#3
Nezavisimaya Gazeta
December 1, 2001
POWELL: U.S. PRESIDENT LOOKING FORWARD TO VISITING
RUSSIA
An interview with US Secretary of State Colin Powell
Author: Andrei Shitov
[from WPS Monitoring Agency, www.wps.ru/e_index.html]
ON THE EVE OF HIS VISIT TO RUSSIA US SECRETARY OF STATE COLIN POWELL WAS INTERVIEWED BY A NUMBER OF EUROPEAN NEWS AGENCIES, INCLUDING ITAR- TASS. IN HIS INTERVIEW HE STRESSED THAT THIS YEAR RUSSIA AND THE UNITED STATES HAVE MADE GOOD PROGRESS IN THEIR RELATIONS IN A NUMBER OF AREAS.
US Secretary of State Colin Powell has been interviewed by the ITAR-TASS news agency.
Question: The year of seismic shifts in Russian-American relations is coming to an end. How would you describe this relationship now?
Colin Powell: Indeed, this has been a year of seismic shifts in Russian-American relations. The Russian and American presidents have met three times. In my opinion, not only the personal relationship of the two leaders but also bilateral relations have improved. I have met with my Russian counterpart 14 times this year. We'll hold our fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth meetings within a week in Bucharest, Brussels, and Moscow. We have achieved considerable success in the economic field. The US commerce secretary has visited Russia leading a delegation of American executives to study Russia's investment potential.
Another extremely important sphere of Russian-American cooperation is combating international terrorism. President Vladimir Putin was quick to decide that Russia should actively participate in the anti-terror campaign. He was the first foreign leader to phone President George Bush after the tragedy of September 11. Russia has stretched out its hand to the West, and we think that Russia's future is connected with the West. At the same time, we don't deny that Russia also has an Eastern direction of foreign policy requiring cooperation with China. However, if Russia is waiting for investment in its economy and seeking ways of improving its economy, it should certainly be looking to the West.
This issue is closely connected with Russia's relations with NATO. We don't expect Russia to become a fully-fledged member of NATO. However, as you may know, we are looking for ways of giving Russia opportunities to participate in discussions of many strategic issues of the alliance. I'll discuss these ideas during my meetings with Putin and Ivanov.
Recently NATO Secretary-General George Robertson met with Vladimir Putin. They conducted a similar conversation.
As for the strategic framework, we are working on them persistently now. I think we've made a breakthrough in he field of strategic attack weapons. President Bush has announced that the number of nuclear warheads on the operative duty will be slashed down to 1,700-2,200. Earlier Putin proposed his own figures of arms reduction. However, we're expecting him now to give his official response to America's proposal. After that it will be possible to move forward and decide how to codify this arms reduction.
As for missile defense systems, we continue discussions on this topic, and our points of view are still different.
To cut it short, we'll continue negotiations with the Russian side, simultaneously keeping in mind that we'll have to exceed the framework of the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) treaty of 1972 someday to continue the work on the missile defense program. I'm sure that this will be the key topic of my upcoming negotiations with Ivanov and Putin.
Question: Will you be preparing another Russian-American summit? What can you tell us about it?
Powell: The US president is looking forward to having an opportunity to visit Russia next year. The timing has not been determined so far. This will be a response to Vladimir Putin's recent visits to Washington, New York, and Crawford, Texas.
The agenda of the summit will be as wide as that of the recent summit. It will include all the issues that are of some importance for the two countries. These are economic relations, development of democracy throughout the world, combating terrorism, and the strategic frames of the bilateral relations. Probably we'll manage to codify the results we've reached by that time. However, it's too early to talk about it so far. But I'm sure this will be another successful visit.
The issues we're working on are extremely important. It's necessary for us to spend a lot of time on them to resolve them correctly. At the same time, if we agree on something by the meeting, we'll have a marvelous theatrical show.
Question: Do you intend to discuss the situation in Chechnya, the latest events in Georgia, and issues related to freedom of speech during your trip to Moscow?
Powell: As for freedom of speech, we touch on this issue at all meetings with the Russians. I'm sure we won't avoid this issue this time either.
As for Chechnya, we'll repeat our proposal on a political resolution of the conflict there. We were impressed by Vladimir Putin's recent speech, in which he gave gunmen a 72-hour ultimatum. In my opinion, this speech displayed his intention to politically resolve the conflict. The president has received a response to his ultimatum, and we're hoping that the process of political dialogue will be developed.
I'm worried about the recent reports that there have been some bombings in Georgia. I've told Igor Ivanov about my anxiety. We've exchanged opinions and he said that he would try to clarify this situation.
Question: How would you assess the progress of the Bonn conference on Afghanistan?
Powell: First of all, I'm pleased with the fact that the negotiations have started. Second, I'm satisfied with the fact that participants of the negotiations have made really good progress for the three days of the negotiations.
Question: What do you think of a possibility of a war against Iraq and the role Turkey could play in this war?
Powell: We keep an eye on Saddam Hussein and his programs in the field of mass destruction weapons. We continue to support the regime of sanctions against Iraq, and I'm satisfied with the fact that we've agreed on the procedure that will gradually lead to a new order of making the list of goods allowed to deliver to Iraq. The president reserves the full store of alternatives of his actions in case of the necessity to resist the Iraqi threat in the region.
(Translated by Kirill Frolov)
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