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US Congressional Testimony, February 2002

Secretary of State Colin Powell, February 13

Statement by US Secretary of State Colin L. Powell to the House of Representatives Appropriations Subcommittee on Foreign Operations, Export Financing, and Related Programs, February 13.

Over the past year, Mr. Chairman, I believe the broader tapestry of our foreign policy has become clear: to encourage the spread of democracy and market economies and to bring more nations to the understanding that the power of the individual is the power that counts. And when evil appears to threaten this progress, America will confront that evil and defeat it - as we are doing in the war on terrorism.

In weaving this tapestry, we have achieved several successes in addition to the successes of the war on terrorism and the regional developments its skilful pursuit has made possible. Let me highlight several.

With regard to Russia, President Bush has defied some of our critics and structured a very strong relationship. The meetings that he had with President Putin and the dialogue that has taken place between Russian Foreign Minister Ivanov and me and between Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld and his counterpart, and at a variety of other levels, have positioned the United States for a strengthened relationship with the land of eleven time zones.

The way that Russia responded to the events of September 11 was reflective of this positive relationship. Russia has been a key member of the antiterrorist coalition. It has played a crucial role in our success in Afghanistan, by providing intelligence, bolstering the Northern Alliance, and assisting our entry into Central Asia. As a result, we have seriously eroded the capabilities of a terrorist network that posed a direct threat to both of our countries. Similarly, the way we agreed to disagree on the ABM Treaty reflects the intense dialogue we had over eleven months, a dialogue in which we told the Russians where we were headed and we made clear to them that we were serious and that nothing would deter us. And we asked them if there was a way that we could do what we had to do together, or a way that they could accept what we had to do in light of the threat to both of our countries from ballistic missiles.

At the end of the day, we agreed to disagree and we notified Russia that we were going to withdraw from the ABM Treaty. I notified Foreign Minister Ivanov - we talked about our plans for two days. President Bush called President Putin. Then the two presidents arranged the way we would make our different announcements. And the world did not end. An arms race did not break out. There is no crisis in Russia-US relations. In fact, our relations are very good. Both presidents pledged to reduce further the number of their offensive nuclear weapons and we are hard at work on an agreement to record these mutual commitments. This is all part of the new strategic framework with Russia.

We even managed to come to an agreement on how we are going to work through NATO. We are now developing mechanisms for pursuing joint Russia-NATO consultations and actions "at 20" on a number of concrete issues. Our aim is to have these mechanisms in place for the Reykjavik ministerial in May. And as we head for the NATO Summit in Prague in November, I believe we will find the environment for the continued expansion of NATO a great deal calmer than we might have expected.

I believe the way we handled the war on terrorism, the ABM Treaty, nuclear reductions, and NATO is reflective of the way we will be working together with Russia in the future. Building on the progress we have already made will require energy, good will, and creativity on both sides as we seek to resolve some of the tough issues on our agenda. We have not forgotten about Russian abuse of human rights in Chechnya, Moscow's nuclear proliferation to Iran, or Russian intransigence with respect to revision of Iraq sanctions. Neither have we neglected to consider what the situation in Afghanistan has made plain for all to see: how do we achieve a more stable security situation in Central Asia? We know that this is something we cannot do without the Russians and something that increasingly they realize can't be done without us, and without the full participation of the countries in the region. We are working these issues as well. ...

I also believe we have been successful in bringing the Europeans to a calmer level of concern with respect to what was being labeled by many in Europe "unbridled US unilateralism". Notwithstanding the recent reaction in parts of Europe to President Bush's State of the Union Address, I still believe this to be true. ...

But we have also demonstrated that when it is a matter of principle, we will stand on that principle. In his first year in office President Bush has shown the international community who he is and what his administration is all about. ... Let me just note that this sort of principled approach characterizes our determined effort to reduce the threat from weapons of mass destruction - an effort well underway before the tragic events of September 11 added even greater urgency. We and the Russians will reduce our own deployed nuclear weapons substantially. In the meantime, we are using a comprehensive approach, along with our friends and allies, to tackle WMD elsewhere, an approach that includes export controls, non-proliferation, arms control, missile defenses, and counter-proliferation. As you heard President Bush say in his State of the Union address to the Congress, "the price of indifference would be catastrophic."

Director of Central Intelligence Tenet emphasized in his testimony last week that there are terrorists in the world who would like nothing better than to get their hands on and use nuclear, chemical, or biological weapons. So there is a definite link between terrorism and WMD. Not to recognize that link would be foolhardy to the extreme. ...

The President talked about...dark spots in his State of the Union Address when he talked about an "axis of evil." He wasn't talking about people who are evil. He was talking about regimes who are evil or do evil things. And I think he spoke with clear-headedness and with a realistic point of view. It doesn't mean anybody is declaring war on these states tomorrow, but we call them the way they are. ... North Korea [is] a state that we provide [with] a great deal of its food and we have an agreement to help them get power that they need. We are also anxious to engage with them, as the President has said and I have said repeatedly, any time, any place, without any preconditions. All they have to do is say so. And it is a despotic regime and we should not shrink from calling it what it is. But at the same time, we are absolutely aligned with our South Korean friends in encouraging engagement so that these two states can ultimately become a joined people again, as the Korean people were joined for much of their long history.

We also have a problem with nations such as Iran, which is trying to find its own way. In some ways, Iran has been very helpful to our efforts. It was very helpful at the Bonn conference and the Tokyo conference with respect to Afghanistan. But at the same time, we have to be troubled by a regime that is pursuing weapons of mass destruction and nuclear capability and that is supporting terrorism. And for us to say, well, they've done these good things and let's ignore all the unpleasant things they are doing I think would be hypocritical of us and not consistent. We are also concerned about some of the actions they are now taking in Afghanistan with respect to perhaps introducing weapons or doing other things that might not be stabilizing in the western part of Afghanistan. And so the President called it the way it is.

With respect to Iraq, we have long had a policy of regime change, believing that the Iraqi people deserve better leadership than they have had for the last 30 years. And we also work within the UN framework to keep the sanctions in place. When I became Secretary of State on the 20th of January of last year, the sanctions were collapsing. All of Permanent Members of the Security Council were moving in different directions. We arrested that. The sanctions are in place. The Security Council has come together. And I believe by the end of May we will have moved to smart sanctions so the Iraqis can no longer claim that we are somehow affecting the well-being of their citizens. It was a false claim all along, and this will show the falsity of it for the whole world to see. ...

Source: Excerpt - Powell on Russia, Europe, Central Asia, Proliferation, US State Department (Washington File), February 13.

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