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American Morning
Congressional Members to Visit Southern Asia
Aired January 03, 2002 - 08:16 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Well, some U.S. Senators are going to be traveling to Afghanistan and some other countries as well in the region, but why are they going there right now? And, what do they hope to accomplish once they do arrive?
Joining us now from Washington with some answers, we hope, is Nebraska Senator Chuck Hagel. He is one of those who is going to be making the trip. Good morning and happy new year to you.
SEN. CHUCK HAGEL (R), NEBRASKA: Thank you, sir.
HARRIS: Well, can you give us an idea of exactly what your plan is for this trip?
HAGEL: Well, Leon, what we want to do over about a seven-day period is visit six countries. Spend a little time with our troops, our commanders, let them know that we support them. There are people here in Washington representing the people of this country. A bipartisan delegation that we want to know how they're doing, we're with them.
Also, a little bit about what's ahead, what they think, get their evaluation, get a sense from them what -- what we need yet to accomplish, the difficulties in doing that. And then, of course, we want to spend some time with the leaders of these different countries that we'll be in. Talking to our coalition partners, talk about what's ahead for the development of a coalition government in Afghanistan. To help govern that country, help stabilize that region, phase two of the war on terrorism. All of these wrapped up into an overall objective of being there on the ground, making our own assessment, and lending support to our people and our allies.
HARRIS: All right. Walk us through the trip tic here. What other countries are you going to besides Afghanistan?
HAGEL: Well, obviously, I have to be a bit cautious on schedules and...
HARRIS: Understood.
HAGEL: ... so on, because of security. But we'll be in Turkey, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Oman. We are waiting for the clearance on getting into Afghanistan, which is normal, and we probably won't have that decision made until we are right there. And then we may try to get to another country or two, but right now, that's the itinerary.
HARRIS: Well that's quite -- that's quite an itinerary.
HAGEL: Yeah.
HARRIS: But when you get to Afghanistan, what are you prepared to tell the leaders there about what is coming next?
HAGEL: Well, we want to hear from them, Leon. We want to get the American commanders' -- our allied commanders' assessments on this. Leaders of the various coalitions that are representative of the temporary government there. Get their sense of where we should be focused, what our capabilities are, how far we should go. And I think this is very, very critical to keeping that coalition together that has been so successful in being able to accomplish so much in Afghanistan.
HARRIS: Yeah. Well two critical partners in this coalition have been Pakistan and India. When you stop in India what are you going to talk about there? Obviously, I'm sure you're going to be talking quite a bit about what's been happening with the tensions between India and Pakistan.
HAGEL: Well, yes. That's another dynamic of this trip that is very important, as well as the overall issues that we'll be dealing with concerning Afghanistan and the phase two of our war on terrorism. I think everyone understands that the tensions now are at a critical level between Pakistan and India. And anything that we could do in this bipartisan senate delegation to try to help President Bush and the other leaders of the world tamp that emotion down and help stabilize that part of the world, we will do. But we're somewhat limited in what we can do there.
But I think it is important to let both the governments of Pakistan and India know that this senate delegation is very much aware of what's going on over there. And many of the senior members of our delegation will have an awful lot to say about our future course.
HARRIS: Well, as you know, in the last few days or so, India has requested a number of people be arrested in Pakistan for the execution of that bombing at the Indian parliament. Some of them had been arrested in Pakistan, the Pakistanis have said. And some others they can't arrest because they don't think they've seen enough evidence of their involvement. And then we also get the word that there -- there has been some changes with the Pakistan security agency about -- of the groups they'll be supporting, that actually are protesting what's happening with -- in Kashmir. Are you satisfied that Pakistan has gone far enough in satisfying some of India's concerns here?
HAGEL: Leon, this is a very delicate, complicated problem. This has been going on really since 1947, as you know. India and Pakistan, they have fought three wars. You complicate it further with the terrorist dynamic that we are now fighting, and we are bringing this coalition together in a very unified way, as we have the last three months, to deal with terrorism. You've got the Middle East peace in this; you've got the borders to the north and China.
So this is a very murky, cloudy, delicate, complicated equation, and we have to work it through understanding that each of those dynamics has to be addressed. But the overall focus and the overall objective here is to -- is to bring some stability to that area, pull the parties apart, so that we can try to resolve this in a common sense, diplomatic way.
HARRIS: Yeah. Boy, they say timing is everything. It's a good thing this is happening now and not a couple of -- two months ago, this could have complicated matters even more dramatically. Senator Hagel, you're going to have quite a trip, and we'll be covering it. And we also wish you luck.
HAGEL: Thanks, Leon.
HARRIS: Safe travel to you.
HAGEL: Thank you.
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