Remarks by Secretary Clinton with Foreign Minister McCully after their Meeting

May 24, 2012

Related Country: 

  • New Zealand

SECRETARY CLINTON: Good afternoon, everyone. It's a pleasure once again to welcome New Zealand's foreign minister, someone who I have had the great delight of working with now over the course of several years, and I also am pleased that our two ambassadors are here - Ambassador Mike Moore and our own Ambassador to Wellington, David Huebner. I think it's indicative of the long friendship that stretches back nearly 175 years.

And with the constantly growing economic and strategic importance of the Asia Pacific, it is even more pressing that we strengthen those historic ties and deepen our cooperation to meet the challenges of the future. The Wellington Declaration, which we signed during my visit to New Zealand, ensures that our governments are in regular contact on a wide range of shared concerns, and we addressed a number of those today.

Before I begin to talk about our bilateral meeting, I'd like to say a few words about the Baghdad round of E3+3 talks which have just concluded. We set forth a detailed proposal focused on all aspects of 20 percent enrichment based on concrete step-by-step reciprocal measures. We had intensive discussions with the Iranians on our proposal. They put forth their own ideas. As Lady Ashton said, significant differences remain. We will seek to address those differences at a further round of talks which will take place in Moscow on June 18th and 19th.

As we lay the groundwork for these talks, we will keep up the pressure as part of our dual-track approach. All of our sanctions will remain in place and continue to move forward during this period. Iran now has the choice to make - will it meet its international obligations and give the world confidence about its intentions or not?

[...]

QUESTION: Secretary Clinton, on the Baghdad talks, it's hardly surprising that differences would remain after only two rounds. Would you say that you made any substantive progress whatsoever in today's talks?

And on the case of Dr. Afridi, beyond expressing regret and restating your view that there was no basis for his incarceration and sentencing, are you actively seeking to negotiate some kind of a solution that might reduce his sentence or free him inside Pakistan or get him out of the country?

SECRETARY CLINTON: Well, Arshad, on the first question regarding the talks in Baghdad, as you know, the talks just concluded and I haven't had time to get a full debrief from our team yet. But I will say that they were serious. They were an opportunity for the E3+3 to engage on substantive matters with the Iranians. But there are clearly gaps in what each side sees as possible, and we think that the choice is now Iran's to work to close the gaps. We anticipate there will be ongoing work between now and the next meeting in Moscow. But it's very clear that there's a lot of work still to do. Yet at the same time, I have to say this is the second of two serious meetings after a gap of at least 15 months where there was no contact and no discussion about any of these matters. So we will continue to engage seriously with our partners.

And the final point I would make is that the entire E3+3 group is united. And I think if you had asked three and a half years ago, certainly when I started this job, could we have unity around some very difficult issues with Iran and have everybody onboard speaking literally off the same page with the same voice, there would have been a certain level of skepticism. So I will leave it at that. But Cathy Ashton summarized for the press where she saw matters, and we will be consulting deeply with my own team and then with the other countries involved.

With respect to Dr. Afridi, we are in the midst of a series of discussions with the Pakistani Government on a range of issues that are important to the United States and the international community. We certainly consider the treatment of Dr. Afridi to be among those important issues. We are raising it and we will continue to do so because we think that his treatment is unjust and unwarranted.

[...]