1st Statement

Before we begin, I would like to pay my respects to the families of the soldiers who were killed in the devastating attack on the Incirlik military base yesterday morning.  The Russian Government strongly condemns this terrorist attack perpetrated against the Turkish people.  We Russians have been victims of Muslim fundamentalist Terrorism, and we still mourn the death of our children at Beslan, and more recently in Moscow.  It is our goal to eliminate this scourge from all corners of the globe.  For the past few days, I have been in Turkey, meeting with Prime Minister Erdogan, and I want to reaffirm our commitment to expanding our economic and political relationship with Turkey.  We will continue our mutual plans for the construction of two new oil-pipelines, and for a new civilian nuclear reactor on Turkish soil.  I have also reaffirmed to Prime Minister Erdogan that Russia will continue to pursue a multidimensional strategic political partnership with Turkey.  At the Prime Minister’s request, I’ve agreed to mediate negotiations between Armenia and Azerbaijan in the Nagorno-Karabakh area to further peace in that region.  We would like to turn attention as well to the NPT, which was the original reason for the current UN meetings.  We continue to support the treaty, and stress its importance to preserving peace while allowing proper civilian nuclear development.  With mutual cooperation from all signatories, we can ensure that the next attack isn’t a nuclear one, and we can prevent a nuclear arms race in the Middle East.  We have long condemned NATO expansion in Turkey, as we believe it is detrimental to our legitimate security interests.  In addition, it stokes the flames of fundamentalism, and further impedes negotiations between Israel and Palestine.  We would not have wanted the suspension of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, and we continue to encourage the resumption of direct negotiations in hopes that a viable two state solution can be reached.  I ask the other countries to join me in eliminating the Fundamentalist threat of terrorism, and I will now open the floor to questions.