|
Disarmament DocumentationBack to Disarmament Documentation 'We've been reaching out', US Secretary of State Colin Powell on US-EU relations, January 9'Powell: U.S. to Reach Out to Europe During Irish EU Presidency', interview with RTE Ireland, January 9, 2004. U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE INTERVIEW January 9, 2004 MS COLEMAN: Secretary Powell, Ireland, in its role as EU president, is hoping to improve relations between America and Europe. Do you think those relations can be improved in the coming months, and what will America do to improve relations? SECRETARY POWELL: Oh, I think relations are quite good, notwithstanding the occasional press reporting to the contrary. The President has close relations with all of his European colleagues. We've had some serious differences with our French and German colleagues as a result of the Iraq situation last year, but by and large I think we enjoy good relations with Europe. We know that there was a major dustup with European publics over the Iraq war. That is now behind us, and I think we all have to come together and work together to help the Iraqi people put in place a democracy. Eighteen of the 26 nations of NATO, or about to be members of NATO, have troops in Iraq. That doesn't suggest there's a big fissure between the United States and Europe; quite the contrary, it shows that many European nations are working with us. We've been reaching out. We are looking forward during the period of the Irish presidency of the European Union to do even more. There will be a NATO summit at the end of June. We're looking at scheduling now for a U.S.-EU summit that Ireland, of course, would chair. And so we'll be doing more to reach out and show our European colleagues that America appreciates the partnerships we have with our European colleagues, either through NATO or the EU or in other bilateral arrangements. MS COLEMAN: There is an expectation, Secretary Powell, that yourself and President Bush will actually travel to Ireland in the summer for a transatlantic summit. Can you tell us if that is on the cards? SECRETARY POWELL: Well, it's certainly in the cards. I don't have schedule detail yet, but I know that he very much would hope that the summit would be held in Ireland during the course, of course, of the Irish presidency. But we are not yet at the point where we have schedule details. MS COLEMAN: Turning to your foreign policy goals for the coming year, do you think that you will be able to hand over sovereignty to the Iraqi people by the June deadline? It is really just months away now, and the place is still quite unstable. SECRETARY POWELL: It's going to be a difficult task, but we still believe that handover by the 1st of July is possible. Reconstruction is taking place. Governments are being formed at local level, and we are now putting in place a national transitional government. We are meeting with Secretary General Annan in New York today to discuss the role of the United Nations to help with this political transition. A great deal of money is now flowing into the infrastructure as a result of the Madrid donors' conference and the very significant amount of money that the United States Congress appropriated to this. So you will start to see improvement in the lives of the average Iraqi. You can see they are now debating amongst themselves as to what kind of a government they want to have, what kind of nation they want to be, one that's founded on democracy, certainly. And so a lot is happening. And these are challenging times. The security situation is still a challenge to us. But I am confident in our military and in the growing Iraq police and military forces to deal with these remnant elements over time. MS COLEMAN: Mr. Powell, the weapons of mass destruction issue refuses to go away. You will not admit that you got it wrong, but will you agree that the UN weapons inspectors really had it right? SECRETARY POWELL: No, I will not admit we got it wrong because we didn't get it wrong. We had a regime that for 12 years had stiffed the international community. So many UN resolutions they ignored. They didn't account for what UN inspectors said they had or could have. MS COLEMAN: But, Mr. Powell, where are the weapons? SECRETARY POWELL: They were given every opportunity to do that, and they didn't. President Clinton, in 1998, based on the same basis of intelligence that we had in 2002 and 2003, he struck Iraq for the same reason. Intelligence communities in so many of the major nations that have the capability to look at these things also agreed with it. Saddam Hussein never lost the intention to have weapons of mass destruction. He had them, he used them against Iranians, he used them against his own people. He never gave up that intention. He never gave up the capability to have such weapons. Now, what we haven't been able to determine, haven't found, are stockpiles of these weapons. But there is no doubt in our mind, based on what we have found, the intention never went away, the capability never went away, the programs never went away. What we are not yet sure of, because the work of the Iraqi Survey Group continues, is whether or not there are stocks of these weapons around. We haven't found them. But we are absolutely confident in the decision we made that the world should not take a risk with this despotic regime, with a despotic leader who never lost the intention or the capability, and that had been affirmed over a period of 12 years. If he wanted not to be attacked, all he had to do was, after Resolution 1441 was passed last year, was to come forward with a full, honest declaration, answering all the questions that had been put to him. He didn't, and he paid the consequences. MS COLEMAN: And, obviously, he has not told you where the weapons are. Thank you very much, Mr. Powell, for joining us on Six One News. SECRETARY POWELL: Thank you. Source: US State Department, Washington File, http://usinfo.state.gov. © 2003 The Acronym Institute. |