On Camera Interview

QUESTION: Could you give us the tick-tock again of how you learned about this, and how these talks progressed and how you feel this is going to work?

SECRETARY POWELL: Well, I think we had a very good relationship with the Russian side as we negotiated the final elements of the new strategic treaty. A week before last on Friday, we had the Russian negotiating team in the State Department with the entire interagency US team, and we came very, very close. We had one or two outstanding elements and both sides went back to review these elements over the weekend. Then last week, through a series of discussions and phone calls we came closer and closer so that by last Friday I knew that we had an agreement and I spoke to Foreign Minister Ivanov about it.

Under Secretary John Bolton of the State Department went over to Moscow over the weekend to have discussions this morning, Monday morning, with Deputy Prime Minister Mamedov, so that both sides could take a final look at the agreement, conform the two treaties in the two different languages. This morning at 6:30, Under Secretary Bolton called me and let me know that it was an agreement, that it was a deal. Shortly thereafter, I called the President and informed him. Then we made arrangements to have the announcement made.

QUESTION: What were the things that were hardest to come to agreement on in the end? What are the things that are left out of this treaty? You said that it was very short. It doesn’t talk about launchers? It doesn’t mention ABM, I believe. Do you feel it’s comprehensive enough?

SECRETARY POWELL: Yes, it’s a very straightforward, rather simple treaty by arms control standards. I doubt that it’s more that two or three pages long in its final, singled-spaced version.

What it does is it takes what the two presidents committed themselves to last year. President Bush at the Washington summit said that the United States was willing to go down to 1,700 to 2,200 deployed warheads. A month later, President Putin said that the Russian Federation would be going down to that level. He said 1,500 to 2,200, but then we settled at 1,700 to 2,200 for both sides speaking of warheads.

The treaty that has just been completed documents that and puts in it in the form of an internationally binding legal agreement that both sides will now take to their legislatures. In our case, it will go the Senate for ratification and in their case, they take it to the Duma. That’s what it deals with. It deals with the warhead level both sides will be down to, deployed warhead level they’ll be down to, at the end of this treaty period, roughly, I would say ten years. An exact date isn’t in the treaty, but it does not deal with what one does with one’s launchers or how one configures one’s force.

With respect to warheads that are no longer on launchers, as the result of this treaty, each side has the option of destroying those warheads, of putting them in storage, in one way or another dealing with those warheads, separate from the provisions of the treaty. The treaty deals with warheads and not the launchers and does not deal with where the warheads go, or how they will be disposed of, stored or kept in place if they might be needed for test purposes or for replacement purposes.

The bottom line is at the end of this treaty period, both sides will be able to verify that the other side only has between 1,700 to 2,200 deployed warheads on launchers. It does not talk about missile defense, it does not constrain missile defense activities in any way, although there is a reference in the perambulatory section of the treaty to offense and defense as the two presidents discussed it at the Genoa G-8 meeting last year.

QUESTION: Mr. Secretary, on a different subject, but staying within the hemisphere, as you know, former President Carter is in Cuba today. He has said today, that although he got a briefing from State Department personnel and perhaps from other government personnel before he left, that no one had briefed him that Cuba had BW or CW capability. He said he asked specifically if Cuba had been involved in sharing information that could be used for terrorist activities. He was told no. Do you know anything about the briefings he got and why this might have been so even though others at the Department have actually said this?

SECRETARY POWELL: I don’t know what briefings President Carter may have received. I’m sure we made ourselves available to him. As Under Secretary Bolton said recently, we do believe that Cuba has a biological offensive research capability. We didn’t say that it actually had such weapons, but it has the capacity and the capability to conduct such research. This is not a new statement, I think that it is a statement that has been made previously. So Under Secretary Bolton’s speech which got attention on this issue again wasn’t breaking new ground as far as the United States’ position on this subject goes.

QUESTION: After this very contentious Likud party meeting, do you believe that Sharon will still hold to establishing a Palestinian state eventually? And what if Netanyahu wins in the election?