles, including by the way principles that were signed by Palestinian leaders at Oslo.

QUESTION: Do you see any benefit in a staunch Western ally building this sort of bridge to the Palestinians, as Norway is?

SECRETARY RICE: Well, I do know that Norway, when it speaks, speaks for those principles and has tried to encourage the Palestinian Unity Government to move in that direction. Unfortunately, Mr. Hania has not yet moved in that direction and those who are trying to encourage them to do so have not yet succeeded in doing so.

QUESTION: But they have said that they are going to respect the (inaudible) that has been adopted.

SECRETARY RICE: Well, yeah, that's kind of interesting because when you then ask, well, does that mean that you will renounce violence, does that mean that you accept the right of Israel to exist, you don't get a very clear answer. And I think it’s incumbent on us to get clear answers from the Palestinian Unity Government about their intentions.

QUESTION: Foreign Minister Store said yesterday that you are his closest partner in consultations on the Middle East. What's that mean?

SECRETARY RICE: Well, we are very close. We do have very close consultation on the Middle East. And even if we don't always agree on the next step, we certainly agree on where we're trying to go. And it's extremely important that we stay in close contact. Norway has a long and good history in the Middle East. There's a reason the Oslo Accords were named for Oslo. And so if we continue to be in very close coordination, if we continue to work in a coordinated fashion, I think we can contribute very much to Middle East peace.

QUESTION: May I put one last question to you on Afghanistan?

SECRETARY RICE: Yes.

QUESTION: Are you satisfied with the Norwegian deployment and contribution to the process there?

SECRETARY RICE: Well, we appreciate very much the Norwegian deployment, particularly the additional special operations forces, because this is a joint goal and a shared commitment of the NATO allies in Afghanistan. When people say, well, how is NATO doing, I remark always at the fact that ten years ago could you have imagined that we would be sitting here talking about NATO in Afghanistan? It means that NATO has modernized. It means that NATO has transformed. It means that NATO has gone from a very successful alliance in resisting communism and indeed contributing to communism's downfall in Europe, to being an instrument by which democratic governments are helping another young democracy emerge in Afghanistan.

We have a lot of work to do. I do not think we are by any means out of the woods militarily, and that's why military contributions are important. But we are also making important contributions to the economic development and reconstruction of Afghanistan and this comprehensive approach to Afghanistan should help the Afghan people to look back as East Europeans do now on NATO, to look back several years from now and say NATO helped us secure our democratic future.

QUESTION: Thank you so much, Madame Secretary.

SECRETARY RICE: Thank you very much.

2006/T5-3

Released on April 26, 2007

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