Press Availability at NATO

DEPUTY SECRETARY ARMITAGE: Good Morning. I’m Rich Armitage, the Deputy Secretary of State. It’s my third visit here to brief the NAC over the past three years. I came here to discuss both the situation in Afghanistan and, in more depth, the U.N. Security Council Resolution -- which was tabled yesterday in New York -- as well as to discuss the activity surrounding the formulation of the interim Iraqi government of 36 members. I am delighted to be back in Brussels and back with the NAC, where I was treated with the utmost courtesy. And I hope I gave as good as I got, but we’ll let them tell you that. I’ll be glad to try to answer a few questions for you.

QUESTION: Now that the U.N. Security Council is going to discuss another draft, do you see a more concrete role for NATO after the Istanbul Summit?

DEPUTY SECRETARY ARMITAGE: In Iraq, our views of a role for NATO have not changed. We would be very desirous of it, but our activities right now are all focused on completing successfully the U.N. Security Council Resolutions. At an appropriate time, we will re-engage in discussions with our NATO friends about the role they may or may not play. But I have to say, as I said inside, that our gratitude knows no bounds for the 15 NATO members who are participating in Iraq. They are really standing for a good cause and I think when history is written, they will be seen as having been on the side of the people of Iraq against totalitarianism and against tyranny.

QUESTION: Do you expect that countries that are already involved in Iraq will support you in this effort, and can you see the position of France and Germany in this case? What have you seen here?

DEPUTY SECRETARY ARMITAGE: I took a question from the French representative here, but more generally Secretary Powell engaged in intensive discussions with his French colleague, Mr. Barnier, and his German colleague, Mr. Fischer. It is our view that we have accommodated, in large measure, the views put forward by those two gentlemen on behalf of their governments and we expect relatively smooth sailing at the U.N. Security Council deliberations on this resolution.

On the question of do we expect those already participating to continue to participate, I have no reason to think that anyone is considering cutting and running, or anything of that sort. Various governments have made decisions to allow their troop presence for specific periods of time, and they’ll have to make their own decisions on whether to re-up these people or not.

QUESTION: Back to the potential NATO role. President Bush has said that that will be one of the topics of discussion in Istanbul. He said that he didn’t expect that NATO would be able to send any more troops. In the case that NATO would be involved down the road, what kind of role would it have?

DEPUTY SECRETARY ARMITAGE: We’ve discussed such a role as headquarters operations, things of that nature. NATO is an extraordinarily important organization and one whose presence itself speaks stability and a certain security. Secretary Powell, the other day, in answer to a question in front of the Department of State, made it quite clear it’s not as if there are large numbers of ground forces in the various countries of NATO ready to be sent to Iraq. There are a finite number of troops and we have over 17,000 NATO soldiers working bilaterally with us in Iraq now.

QUESTION: You mentioned that not a great number of troops have boots on the ground. Do you see a problem of overstretch, given that if the nations do fulfill the commitments to Afghanistan, you will have to re-think what sort of role you will want NATO to play in Iraq? In other words, are you going to get the commitments from the nation states for Afghanistan, and what would the spin-off effect be on Iraq?

DEPUTY SECRETARY ARMITAGE: I think we’ll have identified the 5 PRTs that we’ve talked about for Afghanistan before the Istanbul Summit and I think we’ll have stood them up by the end of the summer. I think the efforts in Afghanistan supporting President Karzai’s government as we move towards September elections have been extraordinarily noteworthy. I think your suggestion is, can we do two things at once? Well, we’re of the view that we can walk and chew gum at the same time, I’m sure NATO can as well. Of course we can, if there’s a political will to do so and I must say I’m heartened by the discussions here today.

Thank you.