14 May 2002
Powell Urges Allies to Increase Defense Spending
(May 14: Secretary of State's press conference in Reykjavik) (2960)
At a press conference at the NATO foreign ministers' meeting in
Reykjavik, Iceland, May 14, Secretary of State Colin Powell urged the
European allies to increase military spending and modernize their
forces.
"The United States, which has the largest defense budget of all, is
continuing to add more money to our budget in order to deal with the
threats that we know are out there," Powell said. "And we think that
all of our colleagues in NATO should be doing likewise. Not just
making sure that they are spending adequate amounts for their defense,
but making sure they spend it wisely."
Powell mentioned specifically the need for "lift capability" because
"NATO has to have the ability to move to other places." He also
identified a need for greater investment in communications capacity,
intelligence capacity, and navigation devices.
He said that he and his European colleagues agreed on the need to
develop capabilities to meet the new threat, remained hopeful that
there will be a "robust round" of enlargement at the upcoming Prague
Summit in November, and welcomed the new NATO-Russia relationship.
Powell said he had briefed his NATO counterparts on the arms control
treaty concluded May 13 between the United States and Russia.
The U.S.-Russia relationship is "on a very, very sound footing and I
think it will be greatly improved as a result of the upcoming Summit,"
he said. "I think that the treaty that we concluded yesterday with
Russia on the strategic framework, as well as the agreement we will
reach this afternoon on the NATO-Russia Council, is indicative of how
things are improving with Russia as we move forward into the 21st
century."
Nevertheless, Powell said that there remains "a difference of opinion"
with Russia regarding Iran. ``It's an area we discuss every time we
get together,'' Powell said.
He also noted differences over U.S. poultry exports to Russia, joking
that he is today "more worried about chickens going back and forth
than missiles going back and forth," a change in U.S.-Russian relation
for the better.
In his opening remarks, Powell thanked the Allies for having offered
vital AWACS support for America in the aftermath of the September 11th
terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, support which formally
concludes May 16.
The military future of NATO he characterized as "bright" and the
Alliance "as relevant as it has been in the past."
"When you look at Afghanistan there are some fourteen NATO nations who
are there, not necessarily in a NATO capacity, but bringing NATO
capability, bringing NATO training, bringing NATO experience," the
secretary of state said.
Following is the State Department transcript of the press conference:
(begin transcript)
U.S. Department of State
Office of the Spokesman
(Reykjavik, Iceland)
May 14, 2002 2002/419
SECRETARY OF STATE COLIN L. POWELL PRESS CONFERENCE AT NATO FOREIGN
MINISTERS' MEETING
Reykjavik, Iceland
May 14, 2002
SECRETARY POWELL: Thanks to the Government of Iceland for hosting our
conference. We have enjoyed wonderful hospitality and we are deeply
indebted to them.
I am pleased to follow on from Lord Robertson's presentation to report
that we did have a very successful meeting of NATO Foreign Ministers
here. I was happy to brief my colleagues in our meeting on the
historic treaty that the United States concluded yesterday with
Russia. They all welcomed this agreement which will dramatically
reduce nuclear warheads on both sides.
I noted that May 16th, this coming Thursday, will mark the formal
conclusion of NATO AWACS flights over the United States and I thanked
our Allies for having offered this vital support for America in the
aftermath of the September 11th terrorist attacks on New York and
Washington.
Today's meeting also revealed, I believe, a remarkable degree of
consensus on the way forward as we approach our summit meeting in
Prague this November. Our Allies share our views that NATO needs to
develop new capabilities, take in new members and develop new
relationships with Russia, Ukraine and the other countries in the
Partnership for Peace.
My colleagues and I have agreed that NATO, the entire Alliance and not
just the United States, needs to develop its capabilities to meet new
threats we are facing. We all need to have highly mobile, sustainable
forces with modern combat capabilities. Forces that can get to the
fight - wherever it is - and carry out a mission with efficiency and
precision.
We all look forward to inviting new members into NATO. We
congratulated the nine aspirant countries for the progress they have
made to date while stressing that they all need to continue their
reform efforts. While we will not make any final decisions until the
Prague Summit in November, we remain hopeful that we will have a
robust round of enlargement at Prague.
We also welcomed the new relationship NATO is building with Russia. We
believe we can lay the foundation for increased cooperation between
NATO and Moscow while fully protecting the Alliance's ability to act
independently. This afternoon we will approve creation of a new
NATO-Russia Council in our meeting with Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov.
We look forward to the summit meeting in Rome on May 28th, where
President Bush, Allied Heads of State and Government, and President
Putin will sign the new NATO-Russia Agreement and hold the very first
meeting at 20. We hope this will open a new chapter in NATO-Russia
relations.
We also signaled our desire to deepen our relations with Ukraine and
with the nations of the Partnership for Peace. We particularly
expressed our desire to increase cooperation with the Central Asian
states who are in the forefront in the struggle against terrorism.
Overall, in my judgment, this has been an extremely productive meeting
so far, and I look forward to the other meetings we will be having
here this afternoon and throughout tomorrow. With that I would be
delighted to take your questions.
QUESTION: Mr. Secretary, as you head into your meeting this evening
with Foreign Minister Ivanov, could you give us an idea of the
unresolved issues still pending with the Russians?
SECRETARY POWELL: With respect to, of course, the treaty on strategic
arms, that's done. We'll do some tidying up and shake hands on it
formally. But that's done and ready for our President's signature next
week.
On the political declaration that will also be issued at the time of
the Summit, there may be a few outstanding issues, but nothing of any
great significance. I think all of that documentation is in pretty
good shape.
I'm sure that Foreign Minister Ivanov and myself will discuss, as we
have in the past, proliferation issues, especially with respect to
Iran. There is a difference of opinion there. It's an area that we
discuss every time we are together, and it is an issue I am sure that
President Bush will be discussing with President Putin as well.
Otherwise, I am looking forward to a productive meeting with Foreign
Minister Ivanov this evening. The preparations for the Summit are well
underway.
There are some trade issues that cause me more concern than I would
have anticipated when I first came into this job. Many years ago, when
I used to come to NATO meetings as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of
Staff, I worried about strategic weapons going back and forth and,
right now we are in a poultry dispute with Russia. So I am more
worried about chickens going back and forth than missiles going back
and forth. This is good. It is much better to worry about these kinds
of exchanges than the kinds of exchanges I used to worry about.
So I think that our relationship with Russia is on a very, very sound
footing and I think it will be greatly improved as a result of the
upcoming Summit. I think that the treaty that we concluded yesterday
with Russia on the strategic framework, as well as the agreement we
will reach this afternoon on the NATO-Russia Council, is indicative of
how things are improving with Russia as we move forward into the 21st
century.
QUESTION: Secretary of State, what evidence have you seen to encourage
you that NATO will succeed in closing the capability gap, and how
worried are you about the spending levels of defense of European
governments?
SECRETARY POWELL: I'm concerned about it and we have discussed it. I
think that we need to do more. We need to modernize our force. We need
to put into our force structure - the NATO force structure - more lift
capability. The kinds of challenges NATO may be facing in the future
won't always be located in Central Europe. NATO has to have the
ability to move to other places.
I think a greater investment is needed in communications capacity and
intelligence capacity, in navigation devices that allow you to have
precise information about a potential opponent and precise information
about what your own forces are doing.
There are many things that need to be done. I think there is a sound
plan that has been in effect since 1999 of some 58 specific
initiatives. I think that between now and Prague, however, that has to
be narrowed down to some greater specificity. Pick five or six of
these capabilities that you are really going to focus on and you're
going to be serious about and you're going to invest in.
I know that Lord Robertson has been giving this speech to all of my
colleagues. It's one I take very much to heart. The United States,
which has the largest defense budget of all is continuing to add more
money to our budget in order to deal with the threats that we know are
out there, that we see are out there. And we think that all of our
colleagues in NATO should be doing likewise. Not just making sure that
they are spending adequate amounts for their defense, but making sure
they spend it wisely. Rationalization of spending across the Alliance,
I think, is one area that deserves greater attention.
QUESTION: Mr. Secretary, you've referred to the NATO enlargement,
especially to the Prague enlargement, and you call it a "robust" one.
I want to ask you why we cannot find these words - "a robust NATO
enlargement" in the final communiqué.
SECRETARY POWELL: I wasn't the author, but had I been I would have put
it in there.
QUESTION: You weren't the author, but I guess the U.S. delegation made
this contribution.
SECRETARY POWELL: We made our contribution and I'm not sure why the
specific choice of words was made. But I use robust here and robust
is, I think, a pretty accurate description of the feelings of my
colleagues and the positions that I see emerging in all of the
Alliance members, and I think the position that is emerging as a
consensus within the Alliance, that it will be a robust enlargement,
meaning more rather than fewer admissions to the Alliance as a result
of the Prague Summit.
QUESTION: How many? How many states will be invited? Could you tell us
that?
SECRETARY POWELL: A robust number (laughter).
No, it's very important that we not start giving out specific numbers,
or saying who looks like they are in, who looks like they are out. All
of the nine aspirants have to keep working as hard as they can to meet
the requirements of the Membership Action Plan and other things that
they have to do. And so it is best not to start lifting the curtain
yet as to who might get in or what the number might be.
QUESTION: By saying today that the idea is to ask all the possible
aspirant countries to join on the same day, don't you have some doubts
that it will create difficulties in the process of ratification in
national parliaments as, let's say Baltic states and Bulgaria are
maybe not in the same capability level?
SECRETARY POWELL: I don't think that I said all aspirant countries on
the same day would be invited, but those who are selected for
membership, I think it is best to invite them all as a group and then
the ratification of the protocol will take its natural course. So I
prefer to see it done in that way, as opposed to other models that
have been suggested, such as the Regatta, where you put them in queue
in some way. They have all been working hard. They all filled out
their membership application, they all have been doing what we asked
them to do, and if they meet the standards that were put before them,
if they meet the test that we will apply to them in the course of the
summer as we get near Prague, then it seems to me we should invite
whatever number in all at the same time. That's my judgment.
QUESTION: Do you think that NATO, especially when it expands to
perhaps 25 - 26 members will have a military future as well as a
political future? Especially since, as in Afghanistan, it's very much
a multi-national coalition force rather than a NATO-based one.
SECRETARY POWELL: No, I think that NATO has a bright military future.
I mean, when you look at Afghanistan there are some fourteen NATO
nations who are there, not necessarily in a NATO capacity, but
bringing NATO capability, bringing NATO training, bringing NATO
experience. It was training within NATO, to understand modern
doctrine, to work with one another, learn how to operate on a
battlefield with other countries and other soldiers who speak
different languages, have different equipment, but nevertheless can
operate together. That doesn't just come out of the ether, it comes
out of NATO. It comes out of our experience in training together,
operating together and spending a great deal of time on exercises in
our various joint commands throughout NATO.
So 14 NATO countries represented in some way in Afghanistan, and seven
of them are involved in active combat. And when the United States, in
a time of crisis, when we have planes flying into our buildings, we
feel absolutely comfortable in going to NATO and saying, "Please send
AWACs over. Come guard the continental United States." And I don't
know who's in that airplane, all I know is it's a NATO airplane, with
a NATO crew that has been trained to NATO standards. That is a
tremendous capability to have available to the Alliance for whatever
missions might come the Alliance's way.
So I think the Alliance is as relevant as it has been in the past,
both in political terms and in military terms. With the new nations
coming into the Alliance, they will bring their unique capabilities in
as well. I think that adds to the value of the Alliance and it adds to
the ability of the Alliance to deal with the kinds of challenges that
I believe are out there. I have seen this not just in Afghanistan. I
saw it in Desert Storm when we brought forces from Europe -- not only
our own forces but forces from a number of countries represented here
today -- and they could operate together on the battlefield because we
had practiced that same kind of military action on the plains of
Central Europe. So I think that it is very relevant, and I have seen
it over and over and over in the course of my military and diplomatic
career.
QUESTION: Mr. Secretary, on weapons proliferation and linking it to
this strategic arms agreement with Russia. One of the great problems
and concerns about proliferation is the security of stockpiled
weapons, stockpiled materials inside the former Soviet Union, in
Russia today. Are there going to be additional measures as part of
this new strategic deal to help provide more money for securing
nuclear materials, more money to help the Russians, dismantle warheads
and so on? Most think tanks seem to suggest that it is the more likely
source of the proliferation of nuclear weaponry.
SECRETARY POWELL: Not as a direct result of this treaty, nor was that
the purpose of the treaty. We have a number of bilateral programs with
the Russians dealing with comprehensive threat reduction, "Nunn-Lugar"
programs. We're working at some other interesting programs having to
do with Russian debt that might be used to create new opportunities to
help the Russians get rid of their nuclear stockpile as well as their
chemical stockpile and any other technologies that we do not wish to
see floating free throughout the world.
And so I think, perhaps, that with this treaty, with both sides going
down to much, much lower levels of deployed warheads, more warheads
are going to be going into stockpile waiting for destruction.
Therefore, that gives me greater ammunition to take to my Congress and
encourage them to put more resources to this kind of cooperative
reduction program with the Russians. So I think I'm emboldened by it.
One has to remember that even as we came down from higher numbers of
nuclear weapons under previous treaties, even then, you couldn't get
rid of the warheads that were freed up, as quickly as you might like,
because there is a limit, both in the United States and in the Russian
Federation as to how quickly you can break apart a warhead, dispose of
it, get rid of its components. It is not the simple disposal problem
that some people think it is. It is hard to do, it takes time, it's
very technical, sensitive work. We understand the importance of
keeping control of our stockpiles, and it is an area of continuing
discussion with the Russian Federation.
Thank you.
(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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