2001 US press briefings
The James S. Brady Briefing Room
12:09 P.M. EDT
MR. FLEISCHER: Good afternoon. I want to begin today with some personnel announcements and some travel information. The President intends to nominate Joseph J. Jen to be Under Secretary of Agriculture for Research, Education, and Economics. The President intends to nominate Mary Kirtley Waters to be Assistant Secretary of Agriculture for Congressional Relations. The President intends to nominate Jeffrey R. Holmstead to be an Assistant Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency for Air and Radiation. And final personnel announcement, the President intends to nominate Eileen J. O'Connor to be Assistant Attorney General for the Tax Division.
President Bush will visit Poland during his June trip to Europe. The United States and Poland share a broad agenda of common interests and values in Europe and beyond, and the President looks forward to reviewing ways in which the United States and Poland, old friends and new allies, can intensify cooperation and pursuit of our common goals.
And with that, I'm pleased to take any questions you may have.
Q Ari, what is the evidence that leads U.S. officials to now be encouraged about talks going on with China to resolve this? Or have talks turned cold?
MR. FLEISCHER: There's intensive diplomacy underway. The United States and China are heavily engaged in their discussions. There was a meeting at the State Department this morning between Deputy Secretary Armitage and Ambassador Yang, and in the course of that meeting the United States pressed again for access to the crew, for the release of the crew. And we remain in a sensitive stage of those negotiations, of those discussions. And that is where matters stand as we speak.
Q Can you report progress?
MR. FLEISCHER: I'm reluctant to give a word one way or another to it, due to the sensitivity of where the negotiations and discussions currently stand. And so I would be reticent to use any types of adjectives like that. The meetings are -- as I indicated, the meeting took place this morning, and we do anticipate ongoing, intensive diplomacy.
Q What was the reaction when we pressed again this morning for the release of the crew?
MR. FLEISCHER: That's part of the ongoing diplomacy.
Q Was it any different than it's been the previous four days?
MR. FLEISCHER: Due to the sensitive nature of it I'm not going to characterize the answers. Again, we are in the middle of something that is ongoing with the Chinese government. The President has made the position of the government clear, and that position the President took when he addressed the nation and said that the time has come for our men and women to come home is the focus of the remarks that are being conveyed privately as well, in addition to the return of the airplane, and that continues to be the status, and it is ongoing.
Q Ari, what is the reaction of this government to the suggestion that things might not have escalated to this point as rapidly as they did if the President had not become involved as soon as he did and with as rhetoric as forceful as it was?
MR. FLEISCHER: I think the President said what the United States needed to say -- that is, that it is time for our servicemen and women to come home. The incident took place on a Saturday night -- the accident took place Saturday night, The President did not say anything on Sunday. He spoke out, as he intended to do, on Monday and on Tuesday. And we are now in the middle of some very intensive discussions and diplomacy, and that's where we are.
Q A follow-up, if I may. As you know, there are some observers who have suggested that if Secretary of State Powell had, for example, made a call to some Chinese counterpart earlier on and sort of laid out the situation as the United States saw it, that perhaps things would not have escalated to the point that they did.
MR. FLEISCHER: No, I think many other observers have said that the President spoke out directly, plainly, forthrightly and wisely. And, of course, contacts were made with Chinese officials immediately after the accident, as well as on Sunday, and the President has acted in a way that I think most observers have viewed as productive.
Q As part of these more intensive discussions, are there military-to-military discussions going on in addition to the foreign ministries and the diplomatic efforts?
MR. FLEISCHER: This is being handled through diplomatic channels.
Q Is there any contact, military-to-military?
MR. FLEISCHER: That's a question you really need to ask to DOD. But this is being handled through diplomatic channels.