U.S. Foreign Policy

3:30 P.M. EDT

MR. DENIG: Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the Washington Foreign Press Center. We are very pleased this afternoon to welcome back to our podium -- in fact, our brand new podium -- the Deputy Spokesman for the Department of State, Mr. Philip Reeker.

And Phil, I will let you take over.

MR. REEKER: Thank you, Paul, and thank you for the new podium. If there is one thing that I accomplished during my time as the Deputy Spokesman and the Deputy Assistant Secretary overseeing the Foreign Press Center is its getting this new podium.

(Laughter.)

It’s a big podium and that's what I think this place needs, so terrific. And I am glad to see that the podium has been getting a good workout. I know a lot of you were here for Ambassador Bremer's briefing earlier in the week, and I hope we are continuing to meet your needs by bringing to you speakers and briefers of great interest, and we will continue to do that throughout the summer.

It is great to see some new faces; our new colleagues here like Dale Prince who is joining us at the Foreign Press Center, a colleague of longstanding of mine, so terrific. Well, why don't we cut right to it?

I think you are all aware of the Secretary's schedule. He has had a busy week. He just met with the Turkish Foreign Minister, Mr. Gul. They had lunch and a long meeting and had some remarks outside the State Department after that, obviously covering a lot of regional and bilateral issues with our close friend and ally, Turkey.

And then later this afternoon, the Secretary is meeting with the Premier of Serbia and the Foreign Minister of Serbia and Montenegro, so that’s another part of the world that we are focusing on. Obviously Africa is in the news along with many other regions, issues connected with Iraq are of course there. I hope I am not bumping up against Secretary Rumsfeld's briefing that was continuing up until a few minutes ago. --

Why don't we just go straight to your questions? We can start in the front and move back, or however you would like to do it. We will start with this lady right here.

QUESTION: Thank you. Dubravka Savic, Belgrade daily Vecernje Novosti. Of course, a question on Prime Minister of Serbia. What questions will be raised this afternoon and what are expectations of this visit?

MR. REEKER: Well, I think the overriding importance of the visit is an opportunity to underscore our strong commitment to the continued democratic reforms in Serbia and Montenegro. Many of those were initiated after the assassination of Serbian Prime Minister Djindjic, but the movement toward integration with EuroAtlantic institutions, you know, is a priority for the United States; to see Serbia and Montenegro move in that direction, and, of course, continued stability and economic growth is important there. I think we will impress upon the Foreign Minister and the Prime Minister of Serbia the importance of cooperation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, that is, the Hague Tribunal, and that includes the apprehension and transfer of Radko Mladic, and urge them to continue the reforms that were initiated by Prime Minister Djindjic.

And I think the Serbian people, the people of Serbia and Montenegro altogether have indicated the strong desire to press forward in that vein. So this is the first visit of Prime Minister Zivkovic to Washington since he took over his appointment as Prime Minister following the assassination in March, and so it's a good opportunity for us to show our continued support for Serbia and Montenegro. As you know, the Secretary was in Belgrade briefly during one of his recent trips this spring, and we will continue to discuss all those issues.

Sir.

QUESTION: Thank you, Phil. This is Vincent Chang with the United Daily News, Taiwan. There is a high level Taiwanese delegation visiting here. The delegation is led by the Secretary General to Taiwan's Presidential Office. And it is said that Secretary Armitage and other senior U.S. officials are going to receive them while -- and discuss issues of mutual concerns. I'm just wondering if you can comment on that?

MR. REEKER: I would have to check and, to be honest, I don't know that. Deputy Secretary Armitage has been in Williamsburg for his meetings with his Russian counterpart for the last couple of days. I believe he just returned to Washington. And I am not aware of that on his schedule, but I would be happy to check and we can get you an answer on that.

QUESTION: Well -- I'm sorry. My second question is that President Chen of Taiwan seems very determined to hold referenda regardless of great U.S. concerns. Will the U.S. support his decision to hold referenda or is opposed to it?

MR. REEKER: Well, once again, I don't know where things stand in Taiwan particularly. Our policy has not changed at all. It is the same policy that we have had for many years, and the same policy that we have enunciated quite recently in other briefings.

I think you will all recall that President Chen said in his inaugural speech in 2000, in May of 2000, that he would not promote a referendum to change the status quo in regards to the question of independence or unification. As you know, you know, the United States does not support independence.

We certainly appreciated the pledge that he made in that address on his inauguration back in 2000. We take that seriously, and I think that's exactly where we stand. We have consistently urged that these types of issues be dealt with between both the PRC and Taiwan in terms of working to achieve a dialogue. And we think those kinds of efforts will need to continue.

So we support steps that foster dialogue and reduce tensions and emphasize peaceful resolution and promote mutual understanding, and urge both sides to refrain from actions of statements that increase tension or make the dialogue more difficult to achieve.

Margery.

QUESTION: Margery Friesner from ANSA, the Italian News Agency. Two quick questions, first of all, did the State Department have anything to do with the decision making process of publishing the photos of Saddam's sons? And second of all, will the administration make any promises to Abu Mazen about pressuring Israel on the prisoner issue and on the fence issue?

MR. REEKER: Okay, two separate areas. On the photo thing, I believe that was handled in defense channels with the Coalition Provisional Authority and through military channels, so I would refer you over there. I think Ambassador Bremer has been discussing those issues in the Defense Department. Secretary Rumsfeld has addressed them as well.

In terms of your other question and focusing on the Middle East, as you are aware, Palestinian Prime Minister Abbas is here in Washington now. He is going to meet the President tomorrow, the 25th. Of course, the President is also going to meet Israeli Prime Minister Sharon next week, next Tuesday, the 29th.

I think the Secretary has addressed where we are. We are pleased that we were able to see a transfer of security responsibilities in Gaza and Bethlehem. That has been important. We have seen progress on the roadmap. We are pleased at the level of cooperation on security matters, which is really vital to keeping this process going. The two sides have been working together with our monitoring group under Ambassador John Wolf, and that has been a positive thing.

The Israeli side has released some prisoners and are considering further releases. As the Secretary said, we would like to see more action in that regard. They have taken action with respect to some of the unauthorized outposts. We continue to pressure both sides to continue down the positive track of implementing the roadmap so that we can achieve the vision that the President has laid forth that you are familiar with. That can be done. The pace of that is going to depend on events on the ground and the parties themselves, but we will continue to remind both sides of their obligations, as well as the obligations of the other parties involved in this, including our own.

There has to be complete disarmament, demobilization, and dissolution of terrorist infrastructure. We have been very clear about that. A comprehensive cessation of violence and terror, I think, is something that is not an end unto itself, but is a first step in fulfilling the larger goals. So we look forward to those talks tomorrow. Clearly, there will be opportunities to do that.

The President has been clear about Israel's right to defend itself, but we also have said that Israel has an obligation to take steps to build confidence and facilitate progress towards a two-state solution that's been laid out by the President, that is the goal of the roadmap, and we have made clear some of the concerns that we have over the negative impact of construction of a security fence on Palestinian territory. I think that's something that will get discussed, obviously, in the meetings.

The Secretary said yesterday that we have been having conversations with our Israeli colleagues. That was during his meeting, or following his meeting with the Israeli Foreign Minister, Mr. Shalom, about that fence and the next phase of construction and whether we have to, as the Secretary put it, take a more serious, in-depth look at those construction activities and, as I just indicated earlier, to see whether or not that actually helps the process as we move forward, and whether any adjustments need to be made. We'll see where we go with that.

Yes, sir.

QUESTION: Kiyon Kuk, Segye Times, Korea. Is it your position that three party talks and five party talks to deal with North Korean nuclear issue should be held at the same time? Can you elaborate the sequence of the multilateral talks with North Korea?

MR. REEKER: Well, first of all, as we have made quite clear, the President is looking to solve the problem of North Korea's nuclear weapons program through a peaceful and diplomatic process, and that is a process that needs to involve those that are most affected by it -- the countries sharing the Korean Peninsula including South Korea, obviously Japan, China, Russia has an interest in this, Australia and the United States.

And that's why we have said that we believe it's time to pursue the multilateral talks that we have been focused on now for some time and have that at the level of at least five parties. We never ruled out more of the talks like the Beijing-style talks with three, a trilateral meeting as sort of one next step. But I think it's very clear that a lasting resolution, something that will help resolve the situation rests on those parties with a direct stake in the situation being part of the dialogue process. So our clearly stated preference is for five-party talks.

And once again, the goal of this, our goal, in working very closely with China and the other countries involved like South Korea and Japan is to have nuclear weapons-free Korean Peninsula and to see the complete, verifiable and irreversible dismantlement of North Korea's nuclear weapons program. So we will continue to see how we go there.

QUESTION: Are you considering to provide security assurance to North Korea if North Korea promise to dismantle its nuclear weapons program?

MR. REEKER: Well, I think, as we said so many times before, I can't offer you anything new. The President of the United States and other senior officials, Secretary Powell, have said and said repeatedly that we have no intention of invading North Korea. What we want is to see North Korea live up to its obligations to the international community to dismantle this nuclear weapons program.

And that's our goal -- working through this process of multilateral dialogue to reach that goal. And, as I said, we want to do that peacefully and diplomatically. So that's where things stand. We have been very appreciative of the work that China and, as you know, Vice Foreign Minister Dai was here almost a week ago at a long meeting with Secretary Powell and Deputy Secretary Armitage and other senior State Department officials, senior administration officials, to talk about this. And we have had excellent cooperation and we are very appreciative of the tremendous work that China has put in on this in terms of the diplomatic process so that we can move forward to deal with this problem in a diplomatic way.

Yes.

QUESTION: Masakatsu Ota, Kyodo News, Japanese news wire.

I just want to follow up on the previous question about the security guarantee issue. And we going to have this Saturday, 27th, I think, the 50th anniversary of the armistice treaty between the United States side -- actually, United Nations troops and the North Korean side. And do you have any idea, does the United States have any idea to replace this armistice treaty with the kind of a written document, you know, non-aggression pact which was -- which is being sought by North Korea? Do you have any idea on the --

MR. REEKER: I have never heard that come across my desk.

QUESTION: Okay. Also, one more question about the area. We had a very, very crucial meeting between Secretary Powell and the Vice President Cheney and also Dr. Rice with the Deputy Foreign Minister of China last Saturday, and the --

MR. REEKER: It was actually on Friday.

QUESTION: Oh, sorry, yes.

MR. REEKER: It was just mentioned in my last answer.

QUESTION: Yes, and if you can give us any update after that meeting and what kind of negotiation is going on, because we, since then, we have heard a very, very optimistic comment from Mr. Blair or some diplomat in Korea or Japan or, you know, in the weeks or -- several weeks or a kind of a very, very optimistic prospect going on. So could you tell us more? Could you elaborate more on the --

MR. REEKER: I don't think I can add more than what I did to your colleague's question. I think I covered that. We discussed that specific meeting. We continue to be in touch with China, with Chinese officials, with South Korea, with Japan, and obviously keeping in touch with others who have an interest in this subject. But I just don't think I have anything particularly new at this point.

We are working closely with China and South Korea and Japan and other countries to establish multilateral talks so that we can achieve the complete and verifiable and irreversible end to North Korea's nuclear weapons programs, elimination of those programs, and that's our goal, and to do that through a peaceful, diplomatic process.

QUESTION: Thank you. Samir Nader, Radio SAWA.

Can you give us an idea of -- on what Ambassador John Wolf is doing between Israel and the Palestinians? And when will be -- do you expect them to come back to Washington?

And another question: Is there any possibility that the Palestinian Prime Minister will stay for the visit of Prime Minister Sharon and they could have a trilateral meeting at the White House?

MR. REEKER: I have not heard of that, but you may want to ask the White House about White House meetings. But that's not something I've heard of, in answer to your second question.

In answer to your first question, Ambassador John Wolf is in the region now. He and his team, monitoring team, are working with both sides, with the Palestinians and with the Israelis, to help foster the security dialogue that has been crucial to some of the positive developments we have seen on the ground in the region. And I just can't give you a specific update on Ambassador Wolf's timetable. He's been back to Washington since he first went out and then he's returned to the region. And I think, as the Secretary said, he continues to play an important role. We are pleased with that. That is part of our living up to the obligations that we made to help participate in this to help the parties however we can.

So we'll look now to the upcoming meetings tomorrow and then again next week, and continue to encourage both sides to take the steps necessary, follow the roadmap, so that we can move ahead towards the goals that we all share.

Yes.

QUESTION: Ken Moriyasu of Nikkei, [Japan].

Going back to North Korea, you said you don't rule out the Beijing-style talks before you go to the five-way party. I was wondering, does the five-way party have to be on the same day as the trilateral or -- are you going to say yes, if they promise --

MR. REEKER: You guys have tried this, you know, at the Department and here, and I appreciate your trying to do that, but those are questions that just can't be answered. We have made clear what our policy is. We have made clear how we're pursuing this. And I just don't have anything else to add at this point. I can't offer you that kind of answer, so I really don't think there is anything more that I can add. You know, you can add every variable in the universe to this and come up with an endless stream of questions, and there are just not going to be ones I can answer.

Yes, sir.

QUESTION: Anthony Sipher with Yomiuri [Shimbun, Japan]. Phil, do you have an update on the meetings today in Freetown if we're in Liberia and where we're at with that?

MR. REEKER: I don't know that I have a specific update out of Freetown. But the Secretary, if you caught the question he got after meeting with the Turkish Foreign Minister, did discuss the Liberian situation a little bit. He said we have been working with the West African States, with the ECOWAS, as it's known, and also with the United Nations helping to prepare the West African troops to go into Monrovia to stabilize the situation.

I think it was good to see a lull in some of the fighting that had resumed in recent days. That will help the West Africans be able to move in. We have had teams in Freetown, as you have indicated, Sierra Leone, working with the Nigerians and to see what their needs are going to be.

As I said, the situation in Monrovia is generally calm, our embassy reports today. There has been some continued fighting between the government and rebel troops. But we are determining what's necessary at this point to help maintain the ceasefire, and to allow for a peaceful transfer of power. And we will try to facilitate the deployment of the West African troops, what they're calling a vanguard, a Nigerian peacekeeping battalion, which would move from Sierra Leone to Liberia.

And I would point out that as an initial contribution, the State Department is providing $10 million to support the effort, the ECOWAS effort, so we are providing financing to see that happen. I think achieving peace is the goal that we have in Liberia, stopping the bloodshed and addressing the broader humanitarian concerns that the whole world has been concerned about and witnessed.

And I would, once again, condemn the rebels from the LURD organization, the Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy, because they have continued some of their reckless and indiscriminate shelling, and that has got to stop. We had a ceasefire that all parties had agreed to. They had made commitments to each other, to the United States, to the West African States, and most importantly, to the people of Liberia. And they have got to live up to that commitment so we can all work to help them have a peaceful future and a transition to power.

Charles Taylor has got to leave, as he has committed to doing. That's going to be important. And we have been in direct contact certainly with the rebel leaders, Sekou Conneh included, to make sure that his group understands that they must abide by their self-proclaimed ceasefire. And Ambassador Blaney has been in contact in Monrovia with the government of Liberia to make sure that they understand their commitments as well.

QUESTION: Can you provide any detail on the distribution of the $10 million?

MR. REEKER: No, I don't think I could give you specific details. It's $10 million to be provided by the State Department to support the ECOWAS in terms of sending that vanguard troop into Liberia.

QUESTION: By the State Department?

MR. REEKER: By the State Department, yeah. So we will try to get more details on that in days. But that is illustrative of our commitment to helping this process in doing what we can, and we continue those talks that started your question. The talks in Freetown are aimed at what the needs are of the Nigerian battalion, of the other ECOWAS participants and how we can help them.

Sonia -- let me guess.

QUESTION: Please. (Laughter.) Yes, Sonia Schott, International Globovision, Venezuela. Mr. Reeker, how do they find the current relationships between Venezuela and the U.S.?

It is possible to speak on two levels, the energy level and the political level? The energy level is going more or less good, and the political level, no? And are you expecting that referendum is going to take place in Venezuela?

Thank you.

MR. REEKER: I'm not quite sure what you mean by the energy level. I guess you mean the trade in oil and products. That's something we leave to markets, and I would refer you to an analyst for the oil markets if you wanted an answer on that.

But in terms of our relationship with Venezuela, which we want to be a strong relationship and continuing with the tradition that we have had of a strong historic relationship with Venezuela, and we are urging both the government and the opposition to honor the commitments that they made, now about two months ago, back in May, specifically May 29th, in the agreement that they reached setting this framework for the recall referendum on President Chavez's continued tenure in office. That's allowed by the Venezuelan constitution. It's called for by the Organization of American States, which has been crucial in working with both sides in Venezuela to try to reach a solution.

And we want to reiterate, as we have earlier this week and before, the need for the national assembly in Venezuela to exercise their constitutional prerogative and finalize the election of a national electoral council. That is the step that really needs to take place so that this process can move forward. And I think the United States continues to believe, as the OAS has said, that an electoral solution is the best hope for the constitutional, democratic, peaceful and electoral solution that we have been calling for since the crisis emerged in Venezuela's political system. And that certainly is what is reflected in the OAS resolution -- I think it's number 833, if I remember -- it's the resolution that calls for that.

So that's what we'll continue to promote and we continue to want to see this type of resolution in Venezuela, and we will continue the strong tradition we have of good relations at all levels, including trade and economic relations.

Yes, sir, in the back.

QUESTION: Thank you. I am Tadashi Tabata, Asahi TV, Japan.

Russian television reported that a little while ago, Russian television reported earlier a while ago that United States Government agreed that three-party talks will be held first in Beijing and the next day six-parties talks will be held, including Japan, South Korea --

MR. REEKER: Six? We're up to six now? Okay? (Laughter.)

QUESTION: Mm-hmm. Russian TV reported that.

MR. REEKER: I missed Russian TV today. I'm sorry. I'll take your word for it. But I think I have to give you the same answer I gave your colleague. I've made quite clear what our policy is, what our goals are, how closely we're working with other countries, because this is a multilateral issue, this is an issue that affects people in the region as well as all of us around the world, and that's why we're so focused on having these talks include those whom the situation affects most closely. But I just don't have anything else to add at this point. I don't have any announcement to make or confirm any of the many, many reports, outside of Russian TV as well, speculating on what the next steps might be. I'm afraid I'm going to have to leave it where we are on what we would like the next steps to be and let you know that we're continuing to have a discussion with the parties involved and we'll see where we go.

QUESTION: And one question, Iraq, it's also one of the reports that IAEA senior official said that North Korea may declare the position of nuclear weapons actually on September 9th, which is National Foundation Day of North Korea.

Can you confirm this information? And how about your comment, particularly the United States is making an effort to hold three- and five-parties talks with North Korea? Does this declaration have any effect on the next roundtable?

MR. REEKER: I think you're speculating, but you're speculating on something that, as far as I understand, the North Koreans did long ago -- declared that, or they declared their withdrawal from the NPT.

Our goal, once again, in case there's doubt in anybody's mind, is to see the complete and verifiable elimination of North Korea's nuclear weapons program. And that's a goal we share with South Korea and Japan and with China and with others in the international community. That's an issue of great concern to us. It's an issue that we are trying to resolve peacefully and diplomatically.

And I think there's an opportunity for North Korea to get itself out of the situation that it's put itself in, isolating itself from the rest of the international community while its own people are suffering greatly and while it could benefit from better, stronger integration with the rest of the world. But what they need to focus on is what we're talking about here, and that's the goal that we aim to reach, and that is living up to international obligations that the North Koreans have and ending the nuclear weapons program.

Anybody else? Yes, sir.

QUESTION: Seung Kim, working at Korea Times. Let me ask about KEDO project. Recently there has been a working level meeting on KEDO in New York. Have your government informed that -- informed South Korean and Japanese Government that your government will be coming out from KEDO soon and will stop any kind of funding to KEDO any more?

MR. REEKER: I don't have any new announcements on that. I don't have anything new on KEDO. There are obviously questions to be looked at in regards to that, but I don't have anything for you at this point.

Yes, Guy. How are you?

QUESTION: Hi, Guy Dinmore, Financial Times. I'm really sorry I arrived late, so I apologize if someone asked this question already.

MR. REEKER: They definitely did. (Laughter.) No, go ahead.

QUESTION: Has Iran, in any way, through various channels or whatever, informed you or let it be known to you which of these senior al-Qaida people they have in detention?

MR. REEKER: I am not aware of any new news on that. As you know, we have been concerned for some time about the presence of al-Qaida members in Iran. We think some elements inside the Iranian regime have helped al-Qaida terrorists to transit or find safe haven inside Iran.

As we have said before, senior al-Qaida terrorists inside Iran played a part in the planning of the Riyadh bombing of May 12th, and we have called upon Iran and all countries to meet the international responsibilities they have under UN Security Council 1373 to deny safe haven to terrorists.

In addition, of course, we've had longstanding policy differences with Iran. We have noted, as the Secretary said yesterday, with interest the announcement that Iran has made about what they called arrests of senior al-Qaida members, but we don't have any further details on that and I would refer you to Iranian authorities for any additional details they can provide on that.

But we have long made our clear our concerns about al-Qaida members in Iran, and it's time for the Iranians to step up to their commitments. It's in everybody's interest, including Iran's, to see that these dangerous terrorists are stopped and that they join in the worldwide effort to fight terrorism, particularly groups like al-Qaida.

Anything else? One more here in the front.

QUESTION: Samir Nader, Radio SAWA.

After the meeting at the White House, the Palestinian Prime Minister is -- have an appointment to meet again with Secretary Powell. Will this meeting take place at State Department or somewhere else?

MR. REEKER: You know, I don't know. I'll have to check tomorrow's schedule. But I'm sure we can get that for you, whether they do meet at the State Department or somewhere else. But obviously the focus is on the meeting with the President tomorrow at the White House, and we can get you more details in the morning on the rest of the schedule.

So. Great. We'll see you then. Thank you all very much for coming. I hope we can do this again before too long.

MR. DENIG: Thank you, Phil.

MR. REEKER: Sure.