Preparing for the Sea Island Summit

Moderator: Today our guest again is Under Secretary of State Mr. John Bolton and the topic is the latest round of his consultations in Moscow.

Under Secretary Bolton: Thank you very much. I am here in Moscow briefly, leaving tonight actually. The principal subject of consultations I've held here is the preparation for the upcoming Sea Island Summit of the group of eight industrialized nations. We discussed a wide range of issues in a number of different contexts and I'll describe them very briefly, in a second.

As you may know, it's traditional at G-8 summits that the leaders focus on two or three principal issues although they have wide ranging discussions they are trying to highlight a fairly small number of topics and it's our hope as the hosts of this year's G-8 summit that the issue of proliferation of weapons of mass destruction will be one of the principal subjects the leaders discuss. There will also be a bilateral meeting between President Bush and President Putin and proliferation is almost always one of the issues they discuss at those meetings as well.

I expect that one of the issues that the leaders will talk about at Sea Island will be the Proliferation Security Initiative that was announced by President Bush just about a year ago in a speech in Krakow, Poland, May 31, to be exact. We are coming up on the first anniversary of that speech and the Government of Poland will host a meeting in Krakow on May 31 and June 1, will invite over 80 governments from around the world that have expressed their support for the Proliferation Security Initiative and we are hoping either at that time or very shortly thereafter that the Government of Russia will join the core group of PSI countries in our efforts to interdict trafficking in WMD and international commerce.

Another important subject the leaders will discuss will be the global partnership against the spread of weapons of mass destruction, this was a G-8 initiative set up at the summit at Kananaskis, Canada two years ago, the suggestion of the United States and other countries where the leaders set a target of 20 billion dollars over a ten-year period, ten billion from the United States, ten billion from the other G-8 countries. We expect to announce additional countries beyond the G-8 that will have joined the global partnership and will discuss the issue of expanding the activities of the global partnership beyond the states of the former Soviet Union to include programs in countries like Libya and Iran.

We will also, the leaders will also discuss the suggestions that President Bush has made and others have supported for restricting the sale of sensitive nuclear technology such as uranium enrichment equipment to more countries than currently have it, there are a variety of ideas that the leaders are considering, but the issue that we are trying to resolve is to make sure that this very sensitive, very dangerous technology which can be of important assistance in states seeking a nuclear weapons capability, we want to be sure that technology does not fall into the wrong hands.

We also expect that the leaders will discuss a number of specific matters of proliferation concern, the success that we've had in Libya which announced in December that it was going to give up its pursuit of weapons of mass destruction. We will discuss the questions of Iran and North Korea and efforts in both countries to prevent them from acquiring nuclear weapons and advanced missile technology and other subjects as well. So, why don't I stop there and I'd be happy to answer any questions you have.

Question: Last week the Iranian Foreign Minister visited Moscow. And during his visit Russian political leaders made very optimistic remarks regarding further Russian-Iranian cooperation. Was Russian-Iranian cooperation discussed during the visit of the Under Secretary in the context of these latest Moscow moves to strengthen links with Teheran?

Under Secretary Bolton: We certainly did discuss the subject of Iran in a number of different aspects as we have for quite some time. And we discussed the concern that the United States has in particular that Iran's pursuit of nuclear weapons makes it a threat to international peace and security and that the issue should be referred by the International Atomic Energy Agency's Board of Directors to the UN Security Council. And I'd say that because there is always a lot written in the media about differences between the United States, on the one hand, Russia, on the other, the European Union, Japan -- and while there may be tactical differences on the Iran issue, there is no difference on the fundamental point that all of us believe that Iran should not have a nuclear weapons capability.

I might say in that connection that the contrast between the behavior of Libya and the behavior of Iran presents a graphic contrast in how countries that have been pursuing nuclear weapons can behave. Libya made a strategic decision that it was safer giving up nuclear weapons than pursuing them and allowed in British and American experts to review all of their WMD and ballistic missile programs before even announcing that they were giving up the pursuit of nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction. Iran by contrast, we believe, is still pursuing a strategic decision to acquire nuclear weapons and has not only not been completely transparent but in just a few months since the last IAEA board meeting has kept inspectors out of the country for three weeks, has obstructed their work in the country, and has been less than fully cooperative.

So if a country wants to give up weapons of mass destruction, Libya has shown the way how. That is not the path that Iran is pursuing.

Question: Mr. Bolton, today the Russian Foreign Ministry reacted very negatively to the State Department report on the human rights situation in Russia and said that many of the assertions made by the Americans were false. What do you think about this? Can we say that there are serious disagreements between Russia and the U.S. over how they view democracy and human rights?

Under Secretary Bolton: These are statements that the Foreign Ministry describes as false pertaining to Russia?

Question: That's right.

Under Secretary Bolton: I have to tell you I haven't read the human rights report because it was just recently released and I don't participate in the writing of it. And I say that -- not trying to avoid answering your question but to show that the report is written by people who are concerned primarily with human rights issues so that the report will be their best judgment not affected by political consideration that other parts of the State Department or other parts of the U.S. Government might bring to bear, so that the human rights report is as straight a report as we can make it.

And frequently there are statements in the report that other governments disagree with and they certainly have never been shy in raising these disagreements with us. And that's appropriate part of our bilateral relationship. But the report is as straightforward and honest as the people who write it can make it.

Question: France Presse News Agency. I have two very quick questions. Has Russia during your discussions made any specific commitment of halting its cooperation with Iran? And the second question is concerning PSI. What are still issues that are standing in the way of Russia joining the agreement?

Under Secretary Bolton: Well, I will answer the second question first. In terms of what may stand in the way of Russia joining PSI, that is actually a simple question to answer. You should ask the Russian Government about that. We've had several discussions over the months about PSI. The Government of Russia has asked a number of perfectly legitimate and sensible questions, which we tried to answer. We think the government is now making its final decision on the subject. And we hope that they will make an affirmative decision to join the PSI core group.

On the subject of Iran, as we have discussed frequently before, we have urged that Russia continue its policy of not supporting the Iranian ballistic missile program and that Russia not provide any support or technology for anything that might be related to the Iranian nuclear weapons program.

We discussed the Bushehr nuclear power plant construction and supply of fuel not because we are concerned what the Government of Russia is doing on Bushehr but because we remain concerned about what the Government of Iran may do once the reactor begins operation and it is supplied with fresh fuel rods.

Question: Our Prime Minister Koizumi will visit Pyongyang the day after tomorrow. Do you expect any positive results in terms of North Korea giving up its nuclear weapons program?

Under Secretary Bolton: Well, as I understand, the principal reason for Prime Minister Koizumi's trip to Pyongyang is to discuss the fate of the abductees' families. And we have certainly announced our support for that objective. And we over the months announced our support for the Government of Japan's efforts to secure the release of the abductees' families. So in that sense we are all hopeful that the trip will be a success and that families come out.

The kidnapping of the Japanese citizens by North Korea was an act of terrorism that is proof that North Korea is not simply a state sponsor of terrorism but a state implementor of terrorism. So if this issue can be resolved to the satisfaction of the Government and people of Japan we would welcome that. I think there is certainly a possibility that Prime Minister Koizumi will discuss the North Korean nuclear weapons program while he is in Pyongyang, likely in the context of the six-party talks. We expect another round of the six-party talks to be scheduled before the end of June. And we certainly will be very interested if the Prime Minister has anything to report. But I can tell you just here today I don't know of anything myself. It maybe my colleagues in Washington or Tokyo but I don't have anything new or different on that subject.

Question: One of the abducted Japanese family members who is in North Korea is a U.S. citizen. Would there be a possibility that the U.S. Government grants amnesty to your citizen in order to facilitate the release?

Under Secretary Bolton: That individual was accused of desertion from the American army. I think that charge remains but the subject of how to handle him has not been something that we have pressed on the Government of Japan because we have not wanted to interfere with the broader issue, that is of such great concern in Japan, of getting the abductees' families released. And how that issue would be handled is really a matter that is still being discussed within our government.

Question: Voice of Russia. Did you discuss Russia's possible participation in the peacekeeping contingent in Iraq? And did you discuss Russia's support for the U.S. draft resolution of the UN Security Council on Iraq?

Under Secretary Bolton: The issue relating to Iraq that we've discussed and not just in this meeting but in the meetings that we had in Washington last week related primarily to the question of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction and the ongoing mandate of UNMOVIC and the IAEA and how to resolve outstanding question of the WMD issues.

I think we are in agreement that they will not be addressed in a significant way in the resolution that is now being discussed and will be deferred until the future. But beyond that we did not really get into the Iraq resolution.

Moderator: Are there any more questions?

Question: A question about Bush's initiative to provide an additional $20 billion in assistance. What country besides Libya do you plan to include in it, Iraq or Iran?

Under Secretary Bolton: The two countries outside of states of the former Soviet Union that we have talked about involving countries in the global partnership in one way or the other so far are Iraq and Libya. One principal reason for that is that we want to find legitimate employment opportunities for weapons scientists and technicians so that their skills are not acquired by some other country like Iran and North Korea that is pursuing weapons of mass destruction and this retraining or redirection is something that I think has proven very successful here in Russia and some of the other former Soviet states.

Moderator: If there are no more questions thank you.