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Press Briefing by National Security Advisor,
Dr. Condoleezza Rice on the G8 Summit (excerpted)
The White House
June 7, 2004

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Q A follow-up -- what issue do you expect to be raised in your bilateral meeting with President Putin in the coming few days, and what of those issues -- will be discussed in the broader --

DR. RICE: Well, we have a very good relationship, of course, with Russia, and we have a broad agenda. We have the strategic dialogue with Russia that covers a variety of issues. I think you can expect the two Presidents to talk about the importance of the war on terrorism. Russia has been one of the countries that understands fundamentally the war in which we find ourselves, because Russia has suffered at the hands of extremism in its very core, in Moscow. And so we will have that discussion.

We have very good work to do together on proliferation. Russia is a member of the six-party talks on North Korea and has been a good partner in that. We, of course, will have discussions of the energy dialogue. Russia is a major energy producer and, of course, we have had a very good dialogue, not just on production of fossil fuels, but also alternative sources of energy and the problems that arise for proliferation out of certain kinds of civilian uses of nuclear energy.

But the interesting thing about the relationship with Russia is it's so broad and so deep, the Presidents could talk about just anything on the map, and they probably will. They have a very good relationship. I think the President will want to hear from President Putin about his thinking about where Russia goes now on its domestic path. Obviously, there have been some very impressive economic gains and economic reforms made. The President has said on a number of occasions to President Putin that the democratic development of Russia is also extremely important to the future deepening of our relationship with Russia. And I would think that the two of them will have a discussion of what is happening to institutions in Russia as Russia tries to chart a path to a more democratic future.

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Q Sure. We're hearing that Yasser Arafat has told Hosni Mubarak he accepts his demands for Palestinian security reforms. What's the significance of this? And also, could we draw you out a little bit about this counterproliferation initiative you talked about? Is that an expansion of the PSI, or what exactly?

DR. RICE: On the PSI, what we're really talking about is that, of course, we believe that Russia has made clear its intention to be involved in the core group. That's a very, very good step forward. There are also some steps being made by the leaders here at the G8 to work forward from the agenda the President put out when he spoke at the National Defense University a couple of months ago, on how to close the gap that is left -- the loophole that is left in the nonproliferation treaty by the fact that many states sign on to the nonproliferation treaty, pursue what are supposedly civilian uses of nuclear power, but, in fact, use that as a cover for producing or for pursuing military uses and perhaps nuclear weapons development. And the President had a number of agenda items about that; they're going to discuss that. I won't -- I don't want to prejudge or preempt what they're going to talk about, but I think you will see that we'll make some progress on the issues that the President raised at the National Defense University.

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