Robert Wood
Acting Department Spokesman
Daily Press Briefing
March 19, 2009
EXCERPT
...
QUESTION: Can you discuss the apparent decision by the United States to
attend the Shanghai group meeting, and whether Patrick Moon is actually
going to meet with an Iranian there?
MR. WOOD: Yeah, my understanding is that Principal Deputy Assistant
Secretary for South and Central Asian Affairs Patrick Moon is planning
to attend this Shanghai Cooperation Organization conference in Moscow on
the 27th of March. It's a conference about Afghanistan and its
neighbors. And as you know, we're not a member or - nor do we send
observers to this conference. But it's an important one. We were
invited. Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary Moon is going to go, and
we look forward to attending.
QUESTION: This group was sort of cast as a grouping that was set up
originally, I think, to kind of counter U.S. influence in that region.
Is that over now?
MR. WOOD: Well, look, the reason why we think it's important to go to
this conference is that it's about Afghanistan and how, you know, the
international community can try to better the situation on the ground,
better coordinate our activities, see what types of things we can do
together to help, you know, make things better for the people of
Afghanistan. So we view it as important. Even though we're not a member,
we're not an observer, we think it's important, we're glad we were
invited, and we look forward to attending and, hopefully, we can get
something constructive out of this conference.
QUESTION: Robert, it is my understanding that the Russians actually
invited - I mean, they invited members - all NATO members, all members
of the G-8, members of the OSCE who are non-member - who are
non-members, non-observers to the Shanghai group. Do you know if the
U.S. was invited? The U.S. is a member of all three of those - the G-8,
OSCE, and NATO. Do you have any idea if the invitation to the U.S. was
extended on - through its membership in one of those groups or was it
extended separately?
MR. WOOD: It could very well have been. I don't know. I just know that
we received that invitation from the SCO. I just - I don't know, to be
honest.
We'll get to you. Did you want to stay on this?
QUESTION: Yeah.
MR. WOOD: Please.
QUESTION: What sort of plans are there at that conference for any
contact with Iran?
MR. WOOD: Well, there are no plans for any substantive meetings with
Iran. You know, it's not unusual for U.S. and Iranian officials to, you
know, cross paths during a multilateral meeting, so I'm not going to
rule anything in or rule anything out. It is a conference about
Afghanistan and its neighbors. Iran is certainly a neighbor of
Afghanistan, and so we'll see. But as I said, there are no planned
substantive meetings with the Iranians.
...
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