Remarks with Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili After Their Meeting

QUESTION: Mr. President, obviously, in the regions back in Georgia there are some problems that Russia is involved. Are you going to be provoked by Russia?

PRESIDENT SAAKASHVILI: No, that's exactly what I've been saying that we should be very calm. Our policy is clear. We want to demilitarize. We want to calm things down. We want to democratize the whole region and we want to keep dialogue going, including dialogue with the Russians. It is very important. And then some of very crazy and outrageous things were said by some of the Russian politicians, like the fact that Georgia is infringing on their sovereignty.

I mean, since when does Russia own a piece of Georgia? I mean, these are all things happening inside Georgia and we don't want to be provoked. I mean, we -- I was making steady progress. We are going forward. Georgia has great prospects in terms of attracting investment, in terms of getting reforms through this period, and so that the last thing we want is some kind of confrontation. That's exactly something that they would like to impose upon us because they think that now we're so vulnerable.

Certainly, we're going to overcome that kind of thing and I think the help of the U.S. Administration have been very helpful.

QUESTION: Mr. Secretary, but what kind of --

SECRETARY POWELL: Thank you.

QUESTION: -- what kind of help are you after?

SECRETARY POWELL: Thank you.

(Secretary Powell walks President Saakashvili to car.)

QUESTION: What kind of offer -- help are you offering Georgia? And do you feel like you're getting in between Georgia and Russia on these issues?

SECRETARY POWELL: We work with both parties and I had good conversation with the President. We stay in close touch with Russian colleagues as well. What we're anxious to do is calm this situation down, remove tensions and the propensity for provocation and get back to dialogue, as the President said. And we'll use our good offices, as we have rather repeatedly, continuously, since last November. You'll recall that weekend in November (inaudible), and we've tried to be helpful every step of the way.

QUESTION: How concerned are you? I mean, how critical do you think the situation is right now?

SECRETARY POWELL: I think there is a bit of tension there, but I don't think they're on the verge of a crisis of the kind that's sometimes suggested. We've seen this kind of problem before and I think we know how to deal with it diplomatically.

Thank you, guys.

QUESTION: Thank you.