Unofficial translation from Russian

MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS IGOR IVANOV REPLIES TO QUESTIONS DURING JOINT PRESS CONFERENCE OF MINISTERS FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS OF RUSSIA, FRANCE AND GERMANY IN PARIS

(April 4, 2003)

Question: Is Russia discussing with its UN Security Council partners any schemes for a postwar Iraqi structure?

Answer: The principal task now is to stop hostilities and to get the Iraq problem back on the track for a political settlement based on international law. To discuss any concrete schemes for a postwar structure right now, with the war going on, seems premature to us.

Question: Russia, France and Germany, as is known, were opposed to a war in Iraq. Is there any chance of stopping the war at present?

Answer: You know that Russia, France and Germany, like many other countries of the world, including those which are members of the UN Security Council, were very actively pursuing a line in favor of political settlement. We hold that the situation in Iraq could have been resolved by political means. However, events began to develop in another way, and we express profound regret in this connection because we see what destruction and suffering the war is bringing and how it is seriously destabilizing the regional and international situation, and that is why we stress the necessity to strive for the earliest possible termination of the war. We are saying this, among others, to both our US and British partners, with whom we are maintaining and will continue to maintain a vigorous dialogue. In the final analysis, ending the war meets the security interests of the international community, including the United States. In this connection I would like to stress that the Iraq crisis has also sharply raised the question of what the international security system should be in the present 21st century altogether.

The world community is today being faced with new threats and challenges, such as terrorism, and the threat of weapons of mass destruction proliferation. They are threats common to both Russia and France, Germany, the United States, and other nations. We must jointly look for answers to these challenges. So the question arises how we are going to do that, on what legal basis. We believe that the United Nations should continue to be the central organization uniting us. This kind of job we can only do on the basis of respect for international law. These principles are important for Iraqi settlement, but they are no less important with regard to the other problems which we are encountering and will continue to encounter.

Question: A question to the three ministers. Are there any ideas of a resolution of the situation around Iraq and of a postwar structure for the country?

Answer: I've already said that now, with the war going on, to speak of any concrete schemes for a postwar Iraqi structure would be premature, to say the least. We are not conducting talks with either the United States or anybody else on that score. Our chief focus now is that military actions should stop and that the acute humanitarian problems should be tackled which are currently arising in Iraq because of the war going on there.

At the same time, it is abundantly clear that this war should end, and from our point of view - the sooner this occurs, the better it will be for all, including for the United States. Whereupon, naturally, the problem of Iraq's postwar reconstruction will arise. Then the question will arise of the central role of the United Nations for dealing with the questions I have mentioned.

April 4, 2003