Yes, there were more bilaterals last night after which she hosted the Transatlantic dinner. The snip below is from a briefing last night by a senior official providing background.
MODERATOR:
Thank you very much, and again, sorry that this evening has gone on so
long, but we thought it would be worthwhile to provide you a readout on
background from our Senior Administration Official. For your records,
that is actually [Senior Administration Official]. We will do a brief
readout of the dinner that just took place, the Transatlantic Dinner
with our NATO and European partners, and then have time to take some of
your questions.
So with that, let me just turn it over to our Senior Administration Official.
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:
Thanks, and thanks to everyone for waiting up so late. Apologies it’s
so late, but the dinner went on for some time. I’ll get to the
Transatlantic Dinner. Maybe I can just start with the other
Transatlantic engagements, European engagements the Secretary’s had
since she arrived on Sunday.
This actually began with her bilat
with European Union High Representative for Foreign Policy Cathy Ashton
on Sunday evening. And just briefly on that, she – the Secretary spent a
good hour with High Representative Ashton covering a wide range of
issues starting with Iran. The High Representative is leading the
negotiations, recently had some talks in Istanbul with the Iranians, was
able to report on those talks, and I think both of them concluded that
there’s still time and space for diplomacy, and that effort needs to go
on as we pursue both tracks – the pressure track – and I think we’ve
heard from a number of Europeans in the course of the week that they’re
looking for ways to increase the pressure track even as High
Representative Ashton leads the way on negotiations on the diplomatic
track. And we’re very serious about both tracks at the same time.
They
talked about Burma, obviously, with Aung San Suu Kyi recently being in
Washington and the EU having its own engagements with her, and talked
about how the U.S. and the EU can coordinate on supporting democratic
reforms in Burma. And then they actually spent a considerable time –
amount of time on democratic reforms closer to home, which is to say
across Eastern Europe. As the Secretary and High Representative were
meeting, we were getting election results from Belarus – not that there
was much question about how those elections would come out – and
unfortunately they came out as expected, which is to say reflecting an
unlevel playing field. And Secretary Clinton and High Representative
Ashton talked about how we together in the U.S. and Europe can keep the
pressure on Belarus and make clear that so long as there are political
prisoners and so long as elections are repeatedly falling well short of
international standards, then Belarus is not going to be able to have
the relationship with Europe and the United States that it needs.
They
also talked about upcoming elections in Ukraine, and I think it’s fair
to say that we – the United States and Europe are working
extraordinarily closely together when it comes to pressing for and
supporting free and fair elections that are going to take place on
October 28th. Ukraine is hugely important to European
security and stability. We have been very clear how much we regret what
we see as selective prosecutions, including the imprisonment of former
Prime Minister Tymoshenko. And Secretary Clinton, High Rep Ashton agreed
the U.S. and the European Union really have the same policy, which is
to say that our relations with Ukraine can only really move forward when
we see an end of those selective prosecutions and free and fair
elections. And they talked about how we can use the time between now and
October 28th to support those goals.
There are also upcoming elections in Georgia on October 1st,
and once again, I think the two of them agreed how important it was for
us collectively to make clear to Georgia how important it is to have a
fair and transparent and competitive campaign environment. The most
important thing Georgia can do for its future is to consolidate its
democracy. We have respectively raised concerns about different issues
on the road to those elections, and we’ve been appreciative that the
Georgian Government has heard those concerns, and in most cases, taken
measures to make sure that the elections that we are going to be very
active in monitoring will indeed be free and fair.
And then
finally, Secretary Clinton and High Rep Ashton talked about the Balkans.
Catherine Ashton is leading an effort to promote the dialogue between
Serbia and Kosovo. Together, we support the path to the European Union
of both of those countries. We think Serbia needs to come to term with
an independent Kosovo in order to move forward along that path. And it’s
something the United States and European Union are working very much
hand in hand on to consolidate the Balkans as part of a unified Europe.
And
then this evening, the Secretary, prior to the Transatlantic Dinner,
had the opportunity to meet with a number of foreign ministers,
including, in particular, several whom she hadn’t had formal bilats with
who are new since certainly the last General Assembly, which includes
the Greek Foreign Minister, Mr. Avramopoulos; the Belgian Foreign
Minister, Didier Reynders; and the very new Norwegian Foreign Minister,
Espen Barth Eide. And the Secretary also met with UK Foreign Secretary
William Hague.
Just very briefly with Greek Foreign Minister
Avramopoulos, of course, they focused considerably on the Greek economy,
and the Secretary expressed our understanding and appreciation for the
great sacrifices that the Greek people are making in the reforms that
have been deemed necessary to keep Greece in the Eurozone and to turn
around its economy. We know how difficult those reforms are, but it’s a
core American interest to see the Eurozone not just survive but thrive,
and that entails also supporting Greece. And she was able to hear from
the Foreign Minister the difficult budgetary cuts and tax increases and
structural changes they’re making, but we were impressed with the
seriousness of the effort, and I think it was useful for the Secretary
to hear about the important reforms that Greece has undertaken, and for
Foreign Minister Avramopoulos to hear how strongly the United States
supports what Greece is doing.
With Foreign Minister Reynders of
Belgium, she – Secretary Clinton thanked him for Belgium’s strong
cooperation with the United States on a number of areas, including
Afghanistan, where they’ve been very much involved and are – have agreed
to help support Afghan National Security Forces after 2014; our
cooperation on Syria and Iran, where again Belgium is a core member of
the Transatlantic community, is cooperating closely with us. And they
also talked about a couple of areas of particular interest not just to
us, but to Belgium, which is to say Central Africa, the Congo, and the
Sahel where the Belgium Foreign Minister explained what Belgium is doing
to try to promote stability in those regions.
Seeing the new
Norwegian Foreign Minister Barth Eide was a good opportunity for the
Secretary, who had worked very closely with his predecessor, Jonas
Store. She congratulated the new Foreign Minister and noted that the
United States and Norway are extraordinarily close partners who work
very well together. The Secretary, of course, traveled to Norway last
summer, and it was a good chance for her to touch base with the brand
new Foreign Minister and talk about a number of areas of common
interest.
Finally, she did a bilat with Foreign Secretary Hague,
mostly focused on Syria, where it was a good chance for the two of them,
who have both recently seen Special Representative Brahimi, to
coordinate policy on Syria. They also touched on Afghanistan and the
challenge of dealing with some of these so-called green-on-blue attacks.
A
lot of these themes that I’ve already mentioned, these bilats were also
the subject of the Transatlantic Dinner, and I’ll end with a readout of
that, which I guess went on for almost two hours. The Transatlantic
Dinner, as you all know, is something we do every year at the General
Assembly, meeting of European Union foreign ministers, NATO foreign
ministers, as well as Macedonia and Switzerland, plus the NATO Secretary
General and the High Representative of the EU. And it’s an opportunity
to talk about a number of issues on the agenda of European and North
Atlantic countries. They can obviously not cover everything; they cover a
number of things, but I think particularly worth highlighting would be
three topics – Syria, Afghanistan, and Europe and this question of
democracy in Europe that I already flagged as being one of the subjects
of the bilats.
And I think what is really worth stressing when I
mention these topics of Syria, Afghanistan, and democracy in Europe is
how much on the same page these members of the transatlantic community
are. Members of the EU and NATO are really working in an unprecedented
way on each of the topics I mentioned.
Again, just briefly on
Syria, there was really a consensus around the table behind the approach
that I know you’ve heard about that we’ve been taking in terms of
supporting the opposition and trying to coordinate the opposition so
that when the Assad regime does fall, as we believe it will, there will
be something in place that can provide stability, efforts to respond to
the huge humanitarian crisis; of course, Turkey is present at this
meeting, was able to speak about the challenges they’re facing with
refugees and preparing for a post-Assad Syria and keeping the pressure
on the regime.
On Afghanistan, as in previous years, the Secretary
was able to thank our European allies and partners for all the
contributions they have made to our efforts in Afghanistan. This was the
first meeting of this group since the Chicago Summit where important
decisions were made on the milestone towards Afghan lead in 2013, and
then the full transition by the end of 2014. And to follow up on some of
the pledges made, our belief, as you know, is that the key to
transition and successful transition in Afghanistan is training, and
that requires trainers and it requires funding. And we were very pleased
at all of the contributions made by European and other allies in
Chicago towards ANSF funding after 2014. And the Secretary reiterated
the importance of continuing to finance that project and to contribute
the security force assistance teams that are needed to make this a
success.
I think it’s worth stressing the Secretary made clear,
and I think others around the table also made very clear, that
notwithstanding some adjustments to the approach in Afghanistan to deal
with these so-called insider attacks, the goal and the strategy and the
timeline in Afghanistan remain absolutely unchanged. And Secretary
General Rasmussen made that perfectly clear as well. What leaders agreed
first in Lisbon and then complemented in Chicago is very clear and has
not changed, and again, I can – I think I can say that every single
minister on the table who spoke about it reiterated their commitment to
the same goal, strategy, and timeline, and their commitment to doing
what they can to support those goals.
Finally, and I think it’s
really worth stressing, the discussion on democracy in Europe was
important. This group gets together, and the world in which we live so
often finds itself talking about Libya or Syria or Iran or Afghanistan,
but there’s still some concerns in Europe to this group. And the
Secretary herself highlighted her personal concerns about some of the
upcoming elections that I already mentioned – Ukraine and Georgia, the
highly imperfect election that took place in Belarus, and also the
climate for democracy and human rights in Russia. And the Secretary
noted a number of steps taken recently in Russia that aren’t pointing in
the right direction where transparency and democracy are concerned.
And
we’ve already raised in other fora our concerns about the new NGO law
that requires registration of foreign agents, the increased fines for
protests, some selective cases of prosecution, and now most recently, a
new draft law on treason which would widen the definition of treason,
and then of course the Russian decision to ask our USAID Office to cease
its activities in Russia. And the Secretary reiterated our regret of
that decision and our belief that USAID has accomplished a lot in
Russia, and our commitment to carry on as we can in supporting those in
Russia who want to see a free and fair and democratic Russia.
So that’s really the highlights, I think, of the Transatlantic Dinner and the bilat....
