Remarks After Her Press Conference

(3:55 p.m.)

QUESTION: Yes, the first one. The State Department issued two warnings about Mexico, the violence on the northern border. And what was your assessment of the situation and also the Mexican Government’s response to deal with the drug-related violence?

SECRETARY RICE: Thank you. Well, we are concerned about the violence on the border. In fact, at the highest levels we've raised with the Mexican Government. We are getting cooperation but it is a very serious matter and, in fact, we some time ago had a travel warning that talks about this specific problem. And so it's a very serious problem. We're very concerned about it and we're raising it at all levels with the Mexican Government.

QUESTION: And the Mexican response was?

SECRETARY RICE: They obviously do not want violence to take place on the borders either but it's something we really do need to make a dent in.

QUESTION: Thank you.

QUESTION: Madame Secretary, this is getting back to an earlier question on Israeli arms exports. That was dealing with China, but they are also contemplating sales to some other countries in South Asia. When we have been selling F-16s to Pakistans -- to Pakistan, why are we objecting to their sales to countries in that region?

SECRETARY RICE: Well, we have certain defense cooperation agreements where there are concerns about end user and transfer and so these are discussions we can have. But I think we have felt that the discussions were not as fruitful as they might have been over the last year or so and that we need to have discussions that are somewhat more transparent, so that's what we're doing now.

Bye, thanks.

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