Date of release : 10-02-2005

Policy area : General Affairs and External Relations

Event : Official visit of the Secretary of State of the United States of America, to Luxembourg, and Ministerial Meeting EU-USA

Condoleezza Rice, Secretary of State of the United States of America visited Luxembourg on 9 and 10 February 2005. She met with Prime Minister  Jean-Claude Juncker and Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn, before holding talks with the European Troika. The meetings focused on the state of the transatlantic relationship, the upcoming visit of President George W. Bush to the European Institutions, the Middle East, the Western Balkans, the relations with Russia and Ukraine.

At a press conference after the EU-US meeting in Luxembourg, Jean Asselborn, Minister of Foreign Affairs and current President of the Council made the following declaration:

"Luxembourg is the last stop for Ms. Rice on her tour through Europe and the Middle East, and I am proud that she choose Luxembourg as the final stage of this first trip as Secretary of State. I look very much forward to working with Dr. Rice throughout the rest of the Luxembourg Presidency, and beyond. Luxembourg as its European partners, deeply value the transatlantic relationship, and I strongly believe that Europe and the United States, working together in a concrete and forward-looking manner, can most positively address many of the global challenges we face.

Let me highlight only a few of the issues we touched upon today :

• first and foremost, the Middle East Peace Process, and the encouraging signals received from the Sharm el-Sheikh summit. It is essential that the EU and the US continue to press for the implementation of the road map, and support both parties in their efforts towards peace;
• the good and longstanding EU – US cooperation in the Western Balkans, which will continue to be crucial in 2005, especially with regard to Kosovo ;
• our fruitful cooperation with regard to Ukraine, which shall be an example for the future of good EU – US coordination;
• we also exchanged views on Russia, and I briefed my American and European colleagues about the visit I paid to Foreign Minister Lavrov yesterday in Moscow.
  

We furthermore had a possibility to exchange views on issues like Iran and China, where we compared our respective analysis. I think I can say that our discussion allowed us to understand each other’s points of view better and that we will continue our talks in the future.

Dr. Rice has also come to Luxembourg to prepare, with her EU colleagues, for a major event under the Luxembourg Presidency : the visit of President George W. Bush to the European Union, in Brussels, on the 22nd of February. Today, we exchanged views on this highly symbolic visit of the President to the European institutions, at the very beginning of his second mandate. I can safely assure you today that the transatlantic relationship, which has known more difficult times months ago, is today as strong as ever, and that the European Union is committed to working with our American partners in a very concrete way to address the challenges of this world. After the President’s visit to Brussels this month, the EU – US summit in June will be the next, very important moment in the transatlantic dialogue."

In response to a journalist’s question, Jean Asselborn said:

"An ideal world would be a world without nuclear weapons. (…) We in the European Union want to avoid that Iran develops nuclear weapons, which would be very dangerous for the region. We are negotiating with Iran to prevent such a development. The cooperation between the European Union and the United States is therefore very positive."