For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
September 21, 2004
Background Briefing by a Senior Administration Official on the President's Bilateral Meetings
New York, New York
6:34 P.M. EDT
MR. McCORMACK: Ladies and gentlemen, this is the briefing you've
all been waiting for -- all day long. (Laughter and applause.) We have
a senior administration official here who is going to be -- has a few
words to say about the President's meetings with Prime Minister Singh
of India and Prime Minister Koizumi of Japan. And then he'll take a
few questions from you.
With that, I'll turn it over to our briefer.
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Hi. I'm the senior administration
official. The President met with Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh
this morning at 8:05 a.m. And he met with Prime Minister Junichiro
Koizumi at 3:00 p.m. And let me tell you a little bit about those two,
and then I'll take some questions.
This was the President's first face-to-face meeting with Prime
Minister Singh. The President called him on the telephone to
congratulate him after his coalition came to power several months
back. They had a very strategic discussion addressing bilateral
issues, regional issues, and economic issues principally.
This meeting between President Bush and Prime Minister Singh comes
just a few days after the United States and the government of India
signed and completed phase one of what we call the strategic
partnership, sometimes called the "Next Step in Strategic Partnership,"
NSSP, which is a series of steps that we take, together with India to
reduce the barriers to high-tech and space -- commercial space
cooperation, and to strengthen cooperation on non-proliferation.
The NSSP was announced in January of 2004, and with this we've now
completed phase one, which was initialed by the Indian Foreign
Secretary, Mr. Saran, in Washington, with Mark Grossman, Under
Secretary of State for Policy.
This is an important accomplishment and now sets up the two
governments to work on phase two of the Next Steps in Strategic
Partnership. And the two leaders agreed that they were going to stay
on course and we were going to work deliberately to move forward with
this next phase in the partnership, which would involve some more
regulatory and other steps to further reduce the barriers to high-tech
cooperation and to strengthen cooperation on non-proliferation. It's
an important piece of the relationship.
The two leaders also talked about the situation in Iraq, and Dr.
Manmohan Singh and his people pointed out that, for India, success in
Iraq is critical and that elections, successful elections, and the
advance of democracy in Iraq is critical, and pointed out that in
India, a country with 150 million Muslims, there is not a single al
Qaeda terrorist, and the reason, in large part, is because democracy in
India works. It was an important discussion. And the Indian Prime
Minister reaffirmed that his country stands by to help with the
democratic process in Iraq, as well.
The two leaders talked about the regional situation, increasingly
with India. We talk now not only about bilateral issues like the Next
Steps in Strategic Partnership, but also about how we can work together
to bring greater stability, peace, and prosperity to South Asia and
beyond. They touched, in particular, on the situation in Burma, where
the United States and India share an interest in seeing Aung San Suu
Kyi let out of house arrest, and, again, full democratic participation
for the democracy movement there. And they touched on other issues in
the neighborhood.
The President is always interested in hearing how things are going
on the composite dialogue between India and Pakistan. The foreign
ministers between their two countries have met, and Prime Minister
Singh and President Musharraf will meet here in New York for the first
meeting in his new capacity as Prime Minister.
We continue to encourage both parties to move forward with positive
steps. And, indeed, they have started talking about a range of
confidence-building measures. We have offered our assistance, but
ultimately this requires goodwill and hard work of the leaders in both
Islamabad and Delhi, and all evidence is that they're committed to that
process, despite the fact there are many tough issues still to be
resolved.
On Afghanistan, Prime Minister Singh and the President agreed that
it's an important and striking thing that over 10 million Afghans have
registered for elections. The President thanked Prime Minister Singh
for the role India has played in trying to ensure there is a fair and
democratic election in Afghanistan. They are playing some supporting
role and providing some help in that. And they talked about terrorism,
of course. And Prime Minister Singh reiterated that the United States
and India are both committed to eradicating terrorism.
And finally, on the economy, where the Prime Minister gave -- he
is a trained economist, and gave his readout on how Indian economic
reform and development are going. And the two leaders agreed we're
going to strengthen our dialogue on economic issues.
Should I go on to Japan and then open up? Prime Minister Koizumi
has met the President before, many times. The meeting addressed a
number of issues which we're working between the two countries. The
situation in Iraq, where Japan has been a stalwart ally and member of
the coalition, the President thanked him for that support. And Prime
Minister Koizumi reiterated how critical it is to Japan, the United
States and the entire international community that in both Iraq and
Afghanistan the rebuilding process, reconstruction, movement of
democracy succeed; that failure is not an option. And Prime Minister
Koizumi was quite adamant about this. And, of course, the President
agreed.
They talked a bit about North Korea, where Japan and the United
States are working together in the six-party talks to urge and press
North Korea to verifiably end its entire nuclear weapons programs.
We're very much on the same page with Japan on this. And the two
leaders agreed that we need to move forward with the six-party talks to
achieve de-nuclearization on the Korean Peninsula.
On Security Council and U.N. issues, the Prime Minister reiterated
Japan's interest in a permanent seat on the Security Council. And the
President reaffirmed that the U.S. position on that hasn't changed, and
they agreed that our two governments would continue consulting at the
experts level on Security Council reform and how to make progress.
They talked about our global posture review. The U.S. and Japan
have been exchanging ideas on how to modernize our alliance and our
presence. The Prime Minister agreed that we need to accelerate these
talks, both at the strategic level, but also among experts on the two
sides. And this would be on how the U.S. military presence in Japan
should be shaped as part of our global posture review and how the
U.S.-Japan alliance should be modernized. And the two leaders agreed
that this has to be done, and can and will be done in a way that both
strengthens deterrence and the effectiveness of the U.S. military
presence, while at the same time addressing the concerns of the
communities in Japan and reducing the burden.
I know the Japanese press will ask me, so I'll preempt this. Yes,
the Prime Minister raised Okinawa in this context, and the President
understands the sensitivities and sees this global posture review in
our talks with Japan as a way to begin making progress on that.
And they talked about some economic issues. The Prime Minister
gave a very brief update on the economy, on his plan for postal --
privatization of the postal saving system, which is of high interest to
U.S. firms who want to be in that market, as well.
And on beef, which is -- BSE, and Sean can tell you what the
acronym stands for -- but, the so-called Mad Cow disease. And the two,
the President and the Prime Minister agreed that we need to work to
open the Japanese market as soon as possible to beef. There are expert
level and technical talks, and based on the Prime Minister and the
President's discussion today, we will resume those talks and pick up
very quickly to try and make progress on this.
Why don't I end there and take questions on both the India and the
Japan bilat.
Q Was this the first time that Prime Minister Koizumi raised
Security Council membership directly with President Bush? And you said
the policy had to change, but it's been a while since you articulated
it. Could you do so for us?
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: He raised it in Crawford, and he
raised it in Sea Island. And it's been the U.S. position that it makes
sense for Japan to be on. But beyond that, they just agreed that we
needed to have our two governments and the people who work U.N. issues
get together and strategize and think through how the process of
Security Council reform and overall U.N. reform should move forward.
Q Could I ask you if the issue of Taiwan came up?
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: No, it didn't.
Q Koizumi seems to almost always raise the issue of Charles
Jenkins, putting him on trial for desertion. Has Koizumi sort of
dropped that?
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: No -- yes and no. As you may
know, Sergeant Jenkins turned himself over to the U.S. Army and is the
process of pre-trial talks. And there's been file footage of him in a
modern -- he deserted in '65, I think -- but wearing a modern U.S. Army
sergeant's uniform and talking to the Army lawyers. So this issue is
now with the Army. And Sergeant Jenkins is talking to them, and
they're in the pre-trial discussion phase.
Prime Minister Koizumi did thank the President for the U.S.
position on this, and what might have been a tough political problem
was handled very professionally by everybody involved, and it's now in
the hands of the uniform code of military justice.
Q Can I ask you, too, why did you package Afghanistan and
Pakistan together today? Was it just the obvious, that they share a
border and the terrorism problem --
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Just now? Oh, there wasn't any
packaging or linkage of those discussions today. They did, really, a
kind of tour of the whole region and exchanged views on developments
from Nepal to Burma, but the entire environment in South Asia.
Q I mean, the two leaders met with the President today
together, and then Pakistan meets again separately with the President
tomorrow.
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: No. Today, Prime Minister --
there were several meetings. I'm not briefing on the trilateral
meeting, but there was a bilateral with Prime Minister Singh, and
there's a bilateral tomorrow morning with President Musharraf of
Pakistan and the President. There was another meeting today with
President Karzai, President Musharraf and President Bush. I wasn't in
the meeting. It was a very small group -- basically, though, to talk
about Afghan elections and reaffirm support.
Q Could you talk -- what did Prime Minister Koizumi say about
Okinawa? I don't cover this every day.
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: He just -- in the context of the
discussion about U.S. global posture and talking to Japan about the
Japan piece of that, Prime Minister Koizumi said that this is a good
project, he's going to work to accelerate discussions on this.
Q -- want U.S. troops out of Okinawa?
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: No, he didn't say that. What he
wanted to raise for the President, and he's done this before, is
sensitivities in Okinawa. There has been -- there was a helicopter
crash a few weeks back and the Prime Minister wanted to let the
President -- reiterate for the President that, for Japan, for the
government Japan, this is an important issue, because on Okinawa, it's
a sensitive issue. So he was putting it on the agenda and saying that
as we go forward, and as we accelerate our talks about U.S. presence,
it was his hope that we would strengthen deterrence, increase the
efficiency of the alliance and of U.S. military presence, and also
address -- find ways to reduce the burden, and he said, particularly on
Okinawa, which has 80 percent of U.S. forces.
Q If we could move to tomorrow, could you set up the meeting
a little bit tomorrow with Musharraf? Will they talk about the search
for bin Laden, or the struggle with al Qaeda and the Taliban? What
will they --
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: I think -- I don't want to say too
much because they haven't met, of course, but both the U.S. and
Pakistan governments are, I think, looking at this meeting in the same
way, and that is first to demonstrate that the U.S. partnership with
Pakistan and our commitment to Pakistan's success is a long-term
commitment. Second, to talk about the war on terror, where President
Musharraf made a critical decision in the early days after September
11th to side with us in combating global terror.
He has since stepped up Pakistan's efforts to root out al Qaeda and
Taliban elements along the border with Afghanistan and southwest
Eurostan and that region, which is largely untouched for over a
century. And so progress on that effort is an important topic for
them.
Again, the President will be interested in President Musharraf's
views on the composite dialogue with India, which by all accounts is
going quite well under this new government, and continuing with the
progress by the previous Vajpayee government in Delhi.
We share with Pakistan now the goal of wrapping up this A.Q. Khan
network and stopping proliferation, and that's an important topic. The
long-term process of building democratic institutions in Pakistan, and
of course, the economic reform and growth of Pakistan and our
cooperation and support for that.
So it's a pretty rich agenda. The overlying -- the overriding
theme is that the U.S. has the long-term commitment to Pakistan that
needs to succeed on all these fronts with us.
Q -- do you know --
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: We'll probably do a briefing
tomorrow and I'll be able to tell you how that was handled.
Q Most of us will be gone, so --
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: I think he's scheming, so we'll
find a way. But --
Q Did any of either the guests or the President make any
mention of what American relations -- how it would continue after an
election? Was the election ever brought up in any of the
conversations?
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: I am Hatched. I'm covered by the
Hatch Act, so I can't talk about politics. But --
Q Can you brief on whether the President or the guests said
anything about the election? I'm not asking for your opinion?
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Can I?
MR. McCORMACK: Yes.
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: The President didn't get into a
lot of politics -- a lot of the election politics with these leaders.
In fact, one of the important things he said to, I think it was Prime
Minister Singh, was how important continuity in U.S. foreign policy is
towards these countries.
Q A question about something that was in the President's
speech this morning. He mentioned the Democracy Fund, and said that
the United States was prepared to make an initial contribution. Could
you put a number to that? How much is the United States prepared to --
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: I can't. That's not really my
brief. I'm the Asia director.
Q Does some of that go for Iraq?
MR. McCORMACK: I don't know.
Q On Japan's permanent seat -- did they say anything about
Japan's possibility of being on the permanent Council without veto
power?
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: No, I mean, there was no
discussion. But that's one of the things that the two governments
would follow up on in discussions in the coming weeks and months.
Q And also a follow-up. When they talked about the BSE, did
they talk about specific time frames, when they want the Japanese
market open again?
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: The agreement was as soon as
possible. And it's in the interests of Japanese consumers, it's in the
interest of U.S. exporters for beef exports to fully resume. And they
agreed that as soon as possible that that should happen.
Q No months, no weeks?
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: They didn't give a time line or a
date specifically. But there will be discussions following up on the
President's meeting with Prime Minister Koizumi by the relevant
government agencies and experts on both sides to start hashing out
those kinds of things.
Q The agreement was to talk more, but not to set any
deadlines for an agreement.
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: We had a basic understanding that
we would have progress on this by the end of the summer.
Q This was raised by the Vice President when he was in
Japan.
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Right. And so this go back to
April. And we had a basic understanding that we should try to get this
wrapped up by the end of the summer. And there's been a fair amount of
technical expert opinion and discussion shared between the U.S. and
Japan. So our view is that we're getting down to the point where it's
time to follow through on the expert exchanges and make some
decisions.
But there wasn't a decision made today. They're going to keep
working it -- within days, I'd say, if not a week or two -- to start
looking at what else we would have to do to resume beef exports. We
don't think it's much. We think a considerable amount of understanding
has been developed, but we're not quite there yet.
Q Does the Prime Minister want to resolve the issues?
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Oh, yes. Yes. I mean, this is --
you know, in Japan -- I used to live in Japan, but the people like
their beef bowl, and there is a definite consumer need that is not
being filled, and there are a lot of industries in Japan that are quite
eager to have this resume. So there's an interest on both sides to get
this going, but it has to be done in a way where the Japanese
government can reassure the consumers. And we think we've gone an
awful long way towards exchanging the opinions and the expert views on
how to do that. But we're not quite there yet.
Q Did the President remind the Prime Minister of the
understanding that -- to get this resolved by the end of August?
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: No, he didn't -- we didn't say the
end of August. We said the end of summer, which -- but, you know, I
don't know if we're going with the equinox, but --
Q -- we're approaching the equinox.
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: This came up in -- this came up in
Sea Island, and as you noted, the Vice President raised it in April.
And a lot of work has gone into it. And the Japanese side, in good
faith, has had, as I said, experts working this. But we're getting
down to the point where it's time to make a decision based on the
scientific work we've done together.
Q Excuse me, I'm sorry. On North Korea, did both leaders,
Prime Minister Koizumi and President Bush, compare the note on the
nuclear explosion in North Korea two weeks --
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: No, they didn't.
Q -- of the attention of North Korea at this moment?
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: No, they didn't. The meeting was
about 35 minutes long, so there wasn't time to get into a lot of
detail. We, of course, consult very closely with Japan on the North
Korea problem at all levels. And, in fact, Assistant Secretary Kelly
was just in Tokyo a few days ago -- or about a week ago. So we have
plenty of opportunities to compare notes. But in this meeting, they
just only had time to touch on it briefly. It's important. It's
always part of the discussions between the two leaders. Where they
came out was agreeing that we need to continue pushing for North Korea
to participate in the six-party talks and to answer the calls of all of
North Korea's neighbors for a complete and verifiable end to their
nuclear program.
Q Just to follow up on that -- did they come to an agreement
on a specific time line, until when -- or when does U.S. want to come
to that agreement?
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: No, they didn't come -- they
didn't discuss an exact time line. But I would say that their
discussion was very forward leaning and that the Prime Minister wanted
to accelerate our talks, and that they reached an agreement on the
philosophy that should govern these discussions, and that now it's up
to the experts at Defense and State, JDA and MOFA to start hammering
out different ideas and come up with specific proposals.
Q What is that philosophy?
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: It's what I mentioned earlier,
that we need to move forward and will and can move forward in a way
where we are shaping our presence in Japan so that it's -- deterrence
is enhanced. We did this in Korea, and we, with our force structure
changes in Korea, I think we have a much more -- will have a much more
capable, mobile, flexible force that's much less of a burden on the
communities. So in the case of Japan, the philosophy they agreed on
was that we needed to move forward in the same way to have effective --
a more effective deterrent, at the same time taking advantage of
technology and so forth to do what we can to reduce the burden on local
communities.
A lot of the bases in Japan, Korea, Germany have been there for
decades and decades. And so the specific is still to be worked out,
but there are opportunities to do both those goals.
Q Follow-up on North Korea. Did they talk at all -- there
are supposed to be talks this month, the six-party talks are supposed
to be happening this month. It doesn't look like they're going to
happen. Did they talk about what the impact that the cancellation of
those talks would have, or what might happen in the future in terms of
next round of talks?
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: No, they didn't, they didn't.
Q Could I just follow up one more time? You used a phrase,
"reduce the burden," several times. Was part of the agreement that it
would be a goal to reduce the numbers of troops, or to reduce the
physical footprint on Okinawa, or both?
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: No. They didn't agree to any
numbers or numbers reduction. That's always a possibility. In the
case of the Republic of Korea, we agreed with the Korean government to
reduce numbers, about 12,000 over several years. And it made sense to
do that, because the force structure there was an army force structure,
it was very heavy. And the army is transforming itself. We have
modern striker brigades that are more compact, but much more -- have a
lot more firepower, a lot more mobility.
In the case of Japan -- well, you lived there, Bob, you know that
it's primarily an air and naval presence with the Marines in Okinawa.
So it's not exactly the same as the case in Korea or the case in
Germany. But they are going to -- the two governments are going to be
exchanging ideas for ways that we can try to reduce the burden. That
may be providing some consolidation of bases, it could be a change in
numbers, but that's not yet determined. I would say that the situation
in Japan is different enough from Germany and Korea that it's not
likely that you'll have large changes in numbers. But there are
perhaps opportunities to consolidate and do that. But this is just
something that now the two governments, State, DOD, the Defense Agency
and the Foreign Ministry are going to start exchanging ideas and
plans.
Q What are our numbers there?
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: In Japan?
Q Yes.
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Forty-seven thousand.
Q In Okinawa?
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Okinawa is about 18,000 Marines,
and -- I should know this, but I can't remember.
Q A proliferation question, or two proliferation questions.
Did the Arrow come up, the issue of the Arrow, with India?
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: No.
Q And secondly, did the President discuss Iran?
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Iran? I'd have to check my
notes. It was not a major topic.
MR. McCORMACK: One more question.
Q If I'm allowed, I just follow up on the Iraqi. Prime
Minister Koizumi made it clear yesterday Japanese government is going
to extend one more year deployment for self-defense troops in Iraq and
Samaraa area. But the Dutch government didn't -- they might withdraw
the troops from Samaraa region. Today it's in the security arrangement
after the Dutch troops redeployment from the Samaraa area. Did they
talk about any --
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: No, that didn't come up at all.
Thank you.
END 7:04 P.M. EDT
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