U.S. Relations With the People's Republic of China (2009)

U.S. Department of State

Secretary Clinton's Interview With Ekho Moskvy Radio

Hillary Rodham Clinton
Secretary of State
Moscow, Russia

October 14, 2009

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QUESTION: (In Russian.)

SECRETARY CLINTON: Look, I believe in a world in which our interdependence and our interconnectedness is recognized. And we're not living in a bipolar world; we're not even living in a multi-polar world. We're living in a world of interdependence and we need multiple partners. I like to think of it as a multi-partner networked world.

So it is far better to have two great countries like China and Russia cooperating commercially, looking for ways to support the economic growth and prosperity of their respective peoples. I think that's to the good not only of China and Russia, but to the world as a whole. The United States is not threatened or worried by relationships between other countries. We just want to be sure that there's a sense of equity and parity in this partnership world that we're developing, because we have so many difficult challenges.

And it is imperative for countries like Russia, the United States, and China to lead against the forces of disintegration and destruction so that we can stand united against those who would undermine the opportunities that we are seeking to promote.

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QUESTION: (In Russian.)

SECRETARY CLINTON: Yes, I do, and we have evidence of that. During the United Nations General Assembly, I attended a meeting with Minister Lavrov, Minister Yang from China, as long -- as well as our other counterparts. We agreed to a very strong statement that basically told Iran that the international community expects Iran to fulfill its obligations and responsibilities. And in it, we said we want to pursue engagement and diplomacy, but it might not work. It is our preference, but as President Medvedev said, sometimes sanctions and pressure are inevitable. So we are pursuing that.

And then at the October 1st meeting in Geneva, among the P-5+1, very important steps were agreed to. Number one, Iran agreed to open its covert facility to inspection. Number two, they agreed in principle to ship out their low-enriched uranium, actually to Russia, to be reprocessed. Number three, that there would be another meeting shortly after to continue this important dialogue. So I think that we've come a long way in the last six months.

Now how we get to where we're going, which is the goal of preventing Iran from being a nuclear weapons power -- they are entitled to peaceful nuclear energy, but they are not entitled to nuclear weapons. And so we have to continue to work closely together, and we are. And President Medvedev reaffirmed that yesterday.

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