Press Briefing of Georgian President-Elect Mikheil Saakashvili and U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell

Tbilisi, Georgia
January 25, 2004
(2:10 p.m. local time, just before inauguration)

Source: U.S. Department of State

PRESIDENT-ELECT SAAKASHVILI: (In Georgian) I would like to extend my greetings to Mr. Powell and I consider this visit as a signal of a very important landmark concerning the attitude of the United States to Georgia. I believe that the relations between our two countries will become more dynamic and we appreciate greatly the United States’ support throughout all these years and the aid and support they have extended to our country the most crucial periods of our most recent history and Georgian people will always keep in their memory this aid and help and friendly hand extended to us.

And I believe that in our country, the time will come when Georgian people will also contribute to the development of the rest of the world and we will stand on our feet again and be worthy members of the world community. But for the time being, it is very crucial to this transition period.

I believe that we will launch good cooperation forth concerning combat against world terrorists and for establishing security and peace in the world. And I believe that our cooperation will prove very productive in this field. Our position is that Georgia cannot be somehow the scapegoat between the better, bigger states and that’s why we want to launch good relations with Russia, with all our neighbors.

SECRETARY POWELL: Thank you very much Mr. President. It is a great honor for me to be here today and to represent President Bush and the American people at your inauguration. This is an historic day for the Georgian people. And I am here to convey to you that the United States will continue to stand with you as we have during this past few months of difficult transition.

We will be with you as you form a new government, a government that, as you and I have discussed a few moments ago, will be committed to economic reform, political reform, protection of human rights and the elimination of corruption. I was pleased that we were able to provide you both political and financial support during the transition period that led to your election in January…earlier in January. And we will continue to provide assistance, and during this fiscal year we expect to provide $166 million worth of assistance from the United States government.

I also agree with you, Mr. President, that this is not an area where there should be competition between the United States and any of your neighbors.

This is an opportunity for all of us to come together, the international community that includes your neighbors, to help the Georgian people through this difficult period as you rebuild your democracy, you rebuild your economy, and you serve as an example to the rest of the region and the rest of the world as to what can be accomplished under democratic reform of government.

President Bush is looking forward to meeting with the new President as soon as possible and I have extended to the President, in the name of President Bush, and invitation for the President to visit the United States on the 25th of February.

And the President and all of us, and the American people, look forward to seeing you in the United States on the 25th, Mr. President. Thank you.

QUESTION: A question, if you please to Mr. Powell. It is only a few minutes that your meeting with the President of Georgia has finished. What are your impressions of the meeting, what are your impressions of the new President, and a few words about the meeting, actually? And another question about the security problems tormenting Georgia, because very soon there will be, you are leaving tomorrow to visit Moscow and meet President Putin, and whether you will discuss questions concerning Georgia’s security and Russian military bases, as well as territorial integrity of the country.

SECRETARY POWELL: I was very impressed by the President and the members of his new Cabinet that I met: the new Economics Minister, the new Minister of Interior and other officials were who there. I think they had a very realistic understanding of the challenges they face. I think they are absolutely committed to moving this nation ahead in a very aggressive way to fix the problems that has beset the nation in recent years: economic reform, social justice, human rights, ending of corruption. They’ve already begun to take action and so I am tremendously impressed by the grasp that the President and his Cabinet have on the problems facing Georgia and the aggressive manner in which they plan to attack those problems.

In my meetings tomorrow in Moscow, I expect that we will discuss our mutual interest in seeing a secure, stable, democratic Georgia. And I will once again reinforce to my Russian colleagues that we expect Moscow to abide by the Istanbul commitments of 1999. And I think we will have a full discussion of all of the issues relating to Georgian security and the need for all of us to cooperate in assisting the President in the challenging work that he has ahead of him.

QUESTION: Mr. Secretary, I have a question on Russia. Have the Russians addressed to your satisfaction your concerns about their support for Saddam’s military before the war last March?

SECRETARY POWELL: There were still some outstanding questions in my mind, questions that I have raised with Foreign Minister Ivanov previously. He has provided answers to some of those questions with respect to what equipment might have gone in, or not gone in. But, I cannot tell you that every question that was in our inventory of questions has been completely answered. It’s an area of continuing discussion that I have with Minister Ivanov

QUESTION: (In Georgian) This is TV company Ninth Channel, about your opinion about the recent change of government in Georgia? And will the attitude of the United States or the relations of the United States change with Georgia after Mr. Saakashvili has become the President of the country?

SECRETARY POWELL: Well, certainly. We began working with the opposition at that time, in that fateful weekend of November when the change took place. We have reached out to the new Georgian authorities immediately, working with the interim President, making clear our position at the OSCE conference in Maastricht. And immediately upon the election of Mr. Saakashvili, I called him and President Bush called him. We’ve been working with him, we’ve been working with his ministers. And I think the very fact that the President is anxious to see him in the next month or so in Washington suggests that we are ready to engage and have already started to work with the new government and want to give them all the support we can so that they will be successful.

QUESTION: Two questions for Mr. Saakashvili. First, what did you get out of your American education and how will you use that to implement your Presidential duties? And, my second question is: what do you think about George Soros turning (inaudible), and do you think it interferes with Georgia’s integrity (inaudible)?

PRESIDENT-ELECT SAAKASHVILI: Well we’ve got the whole bunch of very enthusiastic and motivated Georgian young people who have been educated in U.S., thanks to U.S. Congress programs. You know I come from a middle class family, which at that moment when it all happened, didn’t have any means to send me anywhere. All my education was covered by the U.S. Congress. Certainly, it causes some suspicions in other countries who are kind of jealous about this thing, but that is how it is and we’ve got a number of other people, and I think that has contributed tremendously to Georgia’s development.

Now regarding George Soros’s contribution, this is primarily UNDP Fund: United Nations Development Program Fund to fund capacity building for Georgian government, and George Soros will not be the only contributor. We said we expect, as we already have pledges from a number of other contributions. We only have at this moment, two million dollars contributed by UNDP and Soros, but we have some other pledges, we need at least eight million dollars already this year and we will need some more for the next year. So basically, this is an international fund. We are inviting other donors as well, to contribute and it will serve good purpose, whoever does it. And I think Soros played good role in bolstering democratic processes in Georgia. He was very instrumental for many NGO’s in their development and I think there is nothing bad about that, wrong about that. We will welcome this kind of positive participation of any foreign organization, and we are talking about open societies or any others in democratic processes in Georgia.

QUESTION: The U.S.-funded Georgia Train-and-Equip Program for the Georgian troops will finish in the Spring. They have a statement from a U.S. official that the U.S. military presence in Georgiawill be permanent. Is that true?

SECRETARY POWELL: The specific program you are referring to, the Train and Equip Program, will finish its mission in May, so that program will end. After May, there will be normal interaction between Georgian officials and U.S. officials. From time to time, military trainers may come to make sure that training is still intact and to see if there is any refresher needed. But the program known that has been known as Train and Equip will come to an end. From that point on, it will be the kind of normal contact that we have with all of the countries in which we have Embassies and with Military Attaches around the world.

QUESTION: No bases?

SECRETARY POWELL: No, we are not thinking of bases. We’ll talk to the Georgians. But the suggestion that somehow the United States is looking for permanent bases in Georgia is incorrect. Whatever we do with Georgia would be a matter of discussion between the two countries. But we are not looking for bases and the concern that we often hear expressed is misplaced.