17 December 2001
Transcript: Rumsfeld Press Conference with Georgian President in Tbilisi
(Dec. 15: Discuss terrorism, bilateral military cooperation) (1850)
Relations between the United States and Georgia are "very close and
warm," Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld told journalists in
Tbilisi December 15 during a joint press conference with Georgian
President Eduard Shevardnadze.
Rumsfeld said he conveyed to Shevardnadze President Bush's deep
appreciation for Georgia's "splendid cooperation" in the war against
terrorism.
He also said the United States values highly its relationship with
Georgia, a country that it sees as on a "historic transition towards
freer economic and freer political systems."
"It's very much in the interests of the people of the United States to
see that Georgia succeeds," Rumsfeld added.
Shevardnadze pointed out that in the past he has expressed support for
President Bush's missile defense goals and said he welcomed the spirit
in which Russian President Vladimir Putin reacted to the December 13
announcement that the United States is withdrawing from the 1972
Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty.
"I wholeheartedly welcome the spirit of greater...mutual understanding
that I saw in the remarks and statements made by both President Putin
and President Bush," Shevardnadze said.
He also said the United States has "provided critical support and
assistance to Georgia in its efforts to build a new nation, to achieve
economic growth, to achieve well-being for its citizens, and last but
not least of course to build Georgia's defense capabilities. "
Following is a transcript of the press conference:
(begin transcript)
U.S. Department of Defense
(Tbilisi, Georgia)
December 15, 2001
SECRETARY OF DEFENSE DONALD H. RUMSFELD: JOINT PRESS CONFERENCE WITH
GEORGIAN PRESIDENT EDUARD SHEVARDNADZE AT TBILISI, GEORGIA
Moderator: Good evening. We have twenty minutes for the briefing. The
President of Georgia.
Shevardnadze: (through translator) First of all let me take the
opportunity to welcome to Georgia's capital the United States
Secretary of Defense and his delegation. I am delighted to note that
the secretary and I have been friends and have worked together for a
long time and today I am pleased to have this opportunity to take a
couple of questions from the journalistic corps from Tbilisi and from
the United States.
Needless to say that the United States has provided critical support
and assistance to Georgia in its efforts to build a new nation, to
achieve economic growth, to achieve well-being for its citizens, and
last but not least of course to build Georgia's defense capabilities.
For all this I should want to thank very much the secretary of Defense
and ask him for his statement, for his remarks.
Rumsfeld: Thank you very much Mr. President. I am delighted to be
here, delighted to be with you. As I know you could tell, I and my
delegation enjoyed our visit in there, which is not surprising given
the very close and warm relationships between our two countries. I
brought the personal respects and greetings from President Bush to
you, Mr. President, and his deep appreciation for your splendid
cooperation with respect to the effort to deal with terrorism in the
world and what we call "Operation Enduring Freedom." You and your
country have made a courageous choice in direction, and as you know
our country wishes you well on that journey and is very much in
agreement as to the importance of maintaining regional stability and
support for your sovereignty and independence. We spoke about the
importance of our military-to-military relationships, and activities
and cooperation and the intention to strengthen them as we go forward
in the period ahead. And I thank you sir.
Q: Was there anything specific done today to advance the military ties
between your two countries, and could you touch on the significance of
the secretary's trip today and the improvement of military ties
between the world's only superpower and three relatively small states
in Asia?
Shevardnadze: (Gestures to ask who should answer the question).
Q: Both of you?
Rumsfeld: It can't be both! You have to choose, Charlie. (Laughter)
We did discuss several areas of cooperation and our desire to see that
we cooperate fully with respect to problems of terrorism, and the
short answer as to my visit to Georgia is that the United States
values highly the relationship with this country. We recognize that
it's on a historic transition towards freer economic and freer
political systems and that that is a difficult transition for any
country. There's no doubt but that it will be in the best interests of
the people of the Georgia as they succeed, and it's very much in the
interests of the people of the United States to see that Georgia
succeeds.
Q: And Mr. President, very briefly, do the improved relations of the
United States throughout the region, do they improve the stability in
the region?
Shevardnadze: Well, we had a brief debate here about who should
respond to your question first. This was the only issue we debated
actually. (Laughter) On all other matters we have full understanding
and agreement.
As for the military ties and military cooperation between our two
countries, you are quite aware that military cooperation is always a
sensitive issue in relationships between countries. Of course,
building a broad worldwide coalition to fight global terrorism is a
high priority for Georgia, and of course Georgia is involved in this
effort. I told President Bush when I met him in the United States and
I reiterated today that when we fight with terrorism, we must keep in
mind and not forget that such sources feeding and fostering terrorism,
and aggressive nationalism and violent separatism, exist in the world.
As for the specific areas of bilateral military cooperation, the
United States has been providing to us critical assistance in building
Georgia's armed forces, modern armed forces, as well as creating our
own border guards, and many other areas too. This is in fact a very
long-term cooperation, whose program is already in place.
As for the influence that Georgia, and Georgia's president in
particular, are making in terms of ensuring stability in the region,
first of all I want to note the excellent relationship I enjoy with
all the three South Caucasus states and all the neighbors of Georgia
in this region, Turkey in particular. Of course I cannot be complacent
with what has been achieved already, for there is a tremendous amount
of work ahead of us, but I am fairly gratified with the excellent
relationship that is provided to us and the cooperation that exists
between the neighboring states in this region.
Q: My first question is for the secretary of Defense. As you are very
well aware Mr. Secretary, Georgia's air space has several times been
violated by Russian aircraft. Did you provide any counsel, did you
provide any recommendations to the Georgian authorities and did you
touch upon the issues during your conversation. And my second question
is for the president of Georgia. Mr. President, you were one of the
first world leaders who from the very outset provided your strong
support for the new national missile defense initiative from the
United States. Have you in any way changed your position since then?
Rumsfeld: Well, the subject of the situation in Georgia did in fact
come up in our discussions and I was briefed on what took place. We
also discussed missile defense and the ABM treaty and the decision by
the United States to withdraw from it.
Shevardnadze: I will not repeat what has just been said, I only would
reiterate here that indeed five, six months ago I publicly expressed
my support and my positive attitude to the missile defense initiative.
I continue to watch very closely what the response, what the reaction
to this issue is in the world and first of all in Russia. Here I also
refer, of course, to the reaction of President Bush's statement.
Although President Putin expressed his dissatisfaction with the
unilateral decision of the United States to withdraw from the ABM
treaty and called it a mistake, he then went on and spoke about the
necessity to continue to build guarantees and safeguards for the
stability, further improvements in the relationship between the United
States and Russia, in building a new type of relationship. If I may
summarize in a couple of words what President Putin said in that
regard, he mentioned the necessity of further strengthening the
stability and developing the necessary legal framework to ensure this.
I wholeheartedly welcome the spirit of greater understanding, greater
mutual understanding that I saw in the remarks and statements made by
both President Putin and President Bush.
Q: Mr. Secretary, in recent hours you have said that the U.S. and
Afghan forces are making a very good progress against al Qaeda forces
south of Tora Bora in the valleys there. Can you provide us any
specific details of the fighting there up until now?
Rumsfeld: Well as of about three hours ago there had been no large
surrenders. The fighting continues and the forces on the ground are
continuing making progress forward and that's being done with the help
of heavy bombing. And the hope is that the al Qaeda fighters in those
caves and tunnels will surrender.
Q: And if I can follow up, can you confirm two reports: one, that the
U.S. Special Forces are picking up radio transmissions that may be
matched to bin Laden's voice, and two, that U.S. teams searching caves
there have gathered information that has since led to arrests in other
countries.
Rumsfeld: With respect to the first question, we don't discuss sources
of intelligence information. With respect to the second question as to
information that's gathered out of caves and tunnels and whether or
not it has led to the arrest of anybody, I doubt it because we've just
moved into those caves and tunnels. But there is no question but that
we have gathered information during previous days that have in fact
led to arrests.
Moderator: Last question.
Q: Because of Georgia's location on the map, actually the Talibs pose
a threat to Europe and the entire world. Is the United States
government considering any enhanced military assistance to Georgia to
enhance its capabilities to resist such a threat and secondly, as the
president has already mentioned there are different sources fostering
terrorism and have you discussed any means of addressing the sources
that exist in Georgia?
Shevardnadze: I discussed this problem with the secretary of Defense,
and we had a very open and candid discussion on these matters. I
mentioned also that Georgia has some problems with this regard
including with the presence of terrorist groups on its territory. You
know very well that I myself have been twice the target of terrorist
attacks. But we are fighting, we are waging a serious fight against
terrorists in Georgia as well, and I sincerely hope and believe that
our American friends will continue to provide their technical
assistance and counsel as well as other means to enhance our ability
to counter terrorists here.
Thank you very much.
Rumsfeld: Thank you very much.
(end transcript)
(Distributed by the Office of International Information Programs, U.S.
Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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