Interfax's Interview

According to diplomatic sources, Burns is planning to return to the U.S. in mid-May. Prior to his departure he gave an interview to Interfax.

             A Georgian high-ranking official said recently that his country and Russia are on the brink of war. To what extent are Russian-Georgian relations a subject of concern for you? What is your view on Russia’s closer relations with Abkhazia and South Ossetia? 

                        The U.S. has been very clear and it supports Georgia's territorial integrity. We have always been very clear about a couple of other things. We have expressed our strong concerns about some recent Russian actions such as the lifting of CIS sanctions and the instructions, which tighten ties to people in Abkhazia and South Ossetia. We expressed those concerns because we see them as challenges to Georgia's territorial integrity.

            At the same time, we have made very clear to all the parties that there is no military solution to the problems of Abkhazia and South Ossetia and that it is very important for all the parties to return to diplomatic mechanisms which exist for addressing those concerns.

             Will the United States support the idea of withdrawing Russian peacekeepers’ from the region?           

            Peacekeepers have played a significant role in stabilizing the situation in the past, and that is the role that we believe they should and must play in the future. 

            As regards the missile defense issue, Russia says that the U.S. is backing away from agreements reached at the April summit in Sochi concerning the U.S. missile shield in Eastern Europe. How far can the U.S. go in order to convince Russia that there is no threat from these U.S. missile defense sites?

                        We understand that Russia continues to have objections to our plans for missile defense sites in Poland and the Czech Republic. The U.S. and Russia have made progress in addressing some of the concerns that Russia has raised. Our presidents made very clear their determination to continue to work at that process to see if we can make further progress and reassure Russia about the purposes of those sites, and we are going to continue to work hard at that.

            I do think it is possible that over time we will be able to address those concerns and reach understanding. It is both possible and desirable to make broader progress toward cooperation between not only the United States and Russia, but also with our European partners on a wider missile defense arrangement.           

            When you talk about missile defense cooperation between Russia, the U.S. and Europe, do you mean tactical or strategic missile defense?           

            I think, as I said, that there is a great deal of potential to combine our capabilities and our efforts in that sphere because long-range missiles are going to pose a challenge and a threat for all of us in the future.

             What are the prospects for signing a new Russian-U.S. treaty instead of the strategic arms reduction treaty (START I) signed in 1991? What are the main differences between Russia and the U.S. on this problem?

             I think there are two major issues. One is form and the other is content. On form, we have made some progress. The United States in Sochi made clear our commitment to a legally binding post-START agreement. But there do remain differences over content, and the United States prefers a streamlined agreement which is based largely on the Moscow treaty as opposed to a much more detailed treaty the size of a telephone book. And so, we have some differences to try and resolve between us over the issue of content. But our two presidents made clear again in Sochi their determination to work to narrow those differences, to make maximum progress this year, in 2008, because the START treaty expires at the end of 2009.

            Do you believe the control mechanism should be sustained?       

            We certainly need to preserve the kind of measures which reassure one another. And the United States and Russia over many years have worked on these kinds of issues.

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