U.S. Relations With the People's Republic of China (2008)

U.S. Department of State

Interview With Lukman Ahmed of BBC Arabic Television

Secretary Condoleezza Rice
Washington, DC
October 20, 2008

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QUESTION: You have been a strong advocate for women empowerment and also opportunities in the people – especially in the Middle East and other areas. Now, with this financial crisis, how do you think this will impact the U.S. status in, you know, among those world in the future, especially in increasing economic power, countries such as China and Russia?

SECRETARY RICE: Well, you still have to look at the fact that the United States is, by far, the largest economic power in the world, more than 20 percent of the gross national product of the world, and that, frankly, isn't going to change because of the financial crisis. The financial crisis is a very serious one. And Secretary Paulson and the President and our Treasury people are working very hard to improve the possibility for the lifeblood of the financial system -- that is, the flow of credit -- to begin again. But while the U.S. economy has slowed, it is still an innovative economy, a creative economy, the economy in which still more than one in every 10 patents in the world are done in a very small area in California. This is a big and strong economy. And I doubt very seriously that it's going to be supplanted by any other economy in the world for a long, long time to come.

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QUESTION: Let's move to Iran. The Democratic candidate, Senator Barack Obama, mentioned his willingness to talk to Iran if it's going to produce any result. Why your position was the opposite? Was your policy toward Iran based on ideological stand or political strategy, and can you explain?

SECRETARY RICE: Well, let's remember that the policy toward Iran is a policy not just of the United States but also of the European 3 – Germany, Britain and France – and Russia and China, which is to say that there are two tracks. If Iran is willing to negotiate and to suspend its enrichment and reprocessing, and accept the very generous offer that the six have put on the table, including, by the way, an offer for civil nuclear power, then there's an open path to not just negotiation about the nuclear program but negotiation about anything that Iran wishes to talk about.

I hardly think that that's saying that we won't talk to Iran. We're perfectly ready to talk to Iran. But what we don't want to do is to give Iran cover to continue improving its nuclear programs that could lead to a nuclear weapon, which, by the way, no one in the international community wants to see Iran with a nuclear weapon. So my question has always been not why won't the United States talk to Tehran, why won't Tehran talk to the United States.

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