Following is the complete transcript of Secretary Powell's press availability at the Chateau Whistler Hotel in Canada June 12:

Press Availability

Secretary Colin L. Powell Chateau Whistler Hotel Whistler, Canada June 12, 2002

SECRETARY POWELL: Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. We just finished a, I think, very useful set of discussions among the G-8 foreign ministers. We talked about, as you know, counter-terrorism, we talked about Afghanistan, we talked about the situation in India and Pakistan.

With respect to the counter-terrorism discussions, I'm quite pleased at the seriousness with which my G-8 colleagues continue to take the campaign against terrorism, and I'm pleased with the commitments that they continue to make on what they will do internally, what they will do to help nations that need their capability to be enhanced to be more effective members of the campaign against terrorism, especially implementing the requirements of UN Resolution 1373 on financial assault against the terrorist financial infrastructure. I sensed a clear commitment that we all have to help other nations who may not have the same technical ability and financial ability as we have to go after that.

So I think I can say that the coalition remains united and we have had a chance, I hope, or will have a chance shortly, to see the statement that we put out. The coalition remains united in this campaign against terrorism.

On Afghanistan, we had a good discussion. We are pleased at the progress we have made over the last seven or eight months, pleased that the loya jirga is underway, and we wait for the results of that meeting. We recognize, at the same time, that despite the progress that has been made, there is much more work we have to do. I encouraged all of my colleagues to make sure that the financial commitments that were made are lived up to. I take note of the fact that the United States committed itself to some $300 million in the first year, and we have already provided somewhere in the neighborhood of $360 million, so we are oversubscribed. The need is real, the need is great. We were all pleased at the progress that has been made. We will continue to follow the situation closely, stay in close touch with one another, as we help the Afghan authority expand its control from Kabul out to the rest of the country, and as we make sure that the money that goes into the central government is used in a most effective way. So a lot has been done; a lot remains to be done.

We note that the Turkish government will be taking over the Turkish armed forces; the ISAF mission beginning at the beginning of next month. And, of course, in due course, at the end of the year we'll have to identify another nation to pick up that responsibility, and we'll begin that dialogue in the weeks ahead.

Then, finally, on India/Pakistan and the situation there, I thank all my colleagues for the work they have done along side of us in talking to the Pakistanis and the Indians to impress upon them the need to find a political solution, and we're all gratified that in the last several days we have seen some steps to diffuse this crisis; some beginning steps. The tension is still there, the danger is still there, but the assurances that President Musharraf gave to us and, in turn, passed on to the Indian government, conveyed earlier by the administration and this past weekend reaffirmed by Deputy Secretary Armitage, that these would be permanent changes, permanent ending of the line of control, infiltration and crossings, and I think we now are moving in the right direction with the reciprocal steps that the Indians have taken.

Secretary Rumsfeld did meetings in New Delhi and is now in Islamabad where he'll meet with Pakistani officials, and I look forward to getting reports from Don of those conversations.

So with that, I will take your questions for a few moments. Todd?

QUESTION: Can you say anything -- I'm not asking you to be undiplomatic at this gathering, but is there anything that can be said about which nations might not have been as forthcoming as they might have been in commitment to Afghanistan, and was there any frank discussion today about how that could be done or --

SECRETARY POWELL: We didn't go over a list of nations and what they committed to and how much they paid to this point. I think the nations that were in the room have made very strong commitments to Afghanistan and they're all going to their different parliaments and legislatures to come up with the money, and then convert commitments into actual funds. So I have no doubt that they will honor all of the commitments they have made. I'm just encouraging them to do it as quickly as possible because the need is great. We've got to make sure we keep a cash flow going to the authority.

QUESTION: Are all the nations here in agreement that ISAF should remain in Kabul, or do some of the other countries think that should be expanded throughout the country?

SECRETARY POWELL: Nobody specifically asked for an extension, although there was a discussion of that possibility, and we went through the history of ISAF and how it came out of the Bonn conference and initially it was to go to Kabul. Over the course of the last several months, we've examined the security situation throughout the country. It isn't as unstable as it was believed to be, and we believe the proper investment now is not to try to find forces from expanded ISAF but to concentrate on building up the Afghan army, the Afghan police force, and using them, along with the extension of central power, out to the regions to bring under control those regional leaders or warlords, as some of them might be called, to extend political control over them, use the financial tools available to help with that, and ultimately build up the Afghan army and police force so they can police their own country. And that really is the right solution, as opposed to additional foreign forces going in at this time. None of my colleagues made a recommendation to expand ISAF. We kind of reviewed the history of ISAF.

QUESTION: Did you encounter questions or skepticism about the President's strike force policy?

SECRETARY POWELL: It didn't come up. We didn't have a discussion about it, but, you know, we'll have discussions tonight and more discussions tomorrow. It didn't come up, but I don't think it will be a neuralgic subject for discussion.

Todd?

QUESTION: You mentioned a need to have another country take over the Afghan (inaudible).

SECRETARY POWELL: Yes.

QUESTION: Am I wrong in thinking that there's actually a call to go back to the UN itself to get, essentially, a (inaudible)?

SECRETARY POWELL: May well. I'd have to research it to see whether we need another resolution or something of that nature, but we can certainly find that out for you.

Elaine?

QUESTION: Do you (inaudible)?

SECRETARY POWELL: We all said that. It is important for us to remain engaged. And an important point we all agreed upon is that once this current crisis has been brought to some culminating point, we come back down this ladder of escalation. As we come down this ladder of escalation, we have to find ways to begin the dialogue between the two sides. There was absolute agreement that we don't want to go through this again, and the way to avoid going through this again is to meet our commitments that we have made to two sides that we would work and use our good offices to create the opportunity for dialogue between the two sides; dialogue that must ultimately lead to a discussion of Kashmir and find a solution to Kashmir.

QUESTION: You said it would take a couple of months before the troops pull back in India and Pakistan. Why is that and what will it take before you (inaudible)?

SECRETARY POWELL: If things go along in the right way and in the right direction, I think we'll see a number of steps taken in the days and weeks ahead. But my sensing at this point is that some time will have to pass to make both sides comfortable in the actions of the other side before you'll see a complete demobilization of the forces that have been mobilized. But I am hopeful that in the weeks ahead, even though they may still be at the borders, they will not be in the states of alert and preparation and readiness that they currently are now in. I think the Indian side wants to be sure that this is a permanent change. And there are elections coming up and other things that are happening, and so we should be patient, but at the same time keep the pressure up so that we can come down these steps. And we're also committed to remaining engaged diplomatically with people visiting the region representing the international community.

One thing that we noted, both with respect to Afghanistan and to the situation between India and Pakistan, was the level of co-operation that has existed among not only the G-8 members but the other members of the international community who played a role in this -- in both of these situations, where rather than, as it might have been 10 or 12 or 15 years ago with the superpower competition that was inherent in almost every regional conflict back then, in this instance we all had a common objective and the great game has not broken out with respect to each trying to gain an advantage over the other. We're trying to bring peace into the region.

Teri?

QUESTION: Mr. Secretary, this might be a little more on a bilateral basis with Canada, but they're talking about it back home. In current terms and discussions, has the US brought up with Canada the need to police the borders better? Is there some joint work going on now to stop some of these --

SECRETARY POWELL: The foreign minister and I, Mr. Graham and I, have not finished our bilateral discussions, but in the course of our discussion on counter-terrorism, we took note of the changed environment we're living in since 9/11 and the fact that we have to do a better job of guarding our borders and watching our borders, and at the same time making sure we do not shut down our borders. We want people to come to the United States, but at the same time we want to know who's coming, what they're coming for, where are they when they get here, and have they left when they were supposed to leave? So I'm sure there will be continued conversations with the Canadians, and I know that Tom Ridge had spent a great deal of time with my former colleague, John Manley, who is now Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Finance, and also in charge of homeland security matters for the Canadian government, and he and Governor Ridge have been spending a lot of time together on border issues.

QUESTION: Will you continue the discussions here?

SECRETARY POWELL: I don't know if we will or we won't. It's ongoing, but it's not going to be a particular topic of discussion.

Everybody? Okay?

QUESTION: Just one more quick one on the meeting.

SECRETARY POWELL: Yes.

QUESTION: Ari Fleischer today said he -- the President's had advice from various people concerning this temporary Palestinian state. You said it's been a consistent element in all of the discussions about how to move forward. Is there a --

SECRETARY POWELL: No, I read Ari's statement very closely and Ari is absolutely accurate. There's no distance or space here. The concept of final political settlement and provisional interim steps has been part of the dialogue for months. What I have been doing is trying to help the press and the public understand the options that are out there, and help the press and the public understand the advice that the President has been receiving from a number of different people who have come to visit him. I've talked about this possibility on a number of occasions in the past, and we could do a transcript search if you would like. So it isn't really news, and I think the more important thing to watch for is what the President decides now that he has brought all of these threads of advice together, and watch what he'll be deciding in the period ahead and how he will communicate to the American people, to the region and to the world how he thinks we all should move forward.

Thank you.