U.S. State Dept Daily Press Briefing: 24 July 2007

12:36 p.m. EDT

Daily Press Briefing: Sean McCormack, Spokesman, Washington, DC July 24, 2007

INDEX:

DEPARTMENT
Travel Announcements for Secretary Rice and Deputy Secretary Negroponte

ASIA
Deputy Secretary Negroponte Will Represent the U.S. at ASEAN Meetings
Secretary Rice Unable to Attend ASEAN / Will Travel with Secretary Gates to the Middle East
U.S. is Good Partner in Region on Political, Diplomatic and Economic Fronts

MIDDLE EAST
Secretary Rice Will Talk to PM Olmert and President Abbas
Attempt to Move Forward In Political Track with Israelis and Palestinians
Talk With Egypt and Saudi Leaders About Support of Iraq
U.S. Would Like Widespread Participation in This Meeting

IRAQ/IRAN
Ambassador Crocker's Talks with Iranians in Baghdad
Results Uncertain / Up To Iranian Government
Iranian Government Policy and Our Policy on Iraq Are Opposite
Changing Behavior is in Iran's Interest

LIBYA
Release of Bulgarian Nurses and Doctor Closes Painful Chapter
U.S. Helped Develop Benghazi International Fund to Treat AIDS
Victims U.S. Provided $300,000 to Baylor College of Medicine's AIDS Initiative

INDIA
U.S. - India Civil Nuclear Arrangement / No New Information

NORTH KOREA
Bipartisan Commission to Reunite Korean Americans with Families

TAIWAN
Presidential Candidate Frank Hsieh Will Visit a Number of U.S. Cities

KOSOVO
Kosovo Should be Independent Based on Ahtisaari Plan

TRANSCRIPT:

MR. MCCORMACK: Good afternoon, everybody. I have a couple of travel announcements for you -- one involving the Secretary, one involving the Deputy Secretary.

The first one: Secretary Rice travel to the Middle East. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will travel to the Middle East from July 30th to August 2nd, 2007. During her stops in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt and Jeddah, Saudi Arabia she will be accompanied by Secretary of Defense Robert Gates; the two will meet with their counterparts to discuss the ways in which Iraq's neighbors can help advance the cause of security and stability in that country. While in Sharm el-Sheikh, Secretary Rice will meet with the Foreign Ministers of the Gulf Cooperation Council countries, Egypt and Jordan to consult on regional issues. Secretary Rice will then travel separately to Jerusalem and Ramallah for meetings with Israeli and Palestinian officials where they'll continue discussions on the development of a political horizon.

And the second I have for you is Deputy Secretary of State Negroponte to lead U.S. delegation to the ASEAN meetings. Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte will lead the U.S. delegation to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, ASEAN, Regional Foreign Ministerial Meeting and the ASEAN Post-Ministerial Conference. Both events will take place in Manila, Philippines August 1st through the 2nd, 2007. Prior to the ASEAN meetings the Deputy Secretary will hold bilateral consultations with the Government of the Philippines on July 31st. Deputy Secretary Negroponte was the United States Ambassador to the Philippines from 1993 to 1996, just a little fact I laid for you all out there. And then after the ASEAN meetings, the Deputy Secretary will travel to Tokyo, August 2nd to 4th, for discussions with the Japanese Government on bilateral issues. And with that I'm happy to take your questions.

QUESTION: Can you give us a preview of the skit that the Deputy Secretary will do after the dinner? (Laughter.)

MR. MCCORMACK: That, I'm afraid, Matt is highly classified. You know, in fairness to the Deputy Secretary, I don't know if he is going to do a skit or not so --

QUESTION: What does this say about the U.S. engagement, involvement in Southeast Asia that the Secretary for the second time will not be attending this meeting at a time when things in Asia are -- at least North Asia with North Korea, which does attend this meeting, are percolating?

MR. MCCORMACK: Right. Look, I don't think anybody really seriously questions our engagement in Southeast Asia. We have deep involvement with not only ASEAN but with the individual countries in Southeast Asia. She did attend last year's meeting and I expect that she will at some point in the next 18 months travel to Southeast Asia as well. I believe when she talked to the Philippine Foreign Minister she told the Foreign Minister that she would look for an opportunity to travel to the Philippines, the host of this meeting.

Look, Deputy Secretary Negroponte will ably and fully represent the United States at this meeting. She regrets -- Secretary Rice regrets that she won't be able to travel to the ASEAN meeting. It is the press of other business. I don't think it has to do with the importance of the business necessarily, but I think the timing of it -- it's important that at this time the Secretary travel on this -- on the trip to the Middle East with Secretary Gates to talk about a number of different issues concerning the Middle East, importantly about Iraq. And that is something given their travel schedules that really has to happen in this timeframe.

So she very much looks forward to traveling again in the future to Southeast Asia, but unfortunately at this time it just wasn't possible.

QUESTION: And she seems to be sending her regrets to a lot of places these days. Does she recognize the fact that, you know, this -- yesterday you talked about how sometimes in diplomacy, face-to-face meetings, you were discussing the Iran --

MR. MCCORMACK: Right.

QUESTION: -- meeting at the time. But sometimes that those are appropriate and you get most -- you know, they improve the situation. I'm just curious as to, you know, why it is that she thinks that it's -- why she thinks it’s a better use of her time to not go, say, to Africa or to not go to Southeast Asia for a big meeting that's traditionally, you know, been the premier Southeast Asian security event?

MR. MCCORMACK: Look, these are hard calls, Matt. I don't think it's any secret that some of the United States equities in the Middle East, in particular, in Iraq as well as trying to push forward the Israeli-Palestinian political track are very important not only to us, but to the region and I would argue for everyone around the globe that you have a more stable, prosperous, peaceful Middle East. We're trying to put the region onto that foundation or lay a foundation for the Middle East, so at some point, the people of that region can realize a different kind of future, which will benefit not only them, but the rest of the globe.

This isn't to say that there aren't important issues, critically important issues, for example, in Africa or in Southeast Asia. It's just the timing is such that her presence in Washington, in the case of Africa, and in the Middle East, in the case of the ASEAN meeting, is needed elsewhere.

QUESTION: So after the fact that she actually wasn't in Washington when she was supposed to be at the AGOA -- that she was in Portugal. And --

MR. MCCORMACK: Well, the -- there was -- you were referring to the Democratic Republic of the Congo as well as to the AGOA Forum. And again, that was -- she was in Portugal to deal with issues related to the Middle East and to move that track forward.

QUESTION: And I just suppose -- and I'll drop it after this -- but I just suppose there was no -- there was no way, you know, the President announced that she and Gates would be going to the region more than ten days ago at least and there was no way to put it back to the third or fourth of August, so that she could have done both.

MR. MCCORMACK: Matt, this is what worked best for both of their schedules. And again, we're also talking about the general timeframe. It's no secret, again, that we're engaged in a national discussion, national debate about Iraq, as well as the Middle East more widely and the important issues there about -- concerning supporting those who are fighting violent extremism in the region. These are critically important issues for our country and for other countries around the globe. And I think that most understand the reasons why she had to postpone travel to both Africa as well as Southeast Asia. I saw some comments out of Singapore exactly to that effect. They understand.

It certainly is not intended in any way to diminish our regard for the nations of those two regions: Africa or Southeast Asia. But sometimes you have to make difficult calls in terms of where at a particular moment you focus your attentions and that's what the Secretary had to do. She fully expects to travel to Africa and to be able to spend some quality time in Africa and at each of those stops -- something that wasn't going to be possible on the last trip as it was planned. And I -- as I said, I fully expect that she's going to be traveling to Southeast Asia some time between now and the end of her tenure as Secretary of State as well.

Yeah, Sylvie.

QUESTION: Can we go back to the trip she expect to make in the Middle East?

MR. MCCORMACK: Mm-hmm.

QUESTION: Is it merely a trip for preparing the conference you want to organize in the fall or is it a trip where she expect to reach any special achievement? Do you have any precise goal to be this trip?

MR. MCCORMACK: Well, she's going to talk about a whole bundle of issues related to the Middle East. She's going to obviously touch on the meeting that the President announced will be held in the fall time about moving forward the political track between the Israelis and the Palestinians and we hope between the Israelis and the Arab states. So that's going to be one set of issues.

She's going to talk to Prime Minister Olmert and President Abbas about how they can move forward their political track, where they stand in their discussions and how we can help them move forward. She's going to be talking with both Egypt and Saudi leaders in conjunction with Secretary of Defense Gates specifically on issues related to Iraq and how Iraq's neighbors can support that country, support the Iraqi people and be active participants in helping the Iraqis build a better future. I expect they will also touch on Israeli-Palestinian issues, Israeli-Arab issues, and I'm sure that they will probably also touch upon this meeting that is planned for the fall time. In the Gulf Cooperation Council meeting with Egypt and Jordan, I would expect that all of the above are going to be topics for discussion.

Yeah.

QUESTION: There is no special objective, precise objective she wants to achieve?

MR. MCCORMACK: Well, all of this -- you know, all of this, all of these engagements, all of these trips, all of these meetings, all of these discussions with these leaders are to talk about concrete ways in which they can act to move the process forward. Ultimately, this will come down to Palestinians, Israelis and Arab leaders making tough decisions about how to bring about a more peaceful Middle East. We're going to be right there with them. We're going to be pushing. We're going to be prodding, cajoling, encouraging and doing what we can to move that process forward and all of these meetings are part of that process.

Yeah.

QUESTION: Sean, is the Secretary of State having a trilateral with Abbas-Olmert to herself or is she going to meet, you know, separately with them?

MR. MCCORMACK: Let me check with her. I'll talk to her, see what her plans are. That is something certainly in terms of trilateral meetings from time to time I expect that she is going to do. She did one several months ago. I can't remember exactly when. Don't have the date here. During that period of time, President Abbas and Prime Minister Olmert have met. We wanted some of those meetings to take place, so I'll talk to her and see if whether or not now is the right time for one of those trilateral meetings.

QUESTION: What would the purpose be of a trilateral?

MR. MCCORMACK: Well, that's why I have to talk to her about it, Sue, to see if she thinks that now is the right time to bring them together. I can't tell you that it will be.

QUESTION: And what overall is the purpose of -- is this just -- just to see where you are in terms of pushing the process forward? Are you going to be going with anything specific?

MR. MCCORMACK: Yeah, well, anytime the Secretary travels and has meetings, she goes in there with a specific purpose. I can assure you every single meeting that she has, she thinks about what she wants to achieve in those meetings and how that fits into a larger goal. Now it's not always readily apparent in terms of generating news headlines, but when you go back and draw the history of this, you can see how putting in place little building blocks or little steps adds up to some larger goal.

So she's going to be going there, certainly, with specifics that she wants to engage with both the Israelis and the Palestinians on, as well as in all the other meetings. And to the extent she is ready to talk about those after the meetings and about what she thinks we have achieved, we'll all learn when we're on the road.

QUESTION: But she's not going there to talk about, sort of, final status issues or anything like that?

MR. MCCORMACK: Hey, she's going to go there to talk about how to move forward the political track. President Bush talked about this in his speech and I think he outlined very clearly where we are and how we want to push the process forward. He outlined that vision in conjunction with Secretary Rice. They talked a lot about that speech. It's a shared vision between the President and the Secretary in terms of moving this political process forward and we'll see, when she's on the road, how much she wants to talk to you guys about what specifically she has talked about with her counterparts.

QUESTION: So is she also going to be looking at specifics for the conference at the -- in the fall of the meeting or where it's going to be?

MR. MCCORMACK: That's where all of this is, in part, leading. I think she can talk about it in general terms. I don't know if she has any more specifics at this point that she will be talking to them about, but that's, in part, where this is headed. The meeting is a mechanism through which we can all try to move forward a political track.

QUESTION: And just to go back to the Asia Regional Forum with China gaining more influence, is there not a risk that by skipping these important conferences, you're sort of ceding influence -- more influence to China and reducing your own power in the world?

MR. MCCORMACK: Well, Deputy Secretary Negroponte is a polite man, so on his behalf, I will say I don't think his attendance at the ASEAN Regional Forum would count as skipping it. I think that he will --

QUESTION: I mean the principal.

MR. MCCORMACK: Right, Secretary Rice. Well, we talked and we talked quite a bit about that. I went into a lengthy answer with Matt, I think, on the Secretary's decision. Look, I don't think that there's any confusion in the region about the United States as a good partner not only on the political and diplomatic fronts, but on the economic fronts. We have a huge amount of trade with countries of this region. We have a tremendous number of exchanges. You still have the United States serving as a magnet for students who want to come to the United States to study and it -- that's in -- that is -- in part, lays a solid foundation for a long and good continuing relationship between the United States and the states of the Southeast Asian region.

QUESTION: And in terms of China?

MR. MCCORMACK: In terms of China?

QUESTION: Yeah. You know, you're ceding influence to China.

MR. MCCORMACK: Oh, I don't think anybody seriously believes that.

Yeah, James.

QUESTION: Change of subject?

QUESTION: Oh, wait, can I just -- Chris Hill will be at the ASEAN thing too, right?

MR. MCCORMACK: I believe he will be.

QUESTION: And just on the meeting in the fall and her trip with Gates, are there GCC countries that you would like to see participate in the conference?

MR. MCCORMACK: We've talked about the fact that we'd like to have very widespread participation in this meeting. And the President outlined the criteria that we think are reasonable for states to abide by if they want to attend this meeting. We're going to talk to them. We have a whole different -- you know, one of the common misconceptions about interactions between Israel and Arab states is that there is a -- there's actually a wide spectrum of interactions between Israel and Arab states. It goes all the way from full, normalized, in-public diplomatic relations -- you know, Egypt and Jordan are two examples, two examples of that.

You have other countries that talk about their interactions with the Israelis, but they don't really do so in a very high profile way. And then there are states that have no interactions whatsoever with the Israeli Government. So we'll see over the coming months. We want to try to encourage as many states as possible to buy in to this political mechanism. It's going to be critically important for not only Israelis but also for Palestinians that they have the support of states in the region, Arab states, as they move forward and try to make some very difficult political decisions for both populations.

QUESTION: So is she going with embossed invitations or anything like that?

MR. MCCORMACK: (Laughter.) We haven't printed up the invitations yet.

Okay, anything else on this? Rosen, you have the floor.

QUESTION: On the Iran-Iraq-U.S. talks in Baghdad today, first, are you satisfied that you met whatever goals that you had for this meeting?

MR. MCCORMACK: Well, in terms of Ryan, our Ambassador Crocker -- Ryan Crocker -- being able to convey our views directly to Iranian Government representatives, yes. Now, the larger question I think that underpins what you've just asked is: Are we going to see any results from the Iranian Government? Are we going to see any change in behavior? That I can't tell you. We shall see. That's going to be entirely up to the Iranian Government whether or not we see any change in behavior, whether or not their actions match their stated policy aims of strategic stability in Iraq.

QUESTION: I know you recoil when I sometimes adopt a faux populist hardhat approach to the questioning, but indulge me just this once if you will. Probably the pharmaceutical --

MR. MCCORMACK: When is the last time you wore a hardhat -- (laughter) -- Rosen? That's why -- those are some pretty soft hands right there.

QUESTION: If I were, say the chief of police in a major city and they were a criminal organization that had wiped out 200 of my guys, my officers, my police officers, and I use that figure of 200 because MNFI briefings over the last month have estimated that at least 200 U.S. service personnel deaths can be traced back to Iranian activity.

MR. MCCORMACK: Mm-hmm.

QUESTION: I would imagine that I would be doing more about it than dithering around with meetings in which you politely say things -- this has got to stop. And so I wonder if you can explain, you know, to the public that might be puzzled about this policy, why we're not taking it directly to the Iranians if, in fact, they're responsible for 200 military deaths at least, which is a number almost the same as Hezbollah did in the Marine barracks bombing of 1983?

MR. MCCORMACK: Well, I think if you talk to MNFI they are working actively to break up these networks and to prevent the kind of -- the very kind of attacks that you are talking about. They have conducted numerous raids and they can talk to you about them. I think they have done so in public. And there are people who have been detained and who are still detained, who we believe are connected to these networks. Now, those are people who are not going to be able to facilitate these kinds of attacks on our troops. So our military is very active in engaging on the ground to try to break up these networks and to prevent these attacks.

Now, what's the State Department part of this? We want -- you know, there is a diplomatic component to this and what you've seen -- you've seen that diplomatic component and that is engaging with the Iranians very directly and say, "You have interest here. Everybody has an interest in a stable, secure Iraq."

Now with -- in terms of stated Iranian Government policy and our vision for the Middle East, our vision for Iraq, you can say that those visions are nearly 180 degrees completely opposite. But there may be some area in which there is an interest in both sides in seeing a more stable, secure Iraq. I think you can make that argument. Iran and Iraq are neighbors; that's not going to change And I would suspect that the Iranian people don't want to see violence and instability on their border; nobody wants to see that. We certainly want to see a different kind of Iraq. So this is one component of the U.S. Government's efforts to try to bring about what is the strategic objective and that is a stable, secure Iraq. Inasmuch as we in the State Department can help affect that, we're going to do so. And that's what you saw Ryan Crocker doing today.

QUESTION: It strikes me that the implicit underlying assumption of your answer is that American policy is that merely breaking up these networks, detaining those individuals who may be involved in them, and interdicting their efforts somehow, should be enough to compel the Iranians to stop engaging in that activity as opposed to pursuing some sort of punitive measures against Iran or like measures against Iran.

MR. MCCORMACK: Well, what I can say, James, is that the Iranian Government through a variety of different behaviors, not only in Iraq but more widely throughout the Middle East and in their own country, are pursuing policies that really have brought a dark cloud over the Iranian nation and the Iranian people. And that is a result solely of the actions and the policies of this particular Iranian regime. You would think that it would be in their interest to take some positive steps across a variety of different fronts to demonstrate to the rest of the world that they are not going to engage in behaviors that are clearly outside the accepted norms of international behavior.

So it would be -- it is in their interest. We can't compel them to change their policies. Those are going to be decisions that ultimately the Iranian regime is going to have to take for itself. But what we can do is create conditions in which it is in their interest to change those policies. And at the same time, we can also make it more difficult or impossible for them to engage in activities that are harmful to our interest, harmful to the interest of our friends and allies in the region. So you pursue this -- you pursue an Iran policy across a broad spectrum; now, Iraq is one part of that. One thing we have said is we're not going to start trading off the interests of one people, one nation, against another set of interests. So that's why you have the narrow engagement of Ryan Crocker on Iraq through this channel and why we're dealing with the nuclear issue in a separate channel and then other kinds of issues more broadly and in other fora.

Yeah.

QUESTION: Following the same question, what makes you really think that a stable, secure Iraq would be in the benefit of the Iranian regime because nothing has been changed within the last meeting of Ambassador Crocker with his Iranian counterpart until today after this meeting? Is there anything that goes behind the scene, as example, regarding the 200 American troops have been killed? And are you talking about this thing that is somehow some kind of war against United States, because when the United States -- you -- American troop has been killed over there, they enter to a framework of some kind of war?

MR. MCCORMACK: Well, in terms of the motivations of the Iranian regime, I can't tell you. I don't know. You'll have to ask them. It's an opaque decision-making process and I can't tell you what goes into their thinking. In terms of changing their behavior, I made it very clear in my previous answer that we are trying to create the conditions in which the reasonable people within the Iranian leadership will see it in their interest to change their behavior. And that's what we're trying to do across a whole variety of fronts.

As for whether or not the Iranian Government sees it in their interest to have a stable Iraq on their border, I would think that that is in their interest I think any state would rather have a more stable situation on their border than a less stable situation if, in fact, that is -- and that's their -- that is their stated policy. If their thinking is otherwise, again, I can't describe for you what would -- what motivations would underpin such a policy.

Yeah, Sue.

QUESTION: Different issue. On Libya, how much did the U.S. put into the humanitarian fund for the Libyans? I seem to remember a couple of weeks ago, you said -- was it tens of thousands? Do you have a figure?

MR. MCCORMACK: What -- at the briefing, I was asked about this and off the top of my head, I seem to remember about 50,000, but let me check for you. And I think what we have done is contribute 300,000 to the -- let me get this for you. Let's see, Benghazi -- we helped develop the -- I want to get the languages right here -- U.S. helped develop the Benghazi International Fund along with other members of the international community and Libyan parties. The fund was established in January 2006 as an international NGO to help develop local medical infrastructure, improve treatment of patients, and help the affected Libyan families. And so that was our diplomatic support to it.

Now in terms of our financial support, we provided the Baylor College of Medicine's Pediatric AIDS Initiative with $300,000. I think it was actually broken up in tranches. That's where I got the 50,000.

QUESTION: Right.

MR. MCCORMACK: I think we added to it -- to establish a program in Benghazi to provide treatment to the victims. So this -- so we view this contribution to the Baylor Medical College fund, which I think was a preexisting program, as part of an effort to support this overall Benghazi International Fund, as it's getting at the same issue: how do you help out those -- (a), help out the families that have been affected in terms of any children that may still be suffering from AIDS and how do you go about treating those children, then how do you go about preventing any further such occurrences.

QUESTION: But the U.S. didn't actually directly put money into the development fund -- into the entire (inaudible)?

MR. MCCORMACK: No, this is our only --

QUESTION: Okay.

MR. MCCORMACK: -- financial contribution.

QUESTION: And the EU fund -- this is the same thing, I suppose?

MR. MCCORMACK: The EU fund, you can talk to the folks at the EU or the individual governments about what they may or may not have contributed.

QUESTION: You haven't contributed towards that?

MR. MCCORMACK: Not to my knowledge, no. To my knowledge, this is -- this is -- this was it.

QUESTION: Okay. Thank you.

QUESTION: They didn't request any contribution from U.S.?

MR. MCCORMACK: Not that I know of.

QUESTION: I'm a little confused, Sean, sorry. 300,000 overall are -- and 50 of that to -- through the Baylor College of Medicine fund?

MR. MCCORMACK: No, it's 300,000 to the Baylor College of Medicine's Pediatric AIDS initiative. I was merely trying to account for my faulty memory earlier when I said 50,000. I think what happened was that there was an initial contribution of 50,000 to the Baylor program and then we upped it, which resulted in a total contribution of 300,000.

QUESTION: A follow-up, Mr. McCormack?

MR. MCCORMACK: Yep. Anything else on this?

QUESTION: On the same issue.

MR. MCCORMACK: Lambros.

QUESTION: Anything to say about the release, finally, of five Bulgarian nurses and the Palestinian doctor who arrived in Sofia, Bulgaria, escorted, to my surprise, by the First Lady of France Cecilia Sarkozy, who completed the final immigration in Tripoli?

MR. MCCORMACK: Well, I think that our reaction is the same of everybody else around the globe, that a painful chapter in the history of Bulgaria and the history of Libya has finally been closed, and that there's no -- there's nothing that will take away from the suffering of those families who lost children in this and there's nothing that can restore that time that families of these medical personnel lost with their loved ones. But now, we can finally get to the point where everybody involved in this situation can move on and move forward. And we're very happy for that, quite -- we're quite pleased for that.

And Secretary Rice spoke with Bulgarian Foreign Minister Kalfin today. He called her and it was a very kind and courteous gesture on his part. He thanked Secretary Rice for her personal involvement on this issue. It was something she raised every single time she met with a Libyan official. And he also thanked the U.S. Government for their continued support to seek a resolution to this issue.

Yeah, James.

QUESTION: Sean, can you tell us anything more than what you had to say that -- at this morning's briefing about whether or not Libya has completed all of the steps it was supposed to complete --

MR. MCCORMACK: Oh, sorry, James. I --

QUESTION: -- as part of its dismantlement of weapons?

MR. MCCORMACK: Let me look into that.

QUESTION: Okay.

MR. MCCORMACK: We'll get you an answer.

Yeah.

QUESTION: Is the Secretary going to react personally? She's going to --

MR. MCCORMACK: Yeah, we -- I will have a statement hopefully in the not-too-distant future in the Secretary's name. We just want her to take a look at what we've drafted up.

Yeah.

QUESTION: Sean.

MR. MCCORMACK: Goyal.

QUESTION: Thank you, Sean. As far as this U.S.-India Civil Nuclear Agreement, so much has been written and said --

MR. MCCORMACK: Right.

QUESTION: -- and there is a statement also from the State Department.

MR. MCCORMACK: Right.

QUESTION: July 20th, a delegation from India met here with the --

MR. MCCORMACK: Right, okay. I sense a long windup. Let's shorten it down.

QUESTION: Yes. Yes, sir. The question is that -- have you hammered out all those problems between the two countries that India and the U.S. did not agree from this agreement? And --

MR. MCCORMACK: Right, we --

QUESTION: -- the Secretary is going to India to sign the agreement?

MR. MCCORMACK: Well, we put out a statement on Friday about the state of discussions between the Indian and the American side on this. At this point, I don't have anything to add to that statement. I would expect in the coming days, perhaps we will, but at -- right now, I don't. As for the Secretary's traveling to India, I expect that she will at some point. I can't tell you when. That's not been scheduled, but she looks forward to traveling to India again.

QUESTION: Second different question if I may, please?

MR. MCCORMACK: No, no, no, no, no, that's it.

Yeah.

QUESTION: Again, North Korea. Congressmen Kirk and Matheson, they launched a bipartisan commission to help to reunite Korean Americans with their families in North Korea. Is the State Department involved in any way and how would you support such an effort?

MR. MCCORMACK: Let me check it out. First I've heard of it. I will check it out for you and see what our answer is.

Yes.

QUESTION: Do you have anything or if you could confirm whether or not Under Secretary Burns met with Frank Hsieh, who is running for the presidency of Taiwan?

MR. MCCORMACK: I have some words for you here. We understand that Democratic Progress Party presidential candidate Frank Hsieh will be visiting a number of U.S. cities from July 23rd to July 31st. You can talk to the -- Taiwan's representative for details of his schedule. As for any questions related to meetings with Administration officials, I would say only that, as you know, members of the Administration meet from time to time with representatives of Taiwan, but we do not comment on specifics.

Well, we got one more here.

QUESTION: I believe it was Saturday The New York Times quoted Ambassador Vitaly Churkin saying that supporting independence for Kosovo would encourage separatist movements elsewhere. So I wondered if you'd comment on that and on yesterday's meeting between Secretary Rice and the Kosovo Unity Team and is it --

MR. MCCORMACK: I talked a lot about this yesterday.

QUESTION: I know. I missed it, unfortunately --

MR. MCCORMACK: Happy to repeat it for you.

QUESTION: Are we considering a --

MR. MCCORMACK: Not all of it. Don't worry, Charlie. Not all of it. (Laughter.)

QUESTION: -- a unilateral recognition?

MR. MCCORMACK: Look, you know, President Bush outlined where the end point of this process is, as far as we're concerned. He talked about that in June in Germany. And what he said is that Kosovo should be independent based on the Ahtisaari plan. Now, the question is in terms of the diplomacy: How do you get from where we are now to that end point? And that's the process that we as well as the Europeans, the Russians, the Serbians, Kosovars, as well as everybody else is engaged. We don’t think it's in anybody's interest to short-circuit the ongoing diplomacy at this point. And our view is that the situation is inherently unstable and that absent a resolution, absent a political resolution, you are in fact going to see an outbreak of violence as we saw eight years ago, ten years ago. So we think it's in the interest of the Kosovars, the Serbs, as well as everybody in the region, Europe as a whole, to see a final political resolution to this issue.

Thanks.

(The briefing was concluded at 1:10 p.m.)

ENDS

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