State Dept. Daily Press Briefing

Official White House Photo

Ian kelly briefed the press on a broad range of issues including the Secretary’s upcoming trip to India and the spreading violence in China and the crisis in Honduras.

Excerpts from the Q&A below (with random pics not necessarily having anything to do with the presser today. Just because I can.)

On Secretary Clinton’s schedule:

MR. KELLY:  Okay.  Well, good afternoon.  Just a few things at the top – update on the Secretary’s schedule.

As you saw on her schedule, she had a number of activities that were closed to the press.  She hosted a breakfast this morning for congressional leaders.  It gave her an opportunity to preview her trip to India and also get some feedback from these senior congressional leaders on our views on India and on the trip.  She took the opportunity, of course, to highlight the growing strategic partnership that we have with India and our broad strategic – or our broad bilateral agenda.  Right now, she’s having lunch with a number of senior foreign policy experts – these are all from think tanks and related academic institutions – for an exchange of views on events going on.

And then, I think as you know, at 2:30 today in this room, we’re going to have a Senior State Department Official to brief you all on background on the recent interagency delegation that went to China and Malaysia to discuss the implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1874.

So with that fascinating information, I’ll be glad to take your questions.

QUESTION:  Yeah, who – what senior leaders from the Hill were at this breakfast?

MR. KELLY:  Well, it was – you had both chairmen from both houses of Congress of the foreign affairs committees.  So you had –

QUESTION:  Kerry and Berman?

MR. KELLY:  Kerry and Berman, thank you, as well as – I’m just looking for – I have the complete list here.

QUESTION:  All right.  Well, maybe – can you put it out maybe later?

MR. KELLY:  We can put it out, yeah, rather than name all of them.

QUESTION:  And also for this lunch as well?

MR. KELLY:  I don’t know if I can give you the names for the lunch, but I’ll see.

QUESTION:  Well, what topic does she – is it a specific –

MR. KELLY:  I think it’s just a broad exchange.

…[snip]…

On the Secretary’s congressional breakfast ad upcoming trip to India

MR. KELLY:  Lach.

QUESTION:  On the congressional breakfast –

MR. KELLY:  Yeah.

QUESTION:  — did she raise issues like nuclear sales to Delhi and also possible defense contracts that are coming up?  Secretary Rice talked about both these things.

MR. KELLY:  Yeah.  Well, I think it was a pretty broad discussion, but I’m not prepared to talk about details besides previewing her trip and talking about a number of issues on the bilateral agenda.

QUESTION:  Just to follow up?

MR. KELLY:  Yeah.

QUESTION:  Ian, I think this may be the first time ever the Secretary of State had high-level meetings with congressional leaders before traveling to India, or as far as – at least India.  Why there’s some kind of urgency or something important to discuss that she had to make aware of for those congressional leaders?  Or some kind of major impact is going to happen in India during her visit, or some kind of memorandum or signing or –

MR. KELLY:  Yeah.  Well, I mean, it’s – as she said yesterday, this is – she’s really looking forward to her trip.  We have a very important relationship with India.  It’s a strategic partnership.  What she wanted to do is have an opportunity to share with these senior leaders in both the House of Representatives and the Senate, who – these senior leaders who deal with foreign affairs issues, to give them an idea of what our latest thinking is on where this relationship is going, and talk about her trip, and then, of course, get the benefit of their views as well before she goes out on this important trip.

…

Pres. Zelaya of Honduras

On the situation in Honduras:

QUESTION:  Can we go to Honduras, please?

MR. KELLY:  Honduras.

QUESTION:  During the Valenzuela hearing today, some senators were questioning whether the U.S. was a little bit ahead of the process in Honduras on the change of power, that with more information coming to light, maybe it’s legit.  Any change in position here from this podium?

MR. KELLY:  Well, I think you heard the Secretary yesterday.  We’re very encouraged by the fact that President Arias of Costa Rica has agreed to act as a mediator.  We were glad to play a role in that.  This decision emerged from discussions that we’ve had with a number of partners in the OAS, and we think it’s appropriate, of course, for President Arias to serve in this role.  He is a Nobel Peace Prize winner, and Costa Rica now holds the six-month rotating presidency of SICA, the Central American Integration System.  I think you probably have seen reports that the first meeting will take place tomorrow in Costa Rica.  President Zelaya and the head of the de facto regime, Roberto Micheletti, have both stated they’ll attend.  And we hope through this mechanism there’ll be a peaceful resolution of this conflict.

QUESTION:  On the timing and the tone, however, does the U.S., in retrospect, wish it was more circumspect and waited for more developments, or any sense that –

MR. KELLY:  No, I – we are – as I say, we are very encouraged by this development that we now have a dialogue in place that has a real promise of resolving this through dialogue between the conflicting parties.

Yeah.

On the crisis in China:

QUESTION:  Today, the president of China, who – he returned to China because of the continued riots in Xinjiang, and yesterday you said you were trying to sort out the facts as best you could.  Has there been any sorting out of those facts by the State Department?

MR. KELLY:  Well, we remain – as the Secretary said yesterday, we remain deeply concerned about this situation.  We find – we’re very concerned by the amount of violence that we’ve seen.  We continue to call on all parties there to exercise restraint.

In terms of an update, we haven’t gotten any reports of any new large-scale violence in Urumqi today, and we have observed that the police are maintaining a high security profile.

We – as I say, we’re – we think that all sides should refrain from violence.  And we think that while it’s important that the Chinese authorities act to restore order and prevent further violence, we hope their actions will reflect respect for the legal rights of all Chinese citizens.

Yeah, Lach.

QUESTION:  Do you see the deployment of troops there, Chinese troops there as a way to stabilize the situation, or does it provoke more worries among the U.S.?

MR. KELLY:  Well, as I say, what we’re focused on now is getting the violence – we want to see the violence stop.  We want to see all sides exercise restraint.  And as I say, we hope that as this goes forward, that the legal rights of all citizens will be respected.

QUESTION:  So you don’t want to comment on the deployment of troops, per se?

MR. KELLY:  Well, I don’t want to comment on – I mean, obviously, the Chinese authorities have to act to restore order.  But I don’t want to – I mean, I just don’t have enough information to be able to comment on the quantity of troops on the ground or anything like that.

QUESTION:  On that subject, is the U.S. – what level of U.S. officials might be on the ground there, in our own –

MR. KELLY:  I believe that we have somebody from the Embassy on the ground there, but I’m not entirely certain.  I know that at least yesterday, we had somebody on the ground there.

QUESTION:  Was that a diplo officer or a consular officer?

MR. KELLY:  No, I am not sure.  I’m not sure, Nick.  I know that we’re – we’ve been in contact, our consular officials have been in contact with all American citizens who are in Xinjiang, and all have reported in, and all are safe.

QUESTION:  And did – has the Embassy asked for – not an explanation, but at least some clarity by the Chinese Government of what exactly is happening?  And have you seen reports about the Chinese blocking Facebook and other social network websites to prevent the spread of information about what’s –

MR. KELLY:  Well, I think on the first part of your question, we have been in contact through our chargé in Beijing to try and get more information.  I mentioned yesterday that we raised this with the vice foreign minister a couple days ago, with Mr. Wu Dawei.

On the issue of – on – I mean, we’ve – on the issue of restriction of access to the internet and other information sources, I mean, we’ve seen reports of this, and of course, we – we’re always concerned about any kind of restrictions on free flow of information.

Yeah.

QUESTION:  Well, the situation really must be bad if the Chinese president had to cut his trip and go back to China.

MR. KELLY:  Yeah.

QUESTION:  And also they’re forcing – or restoring order by force and not honoring the human rights, freedom of press, freedom of religion and all those kind of things.  But does the U.S. Government or the State Department supports democracy in China –

MR. KELLY:  We support democracy everywhere.

QUESTION:  — like elsewhere around the world?

MR. KELLY:  I mean, we support freedom of expression, we support freedom of assembly, freedom of worship everywhere.  But right now, what we – we’re focused on the fact that there has been quite a bit of violence, and we want to see – we do want to see restraint exercised by both sides.

QUESTION:  Well, I mean, once again, like supporting freedom of – freedom, the people are seeking freedom.  Are you supporting freedom?

MR. KELLY:  We – I mean, as I said, we will stand with those who support democracy.

QUESTION:  I’m sorry.

MR. KELLY:  Yes.

QUESTION:  Is there still no comment on the fact that there’s a lot of finger-pointing at Rebiya Kadeer?

MR. KELLY:  No.  We have absolutely no comment on that.

Yes.

QUESTION:  Anything to say about the freedom of religion in the province, Xinjiang province?  I know that the Department’s –

MR. KELLY:  I have nothing – yeah.  I don’t have any information on – you mean on –

QUESTION:  The State Department’s –

MR. KELLY:  — repressions against — yeah.  No, I don’t have any information on that.

QUESTION:  You’ve criticized it in a report on religious freedom –

MR. KELLY:  Yeah.

QUESTION:  — in the past, so –

MR. KELLY:  But I don’t – in regards to this situation, I don’t have any information.

Yes.

QUESTION:  Do you have any comment on Uighur claims that China is underreporting the number of deaths from the riots on the Uighur side?

MR. KELLY:  We just don’t have really enough information right now.  And I don’t have any comment about specific claims of casualties.