Excerpts of Deputy Assistant Secretary Matt Bryza’s Press Conference at the Tbilisi Marriott Hotel

August 10, 2009

Deputy Assistant Secretary Matt Bryza

Kent Logsdon: Hi, good afternoon. I’m Kent Logsdon from the U.S. Embassy and it’s a bit of a sad occasion for us. This is the last press conference in Tbilisi for Matt Bryza as our Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Eurasian and European affairs. We’re sad to see him go, but we’re very glad he was able to make one more visit to Tbilisi. So I will turn it over to Matt for a short statement. I think he’ll take some questions after that.

Matt Bryza: Yes, it’s a very sad moment for me to be starting my last press conference here in this city that I feel so close to, with so many friends all across the entire society.

Everybody loves Georgia…so I’m no exception. I wish I could keep coming back here—maybe I will be able to over the next few years. It’s with a certain degree of sadness that I wind up my service here helping to promote U.S.-Georgian relations….

On the way over just now, driving from the Ministry of Defense, it struck me how normal—and therefore successful—life is now in Tbilisi, compared with one year ago today. A year ago today, Mr. Logsdon, Ms. Fisher, and I ended up spending the night in the U.S. Embassy amid reports that tanks were on their way into Tbilisi. People speculated what the objective of the Russian military operation was at the time and there were some very dark, some very worrisome, bits of speculation then.

The United States government, after the hostilities ended, decided the best way to prevent anybody who had bad intentions toward Georgia from succeeding was simply for Georgia to succeed. With our allies, we pulled together $4.5 billion dollars of assistance including $1 billion [on the part of the U.S.] was first suggested by then-Senator Biden. We fulfilled our pledge. We have been able to come up with the full $1 billion.  Together with the Georgian government and our allies, we have been able to reassure the banking system here and the markets in general so that the Georgian economy and banking system stabilized, and remain stable, and are both flourishing again. So, those people who may have had dark goals to try to undermine Georgia failed last year.

Last weekend there was a return to levels of tension, particularly with regard to South Ossetia. Thanks to the Geneva process, we’ve been able to develop some mechanisms that are intended to reduce tension in just these sorts of crises. The good news is that these mechanisms were used and convened last weekend. Georgia, South Ossetian representatives, the European Union, and UN representatives participated. Now the bad news was the Russian side was unable, or simply was not in a position, or decided not to participate in these mechanisms. As President Obama noted following his conversation with President Medvedev last Tuesday, it’s crucial that these mechanisms all be used whenever possible to reduce tension. Georgia has conducted its diplomacy in Geneva with skill, with respect, and helped us—working together with Russia, the E.U., the UN, and the OSCE—to develop these mechanisms that are crucial to maintaining stability. That is quite an achievement. We look forward to the next meeting of the Geneva process in mid-September.

But I’m not trying to paint a picture here of everything being fine in Georgia or everything being perfect. As Vice President Biden said when he was here, it is crucial for the government of Georgia, for the civil society of Georgia, for the opposition, for everyone, to work even harder to strengthen Georgia’s democratic institutions. Life will be “normal” and fully healthy here, as the Vice President described, once the institutions like Parliament play a stronger role, once judicial reform has advanced, once electoral reforms are in place, and once we see a stronger, more independent media. It’s everyone’s responsibility in Georgia to be working to strengthen democratic institutions, whether they are members of the opposition or the government.

As the Vice President noted, it’s a positive development that the political discussions and action have shifted from the streets—where we saw the residents of Tbilisi having had enough of the disruption—and are now shifting back to discussions between some members of the opposition and the government, back to Parliament, and back to the reform agenda. It’s time for serious people to conduct serious work on serious reforms.

It seems like that’s beginning to happen now. We welcome the participation of some opposition members in the recent National Security Council meeting. We welcome reports that at least one opposition leader, Irakli Alasania—but maybe not only—will meet with the Minister of Internal Affairs Vano Merabishvili in a couple of days. One of the most important issues they will discuss is reports of violence—which we anticipate will end, must end—and hope that this meeting will come up with a way to address these reports, these concerns, and lead to a decrease and an ending of them.

And finally, the last point I’d like to make in my opening statement is about who we support in Georgia.  I found it simply ridiculous to read and hear some of the things some of my colleagues on the more radical side of Georgia’s opposition were saying about me supposedly only supporting one person in this country. These people know better than that.

I’ve been working with many of them for many years even before the Rose Revolution, and right through the Rose Revolution, and afterward. They, like you, have seen me here probably more than any American official. Every time I’ve been here I’ve spent many hours with opposition leaders, with civil society leaders, and of course with the full range of governmental officials. Last year, when our first shipment of humanitarian assistance was coming in, there were reports that maybe the Tbilisi airport would be bombed when our plane landed, and I went to the airport with many of my colleagues here in this room.  Standing with Georgians, even under military threat, is to support everyone in this country—everyone who shares our values, who shares our strategic interests, and with whom, for over twelve years in my case, we’ve been working to develop a democratic system. So let me be clear in my final sentence: The United States and myself, as a U.S. official, supports Georgia; supports all the Georgian people; supports the development of political and economic freedom here, which sets Georgia apart. And we feel close to a wide range of Georgians, from every political grouping, from every ministry, from all across civil society, and from all political parties. I don’t know how I can be clearer than that. And we have a lot of work still to do together. Thank you.

Alright, please, I’m happy to take any questions if there’s anything left unsaid.

Question regarding Matt Bryza’s future plans. [Inaudible]

Bryza: I’m not sure. There have been all kinds of rumors in Washington about what my next job will be. It’s obviously up to our leadership. It’s up to, hopefully, the President, who nominates me to do something. I’m so grateful that I was able to work for President Obama and Secretary Clinton for six months—more than six months—into the new administration. Unlike some of those claims during the demonstrations, I’ve been doing the same job all this time. I hope, if I have a say in the decision, that I’ll be able to remain connected to the Caucasus in whatever I do, throughout my career. I’m finished in my capacity as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State. I have a great successor, Ambassador Tina Kaidanow, who has been our Ambassador to Kosovo. She should be at her, my former, desk right now for the first time. For a bit, I’m still going to work as co-chair of the Minsk Group.

Question regarding Russia and the six-point agreement ending the war last year. [Inaudible]

Bryza: Well, all the commitments clearly were not fulfilled by Russia on the basis of the August 12^th agreement.  Russia committed to remove its soldiers to the numbers and locations that were in effect before the war but has instead increased the numbers of troops deployed and moved them up to positions that are more aggressive, as in Akhalgori. We continuously raise this in our discussions with the Russian Federation. As you heard very clearly again from Vice President Biden, echoing the words of President Obama, the “restart” of U.S.-Russian relations will not come at the expense of deepening our strategic partnership with Georgia.

Last year when I was here, I made a few statements about how words really do matter. And there were words by our President at the time, by President Bush, that had an impact—I believed then and believe now—in stopping or convincing Russia to cease its military operations. We see the same forceful, clear, convincing statements from President Obama, as we just did this week in his conversation with President Medvedev.

On one hand, the outcome of the war was not great for Georgia in terms of its territories. On the other hand, Georgia has succeeded in moving forward, in gaining the support of the entire international community with the exception of two countries, Russia and Nicaragua. So our diplomatic efforts are definitely working.

Question regarding separatist regions and U.S. assistance. [Inaudible]

Bryza: In our view, the general approach of Georgia right now is the right one. Georgia is showing strategic patience, which means recognition that restoring its territorial integrity will take time; it will take effort, meaning serious reforms; and it will take support from its friends. Georgia has that support, not only in terms of money, but also through our very clear policy that we simply will not ever recognize the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Over time, to succeed in this strategic patience approach, as the Vice President said, Georgia needs to make itself as attractive as possible for its separatist regions. And to do so, it needs to accelerate, deepen, and strengthen its economic and democratic reforms. That’s the secret to the success.

There’s no need at this point to talk about more money. The Georgian economy is stable. It’s time now to develop the best possible programs to use this very large infusion of money from the international community. So let’s let Georgia be successful, let the reforms go forward. There’s no sense speculating about assistance levels today. Thank you.

Question regarding the nature of the U.S.-Georgian relationship. [Inaudible]

Bryza: U.S. policy does not focus on any individual person—whether in the opposition or in the government—regardless of how fond we may be of a person, or not so fond of a person. As I mentioned before, we support Georgia, all the Georgian people, and the development of democracy here in Georgia, which makes Georgia significant in a strategic sense. For the last eight years that I’ve been so actively involved in Georgia policy, either at the White House or at the State Department, our view all the way through has been  that besides energy pipelines and realpolitik considerations, it is democracy that holds the greatest hope to elevate Georgia’s strategic importance to the United States. We ask ourselves often:  If democracy cannot succeed in Georgia, where else in this neighborhood, on the borderlands of the broader Middle East, can it succeed? So, with all due respect to those experts that pose that question, they simply are completely unaware of how U.S. policy has been formed for these last many years and what our objectives are. Very often when people are ignorant of the facts, they speculate, and that’s what’s happening here, unfortunately. Not by you, I mean by the people who said these things. I think if you were to have an honest conversation with some of the, not the so-called experts, but with the opposition leaders here in Georgia, who’ve been around for a while, all of them, if they were honest, could recount hours and hours and hours of meetings we’ve had together….

Question regarding U.S. defense training and Afghanistan. Question regarding conditions of future aid. [Inaudible]

Bryza: We are indeed grateful that Georgia has offered a battalion to fight with us, with the coalition, in Afghanistan. By offering to be a provider of security rather than a consumer of security in this way, Georgia is making the ultimate gesture of partnership that any country can offer to another, which is the potential lives of its soldiers—its people.

So we will indeed provide training and assistance to these Georgian soldiers who will be putting their lives on the line in pursuit of our shared strategic interests and our common values. And anybody who is rational will be pleased that the United States is helping Georgia to develop its professional force, except for the Taliban and other targets that will be fighting against these Georgian forces and our coalition.

But what we are not doing is simply coming up with a plan to provide a large number of new weapons that will be deployed here in Georgia. No. We are training and then providing the equipment Georgian forces will need in and on the ground in Afghanistan. Ultimately, Russia shares our interest in defeating terrorism in Afghanistan, of course.

On the assistance, there is a universal conditionality. Meaning that, as long as Georgia is on this path of expanding political and economic freedom through serious reforms, our partnership will continue to deepen and our encouragement of those reforms will also continue—and there needs to be more work done now to rejuvenate many of these reforms.

We are pleased that the President [Saakashvili] has made some pledges, including during Vice President Biden’s visit. And of course, we expect those pledges to be honored and are willing to help in any way we can through our assistance. And as I mentioned before, we are pleased that some members of the opposition have decided to sit down and think through and work out these reforms in a serious way. Whether there will be more specific types of conditionality is a question I’d rather leave to those people in Washington who work where I used to and it will ultimately be a decision that our President and our Congress will take together. But as Milton Friedman once legendarily said, “There’s no such thing as a free lunch.”

Question regarding regional issues.  [Inaudible]

Bryza:  No I don’t think there’s any reason to anticipate any tension other than at the negotiating table between Armenia and Azerbaijan. There simply is no military solution to that conflict. And the presidents have moved quite a long way during the course of the three years I’ve been involved, to develop a framework agreement that is fair, is balanced, and incorporates the three key principles of the Helsinki Final Act. They are: territorial integrity, self-determination of nations, and non-use of force. It’s not helpful if one side or another feels there is a threat to use force. But we’ve been pleased by President Aliyev’s statements in recent weeks, especially in early July, when he described some of the elements of the basic principles that we’ve been negotiating over the last few years. We welcome such efforts to prepare Azerbaijan’s population for a peaceful settlement, just as we welcome the efforts of Armenian President Sargsian to discuss what we have proposed with various political groupings in Armenia. I’ve just come from Yerevan where I spent a lot of time talking to President Sargsian, Foreign Minister Nalbandian, and Defense Minister Ohanian. Tomorrow I will leave for Baku where I will do the same with their Azerbaijani counterparts, with President Aliyev, with Foreign Minister Mammadyarov, and with Defense Minister Abiyev. This mission is all about taking the ideas of the co-chairs developed in Krakow, Poland, two weeks ago, that update the proposal we put on the table in Madrid in November 2007. That update reflects serious, constructive, but tough negotiations between the two presidents over the past year. These are negotiations about a peaceful settlement, not about a war.

Thank you.