U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE

Office of the Spokesman

Press Briefing by
Secretary of State Colin L. Powell
On Board Aircraft
En Route To Tokyo, Japan
July 23, 2001

SECRETARY POWELL: Thank you for joining us on this long trip. Five countries in just a few days' time, with not a lot of lingering in anywhere except in Hanoi for the major conferences that I will be attending. I have been looking forward to this trip-my first trip to Asia. A chance to visit, not only the important countries in the region, countries that we have alliances with as well as countries that are major players in the region, but also a chance at the various conferences to meet with many other countries in the region.

One thing that strikes me is that one of the major themes that I think will come across from this trip is the importance of economic development, restructuring, transformation. Whether you are in Japan, the issue is economic restructuring as Prime Minister Koizumi has said; or if you are in China, it's the continuation of economic restructuring. And it is also interesting that in the meetings in Hanoi you see not just Americans with all of the Asian nations, but the Russians are coming and also the EU will be there, just to show you the inter-related nature of all of these issues.

In addition, of course, to what I think will be a major theme of international economic transformation and cooperation as nations start to prepare themselves for accession to the WTO such as China. I am very, very anxious to see bilateral trade agreements passed such as in Vietnam. I think I will also get a chance to make the point that America is a Pacific nation. Not only do we have territory in the Pacific, but we have interests in the Pacific, and we will remain engaged in the Pacific. We value the security relationships that we have with countries in the region. I am looking forward to the trip, and I think it will be a very, very interesting one for all of us. I would like to open it up for any questions that you might have.

QUESTION: What do you think is the status of our trade relations with Vietnam?

SECRETARY POWELL: The BTA will be passed in due course. I know that they are anxious to see it passed, and Ambassador Peterson, before he left was really giving it his all. It is now up before the Congress, and I expect it to be passed, and that should put our trading relations on a more normal basis. It will put quite a burden on the Vietnamese to bring their laws and procedures and regulations and other internal procedures into line with the requirements of a new trading arrangement with us. So I am looking forward to getting it passed as soon as we can, and at the same time I also understand that quite a bit of work lies ahead for the Vietnamese to adjust their policies and laws and regulations in order to take advantage of the BTA.

QUESTION: What position did Japan take on the Kyoto Protocol in the last hours in Bonn?

SECRETARY POWELL: When I left Washington we were still going through the last hours of Bonn. I talked to Under Secretary Dobriansky, and I really don't have a report from the last several hours. I do not want to speculate. But as you know when I left, and as I spoke with Paula, they were trying to get a consensus document and get agreements to move forward, but Japan, Canada, and Australia had reservations in the final document that was being looked at and, of course, we had reservations, so I do not know how that finally worked out or if they are finished yet.

QUESTION: It looks as though they stay more on the United States side than on the European side.

SECRETARY POWELL: I think the Japanese position as expressed both in Bonn and in Genoa and was that they would like to see us moving forward on global climate change in a way that would include the United States. But at the moment the Kyoto protocol, in its current form, we cannot support. So the Japanese seem to be studying a way to move forward that would include the United States. But I don't really want to speak to the Japanese position yet because it is not my place to do so. We will wait and see what they finally decide to do both in Bonn and in Tokyo. But I think the Prime Minister has been clear that he believes it is better to move forward with the United States than without the United States.

QUESTION: On the economic transformation front-what is the message going to be in Japan-what would you like for them to do? And what would you like for them to begin to do more of in the regional context?

SECRETARY POWELL: I think that the Prime Minister has come in with an aggressive agenda for reform and restructuring. I will, as President Bush did at Camp David, support that agenda, and encourage aggressive action to the accomplishment of the items on the agenda. which includes such things as dealing with the problems of non-performing loans in many of the banks and number of the other structural problems in the Japanese economy. I hope to follow up President Bush's strong endorsement of the Prime Minister's economic restructuring efforts with my own additional endorsement and once again reinforce President Bush's commitment to supporting the Prime Minister and the new government.

QUESTION: You are going to be arriving just a few days after a Japanese court indicted this young staff sergeant in Okinawa. There is a lot of concern and questions about the status of (inaudible) with the US. Is there anything that you can say to the Prime Minister, to the Japanese people that will belay their concerns and the stresses and strains of having so many troops based in Okinawa?

SECRETARY POWELL: First, I will start by noting that our mutual security arrangements have benefited the region-benefited both nations. Our security arrangement is really a bulwark of our relationship with Japan. I appreciate the hospitality and the host nation support that they have given to our forces for many years. From time to time incidents will arise and we believe that with the SOFA agreement that's in place--and with other agreements that have been added to it, such as the 1995 agreement, we have sound basis to deal with these incidents. Obviously we can always look at operational issues as to how we can better execute the SOFA responsibility that we both have and the 1995 agreement.

In this present incident, within four days time, the SOFA and the 1995 agreement were dealt with and accommodated and we turned the airman over in a pre-indictment phase. We did it in a way that guaranteed his rights with all of the assurances we thought we needed to show to his commanders and to his family, and to the American people that he would be taken care of in Japanese custody. So it worked, the SOFA and the 1995 agreement worked adequately. But there are some operational issues that we have to deal with as the Prime Minister said, but so far I haven't seen anything to suggest that we need to reopen the SOFA agreement.

QUESTION: What operational issues?

SECRETARY POWELL: Issues such as the nature of assurances that we like when we turn someone over. That took up a lot of the four days of debate. Access to lawyers, access to interpreters, things of that nature.

QUESTION: Mr. Secretary, with use of Agent Orange wide spread doing your second tour of duty in Vietnam-thirty years later do you feel that the United States has some responsibility to the Vietnamese due to the continued suffering as a result of the use of Agent Orange?

SECRETARY POWELL: Agent Orange was being used during my second tour, and other herbicides were used during my first tour. I do not know what they were. In fact I participated in some of those activities along the Laotian border.

I'm sure that it will be an item for discussion; it always is with the Vietnamese. We have been open to joint scientific inquiry as to what the consequences of the use of Agent Orange might be on human beings, and livestock and the like, and environmental and ecological damage. We haven't gotten as far as we would like to on those scientific inquiries, but until we have a scientific basis for determining what might be the result of the use of those agents, then there is not a basis to consider anything else. That's our position on it.

QUESTION: Mr. Secretary, for some time the United States said the Missing in Action soldiers were the number one priority in relation to Vietnam. Do you think with the progress and the trade issues that that will no longer be the top issue? Can you characterize that?

SECRETARY POWELL: It will always be a top priority, whether it is number one or number two; it will always be at the top of the list somewhere. We have an obligation to the families, an obligation to those men, to get the fullest possible accounting of what happened to them. And if they can be located and their remains recovered, then we should do everything that we can to recover them. So there will be no backing off on that.

The Vietnamese have been very cooperative and we have been able to certify to the Congress that for some time now the Vietnamese have been cooperating rather fully. It is a dangerous business. As you know we lost nine Americans and a number of Vietnamese in a helicopter crash earlier this year. Both the incoming and the outgoing commanders were lost. A new team is in place, and I look forward to meeting with them to thank them for the difficult and dangerous work that they do.

QUESTION: Are you at all concerned at this point by what appears to be foot-dragging on the part of the North Koreans in responding to the US proposal? Since we're on our way to Tokyo, can you describe what the Japanese role is, in your mind, in terms of eventual negotiations with the North Koreans?

SECRETARY POWELL: I don't want to characterize it negatively as foot- dragging. They have always been, shall we say, they take their time in responding, and they respond carefully. But we are meeting with them in New York, we do have a dialogue between them and the Bush Administration, and that dialogue will produce results in due course, and it will have to be at the pace they decide.

I'm ready to engage, I am ready to talk about all of the issues that we have discussed in the past, new issues we have suggested are a basis for discussion, and nothing is linked to the extent that if you talk about this, you must talk about that. Let's get the conversation going. There will be a North Korean delegation, I expect, at the meetings, although the foreign minister is not going to be there.

QUESTION: Thank you. Just curious whether you're going to be able to make any time for any sightseeing in Hanoi at all. Your schedule looks so crammed with meetings with other foreign ministers. Are you going to be able to go out and take a look at a pagoda or two, or walk the streets at all?

SECRETARY POWELL: I would like to, but it is a very, very tight schedule, and so we'll have to see if I can find a target of opportunity. I'd love to walk around. Those of you who've traveled with me before, you've noted, I don't get to do a lot of sightseeing and touring. I've had to do so many things in the first six months that I haven't built much leisure time into any of my trips, and I'm afraid that's the case this time, too. But perhaps I'll find a moment or two to at least walk around the streets and see some people, maybe get a chance to talk to some people on the street. I would love to do that.

QUESTION: I know it's a work in progress, but is there anything you can say about Indonesia, the situation at the moment?

SECRETARY POWELL: Not really, we're getting a variety of reports as we fly across, and I think it's best I just not comment at this moment other than that I put out a statement earlier this evening. We'll get a copy for you. It is in such a state of flux right now that I think it's best that I not try to catch this moving train at the moment.

QUESTION: Do you expect the case of Gao Zhan to be settled before you get to Beijing, and does that in any way temper your concerns about human rights in China?

SECRETARY POWELL: I don't know if the case will be settled or not, I hope so. If the trial is held promptly, then it could well be settled before I get there. I hope so. (Inaudible) in some way, at least that case, but there are other human rights concerns with respect to religious organizations.

There are other people who have been detained, and other people could be detained tomorrow, so I think we always have to make the point to Chinese colleagues that human rights is always something the United States will discuss. It's part of our agenda with China, and just removing one or two cases that might be high profile cases for the moment isn't enough.

We're looking for more basic change in their human rights attitudes and positions. We think it would be better for their society. It would be better for their standing in the international community, as part of becoming a full-fledged member of the international community. The international community is just not an economic community, it's a community of human rights, it's a community of individual rights of men and women, it's a community of increasing democratization if you want to be a full-fledged member.

QUESTION: About Okinawa, there was another arrest two days ago in Okinawa and one more in Aomori prefecture -- arrests of US soldiers. There was a strong concern on the Japanese side about the activities of the US military. Especially, the Japanese opposition party said in a news conference that the US Marines should be evacuated from Okinawa, now the Secretary General of Japan's democratic party, and what's your view of that?

SECRETARY POWELL: I regret there has been another incident or two. There will be incidents. There have been in the past; there will be in the future. We do everything we can to instruct our youngsters as to how to behave as guests in Japan, especially in Okinawa, but there will be these occasional incidents. In this case, I think the individual was arrested by the Japanese police so there isn't an issue having to do with the SOFA.

The United States forces in Okinawa are playing an important and valuable role. It's part of mutual security arrangements and although we are doing everything possible to minimize our impact as a military presence in Okinawa on the Okinawan people, I don't think it is possible for us to remove our presence from Okinawa, and I don't think that's the position of the Japanese government.

QUESTION: I was wondering if you'd talk a bit about proliferation concerns on China, because I understand that there may be some things that have come up since last November when we supposedly settled the proliferation issue. I was wondering if you could tell us a bit about what has come up since November? What (inaudible) China is complying and what we're going to be looking for.

SECRETARY POWELL: I'm sure it will be discussed, and I'll have many opportunities to discuss it in China. Since November, we have been following closely and discussing the issue with them and the results are mixed. We'll discuss where we think there has been a satisfactory response and where we think more action is required. Yes, proliferation will come up. It will be discussed.

QUESTION: When you say "results are mixed," maybe you could tell us a bit more about it?

SECRETARY POWELL: I'd rather not.

QUESTION: Does it involve Chinese companies? Are we talking about missile proliferation?, Are we still talking about Pakistan generally? Just some, you know --

SECRETARY POWELL: I prefer not to go into the details at this point, for a number of reasons. Is that it?

QUESTION: Any Middle East calls?

SECRETARY POWELL: Today? No. No, not since I made a number of calls on Friday, not directly to the leaders, but through various intermediaries and with my assistant secretaries and ambassadors. It's been a little quieter the last 24 hours. We'll just have to wait and see.

QUESTION: How are we going on monitors?

SECRETARY POWELL: I think the position that emerged from my meetings in Rome, which were picked up in an identical fashion in the G-8, speaks for itself. If both sides accept monitors in the context of the implementation of the Mitchell Committee report, then it's something that should be considered.

The actual mechanism, some people have referred to it as a military force, no, I don't think that's what anyone's talking about. I don't think anybody's talked about a large number of people, just a way of being a third party presence in the context of both sides accepting and agreeing to it, and in the context of the implementation of the Mitchell Committee report not the inserting them now against the will of either side, because monitors are not troops that are going in to put down a conflict. They are going in to assist the two parties in the implementation of an agreement. So you can't send them in until there is the implementation of an agreement and both sides have accepted the concept.

END