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... do you see Russia’s role now in the G-8?
SECRETARY RICE: Well, I think that Russia has called into question whether it shares the goals and aspirations of many of these institutions. And what has happened thus far – first of all, there’s never been a G-8 finance ministers, and so the G-7 finance ministers have been the ones that have been working on the Georgia package and so forth. We have also met at the level of G-7 foreign ministers meeting telephonically a couple of times because issuing one statement that said that it was unusual for G-7 foreign ministers to criticize the behavior of another – of a member of the G-8. So there is a lot of activity that has taken place outside the context of the G-8, and more in the context of the G-7.
I think that we will have to see. The jury is still out on a couple of elements about Russia, and I hope that Russia will, frankly, stop digging the hole that it has dug by recognizing Abkhazia and South Ossetia. One of the things that Russia could do to show that it understands that a different course is necessary would be not to try to alter the status quo in Abkhazia and South Ossetia. So no permanent military bases. Don’t start exploring for resources in territory that is clearly within the international boundaries of a member-state of the United Nations.
I think these are the kinds of issues that people are going to be looking at. Is Russia going to block the entry of observers and monitors into Abkhazia and South Ossetia itself? Is Russia going to actually withdraw its forces fully and go back to the status quo ante? So there is a lot to still look at here, but I think that the last couple of months have clearly – or the last month or so, has clearly cast a pall on the question of Russian engagement with the diplomatic and economic and security institutions that were built on certain premises about what kind of engagement and interaction Russia wished to have with the world.
MODERATOR: Final question. Okay, way over there.
QUESTION: (Inaudible) visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution. Thank you for excellent speech.
There are a few things I would like you to elaborate if you can. First, you didn’t talk about unintended consequences of a strained relationship with Russia. You mentioned the cooperation on terrorism and nonproliferation. But what – if they don’t collaborate, that would be a major setback for everybody.
The second point is: Don’t you think that we as Western democracies have somehow lost our moral force in invading Iraq and now we have difficulty at making – Russia understands that invading is not such a good thing and, you know, you’re breaking international law? Thank you very much.
SECRETARY RICE: Yes. Well, let me – on the first question of the consequences, look, I think we still have an interest in cooperation on terrorism, and I think Russia still has an interest. Russia, given its problems with extremism on its periphery, has always understood that it had an interest in cooperating on terrorism. I might note, too, that separatism and terrorism, in some of that area around the south of Russia – the southern flank – go somewhat hand in hand. And so, the recent moves by Russia, I think, have consequences also for the way that those regions will develop. And we will continue to do what we do with every state, which is to share information, to share whatever intelligence we have. Because none of us have an interest in another terrorist attack, and I expect that to continue.
If you remember, the United States was most – probably the most supportive country in the world of – with Russia after Beslan. And I don’t think that that is going to stop. And I think if there are those out there who would wish to exploit what they see as tensions in U.S.-Russian relations, they shouldn’t do it. Because the common fight against terrorism is one that I expect to continue.
As to Iraq, I think we have to be very clear here. Saddam Hussein was an international outlaw by numerous, numerous, numerous Security Council resolutions which Russia itself had voted for, including the last resolution, 1441, which called for consequences should the Iraqis not carry through on the demands of that resolution. This was a state that had attacked its neighbors, used weapons of mass destruction both against its own people and against its neighbors. It was a state that had started two major wars and that frankly was an outlaw state. And it was a brutal state to its own people. What the United States and the coalition of states that liberated Iraq did was to give the Iraqi people an opportunity to build a new and decent kind of society.
Now to be sure, it has been harder than any of us might have dreamed. But if you look at where Iraq is today, reemerging as a strong Arab state in the center of the Middle East, but a multiethnic, democratic state with a functioning parliament, with a functioning government whose neighbors are recognizing that and going back in important numbers from places like UAE and Bahrain and Jordan to reestablish embassies there, if you look at an Iraq that will not seek weapons of mass destruction like the Saddam Hussein regime, that will live in peace and security with its neighbors and that will give its own people a chance for democratic governance, I don’t think that that bears any resemblance to invading a small democratic neighbor whose only crime, apparently, was that it wished to ...