*EPF210 02/12/2002
Excerpt: Powell Tells Senate U.S.-Russia Relationship is Strong
(Feb. 12: testimony at Senate Budget Committee hearing) (920)

U.S. relations with Russia have improved over the past year and today are strong, Secretary of State Colin Powell told the Senate Budget Committee during a hearing February 12.

Russia, Powell said, "has left the Soviet Union days behind. It wants to come West. It wants to be part of NATO-Russia at 20. It wants to integrate itself into the economies of the West. It still wants to have good neighborly relations with China, and it still worries about the nations to its south. But it knows its future lies to the West, and it is cooperating with us in ways that we might not have imagined just a year ago, cooperating with us on the campaign against terrorism."

On previous occasions, Powell has explained that the proposed "NATO at 20" format, which was agreed to at a NATO ministerial meeting last December, would include Russia in some deliberations with the 19 NATO Allies. In an interview with ORT Television in Moscow, he explained that NATO and Russia could "discuss any issues that are appropriate to be discussed at twenty, and this could include the use of military forces in, say, peacekeeping operations.... Both sides reserve the right to act on their own."

Following are excerpts from the State Department transcript:

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SECRETARY COLIN L. POWELL
TESTIMONY AT BUDGET HEARING BEFORE THE SENATE BUDGET COMMITTEE

Washington, D.C.
February 12, 2002

(As Delivered)

SECRETARY POWELL: Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. It's a great pleasure to be before the committee again.... And I am pleased, therefore, this morning to have the opportunity to testify in support of President Bush's budget request for the [State] Department for 2003....

(...)

SECRETARY POWELL: Now, let me turn, Mr. Chairman, to the budget request for foreign operations. Over the past year, 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 the 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 that skillful pursuit has made possible. We talk about terrorism all the time, but we shouldn't overlook how much we have improved our relations with Russia, set a new and smoother course with China, the two major accounts that we really have to focus on. Russia, that land still of 11 time zones, nuclear armed, but it has left the Soviet Union days behind. It wants to come West. It wants to be part of NATO-Russia at 20. It wants to integrate itself into the economies of the West. It still wants to have good neighborly relations with China, and it still worries about the nations to its south. But it knows its future lies to the West, and it is cooperating with us in ways that we might not have imagined just a year ago, cooperating with us on the campaign against terrorism. We are able to move US troops throughout Central Asia by telling the Russians that we are there to defeat a common enemy, terrorism, fundamentalism, not to threaten Russia's southern flank.

I'm able to talk to my Russian counterpart three, four, five times a week. We no longer even ask for talking points from our staff. My staff knows what I do now. I just call out to the front office, "Get Igor on the phone." And within a few minutes, Igor's on the phone, Foreign Minister Ivanov. And we talk, and he doesn't delay the phone call waiting for his talking points from the staff. We know what is in each other's mind; we know what our two presidents want us to do to make this a stronger, better relationship.

President Putin and President Bush have the same kind of relationship, and you saw it pay off when we faced the challenge of the ABM Treaty last fall. They disagreed; they thought we made a mistake by saying that we were going to leave the ABM Treaty. We thought they were wrong. We exchanged those views. At the end of the day, we agreed to disagree. And as President Putin said to me when I was explaining to him the President's decision and how we were going to implement it, and choreographing with him what we would say, what they would say, he would say, fine, we disagree, but our strategic relationship is far more important than this disagreement. And now this disagreement is behind us; let's move forward, and let's move forward to cut those strategic offensive forces that really threaten to kill people. And we will discuss more defenses which protect people.

And so we have a strong relationship with Russia, and we're trying to develop a similar one with China....

(....)

But we are committed to the great alliances of which we are a part. And nowhere is that more the case than in Europe, where the President is looking for the opportunity to expand NATO at the Prague Summit later this year; where he is anxious to bring Russia into NATO-Russia at 20, hopefully by the Reykjavik ministerial meeting this spring -- Prague inthe fall.

(....

Released on February 12, 2002

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(Distributed by the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)

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