Press Releases: Annual Meeting of the U.S. National Commission For UNESCO

Media Note
Office of the Spokesman
Washington, DC
April 29, 2008

Annual Meeting of the U.S. National Commission For UNESCO

The U.S. National Commission for UNESCO will host its Annual Meeting on Monday, May 19 and Tuesday, May 20 at the Marriott Georgetown University Conference Hotel in Washington, DC (3800 Reservoir Road, NW).

The U.S. National Commission for UNESCO is chartered under the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA) and provides advice to the Department of State on matters involving the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The Commission will have a series of informational plenary sessions and subject-specific committee and thematic breakout sessions on Monday, May 19 and the morning of Tuesday, May 20. The Commission will meet in plenary session to discuss its final recommendations on Tuesday, May 20, 2007, from 1:00 p.m. until 2:30 p.m.

The meetings will be open to the public, and those who wish to attend should contact the U.S. National Commission for UNESCO (202-663-0026; DCUNESCO@state.gov) no later than Thursday, May 15 for further information about admission, as seating is limited.

2008/336

Released on April 29, 2008

  

Near East: Remarks With U.S. Business Leaders and the U.S.-Palestinian Partnership After Their Meeting

Remarks With U.S. Business Leaders and the U.S.-Palestinian Partnership After Their Meeting

Secretary Condoleezza Rice
Treaty Room
Washington, DC
April 29, 2008

View Video

(9:45 a.m. EDT)

SECRETARY RICE: Good morning. I would like to welcome the co-chairs of the U.S.-Palestinian Partnership: Walter Isaacson, Ziad Asali. I’d like to welcome Jean Case. There are two of the co-chairs who are not able to join us, but I would like to acknowledge the work of Sandy Weill and Lester Crown as well.

And I would like very much to welcome several members of the business community who have met with us to talk about the U.S.-Palestinian Partnership and the important work that this partnership can do to help sustain the momentum toward peace in the Middle East.

As you know, the Annapolis process envisioned several tracks. There is, of course, an important -- all-important track to create the Palestinian state to live side-by-side in peace with Israel. Those political negotiations are underway. There is a track to work on the ground to improve the daily lives of the Palestinians in terms of movement and access and in terms of Roadmap obligations. But there is also a very strong commitment to do something about the economic prospects for the Palestinian people, a people who are very well educated, many of them, very ambitious, many of them, but where economic opportunity has very often been lacking.

That effort with former Prime Minister Tony Blair and our contribution to the international effort, the U.S.-Palestinian Partnership, is well underway. And it was my great pleasure today to meet with these representatives of business and those who have been involved in the partnership. I should mention George Salem is standing there. And I want to just acknowledge, too, the work that Rob Mosbacher and OPIC have done.

Henrietta Fore and I launched this partnership, of course, with President Bush, and I think we have been really quite taken at how much work has been done and how much progress has been made. I’m going to turn now to Walter, who is going to describe the various aspects of the partnership. But we here at the State Department believe very strongly that while government can do a lot, government cannot do it all. And in matters of peace, in matters of economic development, it is absolutely crucial to have the leadership and the partnership of the private sector. This is one of our most important public-private opportunities, and I am just delighted to be with these great leaders.

Walter.

MR. ISAACSON: You may want to mention Bethlehem.

SECRETARY RICE: I thought you would do that. All right? Thank you. (Laughter.)

MR. ISAACSON: Okay, all right. We’re trying to get people to go to Bethlehem. We want you to be there.

Well, I think Benjamin Franklin, my old friend, would be proud because, as one of your predecessors, he realized that you had to have a political component, which you and Tony Blair have been doing so well in terms of pushing the politics, and especially you in the State Department in terms of the peace agreement. But in order to have a political settlement, you also have to have stability, you have to have economic opportunity, you have to have educational opportunity. And that’s what his mantra was in the founding of this country, and that’s what -- we hope we’re just providing some of that counterpoint, which is to have the economic and educational opportunity.

We had a great meeting just a few minutes ago with a lot of business leaders, some of them here. We heard from the people from Coca-Cola about -- I think it was 60 percent growth rates they’ve been having in the Palestinian territories. We heard from the people from Intel and Marriott and others about the opportunities. And so we hope we can see the private sector be a sustained engine for growth and for the economic and educational opportunities.

The partnership has been working on this since December when you, Administrator Fore and then President Bush announced the partnership. We’ve had a few key initiatives that we’re pushing on, and we’ll have people here who will be willing to talk about that afterwards.

We’re making lots of advances on the business development component. For example, we’ve been talking about a call center that would work in the east part of Jerusalem, where there’s large unemployment, but a great educated population that could provide call center services for businesses around the world to reach the Arabic-speaking market. We have many corporations interested in being part of that.

We also had a good exchange this morning on trying to set up some concept for a venture fund, where people can invest in the West Bank. This would complement something that’s already been launched, which is the Middle East Investment Initiative, which supplies small business loans for, I think, 50,000 to almost up to $500,000 now for businesses operating in the West Bank. That was set up by Rob Mosbacher at OPIC, as well as by Jim Pickup, Berl Bernhard and others with The Aspen Institute, to create this public-private partnership for an investment fund.

There are eleven projects already in the pipe – more in the pipeline. And so far we’ve -- I think $1.6 million of loans have already gone out the door. So we’re not just talking about things. These are things that are already in the works.

As the Secretary has said, we’re also actively supporting the Palestinian Investment Conference. George Salem, Ziad and others have been involved in that. Dr. Fayyad, the Prime Minister there, has called this business conference. We have a lot of sponsors. I think this morning at our meeting we got a few more sponsors involved. And I think the Secretary has asked us to go there and represent the U.S. Government and even, I hope, to be a co-chair of that delegation, which I was asked to do by the State Department. And I think Henrietta will definitely be with us. We always travel together. And so, we will be represented, as will Tony Blair, Bernard Kouchner and others from the international community, to support this conference.

And by the way, anybody in the American business community who wants to help support this conference, we’re quite open to have more people come along. We’ve been working with Jean Case, in particular. She’s been doing a spectacular job to do youth centers on the West Bank. The youth centers are things that USAID, under Henrietta and – I see George Laudato somewhere here and many other people. There’s George, hiding behind Ziad. (Laughter.)

These are – we’re going to start with five major hub centers in the West Bank, hopefully, have 50 soon. This is another public-private partnership because Henrietta’s agency is funding the building of these centers, but corporations and NGOs, from the Boys & Girls Club to Intel to Cisco and others, are thinking of ways they can be involved in teaching in these youth centers, providing the technology for these youth centers, providing the programs in these youth centers.

In sum, we’re trying to do the three components that the Secretary tasked us to do at the very beginning: youth leadership, business development and support for this business conference. They’re all intended to support the political work that Secretary Rice and others are doing for the peace process. As she said, it’s only by a negotiated solution and a two-state solution that we’re going to have the conflict end, but the only way we’re going to get to that solution, is to also have stable societies where there are opportunities for economic growth. So I appreciate the opportunity, as we all do, to work with you on this. Thanks.

SECRETARY RICE: Thank you very much. Thank you.

2008/335

Released on April 29, 2008

  

Africa: Daily Press Briefing -- April 28

Daily Press Briefing
Sean McCormack, Spokesman
Washington, DC
April 28, 2008

INDEX:
RUSSIA/IRAN/AZERBAIJAN
Press Accounts of Possible Shipment of Russian Nuclear Equipment to Iran
AFGHANISTAN
Attempted Assassination of President Karzai / U.S. Condemnation Terrorists Only Have to Be Right Once, Those Opposing Them Have to Be Right Always Process of Reconstruction in Afghanistan is Going to Take Time
DEPARTMENT
U.S. Efforts to Counter Rising Food Prices / Food Aid / UN Meeting
ZIMBABWE
U.S. Continues to Call for the Release of Election Results Delays Cause Questions About the Security of Ballots in the Ballot Box Efforts of Assistant Secretary Frazer / Zimbabwe's Neighbors Need to Speak Out in Public Zimbabwe's Ongoing Downward Spiral
ISRAEL/PALESTINIANS
Former President Carter's Editorial / Meeting Hamas Will Not Further the Cause of Peace Significant Difference Between Meeting with a Former President and a Current One Visit of Israeli Deputy Prime Minister / U.S.-Israel Strategic Dialogue / Meeting Secretary
CZECH REPUBLIC
Upcoming Signing Ceremony for Missile Defense Agreement / Scheduling Difficulties

TRANSCRIPT:

View Video

12:44 p.m. EDT

MR. MCCORMACK: Good afternoon, everybody. I don’t have anything to start off with, so we can get right to your questions.

Matt.

QUESTION: Do you know anything about this shipment of Russian nuclear equipment that was destined for Iran. It’s been held up by Azerbaijan for the last three weeks?

MR. MCCORMACK: At this point, not – at least to my knowledge, not a whole lot more than we’ve seen in the press accounts. I don’t know if there’s anything else going on behind the scenes. But in our view, this is something that the Azerbaijan and Russian governments need to work out consistent with everybody’s UN Security Council resolution obligations, enforcing those obligations in terms of the transshipment of materials potentially for illicit purposes. I’m not suggesting that at this point. So, those two countries need to work this out.

QUESTION: Yeah, but do you guys have any reason to suspect that there’s some --

MR. MCCORMACK: Not to my knowledge.

QUESTION: -- there’s some (inaudible) to this?

MR. MCCORMACK: Not to my knowledge unless there’s something that is – information about which I cannot talk about in public, but I have no knowledge of that.

QUESTION: You have no knowledge of something you can’t talk about?

MR. MCCORMACK: No knowledge that there is anything else. I have no knowledge that there is anything else at this point, Matt. I just don’t know.

QUESTION: I’m sorry. You’ve confused me.

MR. MCCORMACK: I have nothing else to offer on this topic. How’s that?

QUESTION: I understand, but are you saying that you don’t know about anything that, if you did know, you wouldn’t be able to tell us about? What --

MR. MCCORMACK: Well --

QUESTION: I’m not sure I understand it.

MR. MCCORMACK: Well, it’s actually -- at this point, I don’t know anything that I wouldn’t be able to tell you about. (Laughter.)

QUESTION: Okay.

QUESTION: Nor do you (inaudible).

QUESTION: I hope everyone else understands that, because I don’t.

QUESTION: It’s an unknown --

MR. MCCORMACK: What’s that?

QUESTION: This is an unknown unknown.

MR. MCCORMACK: To my knowledge, it is an unknown unknown, yes.

Yes, ma’am.

QUESTION: Yes, Nazira Karimi, correspondent for Ariana Television from Afghanistan. As you know, to that last incident in Afghanistan, unfortunately, there is so many people get injured. And what is your opinion about that, although there is heavy international forces presence in Afghanistan, but it clearly shows that there is no tight security in Afghanistan. And also, the Taliban took the responsibility and Hekmatyar included.

MR. MCCORMACK: Right. Well, I don’t know. I’ll leave it to others and security experts to read something more into this or not. All I know is that there are determined foes that are attempting to turn back the clock in Afghanistan that don’t like the progress that has been made in the past several years under the government of President Karzai and the Afghan parliament. And, you know, all I can say is, at least one lesson in dealing with terrorists and violent extremists, is that they only have to be right once. People who are protecting democracies have to be right all of the time. So, in terms of the attack, we obviously condemn this attack and our condolences go out to those who lost loved ones in this attack and we wish a speedy recovery to all of those who were injured in the attack.

QUESTION: Were all U.S. diplomats safe? Were any of them in this incident?

MR. MCCORMACK: Well, Ambassador Wood was – I can’t tell you exactly where he was in the grandstand, but he was there on site and he’s safe. He was safe. He left the site uninjured.

All right. Charlie, come on, man.

QUESTION: (Inaudible).

MR. MCCORMACK: Kralev.

QUESTION: Sean, the Secretary General is – has convened a meeting today in Switzerland on the issue of the food crisis and the food prices rising.

MR. MCCORMACK: Mm-hmm.

QUESTION: Do you – what’s your participation in that meeting and is the United States planning to do anything in terms of aid, increasing aid? Because the UN is estimating that about a hundred million people now will not be able to afford basic food supplies.

MR. MCCORMACK: That’s a deep concern for us and we already have taken some steps in terms of releasing hundreds of millions of dollars or equivalent in food aid, and we’re very much concerned about those around the globe who are the most vulnerable, especially in circumstances like this. We’re taking a look at what other steps the United States might do in leading the way to address this situation where the rising prices might cause severe and drastic shortages for those who can least afford it.

Was there a second part to the --

QUESTION: What’s the participation (inaudible) meeting --

MR. MCCORMACK: Oh, let me check for you. Let me check for you. Yeah. Don’t know.

Kirit.

QUESTION: Do you have anything to say about Zimbabwe? I think the results are -- we’re expecting those tomorrow, at this point.

MR. MCCORMACK: Well, we have been for some time looking for the results. We -- you know, we have deep concerns about whether or not results that are released this far after the election are results that the Zimbabwean people can have confidence in. We shall see. There has been -- in the results released to this point for the parliamentary elections, there have been -- there has been a clear trend in a vote for change, and we shall see what the final election results yield.

QUESTION: So are you saying, essentially, that these could have been tainted in the period sine the election?

MR. MCCORMACK: Sure, absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. Any time you have this kind of -- these kinds of delays, questions arise as to the chain of security for the ballots and the ballot boxes.

QUESTION: Is Jendayi Frazer getting a firmer regional position regarding --

MR. MCCORMACK: I think she’s on her -- she’s either back here today or on her way back today. I mean, thus far, you have not seen the countries in the region being dramatically more outspoken in this regard, and this is really a case where the -- Zimbabwe’s neighbors really do need to speak up more clearly in public.

QUESTION: But that’s what she was trying to do? That was one of the --

MR. MCCORMACK: That’s part of what she -- trying to assess the situation --

QUESTION: With little or no success, then?

MR. MCCORMACK: Well, look, you know, it’s been -- Zimbabwe has been on a downward spiral for quite some time under the rule of President Mugabe. This isn’t new. The economy has been wrecked; the political environment there has really been poisoned by the way President Mugabe has ruled there. And you haven’t heard much from the region, so that’s not something new. Now is the time, really, for them to step up, though.

Yes, ma’am.

QUESTION: Again, what do you think of NATO increasing the forces in Afghanistan? It’s going to be useful to, like, stop this crisis situation in Afghanistan?

MR. MCCORMACK: Well, I think the process of reconstruction and construction in Afghanistan is going to take quite some time. It will take some time to root out those who are irreconcilable to any democratic political process. And in terms of the numbers of troops that are there, I leave that to the military commanders to describe what they think is sufficient in order to meet the mission goals.

Yeah, Elise.

QUESTION: It’s on your favorite topic, Jimmy Carter and Hamas.

MR. MCCORMACK: Right.

QUESTION: He has an op-ed in the New York Times today, kind of reconfirming (a) that Secretary Rice never asked him not to go, never warned him anything about the trip except the dangers of Gaza. He also talked about how trying to encourage Hamas could bring in -- you know, could actually lead to peace, and he ticked off about five or six agreements that he secured from Hamas; for instance, Hamas will accept an agreement negotiated by Israel and the Palestinians if a referendum accepted it, that it’ll disband its militia, that it’ll allow international control of the Rafah crossing, which is what the U.S. has been arguing for, and that it will have a ceasefire in Gaza. I was just wondering --

MR. MCCORMACK: Yes.

QUESTION: -- what you think of the fact that he is continuing to make this argument that bringing in Hamas, as he says is evident by these things that he’s secured from Hamas, could actually help?

MR. MCCORMACK: We disagree with that point of view. We said prior to his meetings with Hamas that we didn’t think that those meetings would further the cause of peace and we still believe that’s the case.

QUESTION: Well, can I follow up?

MR. MCCORMACK: Sure.

QUESTION: You know, a lot of times he comes out and says Hamas says something and then Hamas has kind of disagreed with his characterization. Do you think that, in some way, President Carter has kind of weakened the power of a former president by these type of meetings?

MR. MCCORMACK: I’m not going to comment on that. He’s a private citizen, who is going to make his own decisions about with whom he meets and what causes he chooses to talk about in public.

QUESTION: Well, he is -- yes, he’s a former citizen. He’s a -- well, he’s actually a current citizen so far. But he’s a former president. I mean --

MR. MCCORMACK: Right.

QUESTION: -- isn’t there a difference from a private citizen than a former president? Doesn’t that almost kind of have an air of U.S. legitimacy, of meeting with someone and if it doesn’t work out --

MR. MCCORMACK: No, no, no. No, not at all, because people around the world and the United States understand quite clearly that he is a former president. There is a current Administration policy. And in this case, the views of President Carter and this Administration on this particular question are dramatically different.

QUESTION: Just one more on Israel. (Inaudible)? Do you have anything on the recent Israeli raid in Gaza that killed a woman and a --

MR. MCCORMACK: I’m still gathering some facts about that.

QUESTION: I was going to ask about this, but is this in any way complicate the Secretary’s mission this weekend when she goes to the region?

MR. MCCORMACK: No. I don’t think anybody confuses what she’s doing with President Carter’s mission

QUESTION: Well, no, no, no. I mean, the – you know, the recent events with the violence.

MR. MCCORMACK: I --

QUESTION: Apparently, what happened today was a response to –

MR. MCCORMACK: Right.

QUESTION: -- several raids coming from Gaza into Israel over the last couple days.

MR. MCCORMACK: Like I said, let me look into the facts here.

QUESTION: Okay.

MR. MCCORMACK: Samir.

QUESTION: Can you give us a readout of the visit of the Israeli Deputy Prime Minister today?

MR. MCCORMACK: Well, he’s here for the U.S.-Israel Strategic Dialogue. It happens every six months. We have these meetings, alternate – we alternate home and away games here. This is a home game for us. And he’s going to be meeting with the Secretary, I think, about 1:30 this afternoon just to talk about the state of play in U.S.-Israeli bilateral relations and then also to talk about issues of general interest in the region, Israeli-Palestinian track, as well as other security related issues in the region.

QUESTION: What about the Syrian track? Is he going to promote the Syrian track?

MR. MCCORMACK: I don’t know. You can talk to him.

Yeah, Lachlan.

QUESTION: The Czechs. Are the Czechs concerned – do they still have concerns about the Russian presence at their sites? Is that delaying a deal, for example?

MR. MCCORMACK: No. There’s a scheduling conflict. The Secretary --

QUESTION: So other concerns have been met, regarding the site --

MR. MCCORMACK: As far as I –

QUESTION: -- regarding the Russian presence there?

MR. MCCORMACK: As far as I know. I don’t know of any substantive differences here. This is really a matter of just working out the Secretary’s schedule and schedule for Czech officials to have a signing ceremony.

QUESTION: Thank you.

QUESTION: Thank you.

MR. MCCORMACK: Great.

(The briefing was concluded at 12:54 p.m.)

DPB#75

Released on April 28, 2008

  

Press Releases: Inaugural Session of the U.S.-Russia Economic Dialogue

Media Note
Office of the Spokesman
Washington, DC
April 28, 2008

Inaugural Session of the U.S.-Russia Economic Dialogue

Following is the text of a joint statement by the United States and Russia upon the conclusion of the Inaugural Session of the U.S.-Russia Economic Dialogue.

Begin text:

Today, officials from the Governments of the United States and Russia met for the inaugural session of the U.S.-Russia Economic Dialogue at the U.S. Department of State in Washington, DC. The launch of this dialogue fulfills a commitment agreed to by President Bush and President Putin in the U.S.-Russia Strategic Framework Declaration announced at their April 6, 2008 meeting in Sochi.

The session was co-chaired by U.S. Under Secretary of State for Economic, Energy and Agricultural Affairs Reuben Jeffery III and by First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation Andrey Denisov.

The Economic Dialogue covered a wide range of issues, including the U.S. economy, U.S. and Russian trade and investment policies, and growth and efficiency in energy markets. Officials from the National Security Council, Council of Economic Advisors, Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, U.S. Department of Energy, U.S. Department of Commerce, U.S. Department of the Treasury, and U.S. Department of State took part. Russia was represented by officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Economic Development and Trade, and Ministry of Finance.

This and future sessions of the U.S.-Russia Economic Dialogue provide a regular forum for strengthening American-Russian economic and business interaction, helping to create conditions that will enhance trade and investment relations between the United States and Russia, and increase prosperity.

2008/329

Released on April 28, 2008