Remarks by Secretary of State Colin L. Powell And German Minister of Foreign Affairs Joschka Fischer after their Meeting

I also expressed my appreciation once again for the strong support that Germany has given to the campaign against terrorism, and especially for what they have done in Afghanistan, operating with US forces as well as with the International Security Assistance Force.

The Minister has been deeply engaged in the Middle East for a very long time and has made many, many visits to Israel and to the occupied territories in a quest for peace, and so as you would expect, we had a long discussion over the current situation in the Middle East.   I thanked him for his continuing support, support I know that we can count on in the future.

We also reviewed our bilateral relationship, which doesn't take very long at all because it is so strong and so solid.  We talked about some of the events coming up in the European context over the next several months with Reykjavik ministerial, the US-Russia summit, the NATO-Russia meeting in Rome at the end of May, and then of course the Prague summit in the fall.

And so once again I welcome Minister Fischer and I invite him to say a word or two.

FOREIGN MINISTER FISCHER:  Thank you very much, Colin.  Thank you for the warm welcome and the excellent talks, especially about the Middle East.  And let me tell the press that we appreciated very much what you personally did with your last trip together with your staff in the Middle East.  I know very well how complicated, how tragic the situation is, but we think there is no alternative to an agreement to stop the violence, to stop the terror, and to reopening the way back to the negotiations, to talks.

I think it was crucial that Secretary of State Colin Powell went to the region and tried to de-block the situation.  We appreciate it very much.  Especially I want to congratulate Colin Powell and American diplomacy to the success that there is now a solution hopefully for the situation in Ramallah, and hopefully also for the situation in the Church of Nativity in Bethlehem.  This is very important, and once again we congratulate to that breakthrough, to that step forward.

It's very important that Europe and the United States stick together in these -- in the Middle East affairs to find solutions.  I think the meeting in Madrid was a successful one.  We will have the Quartet now this week here in Washington.  I told Colin Powell that we will work, Germany will work together with our friends in the European Union very hard, that we stick together to find common positions and then answers for a solution of this crisis in the Middle East.  We are neighbors next door.  Europe is very close to the region.  We have a very strong Muslim minority in almost all European states.  So we are directly interested in peace and the end of terror and violence in the Middle East.

This was the main issue.  All the other issues we discussed Colin Powell mentioned.  Thank you very much.

QUESTION:  Mr. Secretary, is an agreement on Bethlehem looming?  Is there one close at hand, do you suppose?

SECRETARY POWELL:  I think there is a solution.  I don't know how close at hand it is.  I have been hoping for a breakthrough over the last several days.  But all of the elements are in place.  There are still some difficult discussions to take place.  But I think it will resolve in the near future. 

QUESTION:  Mr. Secretary, what can you tell us about the Ramallah deal, so to speak?  There are very few details out so far.  We hear they are still being worked on.  What kind of US presence would be there -- armed, unarmed, how long? 

And Minister Fischer, do you feel that some of the -- or that most of the angst the Europeans have sometimes expressed towards the United States for a unilateral approach is now gone?  It sounds from your words like it is.

SECRETARY POWELL:  With respect to the first issue, the details are being worked out.  A British advance team has arrived in the region, and they will be in discussions with both the Israelis and the Palestinians.  We are dispatching an American representative from the State Department to join in those discussions, and I would expect that within the next 24 to 48 hours all of the various details will be worked out, and hopefully a transfer will take place that will then allow Chairman Arafat to have the flexibility needed for movement around the occupied territories so he can take up his responsibilities once again to end the violence, end terrorism, and to rebuild the functioning structures, recreate functioning structures within the Palestinian Authority so that we can get back to a path of security, a path of negotiations, and a path that would allow humanitarian reconstruction aid to come into the region.

FOREIGN MINISTER FISCHER:  Well, the answer is very simple.  We appreciated very much the leadership of the United States in finding ways out of the Middle East crisis, the most dangerous crisis in present times.  The United States is in the driver's seat, and we are fully backing all the efforts which have been brought forward by Secretary of State or by the President and other representatives of the American diplomacy in the region and internationally.  So this is a very close cooperation.  I'm speaking here for the European Union as a common position of all member-states of the European Union.  So this is the answer to your question.

SECRETARY POWELL:  Thank you.

QUESTION:  Thank you.