Press Conference Following Travel to Brazil and Argentina

We spent most of last week in Brazil and Argentina, and I would say that it was a uniformly for us very positive trip because it showcased the very strong relationship we have with Brazil and I think the improving relationship with Argentina. And it was a very good chance to listen to the leadership of both countries, to exchange views with them, and I think to build an agenda that will be part of what we do with both countries in 2007.

This is going to be a year of engagement for the U.S. with Latin America. I think we mentioned last week that in the year 2006 there were 13 elections in the hemisphere including the U.S. midterm elections, and those elections tend to occupy countries, including my own. And now that we're all through those elections in a sense that we can build, 2007 needs to be a year of working together, cooperation together. So Tom and I were in both countries. Our Attorney General was in both countries as well. We met him in Brasilia, had breakfast with him and were able to compare notes.

And of course, President Bush has now announced his trip to Latin America beginning on the 8th of March to five countries, five important countries for the U.S. So I think this shows -- and you're going to see many other visits. Our Secretary of Homeland Security is going to be going to Brazil, and Secretary of Health is going to Brazil, and you're going to see lots of visitors from the United States to both countries and to other countries as well and in Colombia of course, Mexico, so that we might put our best foot forward in this relationship.

In Brazil, we were in São Paulo as well as Brasilia and it was a uniformly positive visit I think that given the fact that President Bush will be meeting President Lula. There's a strong relationship between them. There's the issue of biofuels, which tends to -- which has very much united us. I think we have a common approach to trying to develop a broader regional and broader global market for our fuels.

On security, we're working with Brazil, of course, on MINUSTAH. MINUSTAH was in action over the weekend with its most serious military initiative in many years. So they are trying to improve a situation. They are grateful with what Brazil is doing.

It was clear from our talks with the business community as well as the Governor -- we met I think seven governors in Brazil. We met Governor Serra in São Paulo. We had lunch with him. It was a fascinating lunch, very, very productive. And then in Brasilia we met with six governors who had come in to meet with the Attorney General and the two of us, and we had a wide-ranging conversation with the governors about how the United States and Brazil can be cooperating at their level, combinations business development, trade, investment, crime, narcotics, police training, prison reform, all of these issues, and tourism development, transportation links between the two countries, specifically Brazil and the United States. So that was a very -- we spent several hours with the governors, and that was a very good indication of where the interest is in having a bigger relationship between Brazil and the United States.

And of course, there was a good deal of discussion about our foreign policy cooperation both in the Americas but also globally. Everton Vargas has taken over as -- I think he started Friday -- as the new Brazilian Under Secretary for Ambassador Patriota who is coming here next week. And we agreed that we would meet several times a year. I have invited him to come to the United States in the spring. He invited me to return to Brazil in the late summer/early autumn -- our summer/early autumn. And we're looking forward to it. We had a very good exchange with Mr. Amorim, with Ambassador Patriota, with Ambassador Vargas about Cuba, about Bolivia, Ecuador, Venezuela, about a lot of global issues, Iran, Iraq, North Korea, Lebanon, United Nations reform. We spent several hours in the Brazilian Foreign Ministry -- really half a day -- talking about in great detail all of these issues between us.

So the relationship with Brazil is quite rich. It's quite broad. It's the kind of agenda that we have with just a few other countries in the world. It's a global agenda. And of course we talked at length about climate change and about energy. You know, we have this type of relationship with Japan, with India, with the European Union, but we count the relationship with Brazil as really one of our most important global partnerships. And our view is that with President Bush's trip, the U.S.-Brazilian relationship now will have an opportunity to greatly expand and greatly improve.

And Argentina, I think both of us -- I'll start with the fact that we have an improving relationship. We had an excellent meeting with Minister Fernandez. We had and we had a chance to meet with President Kirchner briefly. He was very nice. He came in and greeted us. We had a chat about the relationship and he was very courteous to us, and we appreciated that very much. We met with Minister Vido. We met, of course, with Mr. Taiana.

I, on behalf of Secretary Rice, I invited Minister Taiana to make a bilateral official working visit to Washington, which he accepted. We'll have to work out the dates. Secretary Rice felt it was important. There's so much going on in relationship with Argentina that she wanted Mr. Taiana to visit, and so he's agreed to come to Washington.

We met with the entire leadership team in the Foreign Ministry and had a very good talk about Haiti. We said how grateful we were that Argentina was involved. I think 575 Argentine troops are in MINUSTAH, which is quite a significant contribution.

I thanked Argentina for being the hemispheric leader, the strongest country in Latin America, on global nonproliferation issues. These issues are, with counterterrorism, the most important issues to the United States worldwide. Trying to prevent the spread of fissile material, nuclear technology, trying to prevent countries becoming nuclear weapons powers. And Argentina, of course, has been a very strong -- a leading voice in the Americas, in the IAEA, and in Proliferation Security Initiative and the Container Security Initiative the only country in Latin America in both -- in fact, the only country in the proliferation security initiative. So we were very pleased by that discussion.

We, of course, discussed the AMIA issue, and Tom and I went over and visited with the AMIA leadership, Jewish community leadership and we laid flowers at the memorials to the people who were killed in the 1994 bombing. And also, there's a memorial that marks that the 1992 bombing of the Israeli Embassy. We had a long talk with them.

We also talked to the Argentine Government about biofuels and hoped that we could cooperate with Argentina on biofuels as well. So I thought the visit to Argentina showcased a relationship that had its problems in the past. We had had some differences, but I think those are behind us. And we were very pleased by the reception we received and we had hours of discussion with the Argentine leadership and it was very much worthwhile.

So I come back feeling very much -- I reported to Secretary Rice yesterday that we're very encouraged by the visits. And we certainly look at Argentina and Brazil as two very important partners along with Mexico, along with Colombia, Peru, Panama, all of our other friends in the region. And we're very encouraged that we -- 2007 can be a positive year of unity, of inclusiveness where the countries of the Americas work together.

So that's what I wanted to say at the beginning. Tom, I'm sure, will want to make some comments as well.

ASSISTANT SECRETARY SHANNON: Just very briefly because I think Nick said it all. What was important from my point of view about this trip was two-fold. First, regionally without a doubt both Brazil and Argentina see themselves and their relationship as key to making a long-term success of South America. And they also see their relationship between the United States and Brazil and Argentina as important for the long-term success of South America.

And so in this regard I think what kind of came through loud and clear is both countries want us to understand and respect their interests in the region but also recognize that by working with us, based on our common values and the convergence of interests, that we enhance their possibility for success in the region. And that was a positive message that for us was important to hear.

But also, as Nick noted, the important role is both countries play globally. They operate within international institutions and other international initiatives in a very important and helpful way. And the degree to which we can highlight the fact that South America's about much more than South America, that what's happening in South America has resonance also in the world and that it has diplomatic capability to play a very, very positive role throughout the world was also I think an important highlight of the visit.

UNDER SECRETARY BURNS: We're happy to take whatever questions you've got.

Yes, please.

QUESTION: (Inaudible) from Associated Press. Some say that all this suddenly rush of the U.S. to Latin America is because there is kind of feeling in Washington that the U.S. is losing some kind of ground to China and recently to Iran. The President of Iran was here in many countries in Latin America -- yeah, three countries.

UNDER SECRETARY BURNS: (Inaudible) presence in Latin America.

QUESTION: Okay, so my question is if you agree with that opinion?

UNDER SECRETARY BURNS: No. We -- thank you. I think it's a normal question to ask and I understand why you ask it. Look at the history of the last 200 years. The United States and the Latin American countries, countries of South and Central America have been coming together in many ways. We've had a history together in this hemisphere. So the United States should be present in Latin America.

I think we felt that 2006 was an extraordinary and unusual year because of the number of elections. We actually sat together, Tom and I, in counted them and there were 13 national elections, whether the elections were municipal or local elections. Extraordinary. And so we felt that we really should go down early in the year now that all those elections, including our own, have passed to say okay, let's agree on a common agenda, and let's decide on the issues we want to work on together, and where can we grow in our relationship together. And obviously we went to those two countries because they are two of our unique partners.

Tom had been in Colombia 10 days before, and Tom and I had been in Colombia in October. We paid a lot of attention to Colombia. And as you know, our administration is calling for an extension of Plan Colombia. It's in the budget that was presented last week by Secretary Rice for multiyear funding to maintain the very, very strong relationship between Colombia and the United States. So -- and then the President announced his trip. The Attorney General went down. This is a deliberate, coordinated, diplomatic effort to demonstrate to the Latin American countries that we want a good relationship with them. So it's very much that.

But it's not based on what other countries are doing, certainly not Iran, which you know is a country as far as I know has very little do with Latin America. And I think President Ahmadinejad's visit was -- I'm not sure it was a huge, roaring success for the Iranian Government as best as I can tell.

So it's very much produced by this feeling that we are a global power. We have to be present in each part of the world we have interests, but where are our interests are most direct are in the Americas. You know, what issues affect the American people most? It's the -- our relations with the Americas. So we want to be there. We want to show that we have a great interest. We're trying to show respect by visiting these countries.

ASSISTANT SECRETARY SHANNON: In that regard just very briefly, obviously when President Bush began his term of office following the elections of 2000, there were elections throughout the region in 2001 and 2002. And so President Bush and our administration was working with a cadre of leadership in the region, which then faced elections in 2006. And from 2001 to 2006 there were three Summits of the Americas. They were (inaudible). In other words, we had kind of a regular interaction with all of these governments. But with the elections of 2006 you've got a whole new generation of leadership. In some instances the leaders were re-elected, but in others they weren't. So, you know, to engage in 2007 is really in response to political events in the region, to these elections in the region and allows us to continue the kind of dialogue we had from what we had in '06.

UNDER SECRETARY BURNS: I would also say I think Tom's exactly right. Tom went down other the inauguration of President Ortega in Nicaragua. We have reached out to President Correa in Ecuador. We've reached out to President Morales for the last year. So it's part of an effort to be ecumenical on our approach, and I wish to say -- and I would date this from the time that Secretary Rice came into office and Tom became Assistant Secretary and that is, you know, we don't have a good relationship with Cuba and Venezuela. But if you -- and it's obvious to everyone. We want to have a good relationship with left governments, centrist governments, center-right governments. The people of these countries elect the governments. We have to respect those elections, and we want to deal as best we can with the people who have been elected.

So you've seen us reach out to President Morales, President Correa, President Ortega as well as all the other countries. And this is part of an America that says we deal with the continent as it is. We obviously believe in democracy. We want that to take hold in all these countries. We believe in markets. We believe in trade. In the Americas we believe in investment. We believe in counternarcotics cooperation. So we're just trying to really engage on a broad level all the various countries.

QUESTION: I have a question about AMIA. I know that you went to AMIA and that you support very much the investigation that they are doing about the responsibilities of this. But I would like to know -- Interpol apparently is having problems to execute the warrants of arrest of these Iranians, mainly they have problem with Rafsanjani the man of arrest. I was wondering what the United States is going to be the position in the next meeting because Rafsanjani apparently they don't want to execute the order of arrest

UNDER SECRETARY BURNS: Thank you. We did go -- Tom and I went with Ambassador Tony Wayne to the AMIA Center. It was the second visit in a week because the Attorney General had been there two days before. We had an excellent conversation with the entire leadership. We took a tour of the bomb site, which is now a memorial. It's beautifully done by an Argentine artist. We were happy to be there, very moved to be there. And we did tell the AMIA leadership as well as Foreign Minister Taiana the United States will continue to support Argentina in what it's doing.

I can't speak to the Interpol because I'm actually not familiar -- I'm not as familiar with that particular issue as I should be, the workings of the Interpol. But we told the government, we told AMIA we will continue to support -- we the United States -- what the Argentine Government has done as we have supported since 1994 the effort to investigate who was responsible and hold those people responsible.

As to the inner workings of Interpol --

QUESTION: Yeah, there was apparently it's taking time. I mean --

UNDER SECRETARY BURNS: Here's what I'm sensitive about. This is an issue between Argentina -- Argentina has taken with Interpol.

QUESTION: Of course.

UNDER SECRETARY BURNS: And so it would not be -- it would be kind of insensitive of me to say what -- you know, to kind of get involved in that relationship publicly.

QUESTION: But you have --

UNDER SECRETARY BURNS: We've had a private discussion with the Argentine Government and it must remain private.

QUESTION: You have to vote in Interpol as I understand. There's going to be a vote.

UNDER SECRETARY BURNS: There's going to be a board meeting. Exactly right.

QUESTION: Sir, you came up with the term while you were there -- I'm (inaudible) from BBC Brazil. You came with the term Pan-Americanism of the 21st century.

UNDER SECRETARY BURNS: Did you like that term?

QUESTION: I liked the term. But it does remind me -- oddly enough it does remind me a bit of --

UNDER SECRETARY BURNS: They have the Pan-American Games in (inaudible).

QUESTION: But it does sound somewhat ‘60s left-wing jargon as well.

UNDER SECRETARY BURNS: Gosh. Well, I was living in the ‘60s. I was a kid.

QUESTION: But could that be understood as -- somewhat as the American response to Hugo Chavez' Bolivarianism? And that's perhaps why you appropriated yourself of a somewhat left -

UNDER SECRETARY BURNS: No. I want to try to convince you we don't do everything because Hugo Chavez. You know, we don't -- our mottos and our slogans are not derivative of his. And we don't -- I told the press in São Paulo, Brasilia, I said, you know, we don't lie awake thinking about him, you know, worried about him, what we're going to do next. You know, we don't obsess about Hugo Chavez because he is what he is. He is -- he is what he is. You all know who he is and what he stands for. We stand for something quite different. And so we prefer to have not a negative agenda but a positive agenda. We prefer -- and that's what we did in Brazil and Argentina, what's the positive agenda between the two countries.

Pan-Americanism in the 21st century. Yes. If we're going to be successful -- one of the points I tried to make in (inaudible) in Buenos Aires as well as at the -- my talk in São Paulo was to say this. We're at a very interesting time in the development of world history whereby the major problems of the world cannot be solved by one country alone. They lend themselves to multilateral actions, whether it's climate change, trafficking, whether to control crime, narcotics, terrorism, WMD -- just to name six problems, they can only be defeated by multilateral action, by governments working together. So whether it's the Organization of American States or the IDB in terms of poverty alleviation or disease prevention, whatever, you need to work with other countries.

So the agenda that Tom and I brought to Brazil and Argentina was that agenda, and that presupposes Pan-Americanism. It presupposes that countries are going to work together and that there will be a regional effort to do that as well as a global one. So that's why I said what I did.

ASSISTANT SECRETARY SHANNON: Let me just add that obviously Pan-Americanism is something that comes out of the 19th and early 20th century. In fact, Elihu Root, whose painting is down the hall here, took the first trip by a Secretary of State to Latin America in 1906 to attend a Pan-American conference. It was the third Pan-American conference. Secretary James G. Blaine in the 19th century started the Pan-American movement which it obviously led to the OAS.

But when we talk about the Pan-Americanism of the 21st century, one of the things we're pointing to is the multilateralism which is informed by common values, by common interests, in other words a regional commitment to democracy, a regional commitment to free markets and open trade, and a regional commitment to human rights, which distinguishes it from other multilateral institutions in the world where you bring countries together that don't necessarily share the same political values. And so from our point of view, it gives the multilateralism of the region an additional cohesiveness but also a potential political force that is important.

QUESTION: I have a question on Venezuela. (Inaudible) from AFT.

UNDER SECRETARY BURNS: Yes.

QUESTION: Given the fact that there is a big concern here in Washington and, of course, in New York about the new policies on nationalization in Venezuela, I want to ask you what's your personal opinion about yesterday's announcement of the buying of CANTV by the Venezuelan Government?

UNDER SECRETARY BURNS: Did you say the purchase of --

QUESTION: CANTV

UNDER SECRETARY BURNS: I wasn't aware of it. It just goes to prove that we don't obsess about Venezuela. Chavez is going to do what Chavez is going to do. But the repercussions are going to be if he continues to nationalize, if he continues to kind of wall himself off, it goes against the grain of where the rest of the world is going.

If you look at the truly dynamic economies in the world, Brazil and Argentina are both growing economies. The Southeast Asian countries are growing (inaudible). China is. India is growing at a phenomenal rate. What unites all these countries, Latin countries, Asian countries, East Asia and South Asia, they're open to trade, they're not running around nationalizing all their industries. They are working out fair and effective deals for themselves. They're protecting their own interests, obviously, working in the market in trade and investment. But the growth is being built by open trade and investment. It's not being built by a return to the autocratic policies, failed policies of the past which have failed in Asia, in Europe. They failed dramatically in Europe and they have failed in Latin America. So if this is what he wants to do, that's his decision. But it's not what the rest of the world or even the rest of the hemisphere is doing.

And Chavez is such an interesting figure in that respect, he's so in variance with the rest of the trends of the world that we worry that the victims will be the Venezuelan people. We don't want that. Everyone wants the people of Venezuela to succeed. So what I heard in Brazil and Argentina, completely different philosophy in terms of how they view their relations with the rest of the world economically through trade and investment, completely different. And nationalizing -- trying to buy out Verizon -- I did see that, but I didn't see CANTV. I apologize.

QUESTION: Can I jump in just to ask a follow-up on the Venezuelan issue. But there was an effort, if I'm not mistaken, at least in the early months after Chavez won his victory, by the U.S. to reach out to him. I mean Shannon met with him. I believe Brownfield met with Maduro, the Foreign Minister, and there was talk about some kind of a dialogue between the two countries. Is that still what the U.S. is looking for, to establish a dialogue? Or given some of your very strong statements saying that if you're not going to really engage with radical leftist regimes -- you're going to be ecumenical but not engage with radical leftist governments. Does that kind of preclude a dialogue --

UNDER SECRETARY BURNS: There's only two. We enlist -- we engage -- we have our different (inaudible). We have an embassy in Caracas. We're going to continue to relate to these governments. We're not saying we're not going to talk to them. I'm just saying we just don't have good relations with those two but we have good relations with everybody else. That's not a bad batting average if you're thinking about baseball.

ASSISTANT SECRETARY SHANNON: We're still open to dialogue. We still believe that the rhetoric that we hear from Caracas does not accurately reflect the potential good relationship and that there are important areas where dialogue could be fruitful. But ultimately dialogue requires two. We can't talk to ourselves.

UNDER SECRETARY BURNS: What did they tell us in Buenos Aires, it takes two to Tango? (Inaudible) -- said something like that.

QUESTION: Did you tango?

UNDER SECRETARY BURNS: No, I didn't. We didn't spend enough time. It was a huge mistake.

QUESTION: Big plus.

UNDER SECRETARY BURNS: We made two mistakes. We didn't do the tango. We didn't see the tango in Argentina and we didn't -- we went too early to Brazil. A lot of the Brazilian Governments were "What are you doing here this week?" We said yeah, our timing is really off this year.

Anyway, it's a serious question. And I think Tom has given you a very good answer. We're not trying to isolate Venezuela. They are isolating themselves from us. Even (inaudible) one of our strongest Ambassadors anywhere in the world in Caracas, but they don't deal with him very much. That's their choice. But there are consequences for that and you're seeing them as well as isolating itself in international circles.

QUESTION: What's the state of the drug trafficking agreement that's been talked about?

UNDER SECRETARY BURNS: With Venezuela?

QUESTION: Yeah. But it's never been signed.

ASSISTANT SECRETARY SHANNON: Yeah, we're just waiting for the Venezuelans to agree to sign it. They're negotiating. We're ready to sign it, but they don't want to.

QUESTION: (Inaudible) from Brazil (inaudible) São Paulo. Can you give some more details about the upcoming trip of President Bush to Brazil in the region?

UNDER SECRETARY BURNS: Well, first of all, the President was very interested in visiting Latin America again because we do want to make 2007 a year of engagement and of success. And he's visiting countries that either invited him to come or -- in all respects they all invited him to come -- and countries right now that are -- where we have an intense bilateral relationship, Colombia obviously; Mexico because of the new government and our relationship with Mexico; Uruguay, we've had some recent success, a trade and investment agreement; and certainly Brazil because of this huge relationship now between (inaudible) countries.

So we're really pleased that the President can do this. Secretary Rice will be going with -- and it will be followed by other cabinet level visits to a lot of these countries and to other countries. And then we've invited the Argentine Foreign Minister to come here to continue that very good dialogue.

I don't know if the White House gave out a longer version or --

ASSISTANT SECRETARY SHANNON: They haven't but they will.

UNDER SECRETARY BURNS: And Tom will be going obviously with the President. Secretary Rice and Tom will be accompanying the President.

QUESTION: You're not going?

UNDER SECRETARY BURNS: No. I normally don't. When the Secretary travels, I stay behind.

STAFF: We have time for two more questions.

QUESTION: A quick question. Can you elaborate a little bit on your discussions about Cuba that you had with these Latin American governments?

UNDER SECRETARY BURNS: Yeah. It was interesting. We had in both Brasilia and Buenos Aires long discussions about Cuba. I'll let Tom characterize -- Tom's our coordinator, so I'll let him characterize it specifically.

I would just say that, you know, one of the messages from us was that there are still political prisoners in Cuba. There is no democracy in Cuba to speak of. And we think it's important that countries that believe in democracy, that believe in human rights need to keep this on the agenda with the Cuban authorities now and in the future. And if there is going to be a transition in Cuba at some point, those issues need to be at the forefront of all of our agendas because all of us have a stake in this.

We know that for many South American countries, Central American countries, Caribbean countries, Cuba is an important issue. It's a very important issue for the United States. It's very close to our shores. You know, the American relationship with Cuba, say what you will about it, for a long time has been an intensive one, sometimes very negative and sometimes a very positive one back before 1959.

So we just traded views. We gave them a sense of what we think is happening. And they were very honest with us, and we have I think good details of what their position is.

ASSISTANT SECRETARY SHANNON: And I would agree. They were very useful for us, and I hope they were useful for the Brazilians and Argentines. And again, one of the points we tried to make is, you know, there was kind of a diversity of approaches to Cuba in the region. But our argument was that it's very important that this diversity of approaches has single strategic goal which is a peaceful transition to democracy in Cuba and the means by which through that transition Cuba, the democratic Cuba, could be reintegrated into the American system through the OAS and other organism of the American system. And you know, many countries in the region have different approaches to Cuba than we do. We just want to make sure that any tactical differences that exist out there don't cloud the larger strategic purpose.

And again, countries are going to speak in different ways about Cuba, but I would say that there is broad consensus in the region that Cuba's future has to be democratic if it's going to be a successful part of the hemisphere.

QUESTION: I have -- (inaudible) with the (inaudible) of São Paulo.

UNDER SECRETARY BURNS: Yes.

QUESTION: I have two questions. First, why President Bush is not going to visit Argentina? And the second one, you mentioned that Argentina is delaying or is the only country in South America that is actively engaged in nonproliferation. How do you see Brazil's participation in that?

UNDER SECRETARY BURNS: You know, I didn't mean to say they are the only country. They are the leading country. I think there's no question in terms of their involvement in the IAEA in the Container Security Initiative, which is a global initiative to protect ports from the production of weapons of mass destruction. And the Proliferation Security Initiative, which is to protect us all globally -- it's a global organization -- from the shipment of WMD across borders, across seas. Argentina has been -- is the leader in all of them and is the only country in Latin America that's in all of them. It doesn't mean to say that other countries are not concerned and doing their part. Brazil certainly has a long tradition of involvement in nonproliferation, and we had a good talk with Mr. Amorim about that as well as his colleagues.

I just meant to say that what Argentina has done is particularly important globally and striking on the issue of Iran -- and this is not the AMIA issue but just Iran's nuclear weapons issues -- Argentina has been exceedingly active and strong. And so Brazil has been as well. Brazil voted, as you remember, on February 4th of 2006 in the IAEA Board of Governors against Iraq along with India, Egypt, the United States, Russia, China, lots of countries. So I think the discussion was good in both countries, but I just -- I felt I should say about Argentina is its leading role. There's no question about that.

On the first issue, President Bush was in Mar del Plata. Of course he's been to Argentina in terms of recent visits to South America. And you know he can't go everywhere. He's going to five countries. There are many more that he can't go to. He's going to some, as I said, to where he's been invited by certain heads of government to come this spring. So it's a combination of things. But we thought that given the fact that he had been to Argentina, and then also the fact that we're inviting Foreign Minister Taiana for an official visit, we believe -- we are trying to show great respect for the Argentine Government. And I do mean it when I say I felt that there was a press -- there was a very interesting press story when we arrived which I think we clarified with everybody, with Minister Vido and Minister Fernandez and Minister Taiana. And I hope -- has it died down in the press? Are they still talking about that?

QUESTION: No, still talking.

ASSISTANT SECRETARY SHANNON: Not as long as you guys keep writing about it.

QUESTION: No, not me.

UNDER SECRETARY BURNS: (Inaudible) trying to close that story down. Apart from that, I thought it was a very --

QUESTION: Well, it was a little bit curious.

UNDER SECRETARY BURNS: -- positive visit, and I think our relationship has proven that.

What do you make of those stories? You were on the (inaudible).

QUESTION: You know, during two years or three years we have been, you know, hearing about the concern of the IMF and the U.S. about climate, investment climate and how the rules should be better and more transparent in Argentina and all that. So suddenly there is a story that is linked evidently to that. So why are we not going to write about it? Mainly there is a letter --

UNDER SECRETARY BURNS: I don't (inaudible).

QUESTION: I mean there is a letter complaining about this so.

UNDER SECRETARY BURNS: We are not here to clarify what Mr. Fernandez heard. We saw him at the beginning of the day and Minister Vido at the end of the day. It was a misunderstanding. Because what Ambassador Wayne did was what all Ambassadors of any country do.

QUESTION: Of course.

UNDER SECRETARY BURNS: I said to the Argentine President, I said he's the Argentine Ambassador to the United States and we greatly value his respect. He does his (inaudible). You call up or you write a government official and you say there's a company in my country that wants to invest in your company. It's a good company, you should look at it. That's exactly what Ambassador Wayne did.

When we explained this to the two ministers they said you're right. This is fine. And they all said that they deeply respected Ambassador Wayne, that he was opening doors between the United States and Argentina.

QUESTION: He's very active.

UNDER SECRETARY BURNS: And that's good. And they both said -- both Ministers said this is behind us. There is no problem. And we have no problem with what Ambassador Wayne did. And so we were gratified. I think we were misunderstood.

QUESTION: The last one on Colombia, please?

UNDER SECRETARY BURNS: Yes.

QUESTION: You are meeting Vice President Santos of Colombia today. Today, that's right. So my question is would you brief us in advance of details of the meeting? What do you plan to talk to him?

UNDER SECRETARY BURNS: Yes. The Vice President is here this week. The Defense Minister was here two weeks ago. Tom was there that week.

ASSISTANT SECRETARY SHANNON: Right before the Defense Minister.

UNDER SECRETARY BURNS: Right before the Defense Minister came. So we had our intensive period engagement wide because we had just announced the extension of Plan Colombia last week. And so there will be a lot of hearings on Capitol Hill. We're making a major effort with Congress to explain that we think that the last six years of President Bush and President Clinton putting forward aid to help the Colombian Government to demobilize militia, to try to win the war against the narco-traffickers, take back the streets of the country as President Uribe has done in large part. We think this has been a very good investment for the United States. We believe in the Government of Colombia and they are a close, close friend; close ally. And so we want to extend Plan Colombia for a number of years.

So is it Carolina Barco, who is a tremendously gifted ambassador, has been bringing lots of Colombian officials of the states to make the case for this with the Congress as well as with the administration. And we have worked -- Tom and I went down in late October; is that right?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY SHANNON: October.

UNDER SECRETARY BURNS: In October I thought. Yeah. And what we did was we talked to President Uribe and his ministers about what would go into a future extension of Plan Colombia. And then Tom (inaudible) working with Carolina on the development of that program -- it's a joint program between two governments -- between November and January. And then Secretary Rice put it into Congress last week.

So you will see a real intensive relationship between Colombia and the United States, and we very much support what President Uribe has done. The country is much safer. If you look at by any measure, the number of abductions, the number of people killed, number of people extradited to the United States to face drug charges, it's been a successful arrangement. We respect him a lot and we respect his government.

QUESTION: Can I ask something about biofuels? There is lots of discussions about this in the press (inaudible) but there are no specific proposals on the table. We cannot see anything what happens. We would like to see what happens now. What would be the next steps of these talks between two countries?

QUESTION: And just to follow up on that, Minister Rouseff said that there would be a partnership between the U.S. and Brazil in that field in a Caribbean country, but that was it.

UNDER SECRETARY BURNS: We had an excellent meeting with her, a very long meeting with Minister Rouseff and I think you just have to be patient. It's normal that you -- that things wait until the two Presidents get together. And our trip was very much meant to try to move this issue forward. And the idea is that Brazil and the United States have over 70 percent of the world market together of ethanol and that -- and it was very interesting. And that the two countries should work together to create -- do research and development, to make more efficient the production of ethanol. You know, there's now a lot of research into cellulose ethanol, cellulose produced biofuels -- to try to create a more dynamic regional market in terms of production and demand as well as distribution -- distribution being so important. And then third, a global market which would benefit Brazil, Argentina, the United States, the other main producers of biofuels.

So we had very good discussions. We had our energy expert, Greg Manuel, with us. He had extensive detailed negotiations with Brazilian counterparts. And I think this will be a big issue for the President's visit, for us to cooperate.

It was very interesting that every person we met in and out of the government knew exactly what President Bush had said in the State of the Union Address about 20 percent reduction in gasoline consumption over 10 years and how that might spur alternative energy research and development in our country as well as in the Americas. And I thought most of the Brazilians and Argentineans, Argentines that we met with felt this as an area of growth for us in the relationship, particularly with Brazil given the leading role that Brazil plays.

QUESTION: (Inaudible) Argentina. You said before that you talked to Brazil about Cuba, Bolivia, Ecuador, Venezuela. Then you said that you talked also in Argentina about Cuba. Did you talk about Bolivia, Ecuador and Venezuela in Argentina?

UNDER SECRETARY BURNS: Yes.

QUESTION: What did you say? What was discussed?

UNDER SECRETARY BURNS: You know, a lot. We just had private discussions with the governments about our interest in helping Bolivia, helping Ecuador, being good -- on the case of Argentina, being good neighbors and in our case being good friends -- general discussions about counternarcotics cooperation.

ASSISTANT SECRETARY SHANNON: You know, obviously, we're interested in the success of Bolivia and Ecuador as is Argentina. Argentina has a lot to do in Bolivia and they've got a lot of interests in Bolivia. There's been some very interesting discussions between the Ecuadorian Government and the Argentine Government. I think -- and I had a chance to speak with Minister Miceli about this.

QUESTION: About that?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY SHANNON: Yeah, exactly. And I think Argentina has been able to kind of share an important perspective with the Ecuadorians and help them better understand what a swamp the international financial community can be and that Ecuador needs to work, needs to move with a degree of caution and also working with its friends. And I think that was very helpful. I mean in that sense the discussions were really productive from our point.

QUESTION: Is the --

QUESTION: Excuse me, I have a follow-up. You just said about helping Bolivia and Ecuador and Venezuela?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY SHANNON: Again, it's just to understand, you know, the phenomenon of Venezuela in the region and how it's perceived from the point of view of Argentina and Brazil.

UNDER SECRETARY BURNS: We didn't ask for anybody's help with Venezuela. We didn't ask for anybody's help in either country. But what we did was -- you know, I said to you last week -- there's going to be a little surprise when I say this -- we actually went down to listen as well as talk, and we spent a lot of time in meetings saying what is your view of this issue? Tell us how -- what your perspective is. In some cases it was different than ours; in some cases it was the same.

And Venezuela, we will not -- they're aggressive. We didn't ask for anyone's help. We didn't ask for anything specifically. We just said, you know, what do you think of what's happened? What's the impact on democracy in Venezuela? What's the impact going to be down the road of these policies that we think are very destructive policies inside the country? And we just listened. And we didn't always agree, but it was a good experience to have a good conversation.

QUESTION: What kind of answers you got?

UNDER SECRETARY BURNS: Well, I think we should leave that to the two -- the one thing you don't want to do, having had a really good trip, is then say here's what they told us because that's for them to say. And I wouldn't want to reveal what the Argentine and Brazilian Governments are saying on those sets of issues.

On that note --

QUESTION: Let's go --

UNDER SECRETARY BURNS: Thank you very much.

QUESTION: -- before we get in trouble. (Laughter)