10 May 2001

U.S. Official Briefs in Warsaw on Missile Defense

Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz briefed reporters in Warsaw May 10 following consultations with Polish officials on what the United States is calling a new "concept of deterrence" in the post-Cold War world.

Included in the concept, Wolfowitz said, is the "fundamental idea" that it is not in America's interest to see any country vulnerable to limited missile attacks. He added, however, that countries would have to decide for themselves to what extent they feel threatened and to what extent they feel there is "something that we can do together" to make the world more secure.

Following is a transcript of the briefing:

Press Briefing With Paul Wolfowitz, U.S. Deputy Secretary Of Defense
May 10, 2001
Warsaw, Poland
The Office of the Ministers Council

Wolfowitz: I want to introduce the other principal members of my delegation -- Mr. Stephen Hadley is deputy national security advisor, and Ambassador Avis Bohlen is assistant secretary of state for arms control.

It has been a very good set of discussions here this afternoon and [a] great pleasure to be here in Warsaw as a capital of one of our newest member[s] of NATO. I would like to say a few words about why we are here and what we are trying to accomplish.

We are here for the purpose of consultation, and the primary subject of our discussions are the ideas that President Bush expressed in his address of May 1, what we believe is an entirely new way of looking at the concept of deterrence in the post-Cold War world. These talks allow us to exchange ideas with friends and allies. We have not made any decisions yet on these issues. We are here to speak frankly and openly and to listen -- to listen very carefully to what we hear. We want to factor the ideas that we are hearing in[to] our own thinking.

In our view, the world of 2001 is fundamentally different from the world of 1972 when the ABM [Anti-Ballistic Missile] Treaty was signed. It is different in both good ways and bad ways. From the positive standpoint, Russia is no longer our enemy, and that permits some fundamental changes in the way that we approach deterrence. On the other hand, we face new challenges, both of proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and of ballistic missile technology, the situation that is getting progressively worse. We need a new concept of deterrence to reflect both of these changes, one that combines all offensive forces, deployed defenses, and strong non-proliferation policy in arms control. It also includes a relationship with Russia in which strategic nuclear weapons are no longer the centerpiece.

Our conversations here were conducted in a very productive spirit. Our Polish colleagues have asked some serious and important questions. We have learned a lot from these discussions, and we look forward to continuing them. Thank you.

Q: Mr. Wolfowitz, could you please tell us, as precisely as you can, what did you say to the Polish side with regard to which countries will be included in the new initiative, the national missile defense? And the second question is, could you make a clear assessment on your previous talks in Brussels, Paris, Berlin, and London?

Wolfowitz: Let me emphasize answering the question that what we are talking about at the moment is still a concept. The President outlined the objectives that we hope to pursue both in the area of missile defense and in the are of nuclear reduction, but until we have completed these consultations and maybe consultations beyond, the President has not made any decision yet on exactly the shape. But included in that concept is the fundamental idea that it is not in our interest to see any country vulnerable to limited missile attacks, and that's why, in fact, we have adopted the broader term "missile defense" rather than focusing on particular countries.

It is obviously going to be up to the decision of different countries how and to what extent they feel threatened, to what extent they feel there is something that we can do together to protect against that. It is really a very open concept, and I think that's quite important, because this is not something we see as pursuing an American advantage over other people, but a step that can help make the world more secure.

You asked me to characterize other people's views. They have got to do that for themselves, but I think every place that we have been we have had serious questions, difficult questions. This is not a simple subject; it involves some very big changes from thinking in the past, and they are serious issues to consider. So we feel that we have learned something in the course of these discussions. We also hope that maybe people understand our thinking a little bit better after we are done.