State Department Noon Briefing

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
DAILY PRESS BRIEFING

FRIDAY, MAY 11, 2001
(ON THE RECORD UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED)

Q: Your wandering minstrels of NMD seem to be getting some mixed
messages in their travels, from somewhat vague support from India, to
outright rejection in Moscow, and serious questions from the Germans.
I'm just wondering what your initial reaction is to these things.

MR. BOUCHER: I don't think you accurately characterize at least what I
have seen in the press and what I have seen others saying. The
Russians said there was a good discussion, something about more
questions and answers at this stage, but that's not surprising either.
Remember, the President made clear from the start these were
consultations, these were real consultations to talk to friends and
allies about these important issues. We were going to share our
strategic thinking, and we were going to share as well some of the
thinking about the direction we intend to go with.

But we are not at a stage of going out to announce decisions and ask
for support. And that was not the nature of these consultations. And
that is, I think, the importance of the consultations and that that
fact is in fact recognized by the governments that we have seen.

Our characterization of these talks generally - and as you know I'll
go through where everybody is and add a couple more stops to the
itineraries. But I think generally we have found that our allies and
friends have welcomed the consultations, they have reacted positively
to the Administration's efforts to discuss the issues with them before
we make major decisions. We obviously appreciate the willingness of
the allies to discuss this issue and to engage with us in a
constructive and cooperative approach.

The fact that we are out there on real consultations, we're discussing
issues of great importance, issues of new thinking that change some of
the approaches, or at least add to some of the approaches
traditionally taken on these issues. These are very weighty and
important subjects for all of us, and I think we have a lot of
appreciation out there for the fact that we are talking to them at
this particular stage.

Let me go through, if I can, just to update you on where people are,
and one or two other stops that we might not have talked about before.
Yesterday, Under Secretary Grossman continued his productive
consultations in Rome. Under Secretary Grossman and his team briefed
on our ongoing strategic review and the current US thinking on missile
defense and solicited the views of the Italian Government there.

Following Rome, Under Secretary Grossman stopped in Bratislava to
participate in a conference with prime ministers from the countries
that are aspiring to NATO membership. So that was not a missile
defense discussion, but they may have discussed missile defense, but
it was to go to talk to these countries that are interested in NATO
membership and that are going through the process of preparing
themselves for NATO membership. That was yesterday.

So, today he is continuing his talks on missile defense in Ankara.
While in Ankara, Under Secretary Grossman also presented Prime
Minister Ecevit with a letter from President Bush that expresses our
strong support for Turkey's efforts to manage the economic crisis and
that encourages the Prime Minister to keep on the path of economic
reform and economic growth.

The other team - Deputy Secretary of Defense Wolfowitz, Deputy
National Security Advisor Hadley - concluded talks in Berlin and
Warsaw yesterday. Today they were in Moscow for discussions with the
Russians. There will also be Department officials - not these
particular ones - who will go to Kiev on Saturday for missile defense
consultations.

And as you know, the various members have been discussing their
individual stops as they go around. So I think - again, getting back
to your original question - if you go through what we have said after
the various stops, I think you'll see this kind of welcome
appreciation for the consultations coming out of that. Under Secretary
Grossman said in Ankara, for example, that our allies recognize there
is a new world out there today and that we need to take account of it.

Finally, I'll just mention the fact that we will be sending a similar
high-level team to Ottawa on Tuesday, May 15th, and we'll provide
details on that later.

Q: Who is going to Kiev, exactly?

MR. BOUCHER: Don't have the names yet. It's not the
Wolfowitz-Hadley-Grossman types. It's other experts. I don't know
exactly, frankly. Tried to get that, couldn't get it.

Q: Who's going to Ottawa?

MR. BOUCHER: To where?

Q: Ottawa.

MR. BOUCHER: Not defined yet. That's something we'll have for you
later.

Q: What about Armitage?

MR. BOUCHER: Armitage. He's in India and should be on his way back,
right? Tomorrow, yes. Armitage is in India, should be on his way back
tomorrow. Oh, that's right, he's - no, he's listed under a different
bureau. That's why. He's over here in the purples.

He had a full day of consultation in India today, had a working lunch
with the Minister for External Affairs and Defense, Jaswant Singh; met
with Prime Minister Vajpayee, Cabinet Secretary and National Security
Advisor Mishra, Special Advisor to the External Affairs and Defense
Minister Arun Singh; and he met with Sonia Gandhi, the leader of the
opposition party. So he has been very active in India, having a broad
set of discussions on US global strategic concerns and missile
defense, and again solicited their views.

The Indian Government told us they appreciated Mr. Armitage's
presentation and they look forward to further exchanges.

Q: Can I - I don't want to hog this, but did you - when the - who
was in Rome, Grossman? Did he meet with any of the Italian opposition
concerning the fact they're having an election on Sunday?

MR. BOUCHER: I don't think I have a list who they met with, so I'll
have to double-check on that one.

Q: And Mr. Grossman, when he was in Ankara, did he talk about Iraqi
sanctions as well as all these other things?

MR. BOUCHER: I'm not sure what other subjects might have been
discussed. I think the principal focus obviously is missile defense.
He also delivered the letter from the President that expressed his
support for economic reforms. As you know, Under Secretary Grossman
was previously Ambassador to Turkey, and therefore I would assume that
he had a lot of different meetings on a variety of subjects, but the
principal focus was missile defense.

Q: Any consideration of a delegation going to Pakistan, which is after
all a nuclear state?

MR. BOUCHER: I haven't heard of discussion of that.

Q: On the issue of the consultations, can you get any more specific at
this point about what aspects of the decision haven't been made and
what impact, I guess, these consultations would have on steering that
decision?

MR. BOUCHER: I think, first, much of the discussion is about strategic
thinking, concepts that you've heard the Secretary speak about,
concepts that you heard the President speak about in his speech where
he announced these consultations, that in this new age we need
concepts of strategic thinking that involve not only offensive weapons
and reductions of offensive weapons, but also strong nonproliferation
efforts and defense. And so discussing with friends and allies who
have been - particularly those who have been immersed in the
strategic issues for the entire period of the Cold War - the need to
update this thinking, to understand how these things work together and
can work together in the new age.

We have, I think, had comments to make about the ABM Treaty before,
final decisions on that still pending. We have had comments about the
work under way at the Defense Department to determine what kind of
systems we need. That is still not decided yet.

So there are a number of aspects of this that we'll proceed from the
thinking to the actual execution and carrying out, where having the
views of allies and partners at this stage is very important to us.

Q: You said the final thinking on the ABM Treaty. Can you - I mean,
what do you mean by that? That maybe in fact we will support in the
end continuing that treaty, or --

MR. BOUCHER: I don't think we have raised that possibility.

Q: Okay.

MR. BOUCHER: We have said that it is outdated in its present form.
There's the theoretical possibilities of modification or abandonment
of some kind. So exactly how we proceed in that regard is not finally
decided.

Q: Would it be fair to say that one of the goals of the consultation
is to try and find an alternative to the ABM Treaty? Or is it more
that you are trying to convince everyone that they don't need it?

MR. BOUCHER: We have come to the conclusion that this treaty is
outdated and not important or relevant to the current strategic
situation. I think - so part of our discussion will be to discuss the
overall strategic thinking and how various elements fit in that
context, and whether this one fits or not.

But as I said, there's obviously - the stage that we are at is
discussing the thinking and the possibilities, and looking for
different people's views on how we might proceed as we decide how we
might proceed.

Q: If I may follow up, is it also partly a process of trying to
convince people of the threat that the United States perceives?

MR. BOUCHER: I think threat is certainly part of the discussion, yes.

Q: As I'm sure you recall, when Mr. Fischer was here, he said that it
shouldn't be abandoned unless we have a better mechanism, better
mechanism for arms control.

Are you drafting any kind of proposals, replacement agreements, that
would somehow, I don't know, control ABM systems or --

MR. BOUCHER: I haven't heard any particular discussion of anything
like that. I'm not sure we're even at the stage where that would be
considered.

Q: So it's going to be just a free brawl, then, just the rule of the
jungle? (Laughter.)

MR. BOUCHER: Is that what I said? (Laughter.)

Q: Let's go to the videotape.

MR. BOUCHER: Somebody else has control of my microphone, or at least
did a little listening device in Jonathan's head. (Laughter.)

No, it's not the law of the jungle; it's not nasty, brutish and short.
It's a sincere and real consultation with friends and allies as we go
through some very serous and important discussions of strategic
thinking with them, and as we go forward into deciding together and
determining together what is the best strategy to maintain peace and
stability in a new age.