U.S. and Hong Kong (2001)

Rumsfeld Media Availability En Route to Ukraine June 4

Following is a transcript of the media availability:

(begin transcript)

U.S. Department of Defense

Washington, D.C.

SECRETARY OF DEFENSE DONALD H. RUMSFELD MEDIA AVAILABILITY EN ROUTE TO KIEV, UKRAINE, MONDAY, JUNE 4, 2001

Also participating is Lisa Bronson, deputy assistant secretary of Defense for NATO and European Policy.

[ ...Intervening Text... ]

Q: Can I ask you one question on China? Just one question on China? You said you didn't intend to order a blanket end to all U.S. military contact with China.

RUMSFELD: Not only didn't intend to, but I didn't.

Q: That you would take it on a case-by-case basis?

RUMSFELD: I have, and am and will.

Q: And has the result been that you virtually cut off all military contact on a case-by-case basis?

RUMSFELD: No. No, I've approved a number of things.

Q: But do you plan, do you hope of see that those will slowly restored [sic] after the plane comes back, or do you --

RUMSFELD: I saw the article that you are referring to. What it lacked was a timeline, a time dimension to it. And if you think about it, there was a period when a plane, our plane, was run into and the crew landed in an emergency on the island and they were detained. And they were not allowed to call anybody for a long period of time, days and days. We did not know how long they would be detained. It clearly was not business as usual, and there is no question that we took steps to avoid other Americans arriving in that country and finding they were not welcome -- or that they might be detained or treated in a way that was unusual, or abnormal or inconsistent with the prior behavior pattern.

As a result, I indicated that I did not want ships or planes or American military forces in the country during that period. Since that time the crew has been released. We're now working on the aircraft and it has been a difficult negotiation over a sustained period of time and now seems to be going rather well.

So if you look at the sequencing, in an earlier period, you bet there were not a lot of okays or "fine, just charge in there," or business as usual. Let's have a port call or let's fly airplanes in, or let's have a Codel (Congressional delegation) go in.

In the subsequent period, you have to make the decision well in advance of the current period. Plans have to be made, ports have to be rearranged for port calls. So you make the decision weeks in advance. And you say yes, no, or maybe, depending upon what it was, and what the purpose was, and in many case whether it was bilateral or multilateral -- whether there were other countries involved, to what extent it would be difficult or inconvenient for a lot of people.

Q: Would you more likely be inclined to approve those types of things if they were to come up today, given the current state of relations, than you were a few weeks ago?

RUMSFELD: I have been approving things as we've gone along. Now, some of those things are down the road. I will say we had the USS Inchon make a request for a port call in Hong Kong and it was declined. So suggesting I declined that would not be correct -- it was the Chinese that declined that.

And the important thing to look at is the time sequencing. It's the time sequencing.

Q: Thank you sir.

RUMSFELD: Thank you.

(end transcript)