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

U.S. Department of State

Remarks on the NATO Foreign Ministers Meeting

Secretary Condoleezza Rice
Washington, DC
November 26, 2008

SECRETARY RICE: All right. I wanted to come down before the Thanksgiving holiday and before some significant meetings that I'll participate in next week, just to give you a little bit of an update on where we are on a couple of issues and then I'm happy to take your questions.

[ ...Intervening Text... ]

I want to say just a couple of other things that are not, of course, concerned with my trip to Europe. But next week we will also have in Beijing a meeting of the Six-Parties heads of delegation. Chris Hill will lead our delegation. And the focus on that meeting will be for the Six-Parties to sign on to the Verification Protocol that has been initialed by the United States and North Korea on behalf of the parties. And again, how does this work? The United States has been the chair of the subgroup on verification of the denuclearization working group, which the Chinese chair. And we have a document; we also have a number of assurances and a number of understandings that now will need to be codified by the Six Parties.

[ ...Intervening Text... ]

QUESTION: And on the North Korea issue, do you expect to have a signed, sealed, delivered verification protocol by the end of that Six-Party meeting that will be agreed upon?

SECRETARY RICE: Well, that is the purpose of the meeting. There is no other purpose for the meeting. And so we have had some discussions with all the parties. I had extensive discussions with my Chinese counterpart, as the President did with President Hu, as well as with the South Koreans, the Japanese, and with the Russians. And so this needs to get done. I might just note that the disabling has resumed and it needs to continue to conclusion. But this verification protocol is now the key.

As to other initiatives, look, we continue to work on making certain that the pillars of Annapolis, including what is going on on the ground, are solid and strong and moving forward. Interesting piece in the newspapers this morning about Hebron and the movement of Palestinian forces into Hebron, which I think is something most people didn't think they would ever see. And we will continue to work on those kinds of issues.

I also am now very actively engaged on the issue -- the piracy issue. I had extensive discussions with the Russians, the Chinese, the Panamanians, the -- lots of people about the problem that is there with piracy. We will see what more needs to be done through the UN. It's kind of ironic. Thomas Jefferson came in worried about pirates. It looks like I'm going to leave worried about pirates. But it is seriously an important issue to maintain freedom of navigation of the seas. And some of it, of course, comes -- well, most of it comes from the instability in Somalia. So that is also an issue that we're spending a lot of time on, and how to get a support -- peacekeeping support for the forces that are on the ground in Somalia, and those are the Ethiopian, Ugandan, and Burundian forces.

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QUESTION: (Inaudible) come to Beijing (inaudible)?

SECRETARY RICE: We have -- the Chinese have issued an invitation. The United States has accepted.

2008/992

Released on November 26, 2008