Opening Statement at Press Roundtable in Berlin

Opening Statement at Press Roundtable in Berlin

R. Nicholas Burns, Under Secretary for Political AffairsAmerican EmbassyBerlin, GermanyMay 9, 2007
PRESS ATTACHÉ ROBERT WOOD: Mr. Secretary, welcome back to Berlin.
UNDER SECRETARY BURNS: Good afternoon. Nice to see everyone. I saw I kept some of you waiting -- or all of you waiting. I was just on the phone with the President of Serbia; so I had to take that phone call first.
I am here in Berlin -- just arrived from Washington. We have meetings of the G-8 tomorrow to prepare for the G-8 summit in June in Heiligendamm; and so we will be together tomorrow to talk about all the political issues, to prepare for that summit. That will include Iran and Iraq and North Korea and the Middle East peace process and Sudan and Kosovo and all those major issues that I would be happy to discuss with you.
I am also here to meet on Iran specifically -- on the German leadership with the Russians and the Chinese by speaker phone (inaudible). We will be consulting on our latest offer to the Iranians to come to the negotiating table on the nuclear issue. This, of course, follows in the wake of Secretary Rice’s trip to Sharm el-Sheikh last week where she attempted to have some discussions with the Iranian leadership -- and where we did, of course, have some discussions on the Iraq issue. So it is a very active time in our diplomacy.
I just wanted to start – you won’t get a speech from me – but I just wanted to start very briefly to say, first and foremost, I think U.S.-German relations are excellent. I have been a long-time observer of them and participant in them. I was in NATO between 2001 and 2005, so I remember when they weren’t so excellent. They are now in excellent shape. We are very grateful for the working relationship we have with Chancellor Merkel, with Foreign Minister Steinmeier, certainly with Mr. Silverberg, Michael Schaefer on down. And on most issues that you can name, we are working very closely with Germany. I will just name two.
Our strongest partner on Kosovo has been Germany. The United States and Germany have been working together. In fact we are the ones who produced the framework of the current resolution that is going to be introduced in the next day or two, in New York at the Security Council. Germany and the United States have put the elements of that Resolution together; and Michael Schaefer and I gave those elements to the Russian Deputy Foreign Minister in London last Thursday. So throughout the last two years, our closest partner has been Germany -- on the issue of Kosovo.
On Iran -- on Iran nuclear -- again Germany is one of our key partners. We are talking to the German government nearly every day. Tomorrow’s meeting will be the second meeting in a week that I have had with the German government, as well as the Russian, Chinese, French and British governments on this nuclear issue concerning the Iranian government. So our bilateral relationship is in excellent shape. We are grateful for that. We understand that Germany is the leading European country; that Germany has a degree of influence that is unmatched by any other European country. And so we obviously want to maintain this excellent working relationship and I think we shall.
On Kosovo. This is going to be the subject of a lot of discussions today and tomorrow here in Berlin. I just spoke with President Tadiæ, just very respectfully. We speak from time to time to let him know how we are proceeding. And I did say we would be proceeding, and I will call Prime Minister Koštunica tomorrow, and I will tell him the same. We will be proceeding in New York. We strongly support the Ahtisaari Plan. We think there is now majority support in the Security Council for that plan -- in fact very strong support for that plan. They had a first, the Ambassadors in New York had a first substantive meeting yesterday, a full discussion of the issues; I think there will be more in the next day or two. And we will work very closely with Britain and France and Germany and the other countries to put forward a Resolution in the coming days that will lead, we hope, to a vote this month and to the independence of Kosovo.
We think this process is inevitable. We also think that the best way forward is to make a firm and clear decision because that is the best way to assure the majority population -- the 95% of the population that are Kosovar Albanian -- that we recognize that they have made the necessary reforms over the last eight years, since the end of the war in June 1999, that would merit them becoming an independent state with an independent government. We know this is a difficult issue for Serbia. We want to maintain very good relations with Serbia. I think you will see us pressing for protections of the minority rights of Serbs in the Resolution; and making sure that the United Nations and the EU and NATO are all focused on the issue of Serb minority rights. It is very important that the future of Kosovo be one where Serbs can live freely, where their churches and historic sites and monasteries are protected from any kind of threat. So we will be pressing forward on that.
On the issue of Iran, we hope the Iranian government will understand that it has a choice now. That choice is to negotiate with the Perm-5 countries and Germany on the nuclear weapons issue. We made an offer 11 months ago in Vienna -- the Perm-5 and Germany. Iran said no to that offer. We now have put that offer back on to the table. Javier Solana has been asked by the six of us to represent us in talks with Ali Larijani and those talks will be continuing in the coming -- at some point in the next week or two. I don’t think they have been announced yet, the date and time and location. But we hope the Iranian government will reconsider. We hope they will agree to meet us halfway. We have agreed that we would suspend our sanctions in the Security Council for the life of any negotiations. We would ask Iran to suspend its enrichment programs (inaudible), but clearly negotiations are preferable to confrontation. We seek peaceful discourse, not confrontation. But Iran is rather isolated these days. When you have Germany, France, Britain, the United States, China and Russia all together on one proposal, wishing to negotiate; and when you have South Africa, Indonesia, India, Brazil, Egypt -- all having voted in the Security Council or the IAEA to urge Iran to seek these negotiations; Iran should listen, not just to the Perm-5 and Germany, but also to the leading non-aligned countries of the world, and they ought to come to the negotiating table. So we will be talking about that tomorrow here in Berlin under German leadership. We will be talking to them about that.
Hello stranger. You all know Assistant Secretary Dan Fried who has just come in on the trail from Bucharest, joining me here for talks in Berlin.
But this is a critical time for Iran. If you think about it, Iran is supported -- who supports Iran? Syria does. Venezuela does. Belarus and Cuba. That’s about it. Every other leading country in the world has said, “Please sit down with these six countries and negotiate.” And so we don’t want to give up on negotiations. We want Iran to sit down with us; Secretary Rice said this just Monday. She said if Iran would sit down at the negotiating table, suspend its enrichment program, sit down and negotiate, she would be there, and she would be available to talk about any issue with the Iranian government. So that surely is the right way forward. We don’t seek confrontation and we think it can and should be avoided. So Kosovo and Iran are big issues.
Darfur is a major issue -- for those of us in the Security Council. And we are asking the Sudanese government to allow our United Nations and African Union peacekeeping force to go into Darfur to protect the civilians. There were more attacks on civilians in Darfur over the weekend, more attacks on the women and children there. And so we think in our government it is time to act. We want to see this process go forward and want to see the Sudanese government be willing to work with the United Nations. We think Ban Ki-Moon has done an excellent job of leading the international community.
There are lots of issues. There are relations with Russia. There is missile defense. There is the future of the Serb government, which right now is under some question because of the return of the radicals. There are lots of issues to discuss and I just wanted to put them on the table and say that I would be happy to talk to you about them.
ANDREAS RINKE, HANDELSBLATT: May I come back to the issue of Kosovo? Is it correct that there is a timeline that will entail a decision on the Resolution in May, as some newspapers have reported? First, and second, is there any new element which could be part of this Resolution which has aired in the last discussions?
UNDER SECRETARY BURNS: Yes and yes.
On the timeline issue, we have made a strategic judgment. We thought, we sat and thought about the future of Kosovo, and it’s clear to us that a prolonged delay in granting, or seeing the way forward towards independence in Kosovo is more likely to produce instability and violence than a clear decision this spring. And so the United States supports the Ahtisaari Plan; supports independence for Kosovo; supports a clear decision by the Security Council, we hope this month, the month of May, that will lead towards the independence of Kosovo. Now I want to choose my words carefully: “lead towards.” The Resolution that we are drafting with Germany, France, Britain and others is not going to proclaim that Kosovo is an independent state. We don’t believe the Security Council has that kind of legal power. It will though, however, do a couple of things. It will, and by necessity must, in effect, end the impact of Resolution 1244 from June 1999 and the institutions that that created, specifically UNMIK, the United Nations Mission in Kosovo. It will ask the European Union to become the lead agency to go in, as Judy wrote about in this morning’s newspaper (I read it in the plane).
JUDY DEMPSEY, INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE: I didn’t ask you to say that.
UNDER SECRETARY BURNS: Well, it’s free advertising (laughter). It will ask the European Union to play the lead civil role in implementing the necessary reforms that need to be carried out, specifically protection of minority rights. And it will encourage, of course, NATO to continue to provide security because there won’t be a national army in Kosovo; and NATO will continue, as it has for eight years, to provide the border security and the internal security and to provide for internal peace.
The passage of such a resolution would then allow Kosovo, the authorities in Pristina, the government there, President Sejdiu and Prime Minister Çeku -- and I will be seeing them on Friday in Croatia, in Zagreb -- it will allow them to then proclaim their independence. Those of us who support this will then recognize that bilaterally. That’s the legal way forward. I wanted to point that out.
But I think the process has a great deal of momentum. We already have strong majority support among the 15 members. We are trying to work with Russia. I met Deputy Minister Titov in London for a few hours last Thursday morning. Michael Schaefer and I and others met him together; and we urged him to work with us.
Now the second question you asked is well are there new elements of this I could talk about. Yes, there is. I think the Russians, the Russian government, have been very clear that they would like to see some kind of mechanism by which Serb refugees could be assisted because there are tremendous numbers of Serbs who have left Kosovo. And we agree, and I think we will agree to add an element to the Security Council Resolution that would ask for the creation of an independent envoy who would be charged with (inaudible). I shouldn’t say independent because I guess that person would work in the international mission, but an envoy who will be charged with trying to help encourage Serb refugees to stay or to come back or those Serbs who live in Kosovo to stay. So that was, I think, a very attractive idea put forward by Russia. We support it. We want to work with Russia. We are reaching out to the Russian government. I know Secretary Rice will be in Moscow with Dan Fried next week; and I know she looks forward to discussing this issue with the Russian leadership.
Can I just say one more thing? I think that Judy’s piece was excellent but she gave too little credit to NATO. She gave too little credit to the job that NATO has done for the last eight years. My only criticism. You have a right to reply.
JUDY DEMPSEY, INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE: You know I love NATO.
UNDER SECRETARY BURNS: I do (Laughter). This is a long story.
JOHANNES LEITHÄUSER, FRANKFURTER ALLGEMEINE ZEITUNG: Are there any additional conditions or restrictions possible if in the way you describe, the Kosovo government is the one to [proclaim] its independence. It is not possible to apply conditions to this independent status Kosovo then will have?
UNDER SECRETARY BURNS: Well, Martti Ahtisaari has called for a period of supervised independence. That means that the European Union will play a civil role and NATO will play a military role; and the Kosovar authorities have agreed to this. It does mean that we will expect the Kosovar authorities to continue the process of meeting the standards that all of us have been talking about for many, many years. Standards meaning how should minorities be treated, how should electoral reforms be carried out, administrative reforms, issues of governance, issues of corruption. That doesn’t stop. When Kosovo becomes an independent state, we will all expect, as friends of Kosovo, the governing authorities to meet those standards that the United Nations established many years ago. And then one of the key questions will be: When does the period of supervised independence conclude? And that’s a subject that the Security Council will likely comment on. But that is an evolution. So we will have to see where that goes in New York.
DIETRICH ALEXANDER, DIE WELT: Could you elaborate a little bit more on the ongoing radicalization among the Serbs, as we have now Tomislav Nikolic, who is quite a hyper-nationalist? Well, do you worry about riots as Kosovo goes on its way to independence?
UNDER SECRETARY BURNS: Well, first, I want to say that I think it’s proper that we not involve ourselves in Serb politics. This is for the Serb people to decide; and the political leaders to decide. So I won’t comment specifically on Serb politics, or what may happen over the next few days because I know that they are in a process of trying to form a government over the next several days. And I will be calling Prime Minister Koštunica tomorrow just to talk about a variety of issues, including Kosovo.
But I think all of us -- I think we, in our government, are very disappointed at the re-emergence of the radicals. This is the party of Milosevic. This is the party that took Serbia backwards in the 1990s and into destruction and warfare – four wars. And as Olli Rehn said yesterday -- I think Olli put it very well and I would certainly associate myself with his remarks: Serbia has a choice. Serbia can go back to the failed policies, the disastrous policies of the 1990s that led to so much bloodshed and turmoil, or it can move forward. You know the EU and NATO have reached out to Serbia to say, “We want you to be aligned with us.” NATO took the decision just last autumn that we would bring Serbia into the Partnership for Peace. We in the United States have said very clearly that when a democratic Serbia is fully reformed, we would like them to become candidate members for NATO in the future. I know the European Union has said the same thing. But they have to meet the conditions and that is reform. And it seems to us that Serbia ought to want to be aligning itself with the European mainstream, which is democratic. Values concerning human rights. War criminals are not allowed to roam freely in the country but are sent to The Hague for prosecution, as normal countries have done – as Croatia has done by the way, a neighbor of Serbia. So we were disappointed to see the re-emergence of the radicals. These are people who brought Serbia great ruin and international discredit in the 1990s. We would hope that Serbia could face forward in a more democratic way in the future.
JUDY DEMPSEY, INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE: Can I just go back to the timetable? So you are confiding that the U.S. will present a draft Security Council resolution this month?
UNDER SECRETARY BURNS: I didn’t say the U.S. We, the United States and Europe, together.
JUDY DEMPSEY, INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE: You will have to get Russia involved. What happens if Russia – if Russia abstains, that’s a different matter. Are you confident that you would get it through by the end of the month? And then you mentioned the key word – bilateral. Then countries can bilaterally recognize the independence. Bilateral.
UNDER SECRETARY BURNS: I think it’s common, and understandable. There’s an assumption among a lot of people that somehow the UN Security Council is going to proclaim the independence. None of us believe the Security Council has that legal right. So when we undo June 1990 and the international structures that were set up, we prepare the way forward for the new international cooperation, and then each country takes the decision that it wants to take. And my country has already said we will recognize an independent Kosovo.
JUDY DEMPSEY, INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE: Assume Russia vetoes it or abstains?
UNDER SECRETARY BURNS: You know I learned as spokesman ten years ago when I was spokesman for the State Department, Judy, never answer a hypothetical question. So what I would like to say because it is a serious question: Russia should be part of the process of building a peaceful Balkans. Russia should want to orient Kosovo along with Bosnia and Croatia and Macedonia and Albania and hopefully Serbia towards the EU, towards NATO. One of the points that the European countries have been making very effectively, and I think you have seen really strong European leadership on Kosovo over the last month or so, is, and we, we Americans, make it in conjunction with Europe. Who has been there for eight years? Who has been on the ground in Kosovo? It’s been Germany and Italy and France and Spain and Britain and Romania, all the countries, and us – our soldiers, our money, our political support. I find in my international conversations that a lot of countries outside of Europe on the Security Council are saying, “You know, this really is a European issue.” And if anyone should try to disrupt this process, well, which countries will have to assume the responsibility of a chaotic future? We will. You will. It’s Europe and the United States. We are the ones on the ground. And so we think we have a right to put forward a clear view. I think Europe has done that. The United States as well. And we ask Russia to work with us. And we have a very open mind. I told Deputy Foreign Minister Titov last week we are flexible. The elements that we have put forward are not set in stone. If you have some ideas, give them to us. And they gave us the idea of an envoy who would be dedicated to refugee affairs. We said that’s a good idea. So if the Russians have other good ideas, I think all of us would want to receive them. So this is very much a process that is going to have to evolve over the next two to three to four weeks. But we are open to Russian suggestions. We just would like the Russians to be with us in the end.
ANDREW PURVIS, TIME MAGAZINE: You have covered the ground pretty effectively. The question of Russia’s concerns over the Ahtisaari Plan. You are essentially saying that this idea of an envoy for the Serb minorities is not allaying their major concerns on Kosovo?
UNDER SECRETARY BURNS: I can’t speak for the Russian government. No, I think Russia has other concerns, but all I’m saying is that the Russians contributed a very useful, productive idea. We are in favor of it. We have told the Russians that. And I would urge the Russians to come with similar, other ideas. And I hope that they will. Most of the action will be in New York, at the Council with the ambassadors. But we will continue our talks in capitals and Secretary Rice will want to, of course, address this issue in Moscow next week. But the Russians will have to make their own decision; but I see the momentum now, the momentum is towards independence. That’s very clear to me. And I think Europe has done an excellent job of leading this international debate.
HANS-JUERGEN MAURUS, GERMAN PUBLIC RADIO: Concerning North Korea, has there been any significant new developments after this financial issue was resolved with Banco Delta Asia, the 25 million at (inaudible) Chinatown? And then the last thing we heard about was that nobody touched it and that the work at the nuclear reactor -- nothing is happening yet either. But I am sure you know more about this.
And the second question is towards Iran. Your assessment is, to quote you, that “Iran is pretty much isolated.” You made a convincing argument there, but on the other hand of course you see that members of the European Union, or companies of members of the European Union -- an Austrian company has signed a deal, 3.5 billion with the Iranian government, and there are of course other deals in the pipeline with other countries. I wonder if there are not mixed signals being sent which might lead, in Tehran, to the assessment that they can lean back very comfortably as long as the dollars are rolling in or the Euros or whatever. What makes you so convinced that this is now a critical time that the Iranians even might be ready to move, or is that an expectation?
UNDER SECRETARY BURNS: Well, on the first question; we are continuing to work on the North Korea issue. I know that there is continuing work by the Treasury Department of the United States and by Ambassador Chris Hill to finalize the financial arrangements concerning Banco Delta Asia and we are confident that that can happen. You know the February agreement in our view is a very good agreement. Its multilateral six-party-talks will lead to dismantlement of the North Korean Nuclear Program that is in everyone’s interest. We will continue to place a lot of priority and energy on pushing forward with China, Russia, Japan, and South Korea, and the North Koreans to complete this arrangement.
On Iran. I think Iran has miscalculated. The Iranians are beginning to see the pressure from the Security Council: we now have two Chapter 7 resolutions; we now have sanctions on the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps Command; we have sanctions on Bank Sepa, the fourth leading bank -- international UN sanctions on the fourth leading bank of Iran; sanctions on individuals in the nuclear and ballistic missile industry. We have European banks beginning to shut down lending to Iran. We have European governments diminishing the level of export credits, they tell us, the European governments; they are diminishing them -- that were as high as 22 billion dollars in total in the year 2005. So I think the momentum here is towards greater pressure and sanctions, economic pressure on Iran, should they not come to the negotiating table. And again, like Serbia, what we have very consciously done, we the Europeans, Americans, China and Russia, is say: you’ve got two paths, Iran.
We prefer the negotiation path. And if you agree with Solana, over the next few weeks, if Iran will agree to this dual suspension, the mutual suspension -- so, we give something up and Iran does. We will be at the negotiating table and we will have a way to discuss this problem. And from an American perspective: any issue. If Iran doesn’t say yes to negotiations and continues -- and they are now up to 13,000 centrifuges in the cascade that they have strung together -- they are going to find a third Security Council Resolution in the month of June, a third Chapter VII resolution. They will find, I think more importantly, I’ll bet in Japan and in Europe, further efforts to, as the EU has done, reduce economic and political contacts with the Iranian government.
On the question of the Austrian oil and gas investment, we think it’s ill-advised, we recommend against it. This is no time for business as usual with the government of the leading supporter of the four major Middle East terrorist groups that Iran is. And a government – Iran – that we think is trying to achieve a nuclear weapons capability; and there is no international disagreement that that is what they are trying to do. And so we think it would be ill-advised to proceed with such an investment.
I have met over the last six to seven weeks with several CEOs of major European and American oil companies and our advice to them is; don’t make long-term investments in Iran, it’s not a good credit risk. You will be beginning to see international banks constrict or end lending all together. You have UN Chapter VII resolutions -- of 192 in the UN, only 11 are under Chapter VII sanctions, Iran is one of them. And I think, finally, the U.S. Senate and House are considering legislation that would exact severe penalties on any company in the world that proceeds with major oil and gas deals. Now our administration has said that we don’t support this legislation in full but we don’t make the laws. Congress makes the laws. Congress is speaking very clearly that they want to send a clear signal that companies should not invest in the oil and gas sector. So, I think in all ways, this Austrian deal is extremely ill-advised and should be reconsidered.
RUTH CIESINGER, TAGESPIEGEL: Actually, I think you pretty much answered it but let me just clarify. So if there is not going to be any sign of Iran to come back to the negotiating table until the 25th of May, is there is definitely going to be another Security Council Resolution, a third one? Is this something that you have already agreed upon with the other five?
UNDER SECRETARY BURNS: Yes, we agreed last week in London that should the Iranian government not agree to negotiations, then we will all push for a third Resolution -- and that is implicit, explicit in the 1747, the Resolution of March 21st. We will seek further measures – “measures” is a UN word for sanctions, should Iran not comply. Now I don’t think there is anything magical about May 24th. Sixty days runs out then. But if Solana needed a day, or two, or three more, we are not going to quibble. We support Solana. He is representing us. He is representing all of us – all six of us. And we want to make it possible for Solana to succeed, but I think we will know by the first part of June whether or not the Iranians are going to say yes. And Solana will know and he will report to us, and certainly by the G-8 Summit here in Germany, it will be abundantly clear whether Iran has said yes or no. If they have said no, then I think we are going to see – I know we will see – a major effort in New York towards a third sanctions resolution. By the way, that is not our preference. We don’t seek to be punitive, just to be punitive. We would rather have negotiations. Secretary Rice said this last week in Sharm el-Sheikh; she said it Monday at the State Department. We want negotiations.
Here is a way to think about this issue. It has been 28 years since the United States had any kind of discussions with the government of Iran – on any subject. And now you have the United States government reaching out in two respects. Last week at Sharm el-Sheikh, our Ambassador to Iraq, Ryan Crocker, sat down with the Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister and talked about Iraq – which we initiated. And there may be further discussions in that channel. Now we are also trying to create a second channel on the nuclear issue of negotiations – and Secretary Rice has said that she will personally be there. So I hope the Iranians understand this is the first time in 28 years that the United States has offered negotiations at such a high level. And we do believe that negotiations are a far better way to proceed internationally than military confrontation. And so, Iran we would think should find it in its interest – with Solana – to find a way forward. And Solana has been – he’s a very creative diplomat. And we have given him our full trust over the next several weeks to negotiate with Larijani; and we are all waiting for a response. And we are puzzled that the Iranians seem so ambivalent about this.
PRESS ATTACHÉ ROBERT WOOD: I’m sorry, we’re out of time. Thank you everyone for coming. Mr. Secretary, thank you.
UNDER SECRETARY BURNS: Thank you.