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Daily Press Briefing Statements made by [Please note that only the original French text issued by the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs may be considered official.]
GENERAL AFFAIRS COUNCIL
A general affairs council will be held in Brussels on January 28 and 29. The GAC will be the first under Spain's presidency.
Ministers will begin with a public debate on the Spanish presidency's program of work. They will then examine several horizontal questions, reviewing in particular the work in other Council groups and the presidency's program of work relating to enlargement.
The Council will then examine the European Union's external relations. The discussions will focus in particular on the priorities the Union is setting for itself in regard to conflict-prevention, the peace process in the Middle East, the situation in Afghanistan and the western Balkans. Ministers will also review relations between India and Pakistan, and Zimbabwe. Relations with Russia, especially the dossier on Kaliningrad, and the EU negotiations with Chile and Mercosur will also be debated.
At the luncheon, ministers will concentrate for the most part on questions relating to the format and functioning of the convention on the future of Europe. The situation in Argentina will also be on the agenda.
On the sidelines of the Council, meetings will be held on January 29 with delegations from Tunisia and Uzbekistan. That same day, there will be a meeting of the troika with the OSCE.
Q - What's the problem over Kaliningrad?
It's a problem the Russian authorities brought to our attention some time ago already. With enlargement, once the Baltic countries join the EU, Kaliningrad will become an enclave within the European Union. This raises a number of specific problems such as visas, trade, transport and security.
WORLD SOCIAL FORUM, PORTO ALEGRE
Charles Josselin, Minister Delegate for Cooperation and Francophony, will attend the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre from January 30 to February 1. As you know, other members of the Cabinet will also be attending: Marie-George Buffet, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, Christian Paul, Marie-Noëlle Liennemann, Guy Hascoët--in all six members of the government.
On Wednesday, January 30, the minister will take part in the Forum with local authorities. He will speak at the workshop on cooperation and action against poverty: the role of local and national governments and international organizations.
The trip will give Mr. Josselin a chance to meet with local officials. He will have talks in particular with Marta Suplicy, Mayor of Sao Paulo, Luis Ignacio, honorary president of the labor party, Tarso Genro, Mayor of Porto Alegre, Olivio Dutra, Governor of the State of Rio Grande do Sul, and leaders of the landless movement.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs helped fund the African Social Forum which was held in Bamako from January 4 to 9, 2002, and this has contributed to the presence of several African delegations in Porto Alegre. The DGCID will be organizing a workshop on cultural diversity.
Lastly, the minister will make a stopover in Rio de Janeiro on Friday, February 1, to open the theater at the Maison de France and a new French-speaking multi-media space that will be a showcase for French culture in Rio.
I'd like to remind you that Hubert Védrine is planning to go to New York, with Laurent Fabius, to take part in the Davos Forum which is being held, exceptionally, in New York this year. We will tell you more about that at the beginning of the week.
Q - What are the dates?
He leaves Thursday evening; he's there Friday the 1st and Saturday the 2nd.
Q - Is it the first time he's attending the Davos Forum?
Yes.
Foreign Minister Hubert Védrine met his German counterpart, Joschka Fischer, on Thursday, January 24, in Berlin for a working dinner in the context of the Blaesheim process launched on January 31, last year. This is the two ministers' tenth meeting "in the Blaesheim format" in a year.
They talked about European issues, first enlargement, its global prospects and implications now that the most important chapters and most sensitive negotiations with the candidate countries are going to be starting. They also discussed the power plant at Temelin and the Cyprus question.
Regarding the future of Europe, Mr. Védrine and Mr. Fischer, who had just met with President Giscard d'Estaing, discussed the organization of the convention and the conditions for its success such as coordination between the French and German representatives. The question of the representation of Italy and Belgium in the convention was also discussed.
Discussing the international situation, Mr. Védrine briefed his colleague on the conclusions he had drawn from this three-day trip to the Great Lakes region with Jack Straw.
On the Middle East, the two ministers agreed to continue to exchange ideas even though the prospects are gloomy and there is a reduced capacity to influence the two sides. France, Germany and Europe cannot just sit back in the face of developments which are bad for peace and security in the region, and which are only getting worse.
The two ministers also talked about the Airbus A400M. The Galileo program was also discussed in the context of coordination ahead of the European Council in Barcelona in March.
France has taken note of India's test of a mid-range AGNI-I ballistic missile. India had informed its principal partners and Pakistan beforehand of its intention to proceed with the test.
The test is certainly not the most desirable signal in the present regional context.
Q - How would you sum up the results of the joint Franco-British trip to Africa?
Mr. Védrine and Mr. Straw made a tour of the Great Lakes region from Monday to Wednesday, visiting in turn Kinshasa, Kigali, Bujumbura and Kampala.
During their four stopovers, they had talks with the four heads of state and exchanged views with the foreign ministers and members of civil society in Kinshasa and Kampala and with Mr. Onusumba (RCD / GOMA) andMr. Bemba (MLC).
The trip was an opportunity to present a joint Franco-British approach on a lot of issues and to assure our interlocutors of our common resolve to act together to accelerate and facilitate implementation of the Lusaka and Arusha accords.
This is the third such visit to Africa, in line with the St. Malo declaration. The fact that the two ministers this time went to the most serious area of conflict in Africa, an area where our analyses have long differed, reflects the progress achieved in both our countries in the past three years to translate the St. Malo declaration into action.
Progress of this sort is obviously quite essential for the development of Europe's security and defense policy vis-à-vis a more active, more efficient Africa.
France is following the development of the situation in Madagascar with great attention. It refrains from all interference but it is certainly not indifferent. Naturally, it is asking all the candidates to respect the rule of law and to safeguard civil peace. That must be based now on the continuation of the electoral process, i.e. holding a second round of voting that is transparent, with all the guarantees for a free, fair, genuine, fraud-free election.
Ibrahim al Assaf, Saudi Minister for Finance and the Economy, will be in France from January 28 to 30 at the invitation of Mr. Huwart, Secretary of State for Foreign Trade, who will meet with him on January 28 at 5:30 p.m. A bilateral agreement on the encouragement and mutual protection of investments will be signed then. The implementation of this agreement, initialed in December 1998, is a highly awaited development which, by assuring a legal and fiscal framework for investors, will give the Franco-Saudi partnership its full dimension--France having wished to give it a strong economic content. France, the third leading investor in the kingdom with a significant presence in the banking and agrofood sectors, wishes to strengthen and diversify its position, especially in the industrial and energy sectors. In this domain, the opening of the gas-production chain to foreign companies should improve the prospects for French companies in the kingdom. The presence at the same time of a delegation representing 40 Saudi businesses here for meetings with French businesses at MEDEF illustrate the mutual wish to deepen Franco-Saudi cooperation.
JOINT FRANCO-ALGERIAN COMMITTEE
The third meeting of the Joint Franco-Algerian Committee on organizing "Djazaïr, une année de l'Algérie en France" was held in Paris on Thursday, January 24, 2002. The chair was taken by Hervé Bourges for France, and Hocine Snoussis, Algerian commissioner general. The meeting was the first time Françoise Allaire officially took up her duties as French commissioner, appointed by the foreign affairs and culture ministers in January 2002 (replacing Dominique Wallon).
The Year of Algeria in France will run from December 2002 to the end of October 2003.
The meeting, which went off in an excellent climate, examined a hundred or so projects submitted for the approval of the joint committee, which is responsible among other things for vetting events.
The next meeting of the joint committee will be held in Algiers on June 1.
On Saturday, February 2, the Foreign Ministry is hosting a seminar on "Romain Gary, writer-diplomat."
The seminar will bring together diplomats, academics and writers and will focus on Romain Gary's life and work.
Held symbolically at the Quai d'Orsay itself, it will honor an outstanding, passionate and unusual man, a free Frenchman in more than one sense, too little known and appreciated, including at the Foreign Ministry, which he joined in 1945, holding the positions of U.N. spokesman and consul general in Los Angeles, among others.
The idea is to pay tribute to the legendary figure of this writer-diplomat , a man of such complex relations in both the diplomatic world and in writing.
An exhibition of documents drawn from the Ministry's archives dealing with Romain Gary's career will also be on view at the event.
FRENCH ASSISTANCE TO THE KINGDOM OF TONGA
In the wake of the devastation by cyclone Waka on Tonga on January 1, 2002, which resulted in considerable material damage and crop destruction and poses a health risk for the people, France has decided, in agreement with its New Zealand and Australian partners, to activate the cooperation under our trilateral accords with these countries to deal with natural disasters in the Pacific.
France will send emergency aid to Tonga to help those stricken by the disaster. The Navy ship "Jacques Cartier" will deliver the first lot of aid to the archipelago at the beginning of February.
The aid consists of various supplies prepositioned in Papeete. The Assembly of French Polynesia has also decided to offer aid, to be shipped on the "Tahiti Nui."
We are pleased with the January 24 vote in the Macedonia Parliament to adopt the law to strengthen local authorities. The vote was the last condition, along with the vote on the constitutional amendments and the conclusion of an agreement with the IMF, for holding the donors' conference which will be an opportunity to send a sign of solidarity to the whole country. We will make sure that the conference is held quickly.
It is important now to continue effectively and swiftly implementing the other provisions set out in the framework agreement.
We recall that the cease-fire must continue to be rigorously observed and that no act of violence is admissible. The return of security forces to areas they do not control must take place exclusively in consultation with the international community.
Q - Do you have any comment on the decision by the Togolese National Assembly?
We have taken note of the Togolese National Assembly's refusal to renew the members of the independent national electoral commission.
France is committed, like its EU partners, to the implementation of the commitments made by President Eyadema in the context of the Lomé Agreement of July 29, 1999 which provides specifically for early legislative elections to be held in conditions of transparency and openness. One of the purposes of that agreement is the resumption of normal relations between the EU and Togo.
Q - Have you anything to say about the assassination of the former Lebanese minister, Mr. Hobeika?
We hope there is a full investigation.
Q - A Chechen leader was at the Quai d'Orsay this afternoon. Do you have any information?
Ahmed Zakaev is Aslan Maskhadov's representative in the dialogue begun on November 18 with a representative of President Putin.
Mr. Zakaev was received this morning by the minister for national education and will have a meeting with officials of the Ministry's bureau for continental Europe this afternoon.
The position of the French authorities on Chechnya is well known and was reaffirmed just recently by President Chirac at the press conference he gave with President Putin on January 15. We are especially concerned, like our EU partners, by reports from international organizations and NGOs about intensified operations in the past few weeks and a high number of people reported missing, and reports of violence against civilians.
The meetings in Paris with Mr. Zakaev will enable us to make a better assessment of the chances for political dialogue continuing, as we sincerely hope. It will also be an opportunity to express again our commitment to the search for a political solution to the conflict in Chechnya with respect for the territorial integrity of the Russian Federation, and also our condemnation of all terrorist action and of acts of violence against civilians.
Q - Who is seeing him?
The relevant office director.
I also want to say a few words about the working visit to France by Louise Harel, Quebec Minister of State for Municipal Affairs and Greater Montreal. She will spend time in Paris and Lyons from January 28 to February 5.
During her visit, which is part of the excellent, fruitful relations between France and Quebec, Ms Harel will participate in international talks on urban planning and regional development organized by the Delegation for Territorial Development and Regional Action and the OECD.
She will also see Yves Cochet, Minister for Regional Development and the Environment, and Ms Liennemann, Secretary of State for Housing.
She will in addition be meeting other officials, including Raymond Barre and Pierre Mauroy.
Q - If I understand correctly, the U.S. is planning to close the Palestinian office in Washington. Would France support such a move and would it take the opportunity to remind the U.S. that it is necessary to maintain contact with the Palestinian Authority?
We have already outlined our views through the minister's speeches in the last few days which are quite clear. I refer you to them. I would like to add that we consider the Palestinian Authority should have the means for its action.
Q - What's your thinking on Mr. Sharon's ban on Avraham Burg, preventing him from going to Ramallah when he committed himself yesterday, before the French foreign minister, to in fact go there?
I don't have to react to every deed or gesture on the part of others. Our concern is very clear. Everything that contributes to dialogue is positive, and we encourage Mr. Burg's general approach, as the minister said yesterday./.
Embassy of France, January 25, 2002
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