| United States Embassy Tokyo, Japan |
 |
||
| Welcome to the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo. This site contains information on U.S. policy, public affairs, visas and consular services. |
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Powell pleased with U.S. diplomats meeting crew
April 3, 2001
Secretary of State Colin Powell told journalists mid-day April
3 in Key West, Florida that U.S. diplomats were currently meeting with the 24
crew members of a U.S. Navy surveillance plane that made an emergency landing on
the Chinese island of Hainan late March 31 Washington time following a collision
with a Chinese fighter jet. Following a morning meeting in Key West with the Presidents of
Azerbaijan and Armenia, Powell took questions from reporters. Asked about the situation regarding the 24 crew members and
the U.S. plane on Hainan Island in China, Powell said: "The latest information I have is that our consular and
attache officials are now meeting with the crew members all together at one
time. They will have a meeting for about 40 minutes. I don't have a report of
that meeting but I am pleased that it is taking place. I hope that is the
beginning of an end to this incident. I hope that this meeting will lead to the
rapid release of all of the members of the crew back to the United States so
they can be returned to their organizations, and return to their families, and I
also hope it will also lead to the rapid return of our airplane. "And so I am encouraged by the fact that the meeting is
taking place. It shouldn't have taken this long to happen. But now that it has
happened, I hope this starts us on a road to a full and complete resolution of
this matter. "If we resolve this rather quickly, then hopefully it
will not affect the overall relationship between the United States and the
People's Republic of China." Asked how the behavior of the Chinese government will effect
the deliberations within the U.S. government on arms sales to Taiwan, Powell
said: "I don't find the two issues connected -- arms sales and
this. Obviously when you examine the arms sales question, it is done in the
context of our obligations to Taiwan under the policies we followed with respect
to Taiwan and their defensive needs for many years. So, I would like to keep the
two issues separate. "But I must say I am a little concerned about the way the
Chinese government has handled this matter. We could have resolved it much
earlier, I think, without creating the level of interest there is and the level
of difficulty we've encountered. And I think what we have to do now is to ask
the Chinese to move as quickly as possible -- and we are asking them -- to move
as quickly as possible to release our crew members, release our airplane, and
let's get back to other matters and put this behind us." Powell said he could not confirm reports that Chinese
officials had boarded the U.S. plane. "We have said that the plane should
not be violated. It is protected, in our judgment, from that kind of intrusion,
but I can't confirm whether such intrusion has taken place," he said.