Rice Remarks at NATO Ministerial in Oslo

Remarks at NATO Ministerial in Oslo

Secretary Condoleezza Rice
Oslo, Norway
April 26, 2007

SECRETARY RICE: I would like to begin by thanking Norway for organizing the NATO ministerial here in Oslo. We've just completed a very good set of meetings in the NAC. Those meetings were devoted to the discussion of our joint enterprise in Afghanistan, critically -- clearly the most critical mission that the alliance is engaged in at this point. We had an extensive discussion of alliance commitments, of the comprehensive approach that we are using to provide security but also reconstruction and development for the Afghan people in support of their democracy and in support of their fight against terrorism.

We also had a very good discussion of missile defense. I was able to talk about the consultations that we have been having here in NATO, but also the consultations that we have been having with Russia on the possibilities for cooperation in missile defense, having just spoken as I did yesterday with Secretary of Defense Gates who was in Moscow to continue those discussions.

And so it was a very good session for the alliance and we look forward to the NATO- Russia Council later on this evening and then just after that to a transatlantic dinner. Thank you very much.

MR. MCCORMACK: We have time for just a couple of questions. David Milliken, please.

QUESTION: Secretary Rice, were you disappointed by the remarks from President Putin today where he renewed his criticism of this missile defense plan despite all of the consultations there have been, and where he made this threat to impose a moratorium on Russia adherence to the CFE?

SECRETARY RICE: Well, I continue to hope that Russia will recognize that we are in a different threat environment. We are certainly not in the situation in which the United States and the Soviet Union were adversaries. We are not adversaries of Russia, but we face common threats.

Secretary Gates felt that he had very good consultations in Moscow, and of course I will be in Moscow shortly, in a couple of weeks, and we will continue those discussions. Secretary Gates offered to have continued consultations particularly on matters concerning where this system will be going. And as to President Putin's comments about CFE, of course these are treaty obligations and everyone is expected to live up to treaty obligations. But I'm certain we will hear more from Minister Lavrov about precisely what President Putin had in mind.

MR. MCCORMACK: Financial Times.

QUESTION: Dan Dombey, Financial Times. Secretary, today the Iranian side came up with some positive language after their meeting with Mr. Solana in Ankara talking about new thinking. Have you seen any signs at all or grounds for an understanding between the Iranians and the rest of the world? Have you seen any signs of flexibility?

SECRETARY RICE: Well, I've not yet seen signs of flexibility, but of course I have not had an opportunity -- none of us have had an opportunity to talk with Javier Solana. And he went with the confidence of all of the six parties to try and come to a way to negotiate a way forward with Iran so that Iran could have civil nuclear power not based on the fuel cycle.

I think the point to underscore though is that now two Security Council resolutions, an IAEA Board of Governors resolution, and in fact the basis for the EU talks prior to those resolutions was to have a suspension of enrichment and reprocessing while any discussions would go forward. And that bottom line has to be met because it does not make sense really to have a set of negotiations while enriching and reprocessing continues to go on.

So I don't know what the outcome of the talks is. I hope that in fact they were positive. But we have a very clear bottom line when it comes to what needs to happen.

MR. MCCORMACK: Okay, just one more, right here in the middle. Yes, sir.

QUESTION: (Inaudible) Press Agency. Secretary Rice, are you concerned that the Russians latest position on missile defense might lead to a price paying for Kosovo status, especially to the U.S. timetable set?

SECRETARY RICE: On Kosovo?

QUESTION: Yes.

SECRETARY RICE: Well, the United Nations Representative Mr. Ahtisaari did his report. It was a very good report. The United States and Europe have been very supportive of that report and of its implications. We now are in the process of working with all the parties. This will have to go to the UN Security Council.

But we aren't going to improve the possibilities for a stable situation in the Balkans by delay. We are going to have to act. We are working with the parties, with the Kosovar government which will have to take some understandings, some obligations about the protection of minority rights, about the protection of religious sites, about really how to build a multiethnic state.

We also are working and talking with the Serbs so Serbia has nothing to fear from the international community. It has everything to gain by closer association with Europe and with European institutions. I think we've made that very by the extension of Partnership for Peace to Serbia at a recent NATO ministerial and we would hope that Serbia's European perspective would give it an understanding of how the Balkans can be stable. But we are going to gain nothing by a delay and we are working now with members of the Contact Group and with -- we'll be working shortly with members of the Security Council to move forward.

MR. MCCORMACK: Okay, thank you very much.

SECRETARY RICE: Thank you very much.

2006/T5-4

Released on April 26, 2007

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