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MIN. FISCHER, German Foreign Minister: I would like to open this brief
press conference.
Today we have worked for eight hours at a draft for a security resolution.
This resolution contains 20 points, which sometimes have subpoints.
When we started we still had quite a lot of points that were in brackets,
so to speak, which were not clear. We were able to get rid of most of
the brackets, and even the points where we could not get rid of the
brackets, we actually made some progress.
However, we have to interrupt the session for today, not because we
did not make any progress -- on the contrary, we did cooperate very
well -- but because two or three points need instructions from Moscow
for the Russian side. So all the attempts that we have made to get these
instructions -- we've had problems looking at the time that we currently
have in Moscow, so we will have to wait until 10:30 tomorrow morning
before we resume. And then, in Cologne, we will meet again at 10:30,
and we will work on those three points that are still in brackets, and
we hope that we will be able to finish our points in this draft for
the Security Council resolution, so that we can pass it on.
We have made good progress today, but due to the fact that this progress
is not concluded yet, and that we hope to conclude tomorrow and progress
tomorrow, despite all the difficulties that we have and that we have
overcome, we do hope that we will clear those points tomorrow, so that
we can get a constructive work to the Security Council and that we can
take a decision in the Security Council.
So I do not want to talk about the detail today. We want to reserve
that for tomorrow for the concluding conference, press conference.
Any questions? Could you also tell us who you're asking, please. We'll
start over here.
REPORTER: Barry Schweid, Associated Press. The last time the G-8 tackled
this problem, it came up with a statement that was both somewhat ambiguous
but certainly not as strong as the NATO statement. As you look ahead
to tomorrow, will we see the kind of assertive references that we have
seen from NATO, or will you forget to mention "all troops"
and sort of leave out "NATO as the core"? In other words,
will the final resolution mirror the NATO demands that we were led to
believe Milosevic has accepted and the Russians put to him agreeably?
MIN. FISCHER: I would like to refute what is underlying your question.
The prerequisite for the success that we had with the agreement of --
Ahtisaari, Viktor Chernomyrdin was the basis for our success today.
We have made progress that we thought two weeks ago we would not be
able to make. So I think that there was no opposition at all to the
five points of the NATO We do agree with those five points because we
are NATO members, but we also sit together with non- NATO members here,
but we have found a common basis. So this means that we have made changes,
but these changes did not soften anything what we did before. This is
a constructive process, and I think it will be a Chapter 7 resolution
that we will be able to conclude in New York and implement later on.
A question up there, and then in the middle.
REPORTER (Through interpreter.) A question to the Russian foreign minister.
What, exactly, is the reason for the fact that you cannot work out the
problems or the instructions that you need from Moscow tonight? Are
there any practical reasons?
MIN. IVANOV, Russian Foreign Minister: There's a number of issues which
require additional agreement from Moscow because initially, after the
agreement in Belgrade during Chernomyrdin's visit and Mr. Ahtisaari's
visit, they had it in mind that there was going to be -- there were
going to be negotiations between NATO and Belgrade representatives on
military and tactical issues, and then there was going to be troops
withdrawal, and simultaneously, a pause in bombing, after which we'll
work out a resolution.
Now, taking into account that the talks in Macedonia have been suspended
or stopped, so that the schedule has now been disturbed which was agreed
by Mr. Chernomyrdin and Ahtisaari, the wording of the resolution has
become difficult, and we are continuing to work on it.
MIN. FISCHER: Behind you, a young lady had a question. But if you do
not want to say anything, okay, it's your turn.
REPORTER: (Through interpreter.) I wanted to ask the Russian foreign
minister, what about the command structure, will the command structure
later on be a joint one between NATO and Russia or not?
MIN. IVANOV: I believe that after adopting the resolution of the United
Nations Security Council, these issues will be specifically discussed.
Now discussing these issues practically is not something that is being
done.
REPORTER: Yes, Minister Fischer, you mentioned just now the need of
making compromise. I wonder what kind of compromise you reached today
and how you formulate it in the draft of this resolution?
MIN. FISCHER: I can only tell you that out of 18 open points -- 20 open
points, we have managed to solve 17, which is quite a lot of work we've
done, work of approaching our points. And the remaining points will
be concluded tomorrow; we will try to solve them tomorrow, following
the Cologne tradition of solving some problems.
SEC. COOK, British Foreign Minister: Just for the avoidance of doubt,
in case anybody misunderstands the reference to compromises, there is
no compromise in the draft we're discussing on the Chernomyrdin/Ahtisaari
text. That text is fully represented in this resolution, and none of
us are in any way proposing any compromise on that text.
MIN. FISCHER: On the contrary, this was the basis for our work, just
as well as the G-8 principles. Two more questions.
REPORTER: May I ask Messieur Vedrine if we could hear some more about
your proposal on synchronicity, I believe? How all of these things are
to fall into place one after another, and how you envision the next
couple of days unfolding? Thank you.
MIN. VEDRINE, French Foreign Minister: (Through interpreter.) I think
we have to wait for the decision tomorrow to get the results. But I
can say what I have been saying today, which is that we have to converge
all the processes, but we will have to wait for the details for tomorrow.
MIN. FISCHER: (Through interpreter.) The last question.
REPORTER: Roberts (SP) from the Ruhr Deutsche Industrie Handelsblatt.
Could you be slightly more specific on the three open standing points,
please?
MIN. FISCHER: (Through interpreter.) I could, but I do not want to.
We hope that we will solve all the problems tomorrow, and then we can
give you the whole resolution. And you will see that this is a very
good resolution.
Thank you very much. Have a nice evening.
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