Remarks With Portuguese Foreign Minister Luis Amado After Their Meeting

The fact that this Quartet meeting also will take place after an important statement made by President Bush on the American Government's view vis-à-vis the Middle East peace process, of course, we exchanged points of view and ideas on the Kosovo situation and the way in which both the European Union and the United States envisage their immediate cooperation, with a view to looking for a definitive solution for Kosovo as well as the stabilization of the Western Balkans, a situation which from the very beginning has been the center of a very close cooperation between the United States and Europe, namely in the context of the Atlantic Alliance. And we also went through several other topics high on the international agenda: relations with Africa, relations with Latin America and the need that both the United States and Europe feel, and Portugal as well, for the strengthening of the cooperation between the United States and Europe, with a view to building solutions that may foster peace and stability across the international system. And the strengthening of such cooperation in the transatlantic context is, of course, a fundamental pillar in international peace and cooperation as the last decades of peaceful coexistence have bore witness to that we've been able to jointly foster in this part of the world.

Yet again let me thank the Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice for having been here today. And if you please, the floor is now yours.

SECRETARY RICE: Well, thank you very much. Thank you (inaudible) for this wonderful welcome. I am delighted to be here on my first official visit to Portugal, in fact, my first visit to Portugal and such a beautiful country that it is. I have very much enjoyed the opportunity to acknowledge and celebrate our very strong bilateral relationship that is expressing itself in so many ways as well as our very strong relations as allies in NATO as we take on the challenges of places like Afghanistan. I want to thank you, too, for the leadership that you are showing in your new role as the presidency of the European Union. And of course with that comes responsibility for many more global challenges and we have had a chance to review most of those today. And I'm sure we will have many chances in the future to try and deal with the problems and issues of Kosovo, of Iran, of Afghanistan and so forth.

I look very much forward tonight to the Quartet meeting that you have arranged and want to thank Portugal for hosting that meeting. And it will be a very good meeting because I think we do have a kind of momentum now in the Middle East issue. But we've also had a chance to review some very important areas of potential cooperation in working together with Africa and working together with Latin America, so it has been a very wide-ranging discussion as would only be fitting for friends and allies of our depth and breadth and for friends and allies who more than anything share values. And because we share those values, we are often talking about how tactically to achieve goals but we fundamentally agree on the goal and that is that a world that is freer will be safer and more prosperous. Thank you very much.

QUESTION: Madame Secretary, you have said this morning (inaudible) one way or another. What do you mean exactly about that? And also is that United States are prepared to accept unilateral declaration of independence?

SECRETARY RICE: President Bush made very clear when he was an Albania that the United States stands for the implications of the Ahtisaari report, which is that Kosovo will gain its independence. We are working with our allies on the process by which we come to a solution of the situation in Kosovo. I want to be very clear that we see a future in which Kosovo and Serbia are both strong and free and in which both are fully integrated into the Euro-Atlantic horizon and Euro-Atlantic structures and so the future is clear. I think the process of how to get there is one that we're working on. We're pledged and committed to working on it, but I am simply reiterating what President Bush made clear in Albania.

MODERATOR: Another question.

SECRETARY RICE: Perhaps I can take an American --

MODERATOR: An American one.

SECRETARY RICE: Yes. Sue.

QUESTION: This is for Foreign Minister Amado. In the light of the Quartet meeting today, do you think that in the -- do you think that the time has come to deal with Hamas if this would push the peace process forward? And Madame Secretary, do you think that your policy of total isolation of Hamas has worked?

FOREIGN MINISTER AMADO: Well, I would just like to say on this particular issue that we need certainly to deal with the Palestinian camp. But now we are dealing with the President Abbas and we know we have a lot of work to do to achieve state capacity on the Palestinian camp. As you know, we have decided at the European Union Council last month that we would support strongly President Abbas and the Palestinian Authority. So this is our position. We have no other position at the moment than cooperate strictly with President Abbas. And you know, there was a division in the Palestinian camp, a dramatic division, provoked by Hamas. I see no conditions at the moment to engage a new relation with Hamas without a new position from them.

SECRETARY RICE: Yes. And let me just add that it is Hamas that has isolated itself by being outside a set of international norms, concerning the desire for a two-state solution, concerning the renunciation of violence, concerning the acceptance of agreements that Palestinian leaders signed on to over the last decade and the acknowledgement of the right of Israel to exist.

Let me be very clear, no one is saying the recognition of Israel. But when you can't even acknowledge the right of your partner to exist, it's going be very hard to have peace talks. And just to underscore what the Minister has said, we have a very good partner in Mahmoud Abbas who, after all, is the elected President of the Palestinian people. He was elected by the Palestinian people by something around 64, 65 percent of the vote. And he is also the chairman of the PLO who has the negotiating authority on behalf of the Palestinian people. And so it makes very good sense to work with him. And Hamas, I think, knows what is expected for international respectability.

MODERATOR: (In Portuguese.)

QUESTION: Sylvie Lanteaume from AFP.

MODERATOR: Okay, go ahead.

SECRETARY RICE: Actually, she's (inaudible).

QUESTION: A question for Madame Secretary, Russia announced today their decision to expel four British diplomats. I wanted to know if you think it's -- this reaction is excessive. And also Mr. Minister, Russia said they are disappointed by your support to Britain. I wanted to know if you plan to soften your position?

SECRETARY RICE: It's very clear what needs to happen in this current situation. There was a terrible crime committed on British soil. That crime needs to be investigated and the perpetrators brought to justice and punished. It is going to be very difficult to do that without the extradition of those who are requested by the British and without the full cooperation of Russia. So this is an issue of rule of law -- to our minds not an issue of politics, it's an issue of rule of law. And so I think if we get back to the basics here, it is a matter of Russia cooperating fully in what is simply an effort to solve what is was a very terrible crime committed on British soil.

FOREIGN MINISTER AMADO: Our position is that there is a problem of bilateral relations between UK and Russia. It has to be settled at a bilateral level. But certainly in the role of presidency we have made a declaration, but in the condition and in the role of presidency, it's the way we need to work when we have this responsibility and we have done that in the terms we accepted to do that. Thank you.

QUESTION: (Inaudible) from Portuguese News Agency, (inaudible). I'd like to ask Secretary Rice if you could tell us when President Bush announced the meeting, international meeting on Middle East, we spoke about some Arab countries that could take part in that meeting. Which are those countries? Thank you.

SECRETARY RICE: Well, the President left open the invitation, so to speak, for the conference because there's a lot of work to do. But it is clear that if you're going to have an international conference to support the Palestinians and the Israelis in their effort to get to a two-state solution, that you would want participants in the conference, the meeting, to be in fact devoted to the two-state solution. And that means the acceptance of international agreements that have all -- that, in part, formed the foundation for the two-state solution.

We think that there are many elements that will be helpful here. The Arab Peace Initiative which was reissued this year in Riyadh has some very positive elements as well that could help to form the foundation of what is discussed at that meeting. And I would hope, therefore, that this would attract countries that are prepared to really move forward. But the real key is that this cannot be a meeting in which people have particular agendas. It has to be a meeting in which people are there to support Israelis and Palestinians in their agenda, which is to get to a two-state solution. Thank you.

MODERATOR: Okay.

SECRETARY RICE: Thank you.

2007/T13-4