Condoleezza Rice, Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Boris Tarasyuk

Remarks With Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Boris Tarasyuk After Meeting FULL STREAMING VIDEO

Secretary Condoleezza Rice Benjamin Franklin Room Washington, DC March 11, 2005 (2:30 p.m. EST)

SECRETARY RICE: Good afternoon. It is my great pleasure to welcome to the United States and to the State Department Foreign Minister Tarasyuk of Ukraine. We have had a very good discussion of the full range of issues in the U.S.-Ukrainian bilateral relationship.

I was able to say to the Foreign Minister how deeply moved Americans were by the expression of freedom that the Ukrainian people gave, by the example that they gave to the world of what happens when the aspirations of free people can no longer be denied. I was able to say that the United States and Ukraine, which have enjoyed bonds of friendship through our peoples for many years, now enjoy special relations in our governmental relationship. And I very much look forward to working with you, Foreign Minister.

Just earlier today, the White House announced that President Yushchenko will be visiting President Bush in April. We very much look forward to that. But this is a time when the march of freedom is progressing rapidly and remarkably. And the Ukrainian people have done their part in demonstrating that freedom matters, that freedom can bring a new energy to a people and that a great and longstanding culture like Ukraine can be reborn with an Orange Revolution in the 21st century.

Thank you very much, Foreign Minister.

MINISTER TARASYUK: Thank you. Thank you, Secretary. Good afternoon. I would like to express my gratitude to Secretary Rice for our extremely constructive and positive consultations and negotiations we had right now. I'm happy that the course of this visit in my -- new-old capacity as a Foreign Minister -- it became known to the American and Ukrainian public that the visit of President Yushchenko, the first visit of President Yushchenko, to the United States and the invitation of President Bush will take place this April 4th. And certainly, we were discussing the forthcoming visit of President Yushchenko, how to fill it with a very concrete feeling and content. We were discussing the issues of our bilateral agenda. And we agreed on some issues concerning the consultations on a visa regime. We discussed how to resolve the outstanding issues on our bilateral agenda, like provision to Ukraine of market economy status, the bilateral memorandum on the mutual access to markets in connection with WTO accession. We were discussing the gradation of Ukraine from Jackson-Vannick Amendment. Certainly, this is the issue which has to be tackled by the Congress. And yesterday, while meeting the people in the Congress, I got assurances that this issue will be resolved very soon.

In principle, we came to a conclusion that the visit of President -- forthcoming visit of President Yushchenko will be a new beginning in the Ukraine-U.S. relationship. And giving a new feeling, a new content, in the strategic partnership between our countries. I would like to say that both countries now under the new circumstances in Ukraine, after the Orange Revolution, new President, new government, we have a new environment and this environment is going to be filled with giant efforts and I suggest that United States and Ukraine be, well, partners and establish a kind of partnership for democracy.

I'm very positive and optimistic about our relationship and the forthcoming visit of President Yushchenko. And once again, Secretary, thank you very much for this constructive atmosphere you created.

SECRETARY RICE: Thank you.

MR. BOUCHER: We'll start with CNN.

QUESTION: Madame Secretary, if I might ask you to expand on your announcement about Iran and agreements with the European Union on incentives. Does this now mean that you are optimistic that Iran will abandon its uranium enrichment program and do you have a timetable for getting it to do so? How long are you going to give this new agreement?

Thank you.

QUESTION: Well, the key here was to establish with our European allies a common agenda, a common approach to the issue of getting the Iranians to live up to the international obligations which they have undertaken. And again, let's just be reminded that the Iranians have an obligation to demonstrate that they are not trying under cover of civilian nuclear power development to develop a nuclear weapon and there are grave concerns that they are trying to do that, suspicious activities that are being tracked by the IAEA, and so the European Union 3 had undertaken these negotiations.

We have said for quite a long time now that we supported this diplomatic effort and that we wanted it to succeed and that Iran ought to take the opportunity given to it. What we have tried to do in removing our objections to WTO application from the Iranians and to the provision of certain spare parts to Iranian commercial aircraft is to now more actively support that diplomatic effort.

But I want to be very clear. This is support for the European Union's effort which we hope would succeed and which we very much want to succeed, and that that is the support. There is very often too much talk about what the United States needs to do or what the European Union needs to do. We can now return the focus to what the Iranians need to do. And the Iranians need to take the opportunity that the Europeans are presenting them with to demonstrate that they are prepared to live up to their international obligations. I certainly hope that this will succeed. We are trying to help to give it its best chance to succeed. But now Iran faces a choice and the world will know whether Iran intends to do that.

We do not have a specific timetable. Obviously, these are negotiations. We will stay in close contact with our friends. This has been going on for some time. And I would think that if the Iranians are going to demonstrate that they are prepared to live up to their obligations that they would want to do that sooner rather than later.

QUESTION: (Inaudible) from Ukrainian Television. I have a question for the Ukrainian Minister.

In the future will be the meeting of the foreign ministers of the Commonwealth of Independent States and what will be the Ukrainian position on this meeting? And maybe it is time to dismiss the Commonwealth.

FOREIGN MINISTER TARASYUK: To dismiss what?

QUESTION: The Commonwealth of Independent States.

FOREIGN MINISTER TARASYUK: Well, I would like to say, being a person who was involved in to these deliberations over Ukraine's participation in CIS since the very beginning, since 1991, that CIS throughout these years proved to be ineffective, and that is why Russia was looking for another formats of meetings like custom union, economic union, the Eurasian community and now the single economic space. The position of Ukraine at this forthcoming ministerial meeting will be, well, consistent; that is, we are going to support anything which will coincide with our vision of the place and role of community and we are certainly not going to support anything which contradicts our national interests.

QUESTION: Madame Secretary, on Syria, we now have the U.S. and the Europeans and some Arab countries in agreement and a UN envoy going to Syria. Should the Syrians realize that they are now facing a completely different situation than they faced before?

SECRETARY RICE: I would certainly hope that the Syrians are getting the message that this is a completely different situation. It started with Resolution 1559, sponsored by the United States and France, but it is a Security Council resolution. And I might just note that even states that didn't vote for it are, for instance, some who abstained, have said that they are bound by that resolution. And that was the first step and that was back in the summer. I think it was perhaps not fully recognized the impact of Resolution 1559.

You then had the unfortunate circumstance of opposition figure, the former prime minister, Mr. Hariri, being assassinated. Even though no one can assign blame for that and we certainly have not accused the Syrian Government, it did highlight that the conditions that Syria has helped to produce in Lebanon are indeed destabilizing conditions, and that led then to a very rapid discussion and very rapid coming together of various members of the international community around a policy that said 1559 had to be implemented and had to be implemented without delay.

So yes, the situation is different for Syria, and if you add to that the voices of several Arab states, I would hope that the Syrians would not continue to deepen their own isolation. And this is really not about -- Syria would like to make this a discussion about Syria and the United States or Syria and France, but this is an issue of allowing the Lebanese people, without the artificial condition of Syrian troop and security presence in Lebanon, to chart their own political future.

We have just been talking about how important it was in Ukraine when people took responsibility for charting their own political future. Well, that is what the democratic path is, is to allow people the opportunity to chart their own future. Not an American path. Not a European path. But a path for local people to chart their own future. The Lebanese need to be given the same opportunity to chart their political future and it's very much time that Syria get that message.

QUESTION: My question to Secretary of State. Madame Secretary, Ukrainian officials have said today again that they want to withdraw all of Ukrainian troops from Iraq by the end of this year and complete the first phase of this withdrawal by the middle of May. What would be your comment on that and have you discussed this subject with your Ukrainian counterpart?

Thank you.

SECRETARY RICE: Well, I believe that the Foreign Minister had discussions with my colleagues at the Pentagon about this. First of all, we appreciate very much Ukraine's contribution to Iraq at a time when not that many states were all that willing to contribute to Iraq. Ukraine joined some 26 or so who did contribute to the stability of Iraq, and as a result the Iraqi people have been able to have an election, they are now in the process of forming a government, they're going to write a constitution and then they're going to have permanent elections. And so Ukraine should be proud for the role that Ukrainian forces played in that evolution in Iraq.

We fully understand that the Ukrainian Government has decided to end that troop presence. There are discussions going on about how that will be done. The one thing that I'm very certain is that Ukraine will do it in a way that does not in any way endanger the mission or endanger the forces of others there, so this is a planned effort between the two sides.

And I know also that Ukraine intends to continue to be involved in helping the Iraqi people through technical assistance, perhaps through some training, and we very much appreciate that.

So this has been handled very well. We understand the commitment that the Ukrainian Government has made to its own people, but it has been handled in a way that demonstrates that this is a relationship that is based on partnership, based on values, and where we can work together on even the most difficult issues.

MR. BOUCHER: Thank you very much.

SECRETARY RICE: Thank you.

FOREIGN MINISTER TARASYUK: Thank you. 2005/310