Following is a State Department transcript of the briefing:

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
Office of the Spokesman
April 3, 2001

BRIEFING FOR THE PRESS ABOARD AIRCRAFT
EN ROUTE TO ANDREWS AIR FORCE BASE

QUESTION: Do you have anything to add?

SECRETARY POWELL: I don't have anything to add to the President's statement. I'll take whatever questions that you want. I just might start out by saying that I was very pleased with the events down in Key West -- the beginning of the conference with the Presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan. It's a continuation of our, of the work of the Minsk group and they have made quite a bit of progress in the last year or so and, hopefully, their several days down in Key West dealing with the difficult issues associated with the plan they are working on will bear fruit and this will keep moving forward, but, as I said at the press conference down there, this is just a step in the negotiations. Don't expect this to be the end of these negotiations. It's a step forward. I'll take whatever questions you have, anything.

QUESTION: Have the Chinese explained why they are holding this plane? Why they are holding these people and when they are going to return them?

SECRETARY POWELL: No. The only thing I have heard is that they say something about they are investigating something. I don't know what there is to investigate. Our plane was flying over international water and international air space. Their planes were flying in international air space. An accident occurred. Fortunately, the accident was not fatal for our crew and they were able to get the plane on the ground. Unfortunately, it apparently was fatal for the pilot of the Chinese plane and I regret that. But our crew got the plane on the ground with considerable damage -- pretty hairy. And it seems to me that the proper response would have been for the Chinese to receive our crew immediately, notify us of what had happened, realize rather quickly that this was an accident, and not some kind of provocation, but a clear accident, and resolve it quickly. That has not yet happened, although they are allowing our consular official and our attache to meet with the crew today finally. It's a step in the right direction of bringing this to an end, but that crew is still in detention. They are being held incommunicado under circumstances that I don't find acceptable and we will continue to impress upon the Chinese that they need to move quickly to return the crew to its unit, the crew to its families and to return the plane to its United States base.

QUESTION: Secretary Powell, have you determined that the Chinese have boarded the aircraft and taken equipment from the plane?

SECRETARY POWELL: No. I have heard reports that they have, but I have not personally made that determination nor have I seen a determination from others who might know. You know, you can suspect anything and they have had had it on their airbase for several days now. So, one can assume lots of things, but the specific answer is I cannot confirm or deny.

QUESTION: (Inaudible) condition that the plane and the crew need to come out simultaneously? I can see that there can be a problem with leaving the plane totally unattended behind.

SECRETARY POWELL: No. I would hope that we would be able to quickly bring people in to repair the plane. The crew is not the one to repair the plane. They are crewmembers, not mechanics. So, it would take a significant maintenance package to get in there, make an assessment of the damage, make the repairs to the airplane, and then to fly the airplane out, but there is no reason to keep the crew there, unless you want to leave one or some people there for custodial purposes until a new crew and maintenance team gets in place. So, that seems to me to be a very logical, normal way that two nations with good relations with each other should handle such matters.

QUESTION: Are you really requesting permission to get a crew in? (Inaudible)

SECRETARY POWELL: I've been with you all day, so I don't know what our ambassador may have formally requested. I'm just laying out for you what seems to me to be a very logical, sensible way to do this. I don't know any other way to do it.

QUESTION: Has the attache (inaudible) any sense of how much equipment they may have been able to destroy before landing?

SECRETARY POWELL: I don't know what the attache was able to determine in that regard, if anything.

QUESTION: Have the Chinese made any requests or demands or anything to get an apology before they make any moves?

SECRETARY POWELL: I have heard some suggestion of an apology, but we have nothing to apologize for. We did not do anything wrong. Our airplane was in international airspace. An accident took place and the pilot, in order to save twenty-four lives, including his own, under circumstances that have now been determined that must have been hair-raising, safely got that plane on the ground. It was quite a feat of airmanship and that should have been the end of it. There was nothing to apologize for. If the suggestion is well gosh he didn't get out his (inaudible) flight manual and find the right frequencies and call ahead, we had an emergency and this youngster was trying to save twenty-four lives and his plane and he did so and I have a hunch it would have been handled differently if the sides had been reversed.

QUESTION: Are these airmen hostages?

SECRETARY POWELL: They are being detained. I don't want to characterize it in a legal status. I don't know that that is the right word, because no demands have been placed -- you know -- we'll trade them for this, so I prefer the word they are being detained. The Chinese have said that they are being protected. I don't know from what -- in my judgment they are being detained and, to some extent, when I can call them, they are incommunicado, because they are not free to call out or to move about freely. So, they are being detained.

QUESTION: People are calling the new administration's policy towards China one of strategic competition. I'm not sure quite what that is supposed to mean, if that is the case, and I want to ask, is that our policy or is that our view of China and, secondly, maybe the Chinese were interpreting that literally?

SECRETARY POWELL: I'm not going to comment on what they may have been interpreting literally, but I think we are strategic competitors, not necessarily military competitors. We're competing for our influence in the region. We're competing with two totally different systems that are presenting themselves to the people of that region. We have interest in that region, but that doesn't mean we can't be trade partners. It doesn't mean we can't work together on matters of mutual interest. It doesn't mean we can't participate together in the World Trade Organization. It doesn't mean we can't have cultural and all kinds of other exchanges, but we are two different systems that have often come into conflict. We have a different view of human rights, as you know and, in this case, we are seeing their system rather clearly and how quite different it is from our system.

QUESTION: Secretary Powell, at this stage would you say that as things stand now, the Chinese violating customary international law, at this stage by holding a crew, they've got to know what these actions (inaudible).

SECRETARY POWELL: I don't want to give you a legal definition as to whether they have or they have not. I just know that it is inappropriate, it is improper, there's no reason for it, and I don't wish to get into descriptions of international law because the legal counsel of the State Department is constantly warning me that I have no degree from any accredited law school that he is aware of, so I should not opine on matters of law, unless I feel like it, and I don't feel like it.

QUESTION: Could this threaten the President's visit to China this fall?

SECRETARY: I don't think I would say that yet. Let's see how this unfolds. But it's certainly, it is not helping our relationship at this point. The sooner we get it behind us, the better things will be. And I think you should, I draw your attention to the last paragraph of the President's statement.

QUESTION: (inaudible) what the United States have and (inaudible) what the Chinese (inaudible) and specifically who the Americans talking with the Chinese are.

SECRETARY POWELL: Ambassador Armitage met this afternoon with the Chinese ambassador in Washington, and over the weekend, Under Secretary, the new Under Secretary for Political Affairs, also met with the Chinese ambassador. Ambassador Prueher has been our interlocutor with various officials in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and had several different names involved in that. And the Chinese have made it clear to us that they wish to keep this in Ministry of Foreign Affairs channels, so that's where all the contact has been taking place. And then, of course, when our consular official and attache went down to Hainan Island, they were met and escorted and did their work with Ministry of Foreign Affairs officials in Hainan.

QUESTION: What kind of consequences could flow if they continue to really...

SECRETARY POWELL: I'm not going to speculate on what consequences might flow because I don't have the circumstance triggering any consequences so I'm not going to talk about what might happen.

QUESTION: How would you interpret their insistence that everything be done through the Foreign Affairs Ministry, is that a sign that it's not being handled by their military?

SECRETARY POWELL: It's fact, it's their choice, it's been their choice since the very first evening, when we got in touch with them, and we found that all of the contacts were being funneled through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and that's what I, that doesn't surprise me. And that's probably the right level for the time being.

QUESTION: You've said that there's a phone line between the two presidents.

SECRETARY POWELL: There is? Is there?

QUESTION: (Inaudible)

SECRETARY POWELL: Well, because, well, I don't know if I would describe it as a hotline so much as a telephone line. Maybe we've got two Sprints, I don't know. But at this point, neither president has believed it appropriate to use a direct connection to each other, whether it's a hotline or any other means. They know our thoughts, they know the thoughts of the president. He has given two statements in two days conveying his view on this matter.

QUESTION: Secretary Powell.

SECRETARY POWELL: I'm sure those views have been noticed by the Chinese leadership at the highest levels and President Jiang Zemin has also made public statements, so we have had exchanges of statements at the highest level on both sides in the form of public statements.

QUESTION: Secretary Powell, what are your intentions personally in terms of getting involved in this when you get back to DC?

SECRETARY POWELL: Excuse me?

QUESTION: Will you be getting involved personally in contact with Beijing when you get back to Washington DC, and when you said that the crew had to come home to avoid any damage to relations, how quickly do you want them home?

SECRETARY POWELL: I don't want to put a time limit on it. I mean, what's happening now is not good for relations. I think there is some damage right now (inaudible) that is recoverable, but I'd like to see them home as soon as possible, and I would have liked to have seen them home two days ago, I'd like to see them home tomorrow, I'd like to see them home as quickly as it can happen, but I don't want to put a timeline on it that triggers something. On the first part of your question, I've been involved in this since a few hours after it happened, and I talked a number of times over the weekend with Ambassador Prueher, I made the first call to our embassy in Beijing the night of the incident and alerted the charge to the incident, so I have been very personally involved since the very beginning of the incident.

QUESTION: Secretary Powell, can I ask about Yugoslavia? Now that you've certified Yugoslavia...

SECRETARY POWELL: -- with conditions --

QUESTION: with conditions, there's some statements out of President Kostunica that maybe Milosevic should never be transferred to the Hague at all. Can you respond to that?

SECRETARY POWELL: I have seen President Kostunica's statement, but the fact of the matter is that we continue to believe, and the international community continues to believe, that Mr. Milosevic ultimately must be brought before the Hague to answer charges against him. In the months ahead, the United States, following its law, the law that I certified over the weekend, will continue to examine all elements of that law: cooperation with the International Criminal Tribunal for Yugoslavia, dealing with minorities, their relationship to Bosnia-Herzegovina and the Republika Srpska under the Dayton Accord, there are a lot of elements in that law and I will continue to review them all to see whether or not we need to invoke the conditionality that I left in my certification when it comes to our work with the donors' conference later in the year. So all that will be taken into account.

QUESTION: Was there anything new in your statement today to Armitage, that Armitage delivered to the Chinese ambassador?

SECRETARY POWELL: No, the ambassador occurred, there was an exchange of views. I haven't seen the memcon of the meeting, but in my brief conversation with Deputy Secretary Armitage, I didn't sense that there was much more than an exchange of views.

QUESTION: Are you concerned at all about the nationalist sentiment in China? The nationalist sentiment in China that seems to be stirred up by these Internet chat rooms and so forth? It doesn't seem to bode very well for the future.

SECRETARY POWELL: At this point, at this point, I don't sense that in a country of that size, 1.3 billion people, where we're seeing huge outpouring, that there's some response. In a country of that type, it's sometimes hard to tell what is spontaneous and what is not spontaneous, and what is really generated and what is not really generated. That's the difference between their system and our system.

QUESTION: On Nagorno-Karabakh, the Azeri president today made a rather strong statement. Did that catch you at all by surprise? Does it affect the talks? Because he wants mediation and not facilitation. I believe you were offering facilitation.

SECRETARY POWELL: No, I was not surprised. I expected both sides to state their position clearly, and President Aliyev stated his views very clearly and forcefully and at considerable length, and President Kocharian was much more direct and to the point, as you well know, and both presidents I think were encouraging the Minsk group to take a more active role. But as I was leaving at the end, after we showed them some of the facilities that we had ready for them, I think they both appreciated that the Minsk group was playing a very active role in what they were doing down there and the significant American presence, but just as important, a significant French and Russian presence was evidence of that support. At the end of the day, it's the Minsk group, if we have progress and something emerges from this, the Minsk group will be playing a very very important role in bringing this case forward to the international community as well as to the people of Azerbaijan and Armenia.

QUESTION: There's no huge outpouring in China like after Belgrade. Does that give you heart that this might be solved reasonably, or does it make you think that they're just thinking about what they might do and the worst might be ahead?

SECRETARY POWELL: I really haven't tried to analyze it. I just noted that there are reports of two demonstrations and some chatter on the Internet. I really haven't read much into that one way or the other. Frankly, to use a very hackneyed term, it seems like a null hypothesis. It doesn't affect it one way or the other so far as I can tell at this point.

QUESTION: If you feel the parties might be close to reaching an agreement towards the end of the week, would you be willing to come...

SECRETARY POWELL: Which, where are we?

QUESTION: In Key West.

SECRETARY POWELL: Oh, okay.

QUESTION: Would you be willing to come back to Key West and see if you can move the process along any further?

SECRETARY POWELL: I'm always open to doing what I can to help these kinds of negotiations, and I wouldn't rule it out. I wouldn't rule it out at all. I want to be available. I'm going to be monitoring it all day for the next several days, and I'm sure I'll be getting very frequent reports so I wouldn't rule it out. This is a big one, this is a conflict that's been going on for a long time, it's been very, very nasty. (Inaudible) a cease-fire for a long time, there are hundreds of thousands of people who've been displaced, and we really should try to solve this. If my presence would help at some later point, I would certainly consider it. Okay? Thanks, guys.