Media Roundtable in Slovakia

DEPUTY SECRETARY ARMITAGE: First of all, thank you very much for spending some time with me this afternoon. I was delighted to spend the day here in Bratislava, meet with the (Prime Minister), the Foreign Minister, and members of Parliament. I met with our Embassy family to thank them for their efforts on our behalf, and now I close out with the most exciting of all, members of the press. I came for several reasons. President Bush, following up on his phone call to the (Prime Minister), had asked me to come and express our sincere appreciation for the courageous efforts of the Slovakian armed forces in both Iraq and Afghanistan, and obviously to express in the most sincere way our sorrow at the sacrifice of three of your service members. Second, the President wanted me to expand the dialogue. Iraq is very important, Afghanistan is very important, but we have a broader relationship with Slovakia than just those two issues, so we engage in discussions of regional affairs while seeking the advice of our friends here in Bratislava. And third, we wanted to talk about a general way forward for Slovakia-U.S. relations, how we might organize ourselves to take advantage of the expertise that you have in the region, and we, for our part, want to make sure that we’re completely transparent and open with our Slovak friends and where we’re going with our policy and what we’re doing in various parts of the world. So, I think we made a pretty good beginning and I’m pretty satisfied. So why don’t I stop there and I’ll turn it over to each of you. Who’s first? Don’t be bashful. You can’t be a member of the press and be bashful. It’s against the law.

QUESTION: Mr. Secretary, my name is Jan Skoda from Slovak weekly Format. According to latest opinion polls, Slovak citizens are not too much happy with presence of several soldiers in Iraq. If the Slovak government would call back the Slovak unit, it could harm the American stance toward Slovaks?

DEPUTY SECRETARY ARMITAGE: Well, first of all I hope that the government doesn’t decide to call back troops, but if the government did, that would be a sovereign decision. And we would respect it as a sovereign decision. Thus far, we have found ourselves, both Slovak or American, we’re involved in one of the greatest endeavors of our time, and that is trying to bring democracy to 25 million people in an Arab country in the middle of the Middle East. And if we’re successful, whether you’re a service member of Slovakia, or a U.S. service member, you’ll be able to look back and realize that you had taken part in one of the most momentous developments of modern history. We intend to be successful and, we hope, that our friends in Slovakia can see it through to the end with us. Yes sir.

QUESTION: Miro Baric from Narodna Obroda daily. I would like to ask about the U.S. visa policy towards the European allies. For example, Polish President Kwasniewski, recently expressed disillusion about the U.S. visa policy. How do you want to solve this situation?

DEPUTY SECRETARY ARMITAGE: First of all in my talk with the (Prime Minister) this morning, after that talk, we determined that we would set up a working group, a U.S.-Slovak working group. We will have people come here to try to determine a way forward, try to determine if there are ways to ease to some extent visa restrictions. There is a misunderstanding, generally, about visas. There is a feeling in some places that if you’re a member of the EU you automatically have visa waiver and that’s not the case. There are criteria that have to be met, and we have to be sure that people are going to visit and not stay in the U.S., and we have to be sure, for instance, about certain employment categories and things of that nature, but we’re going to try a find a way forward because I found the President very persuasive today. Yes sir.

QUESTION: Mr. Deputy Secretary of State, many experts focus attention on the Gulf, on Iraq and Iran, and so on, but in November 2003, you mentioned that Al Qaeda aims to topple the Saudi regime. Do you consider this a danger still, as a real danger?

DEPUTY SECRETARY ARMITAGE: The regime in Saudi Arabia has fought very rigorously against Al Qaeda. I think they found themselves quite surprised when they were subjected to several bombings. And they were most surprised when they found that some of the booby traps of Al Qaeda were actually Korans. I went one day to Riyadh and I gave a press conference like this, and I pointed out to the members of the Saudi press that this booby trap inside the Koran is not meant for me. It’s meant for Muslims. And this kind of made, I think, many in Saudi Arabia understand that this was a battle against them and not just against us. And since then there has been a great turnaround in Saudi Arabia. They still have a fight, there are many terrorists that still exist, but the security forces in Saudi Arabia are fighting the good fight. I hope they’re successful. We need them to be successful, but there’s plenty of work for them to do yet.

QUESTION: Mr. Deputy Secretary, I have two questions, that I would like to ask about events in Russia. First of all, what is your reaction to the latest Russian government statement to attack the terror bases wherever they want and at the time of their choosing. What is the position of the United States on this?

DEPUTY SECRETARY ARMITAGE: And what’s the other question? I’ll answer it, but what’s the other question?

QUESTION: The other question is about how do you react to the Russian critique of the U.S. move to grant the asylum to the Chechen political leader.

DEPUTY SECRETARY ARMITAGE: On the first question, we understand the horror that the people of the Russian Federation feel in the wake of the Beslan tragedy. And I think, they don’t want to find themselves again on the receiving end of a terrorist event. So I understand the desire to strike out particularly with strong statements. But there are many ways to go after terrorism, militarily is one way, through intelligence and special services is another, through finances, the control of terrorist finances, that’s another. So I would hope that the Russian Federation would be very careful and cautious and wise in their choice of tools to use. On the question of the provision of asylum to the Chechen, this is not a matter of policy in the United States, it’s a matter of law, and the Secretary of State, the Deputy Secretary of State, or anyone else in the State Department does not make this decision. It is made on the basis of legal judgments and it was granted on that basis. In the wake of Beslan, the Russian authorities criticized the United States for meeting with Chechens. And the truth of the matter is, for two years we have not met with Chechens, but apparently in their anger the Russian Federation doesn’t hear that.

QUESTION: More on the Russian questions. What do you think about the latest reaction of President Putin to strengthen his powers after the Beslan tragedy and he used probably for his . . . .

DEPUTY SECRETARY ARMITAGE: Yeah, I have not studied his statement, but I saw it generally. In the first instance, although it’s a domestic matter for Russian Federation, it doesn’t seem to be compatible with the direction of democracy, towards democracy, that we thought the Russian Federation was on. So I hope they look carefully at what they’re doing, and we’re going to look carefully as well.

QUESTION: What is interesting is that Russia now is able and is ready to proceed to prevent these strikes against terrorism abroad. Do you think that this change in Putin’s mind could attract, could involve Russia more in fighting terrorism in Iraq or in Afghanistan?

DEPUTY SECRETARY ARMITAGE: The Russian Federation and the United States already have a joint team. I chair the U.S. side and formerly (?) First Deputy Foreign Minister Trubnikov (sp?) chaired the Russian side. We started out just being a counter-terrorism meeting on Afghanistan and we broadened it globally so we already cooperate globally with the Russian Federation. We exchange information on various threats and we exchange in some cases some operational information when it’s appropriate. So, in a very real way we already have this with the Russian Federation. I think that as long as the Russian Federation goes after terrorists, legitimate terrorists, that’s one thing, but I hope that some forces in the Russian Federation wouldn’t use it as an excuse for other things.

QUESTION: Do they use it as an excuse?

DEPUTY SECRETARY ARMITAGE: Not yet.

QUESTION: I want to ask about Iraq. President Bush said in an interview that Iraq was a miscalculation or the planned strategy was a miscalculation . . .

DEPUTY SECRETARY ARMITAGE: Well he said a little more than that. Let’s be fair. He said that is was a miscalculation because we hadn’t considered fully the effects of catastrophic success, is what he said. Others of us have said there were other miscalculations, for instance, one that I made, was not fully understanding the tribal nature of Iraq. We certainly understand the religious, ethnic, but the tribal makeup was something that we misunderstood. My colleague, Dr. Wolfowitz, has said that we underestimated the strength of the insurgency after the military success, so I think all of us have said that there were miscalculations. But one thing was not a miscalculation, and the President has been very clear about it, and that is that he, given all he knows right now, said he would go to war again in Iraq. He feels very strongly that to let that situation continue was a threat to us. And what people forget, but not Americans and not British, is that for twelve years Saddam Hussein had been under UN Security Council resolutions and for twelve years, every day, Americans and British flyers flew over the no-fly zone and were shot at every single day. So, every day Saddam Hussein made a joke about the international community by that. It was putting our pilots in danger and British pilots in danger and we weren’t going to do it anymore. Yes sir.

QUESTION: Mr. Deputy Secretary, if you compare the situation in Germany in 1945 to Iraq today, in Germany there was no resistance after the war. Do you really hope the United States are able to import democracy and the rule of law in Iraq? Because if you have a look at this region, there is only one government which is a democracy, and that is only Israel.

DEPUTY SECRETARY ARMITAGE: First of all, if you look at the literature published in 1946 and 1947 about Germany, there was much skepticism in the international community whether Germany could be a full and functioning member of the international community given that she’d taken part in two wars in the space of less than 30 years. And there was a phenomenon of, what were they called, the werewolves, the criminal groups who were running around and being very violent in Germany. And so two years after the success of a victory in Germany, if you look at the press, you’ll see there was plenty of skepticism. Now directly to your question. I do think it’s possible to have a democracy. And I think there are changes throughout the Middle East, and they’re in the various stages of change. Even Saudi Arabia in about a year is going to have municipal elections. Even Saudi Arabia. Though they haven’t yet made the decision whether to have women vote or not. That’s a first for them. In Jordan there are elections. In Kuwait you have a dewan (?), a process in which people can exchange ideas and make group decisions. You have things changing in every single country. But I grant you that if we’re successful in Iraq, and there’s a democracy in the, second biggest Arab country in the Middle East, this will be a threatening thing to some of the countries in the region. Sir.

QUESTION: This will be a personal question, but I’m asking if you can comment on it. It was reported a year ago already in the Washington Post that you and Mr. Secretary Powell are going to leave the administration if President Bush is re-elected. So you won’t stay on the team of President Bush, after the elections. So are you going to be there?

DEPUTY SECRETARY ARMITAGE: I’ll tell you what I told the Embassy staff. I said that neither the Secretary of State nor I, neither of us have accepted or rejected a job which hasn’t been offered. The first task is the re-election of President Bush. And after that, as Secretary Powell has said, he serves, as I do, at the pleasure of the President. So we want all attention focused on November 2 -- the successful re-election of the President, and then we’ll see what happens.

QUESTION: I’d like to ask the, if you feel the, let’s say, complicated relations with European NATO members, if you feel the support of the new NATO members. If you feel that we are kind of different?

DEPUTY SECRETARY ARMITAGE: No, I don’t feel you’re different. I’m delighted. As you know, we very were much supportive of Slovakia joining NATO. We think the provision of new blood, if you will, into NATO has been an invigorating thing. And in a strange way, in a funny way, smaller countries can, to a large degree, lead NATO in new directions. We find this a very fulfilling and good thing. By the same token, your succession to the EU is something we take great pleasure from because we work well with either body. In a way it gives us two opportunities to work closely with our friends in Bratislava, and that’s a great joy.

QUESTION: Mr. Deputy Secretary, let me come back to Russia. In Russia, Minister (?) said it was easier to find understanding with the United States than with European countries. Is it something that is encouraging to you?

DEPUTY SECRETARY ARMITAGE: I’m pleased. In some ways we work very well with the Russian Federation. But I can’t speak about Russia’s relationships with European countries, that’s something they have to speak about. They are a nation which sits astride the Eurasian land mass. They’ve always been much more directive of their intention toward Europe. It seems to me they ought to get along well with you. One more.

QUESTION: I would like to ask about the relation with China. After the fall of the USSR there is no other superpower than the United States, but China is growing economically and militarily also. Do you consider China a potential threat?

DEPUTY SECRETARY ARMITAGE: Not yet. We see the peaceful rising of China is, certainly in Asia and probably globally, one of the most important events of this 21^st century. And we think that China can rise peacefully and be a helpful and good factor in Asian life, in global life. But we’ll have to see as we go forward. Both China and the United States today are able to say, as Secretary Powell did in his speech at Texas A&M about China, U.S.-China relations are at their best state in history. China agrees with that statement, as do we. That’s very interesting when you think back to 3-1/2 years ago when we began this administration with a Chinese airplane running into one of our P3 aircraft, and going down and the loss of the Chinese pilot, and the capture of our Navy flyers. So we’ve come a long way in 3-1/2 years, we’re quite proud of it. Remember the peaceful rising of China is not sort of on a straight, predictable path, because they have many problems they have to overcome. They’ve got a very rich coastal area and a relatively poor inland. The unfortunate thing is about 280 million people live on the coast and over a billion people live inland. So the ability to transfer the riches and the goods, etc., to the interior is a real difficult problem. The management of the huge land mass, the people of China, is a huge problem of governance. So my view is China will rise peacefully, it will take time, and it won’t be in a straight line because of some of the difficulties that they have to overcome. But they will be a helpful member on the world stage. Another one?

QUESTION: Mr. Deputy Secretary, excuse me. I would like to come back to Iraq. It seems to me that security in Iraq is very, very, very bad and there is no reason to change strategy (unclear) . . . and especially if it is not reason to postpone January election in Iraq.

DEPUTY SECRETARY ARMITAGE: We feel that, and so does more importantly Prime Minster Allawi of the interim Iraqi government, that we need to have these elections as we promised in January. But you’re right, security is the problem, and because of that, this afternoon at 4:45 in Washington, Washington time, there’ll be a public announcement about our taking 3.4 billion dollars out of re-construction and putting into Iraqi security forces, the training, and equipping of these forces. Because the way for the United States, and for that matter, Slovak troops to be able to leave Iraq is by having the Iraqis able to defend themselves and fight for Iraq themselves. So we’re taking 3.4 billion dollars and putting it (into security), and that will be a public announcement in Washington and quite a big bit of news in just 6 or 7 hours.

QUESTION: So for one part it could be covered by Slovak training.

DEPUTY SECRETARY ARMITAGE: I’m sorry?

QUESTION: One part of this training can be covered by Slovak servicemen.