Ambassador Tefft Press Conference, May 21, 2009
Ambassador Tefft Press Conference
May 21, 2009
Keti Bojgua, 1st Channel (GPB): What kind of monitoring mechanisms will be in place? What kind of oversight will there be so that these funds are spent correctly?
Ambassador: I have a lot of experts here, so if I forget to say something they can correct me. Joakim Parker, who is the Active Director of USAID, is in charge of the administration of much of this, so if I miss something he can tell me. I would just say to you that all our money, from money that we have given to the Georgian government and to different organizations and individuals as part of this 1 billion dollar package, has been totally announced, totally transparent. It’s on our websites… I think there are NGOs here who look at this very, very carefully, and we’re very much totally out in the open. There are no secrets here at all. We will continue with this new program to make sure that the information is not only out there, which is part of the purpose of my announcement today, and make sure that everybody in Georgia knows this, but also to make sure that people can look and see that this money’s been spent properly.
Joakim Parker: To add to what the Ambassador noted, I can say that we are engaged in dialogue with NGOs who are actively monitoring aid here to involve them in looking at aid transparency and successes of our programs, and, of course, most of the activities that have been announced today by the Ambassador go through contracts and grants to which we have very specific auditing and monitoring rights.
Nino Gelashvili, Radio Liberty: How was the purpose of spending this money defined, meaning what proportions should be spent on each particular activity? Second question: what is the main hindering factor to a political dialogue?
Ambassador: We have been planning how to spend, and we spend a lot of time working with the Georgian government and NGOs and people here, to work out our specific programs in advance so that we are as effective as possible. Last fall, as you remember, the first tranche of money that we gave to the government of Georgia was for budget assistance. I think at a press conference just like this I said that… there was a question actually on spending money on democracy, and I said that in the first tranche we did not have that, but that it was coming specifically when we got additional funds appropriated. I should tell you that the money which is the part of the 1 billion dollar package is included in a number of budgets, both the State Department budget [and] Defense Department budgets. We have put this whole package together and we try to use those monies as effectively as we can. The democracy part of this money is something for which we have long planned. Most of what I have announced today has been in the planning stages for months and months. We are determined to use our money effectively to support those goals I described. On your second question on dialogue: we were encouraged with the meeting that President Saakashvili and his team had with members of the opposition. We understand that there are serious differences here, but our view is that the only way to solve these differences is by sitting down at the table and actually negotiating, having real dialogue. So, our position has been very clear from the very beginning, from before April 9th, all the way to today, that dialogue is the only solution. It’s the only way in a democracy that you can actually build democratic institutions. Compromise and serious hard bargaining are critical. It’s a part of every successful democracy, and that’s what we wish for you here in Georgia.
Temur Kighuradze, the Messenger: Mr. Tefft, how would answer the statement from Kremlin when they say that the U.S. and NATO are participating in militarization of Georgia that may lead to another conflict in Georgia?
Ambassador: I think you all know that the NATO exercise that’s going on here is part [of] a long-planned exercise in the NATO Partnership for Peace program. NATO has been doing Partnership for Peace training for many years and the current exercises are just a part of all that. NATO, I think, has made it quite clear…very transparent about what this exercise is about, and I think they’ve made it clear to you. I think there’s been access to NATO exercises. There are no secrets here. This is Partnership for Peace building peaceful cooperative military work together.
Nana Sajaia, Georgia Today: I have two questions. One is about this assistance. What is the timeline to implement this project? My second question is about economy. How will this project contribute to the economy of Georgia?
Ambassador: With regard to timelines, we have this money available today, which is why I’m announcing it today. USAID will be administering it and we will be in touch with all the different parties with regard to different programs which are going to be included, so the timeline begins today. I don’t know if we have actual end-dates but obviously we have this money, and we are prepared to spend that in further rebuilding democracy and rule of law in Georgia. In terms of purely economic programs, I think the key part of this package is the 10 million dollars that we’re going to help invest in modern energy infrastructure and services helping Georgia move to energy security and independence. But I think it’s really important that all of you understand that this is 53.3 million dollars out of what we hope will be a total of 1 billion dollars. We’ve done a lot of other programs, not only helping IDPs, but also economic and energy programs already…. For example, we used money that was available last fall to buy seed for the farmers in Georgia who were affected by the conflict. This spring we have purchased seed – corn and probably other products -- that people have used to plant their summer crops. This is directly helping those who were directly impacted by the war but also helping them invest in the future, because this seed is high-quality seed which we think is going to increase not only production but productivity – the amount of product that you get out of it. So this is also a kind of investment. And last, but not least, we have, not as part of this, but as part of regular USAID program, the whole series of economic and energy programs that we fund. Some of you may have been to Okami with me last week where we cut the ribbon for the opening of the hydropower project. This is the fourth or the fifth that I have been part of. This is the project that was started three years ago that is now finally coming online and providing energy to various key regions in this country. Again, this is another program that I’m very, very proud of.
Nino Gelashvili, Radio Liberty: My question is how critically the United States government is assessing the threat of possible military aggression from Russia against Georgia and what role Georgia will have at the meeting between the two presidents on July 6?
Ambassador: I think the last part of your question I’ll leave to my boss President Obama to answer at some future point. It’s presumptuous of me to get out there and speculate on that…. With regard to the larger question of Russian military involvement, I think both the State Department and also American officials who were at the Geneva talks have been quite clear that we believe Russia is in violation of the negotiated agreement between President Sarkozy, President Medvedev, and President Saakashvili. We continue to work very closely with our friends in Europe, with OSCE, and the UN. With regard to the EU, with regard to making Geneva talks successful, we support very much the European Union’s monitoring mission here. I think they are doing excellent work. We very much want to see stabilization and we want to see compliance with the ceasefire agreement which we still don’t have. That is in a nutshell the American policy.
Nino Gelashvili, Radio Liberty: UN General Secretary’s report has been published, which had some new security elements in it. How realistic is it and should we anticipate that it will lead us to a new UN resolution?
Ambassador: I’ll be honest, I just got my own copy and I
haven’t had a chance to read it. I know my colleagues at the State Department
and our mission to the UN are also reading it right now, so I just prefer not
to comment on that at this point until we’ve had a chance to reflect. I’ll be
happy to tell you once I get time to do that, ok? Thank you all very, very much.
Related Link: U.S. Government Announces Release of Assistance to Georgia