"Crimea is part of the Ukraine. Crimea is Ukraine. And we support the territorial integrity of Ukraine, and the government of Ukraine needs to be involved in any decision" on whether the peninsula would split off, he told journalists in Rome.
Voice of Russia, AFP
http://voiceofrussia.com/news/2014_03_06/Kerry-says-Crimea-is-Ukraine-after-lawmakers-vote-to-join-Russia-6751/
6/3/14
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- Press Availability in Rome.-John Kerry...
SECRETARY KERRY: (In Italian.) Good evening, everybody. It’s a great pleasure for me to be back in Rome. I’m especially pleased to be here in Rome at a time when Italy is making a transition in a – with a new government and making progress, important progress, on growing its economy and tackling unemployment. Tonight, I will have the pleasure of meeting with Italy’s new foreign minister, Foreign Minister Mogherini, and I’m hopeful – we were supposed to also be joined by the prime minister, but he’s on his way back from Brussels, may be a little bit delayed, but we hope he can make it.
I want to assure our Italian friends that the United States intends to continue to deepen our economic and security partnership with this government, including our shared commitment to negotiating an ambitious transatlantic trade and partnership – investment partnership agreement. We believe that such an agreement would be enormously helpful to all of our economies – good for Europe, good for the United States. It will create jobs. It can help create wealth. And at this time, the global economy needs that kind of trade partnership. President Obama, as you know, will be here shortly at the end of March, and I look forward to joining him here at that time in order to talk about these valuable partnerships and many other issues..........
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.........MS. HARF: Great, thank you. The first question is from Elise Labott of CNN.
QUESTION: Thank you, Mr. Secretary. You said that the Ukrainian people have the right to determine their own future. Does that include the people of Crimea? Don’t they have the right to determine their own future? Are there any conditions under which the U.S. might accept a referendum as part of the solution?
And then on your meeting with Foreign Minister Lavrov, Minister Fabius said that he’s forming this contact group and that the Russians might agree. Did you talk about this with the minister, and do you see this as a useful mechanism that might happen in the coming days?
And lastly, I’m wondering if you talked to him about the fact that he told you last week that the exercises that the Russians were doing had nothing to do with Ukraine. We now know that that was a pretext to mask the Russian intervention.
SECRETARY KERRY: What was the first part of that question? I’m sorry.
QUESTION: Well, we understand that --
SECRETARY KERRY: We now know what?
QUESTION: Well, we know that the – this exercise did have a lot to do with the Ukraine and perhaps it was a pretext for Russia to go into the Crimea. I’m just wondering – you’ve invested a lot in your relationship with Minister Lavrov, and I’m wondering if you feel misled by him at all and whether you spoke with him about that. Thank you.
SECRETARY KERRY: Well, let me take the first part of that question. Crimea is part of Ukraine. Crimea is Ukraine. And we support the territorial integrity of Ukraine, and the Government of Ukraine needs to be involved in any kind of decision with respect to any part of Ukraine. Any referendum on Ukraine is going to have to be absolutely consistent with Ukrainian law. And it’s my understanding that the constitution of Ukraine requires all – requires an all-Ukraine referendum; in other words, every part of Ukraine, all Ukrainians, would have to be part of a referendum with respect to the territory of Ukraine. So therefore, the proposed referendum would violate the constitution of Ukraine and international law and the sovereignty of Ukraine itself.
QUESTION: But if it was a Ukraine-wide referendum --
SECRETARY KERRY: If it were – if it adheres to the constitution of Ukraine, it’s up to Ukrainians to define that. It’s not up to the United States or Russia to make that decision. Ukrainians need to live by Ukrainian law and according to the constitution, and their constitution would require precisely what I just said. So that is, I think, critical to anything that would flow.
Secondly, with respect to a contact group and where we’re proceeding, frankly, I think everybody has been working to put a contact group together. I think it’s been a general assumption of all of us in unity that we would like to see if a contact group can be put together. And I think that the key here is whether or not that is going to be something that will work in the context of Russia’s willingness to do this, and obviously Ukrainian views about this.
Thus far, the Ukrainian Government has expressed their desire to have the support of a contact group, providing, of course, that the government – that Russia is dealing with them in that context. This can’t be in lieu of the respect for the existing Government of Ukraine, and we don’t intend for it to be, and none of us who have been part of the discussions about a contact group view this as anything except supportive of the process. But I believe there is a way to structure this, and that is obviously part of what we are now engaged in discussions with Russia through Foreign Minister Lavrov and to Mr. Putin.
With respect to the relationship with Foreign Minister Lavrov, it’s professional, as all of my relationships are with any foreign minister. There are moments in the course of a meeting over a year where you may be able to laugh at something, and there are moments where you disagree and disagree very strongly. And we work professionally, both of us, to represent our countries, represent our point of views, and try to get the work of diplomacy done.
This is obviously a moment where we have disagreement, as we do on some other issues. But where we can, we try to find a way forward, whether it’s been on chemical weapons in Syria or with respect to Iran and P5+1, or the enforcement of the START treaty and other kinds of issues, Afghanistan and other things.
So we will continue to work in a professional manner in order to try to resolve those issues that come to us and to try to do so in a way that advances the global interests of peace and stability and security. And that’s what I’m trying to do.
So another question..................http://www.state.gov/secretary/remarks/2014/03/223046.htm
6/3/14
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