Powell Defends Bush-Style Diplomacy
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Secretary Colin L. Powell
Washington, DC
January 8, 2004
SECRETARY POWELL: Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and a slightly belated Happy New Year.........
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....But it also is appropriate at the beginning of the year to kind of reflect on where we are in the area of foreign policy. The President has led now, for almost three years, a foreign policy based on values and principles -- democracy, dignity of the individual, human rights, economic freedom and openness of trading systems -- and we remain committed to those principles and values.
And in the year 2004 you will see us moving even more aggressively to do everything we can to expand peace throughout the world, to expand economic opportunity to all nations in the world, for the purpose of generating wealth and opportunity for prosperity for the peoples of the world, and pressing for freedom and openness in systems and societies around the world, not in a lecturing mode, but recognizing that we believe strongly that human rights and freedom are God-given rights and not just the purview of a particular government.
We enter 2004 in an interesting arrangement, if I can use that word. We saw a lot of things happen over the last few months. We've seen progress in the global war against terror. We've seen greater cooperation between the nations of the world. But the challenge ahead of us is a difficult and a long one. As the President said from the very beginning, after 9/11, it will take a long time, it will take our best efforts, and it will take working with all of our friends and partners.
But with each passing day we see cells being rolled up, we see terrorists being brought to justice, and we know that there is still an enemy out there that would do us ill, would do us damage, and we'll be going after that enemy.
Two principal areas that we worked on last year, and we’ll continue to work on this year, obviously, are Afghanistan and Iraq.<font size=3> In Afghanistan, just in the last few days, we saw a successful constitution Loya Jirga which put in place a constitution for the Afghan people, which will now set the stage for elections in the middle of next year.
And so we see considerable progress in Afghanistan, but we are not unmindful of the dangers that still lurk there with respect to old Taliban elements, and we are working closely with our Pakistani friends to get them to use all of their assets and resources. And I was pleased to note that the Pakistani army began operations this morning that relate to that challenge.
We will stay the course in Afghanistan. We will work with our friends. We thank NATO for taking on a new mission in Afghanistan, a unique mission for NATO.
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In Iraq, the challenge is clear. We are working very closely with the Governing Council. We have a good plan, the 15 November plan, that will result in the creation of a transitional executive branch as well as a transitional assembly, by the middle of the year, we hope; and at the same time, the State Department, at the President's direction, will be building up our capacity in Baghdad, so when the time comes we can have a smooth transition from the Coalition Provisional Authority, with sovereignty returned to the Iraqi people, then we would have an embassy function, a normal embassy function. It will be a very large embassy.
We still have a security challenge, and we saw that again today. We regret the loss of life of our brave young men and women and other coalition men and women and those civilians who have lost their lives. But they are serving in a good cause to give the Iraqi people peace and freedom, and what is not there anymore is a horrible, dictatorial, filthy regime that did develop weapons of mass destruction, that used them against people, a regime that filled mass graves. It is gone. It is not coming back.
The difficult work is still ahead of putting in place a new government that will be responsive to its people, but, as the President said repeatedly, we are committed to that end, and we will be successful.
We have seen some dramatic things take place within the last few days. We saw Libya decide, after many years, that it wasn't worth the game, it wasn't worth the candle, to continue to develop weapons of mass destruction. And as a result, a very, very solid diplomacy on the part of the United Kingdom and the United States working with the Libyans, you are aware of the announcements that have been made, and we are following up to make sure that we get verified removal of those weapons and programs of mass destruction, and then we will be in conversation with the Libyans as to what the nature of our relationship will be in the future. But verify first.
We've seen progress in the Sudan.<font size=3> You saw an announcement the other day where the negotiators in Lake Naivasha in Kenya have come to an agreement on wealth sharing. There are just one or two outstanding issues, difficult issues, having to do with disputed territories. But the key here is that after 20 years of the most terrible war, Sudanese leaders have come together and are just one or two steps short of having a comprehensive peace agreement that will bring peace to Sudan.
And I'm pleased that the United States, through the President's personal involvement, the work of Senator Danforth and the work of a number of people here in the Department and over at the NSC, have brought us to this point.
Diplomacy doesn't happen overnight. It takes time. It takes dedication. It takes being prepared to accept some slipbacks as you move forward. But <font size=4>we see an improvement in the situation in the Sudan.
Take a look at what happened on the subcontinent with the Indians and the Pakistanis reaching what has been characterized as an historic agreement the other day. Many of you will remember a year and a half ago where our problem was: Is war about to break out, and might it go nuclear? And you remember how much time the entire international community devoted to that. And yet we see this kind of progress, people desiring stability, people desiring peace.
And in the months ahead, we will lend our good offices to our Indian and Pakistani friends to whatever purpose those good offices could be used to keep this process moving forward. And I had good conversations with President Musharraf and Foreign Minister Sinha of India and Foreign Minister Kasuri of Pakistan yesterday on this subject.
In Iran, we have seen some interesting developments with respect to Iran signing the additional protocol to the Nonproliferation Treaty, and also the work that was done by my European Union colleagues from France, Germany and Britain working with the Iranians to get more of a commitment from them. <font size=3>
And Javier Solana is heading into Iran now and my Japanese colleague, Foreign Minister Kawaguchi, is there now. So we are all working together to convince Iran that this is the time to eliminate these kinds of programs and to bring whatever you're doing under full supervision, and to make sure that there is no possibility of a weapons program.
I was also taken by the quick response we got from the Iranians on the relief that we offered in the terrible, devastating earthquake, so many lives lost. <font size=4>The President was quick to respond and he gave us directions to get in touch with the Iranians very quickly and offer our assistance. And we did that and they responded very quickly.
This is not a political breakthrough, but it was nevertheless a human breakthrough in the sense that help was offered when it was needed, and it was accepted. And so we will see what happens in the future with respect to our relationship with Iran.
Liberia. Taylor is gone. And we worked with friend and partners in Africa and in the UN to cause that to happen, and provided just a touch of military presence and military force to ensure that Taylor would depart and that the Liberian people would be given a new opportunity.
We've used our alliances in such an important set of ways, whether it's working with our NATO allies to expand the NATO alliance, whether it's working with the EU as they expand the European Union, working with our West African friends in Liberia, working directly with the Russians a few weeks ago as we dealt with a challenging situation in Georgia and Tbilisi.
And now we've had a successful election and there is a president-elect in Georgia.<font size=3> Our good friend, an old colleague from the Reagan days, President Shevardnadze, found it necessary to step down, and it was done in a way that did not lead to violence. And I'm looking forward to attending the inauguration of the new president on the 25th, the 25th of January, a couple of Sundays from now.
In all these areas, we have worked with friends and partners. We have tried to show our ability to listen to others. We have pressed, as well, on economic opportunity and prosperity. <font size=4>The President has been in the forefront of open trade, free trade. We have concluded a number of free trade agreements. We're committed to the FTAA for our own hemisphere, a subject that will get discussed, hopefully, at the Summit of the Americas next week.
The Millennium Challenge Account.<font size=3> We now have a terrific individual working in the Department, Paul Applegarth, who will bring that program into being and we can actually start putting out this new kind of assistance, development assistance, to people -- the kind of development assistance they so badly need on top of the development assistance that we have already been giving through our own, our other programs, as well as the splendid work being done on a regular basis by USAID.
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With respect to freedom, just giving people access to the basic human rights that they should have. The President made a powerful speech at the National Endowment to Democracy, talking about the God-given rights that people have and how he wants to work with countries around the world, but especially in the Middle East, to ensure that their people, in due course, at a rate and at a pace to be determined by their own leaders, understand that democracy can be theirs, too, and it is not just the private preserve of Westerners and the United States.
The Middle East Partnership Initiative also blends into this.<font size=3> So, as we go into 2004, I'm excited by the opportunities that are in front of us. I also know there are significant challenges.
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The Middle East is a significant challenge. We have not made as much progress as I would have liked to have seen in the Middle East, far from it. And we have the President's vision of June of 2002, and we have a roadmap that is the way forward, that's been signed up to by the parties.
What we need is, I believe, more responsible action on the part of the Palestinian Authority, in order to bring terrorism under control, make sure that violence is being brought to an end, and then I think the roadmap can be put into use and can provide us with the way forward.
It's going to be an exciting year for us here, as well,<font size=3> because the President, as you know, will be hosting the G-8 here later in the summer, and we have stewardship of the G-8 process this year. And the President is also looking forward to the NATO summit in Turkey in June, as well as the summit in Monterey of the Americas, Mini-Summit of the Americas next week. And there will, of course, be a US-EU Summit, as well as a number of other things -- all in an election year.
It shows that the President is engaged and the Department will be fully engaged in pursuing all of our foreign policy agenda items, focusing on expanding peace throughout the world, expanding economic opportunity that can bring prosperity to individuals, and above all, pushing forward basic concepts of freedom that we all believe in and are at the bedrock of America's value system and of our foreign policy.
So, with that, I hope that you will be with me every step of the way for the rest of this year and into the future. And let's see what happens with the questions. Who would like to begin?
Cont'd........
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