Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice

So I think that the interesting thing here is the degree to which we and the Russians work together. Yes, there are disappointments about the current course of some of the internal policies of Russia, and I have had an opportunity to not just raise this publicly, which I did when I was in Russia, but to have extensive discussions with the entire range of people in the Russian government, including the president, about the future course of democratic development in Russia. But do I expect in six months to have changed the course of development in Russia? No. No, I don't. That is a -- it's a big and complicated place and over time I think that Russia will find that democratic development is the only way that Russia becomes what Russia wants to be.

So I know that it's hard for people to believe when I say I really am not sitting and chalking up successes and failures, but it's just not how I see this job. When I look at the -- have you ever looked at the secretaries along my wall? Jefferson. He was the first secretary. Everybody has Jefferson on the wall. But Marshall. I think if you looked at what Marshall faced in '46 and '47 and '48 or '49, or what -- how it looked -- I'm sorry -- how the outcomes looked at that point in time of what Marshall put in place in '47, they might not have looked so great; or Dean Acheson, who I think is an underrated secretary of state.

So what I'll try to do while I'm here is to make progress toward big strategic goals, lay some foundation, hopefully resolve some problems and leave it to the next secretary of state to keep moving forward.

MS. WRIGHT: Can we switch to some of the hot spots?

SECRETARY RICE: Sure.

MS. WRIGHT: Specific hot spots. Syria is one that's --

SECRETARY RICE: But do I get to answer the other part of Glenn's question?

MS. WRIGHT: Sure.

SECRETARY RICE: You asked me about policy.

MR. KESSLER: Yeah, we -- yeah. Good.

SECRETARY RICE: I do think that what we -- that we have been able to unify our policies with the Europeans on Iran. I think that's very important. I think there is a new centering of the five parties around a common approach to North Korea for the six-party talks to restart. I think we have with the appointment of Jim Wolfensohn and General Ward engaged the Gaza withdrawal in a way that gives international support to what is going to be obviously a very difficult process. And probably, to my mind, the most important thing is that we had to do this, and I think we have, on the transatlantic relationship side, moved from analyzing how the transatlantic relationship is doing today to actually putting the transatlantic relationship to work on behalf of some great goals. It's pretty remarkable that you've got NATO airlifting into Darfur and you've got the kind of support that we've been able to garner with the French, a very strong relationship with the French on Lebanon, for instance. So I think, you know, there's been some progress.

MR. KESSLER: Planting the seeds?