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17 January 2001
Bush Will Listen To Allies' Concerns On Various Issues, Rice Says
by
Susan Ellis
Washington File Staff Writer
Washington -- National Security Adviser-designate Condoleezza Rice
says that President-elect George W. Bush will review U.S. troop
deployments in various parts of the world "in the context of our
alliances" and in consultation with allies.
The review, she told a U.S. Institute of Peace conference in
Washington January 17, will take account "of commitments that we have
already made and of fulfilling those commitments in coordination with
our allies."
Her statement came in response to a reporter's query about Bush's
campaign pledge to "review all of our deployments," and the
implication that he would withdraw troops over a period of time from
some regions.
Although Rice admonished the audience that President-elect Bush "is
not going to start making foreign policy" until he is sworn in January
20, she did offer ideas about the direction in which his
administration would head.
Asked about a final decision on deployment of a National Missile
Defense (NMD) system in the context of good relations with U.S.
allies, some of whom oppose it, Rice said that "with allies and
friends you will always be committed to talk and consult and try to
understand each other and where possible move toward agreement."
On NMD, she said, the President-elect "has set as one of the criteria
for any national missile defense that it has to protect not just us
but our allies. He does not want a decoupling. This will take
diplomacy. I think it also probably takes understanding the entire
complex of nuclear issues," including proliferation concerns. "So
we're in a different world than we were when the American nuclear
arsenal faced off against the Soviet threat of thousands of nuclear
warheads. The threats are different, and we'll take some time with our
allies and friends and, indeed, with other interested parties,
including the Russians, to talk about this new world and to figure out
how to address it in an intelligent way."
On the perceived erosions of enforcement of sanctions on Iraq, she
referred reporters to Secretary of State-designate Colin Powell's
recent testimony on Capitol Hill that "the Saddam state remains a
tremendous threat to the region; that we must continue to put pressure
abroad on him to live up to the obligations that he undertook at the
end of the Gulf War." She said the sanctions regime "needs to be
reinforced and strengthened and it will be the goal of this
administration to make certain that we deal with Saddam Hussein in a
way that is consistent with the tremendous threat that he remains to
his neighbors, including the potential that he is continuing to try to
develop weapons of mass destruction."
Pressed on the subject of re-energizing sanctions, Rice said "It's
obviously very clear that we have a big job to re-energize the
sanctions." But this is the job of diplomacy, she continued, saying
the United States must urge the important powers in the region to
recommit to the sanctions and "rededicate ourselves to making certain
that Saddam Hussein doesn't turn himself into a terrorist through his
weapons of mass destruction.
"He signed on to certain obligations under UN resolutions in 1991 and
he needs to be held to them. So this is a major diplomatic effort I'd
be the first to admit, but I think that we're going to have to take it
on because no-one wants to see Saddam Hussein escape his box."
Asked to explain the President-elect's words that "The United States
doesn't want to be the world's 9-1-1" (emergency phone number), and
whether that means peacekeeping operations are to be ruled out, Rice
said "I don't think you rule out a priori anything. The President of
the United States ought to have at his disposal instruments that can
be tailored and fit to the circumstances that he faces at any
particular time. This (Bush's quote) simply came in the context of the
question of making certain that we're not trying to do everything.
That we're not trying to be every place at every point in time; that
perhaps we develop with others ways of managing crises ... including
with regional powers.
"We've all spoken positively about the East Timor model where
Australia was able to carry most of the load with American help; of
the model which perhaps is emerging with Nigeria in Sierra Leone. I
think the important point is that the U.S. really can't afford to go
it alone here.
"There are places where we have strong alliances, like in NATO where
we have an infrastructure for doing things that we don't have in other
parts of the world, and as we become more concerned about other parts
of the world, I think we ... have to begin to think about what kind of
infrastructure, what kind of coalitions, what kind of relationships we
have to develop in other parts of the world."
Asked by a Russian reporter whether the Bush administration plans to
take a "more confrontational approach toward Russia," Rice said that
it is "in everybody's interests to see a democratic, prosperous,
hopefully market-oriented Russia emerge" from its current problems,
and that the speaker's words do not characterize Bush's thinking.
Rice said that China's entry into the World Trade Organization "will
open the Chinese economy and that will ultimately help to open
politics." This will enhance the possibility of getting "a system that
will be more responsive to labor issues and ... to (China's) citizens.
It is increasingly the case with China that fewer and fewer Chinese
citizens are beholden to the Chinese government for their livelihood,
and that is a very good development," she said.
Enforcing environmental standards and meeting environmental
degradation challenges are best dealt with in democracies, Rice said,
adding "It's probably true that prosperous countries do better on both
scores, so part of the goal is to improve the prosperity of countries
around the world where they have problems .... When you have
democratic governments, you have greater attention and scrutiny on
issues like labor standards and environmental policy"
(The Washington File is a product of the Office of International
Information Programs, U. S. Department of State. Website:
http://usinfo.state.gov)
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