Brussels, 18/11/2003 (Agence Europe) - Meeting on Tuesday in Brussels, for a "very constructive session" with Secretary of State Colin Powell and is European counterparts from the enlarged Europe, the CFSP High Representative Javier Solana and Commissioner Chris Patten, Europeans and Americans stressed the "common visions and shared vales" that cemented the Trans-Atlantic partnership and confirmed the importance of multilaterlism for dealing with crises, challenges and current threats. In this spirit, Colin Powell welcomed during a joint press conference, the customs cooperation agreement on transport security (including container goods) initialled the same day by the Director for Taxation and Customs at the European Commission Robert Verrue and US Ambassador in Brussels Rockwell Schnabel.
Washington was not on the same wavelength as the Europeans on Iran's nuclear programme and mentioned certain US reservations about the International Atomic Energy Agency's draft resolution prepared by the three "European tenors" (UK, F, D), a draft that will not be "sufficiently strong for getting the world to understand the difficulties that we have had over recent years" with this country, "it's a fact that Iran has not respected" its obligations in the non-proliferation treaties, he said (see p8).
After a working lunch on Trans-Atlantic cohesion and ways for strengthening it, Mr Powell informed the press alongside Frattini, Solana and Patten just before joining this Troika (Presidency, Council and Commission) that they would be deepening their discussion on the hot points in the world: Middle East, Iraq, non-proliferation (Iran, Korea), Afghanistan, Western Balkans (Kosovo, Bosnia), struggle against terrorism and others, possibly Galileo.
Mr Powell welcomed, ongoing European developments (enlargement, military capability" and judged them necessary within NATO" just as the Union supported the values of freedom shared with the USA; he minimised the divergences of view that sometimes occur between the Europeans and Americans as "wee are close to common values and visions"; he said that he was delighted to see that Iran appeared t now be going in the right direction but that they would not be satisfied till Iran had demonstrated that all its programmes were known effectively by the international community and which are being dismantled;
- noted some American reservation about the draft resolution concerning the Iranian nuclear programme (and, he said, they would discuss the matter with their colleagues of the EU and IAEA to see whether the resolution is strong enough to get the message across). "We share the aim to ensure that Iran remains a non-nuclear power (and) we are working together so that there is no nuclear power in the Middle East", Javier Solana said for his part. He felt that "transatlantic relations have never been better" than after this meeting; - promised to speed up the solution for the problem of European citizens still held in Guantanamo. After having discussed the matter with Europeans and in bilateral talks, "I return to Washington with a good understanding of my colleagues' concerns" and "I shall resolve the problem more speedily", he assured. On the subject of Iraq, Mr Powell stressed that insecurity was something left over from the old regime, the vestiges of which will be completely eradicated, even if foreign forces enter the country to take advantage of the situation.