SECRETARY CLINTON: Well, hello, everyone. And it’s a delight once
again to see my counterpart and friend, and to welcome Minister Sikorski
here to the State Department. Poland is a very good friend and a
trusted ally. We have deep historical and cultural ties that we cherish.
Poland has just completed its tenure as the president of the European
Union, where, once again, it demonstrated its leadership. It’s a model
and a mentor for emerging democracies; a force for peace, progress, and
prosperity around the globe. And the foreign minister and I had a great
deal to talk about, but these conversations will continue in our
Strategic Dialogue among our officials later this week.
I just want to touch on a few highlights. Before I begin, let me once
again offer our sincere condolences on behalf of the United States for
Saturday’s tragic rail accident. Our thoughts and prayers are with the
families and loved ones who lost their lives. And as we have already
offered, we stand ready to assist in any way.
We are also deeply concerned about the people of Syria, who continue
to endure a brutal and relentless assault at the hands of the Assad
regime. The minister and I discussed the latest developments, and I
expressed our deep appreciation for Poland’s diplomatic role
representing the United States in Damascus. And I want especially,
Minister, to express our appreciation for the personal efforts of your
ambassador in assisting U.S. citizens.
The regime’s refusal to allow humanitarian workers to help feed the
hungry, tend to the injured, bury the dead marks a new low. Tons of food
and medicine are standing by while more civilians die and the regime
launches new assaults. This is unacceptable, and we agree completely
with the great majority of the international community. The regime must,
as it promised last November, withdraw its forces, release political
prisoners, permit peaceful protests, and allow international journalists
to do their job, which is to tell the truth.
Through the Friends of the Syrian People group and other avenues, we
are working to increase our pressure on the regime to end its attacks on
civilians and to allow humanitarian access everywhere, as well as for
it to meet its commitments under the Arab League Plan. It is past time
for all Syrians to break with Assad and stand against this bloodshed and
for a better future. It is also past time for those nations that
continue to arm and support the regime to bring an end to the bloodshed.
We urge all nations to work together to support the democratic
aspirations of the Syrian people.
Given its own history, Poland understands better than many how
important and difficult it is to stand up to tyranny. Poles remember the
difficult choices they had to make, and they value their hard-won
freedom. And I want to applaud the leadership of Poland during this
tumultuous last year. They’ve shared their experience and their wisdom
with representatives from many countries that are struggling on the path
toward democracy. And I want also to acknowledge that through the
leadership of Poland at the Community of Democracies, they have provided
tangible support for civil society, connecting activists and officials
with veterans of previous transitions. We will continue to work closely
with Poland to see what more we can do.
We also discussed a wide range of common concerns from Iran to
Belarus. We are working closely with Poland on many security matters.
And once again, let me thank the Polish people, and particularly their
troops serving in Afghanistan, for their service and sacrifice. We also
agree that the new missile interceptor that Poland will host, as well as
a new American aviation detachment to be stationed in Poland, will be
cornerstones of our mutual security commitments. And we look forward to
the Chicago summit.
So we covered a lot of ground, and I thank you for your leadership
and your thoughtful analysis of the issues before us, Minister, and I
look forward to continuing to work with you.
FOREIGN MINISTER SIKORSKI: Thank you. Thank you, Hillary for
those words and for having me here. Always a pleasure. And I hope next
time we’ll see each other in Warsaw. Thank you for the condolences.
Likewise, we regret the death of the American journalist Marie Colvin,
and I am pleased that our diplomats were able to be helpful in taking
her body out of Syria.
I agree with you that the democratization agenda is something that
Poland and the United States can most effectively and fruitfully do
together, because promotion of democracy is something that both of our
nations feel in their bones. It’s not our policy, it’s what we are. And
we are doing it in both the southern and the eastern neighborhood of the
European Union.
As you mentioned, we discussed Belarus, and we’ve drawn plans to
collaborate even more closely on monitoring developments in Belarus. We
are also following the development of the situation in the Ukraine very
closely. And we hope that Ukraine creates political conditions for a
bigger and more intimate relationship with Europe and the West as a
whole.
We’re coming up to the Chicago NATO summit, and we’ve exchanged ideas
on smart defense and on what we can do together to maintain the
security of Europe even while the United States cuts its defense budget
and cuts its troops – troop commitment to Europe. And there are things
that we can usefully do like activating the NATO response force and
exercising in Poland. And we are looking forward to your air detachment
coming for the first time to Poland on a permanent basis later this
year.
We also have a great deal of business in common, and we are looking
forward to the Polish American business summit. And it’s not just the
energy field; there are other fields where more can be done. And of
course, we follow the recent election and the future of our relations
with Russia, an important neighbor of Poland’s.
So again, thank you for a good conversation which shows that our alliance is strong and has a great future.
MODERATOR: We’ll take two questions from the American side and
two questions from the Polish side today. We’ll start with Scott
Stearns at VOA.
QUESTION: Madam Secretary, Vladimir Putin looks to be
returning to the presidency. You had some critical comments about the
first round of voting. Can you tell us what you thought about the second
round of voting in Russia and any hopes that the completion of that
process might lead to some movement on Russia’s position regarding
Syria?
SECRETARY CLINTON: Well, I think as the OSCE made clear, there
were a number of concerns about this latest electoral process that
should be investigated and addressed. And we also remain concerned about
the arrests of peaceful protesters, which occurred again on Monday. But
the election had a clear winner and we are ready to work with
President-elect Putin as he is sworn in and assumes the responsibilities
of the presidency.
We are going to be looking for ways to enhance cooperation on a range
of difficult issues. You mentioned one of them, Syria. I talked with
Foreign Minister Lavrov yesterday; I will be seeing him in New York on
Monday. We continue to believe that Russia should join the international
community and play a positive role in trying to end the bloodshed and
help create the conditions for a peaceful democratic transition. And we
will continue to speak out where we think appropriate, because as Radek
said, this is not what we do, it’s who we are. We believe in democracy,
we believe in human rights, we believe in the values that should
underpin any great society in the 21
st century, and that
means for us that we recognize there has to be a lot of internal
dialogue within Russia going forward so that the Russian people’s
aspirations can be fully realized as well.
MODERATOR: Marcin Firlej from Polish Public TV.
QUESTION: Madam Secretary, Minister Sikorski, I’m pretty sure
it wasn’t the main topic of your discussion, but President Barack Obama
in 2010, during official trip of President Bronislaw Komorowski to
Washington, promised to include Poland into Visa Waiver Program by the
end of his presidency. I would like to ask, what concrete steps have you
taken to fulfill this promise? And Madam Secretary, can you assure
Poles that they will be able to travel to the United States without
visas by the end of this year?
SECRETARY CLINTON: Well, first, let me say we know this is an
issue of tremendous importance to the Polish people, but it’s also very
important to the American people because of our close ties and the many
family relations. Later this year, the minister and I will be joining
our presidents in Chicago, which I think has the largest Polish
population outside Warsaw in the world.
So this is a matter of great concern and commitment. And as you
rightly said, President Obama has expressed his support for the pending
legislation in the Congress that would create broader participation in
the Visa Waiver Program. We are working very hard with Congress to try
to get that legislation through. I will be very honest with you. We have
strong support and we have strong opposition, and so we need to work
together to redouble our efforts. And we have to make sure that Poland
can do more right now to move toward what the existing standards are,
and then hopefully, if the legislation is passed, to be able to get in
position and take advantage of it, including an agreement on data
sharing, which we have with 20 other EU countries.
So I know the President pledged that this would be done before the
end of his presidency, and probably that will be a little longer than
the end of this year. But we are going to continue to work very hard to
see that it is accomplished.
MODERATOR: CNN, Elise Labott, please.
QUESTION: Thank you, Madam Secretary. You talked about Syria
and increasing the pressure on the regime. Beyond just increasing the
pressure, can you talk about tangible ways that you’re working on to
help the opposition? Specifically, Secretary Panetta had just told a
congressional panel that you’re looking to provide technical assistance
and humanitarian assistance. If you could flesh that out a little bit?
And there has been a call by many senators to arm the opposition and get
militarily involved. I’m wondering if you could – do you feel a lot of
pressure on the Hill to do that? And if you could speak to whether you
feel that that’s in the offing. Thank you.
SECRETARY CLINTON: Well, Elise, we have pressure coming from
all directions, not only one direction. But what we’re trying to do, and
I think the President was very clear on that in his press conference
yesterday, is to do everything we can to support the opposition, which
is not yet as unified and focused either inside or outside Syria as we
hope it could become.
We are working to build a stronger international coalition of support
for taking action on the humanitarian level, on the political
transition that needs to come in Syria. And we believe that it is a
matter of time – we can’t put an exact timeframe on when – but we think
that Assad and his regime will not be able to survive. So we do think
it’s appropriate to help the opposition, but where we’re focused on is
how we help them be more unified, communicate more clearly, have a
message to all their Syrian counterparts who are not yet convinced that
it’s in their interests for Assad to go. And I think that it’s – we
recognize it’s a challenging situation. But I don’t know that it’s
useful for me to go into any greater detail than what the President said
yesterday and what Secretary Panetta and General Dempsey are testifying
to publicly today.
MODERATOR: The last question is for --
SECRETARY CLINTON: Can Minister Sikorski say something?
FOREIGN MINISTER SIKORSKI: Just at the end, I’d like to give a couple of sentences in Polish.
SECRETARY CLINTON: Okay. Good, good, good. Okay.
MODERATOR: So the last question for (inaudible).
QUESTION: Madam Secretary, there are opinions that after
recent Vladimir Putin’s win in the Russian presidential elections,
Russia might even harden its line on anti-missile – American
anti-missile defense in Europe. Would the United States be willing to
make any concessions to accommodate possible Russian concerns in this
matter?
SECRETARY CLINTON: We have been very clear that missile
defense is a matter for NATO. NATO has made a decision. We believe that
it is in all of our interest to carry forward and implement that
decision. Poland, as you know, was the first country to commit to
hosting an element of the European missile defense architecture. It was
the first to bring into force a basing agreement. Poland’s support for
the Phased Adaptive Approach is a strong pillar within the NATO
collective security commitment, and we are going full speed ahead. We
have every intention and we’ve taken every action to demonstrate our
seriousness.
Now, we’ve also made it clear that we would love to cooperate on
missile defense against mutual threats with Russia. That is not only a
U.S. position, that is also through NATO that we have sought to discuss
this at the NATO-Russia Council. Thus far, we’ve not seen a lot of
movement, but we are going to continue to press that with the Russians
and hope that there will be an agreement at some point that could be in
both of our interests. But Russia has no veto over what we do in NATO.
Our commitment is to our NATO allies, to our Article 5 collective
security obligations, and missile defense is an integral part of that.
And then I think Radek wants to also say a few words in Polish.
FOREIGN MINISTER SIKORSKI: (In Polish.)
SECRETARY CLINTON: Thank you.
