Transcript: Rice Remarks En Route to Belgium

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice offered remarks about the ongoing conflict between Russia and Georgia and other matters while aboard an aircraft en route to Brussels, Belgium today.  Below is a transcript of both her comments and the question-and-answer session with reporters that followed: SECRETARY RICE: Hello. Good morning, everyone. All right, well, welcome aboard. Can you hear back there okay? Can everybody hear? All right. We’re going to hold a meeting of the North Atlantic Council. This is an opportunity for NATO to review the situation in Georgia and to make an initial response to what has occurred in Georgia. Let me say that we continue to be focused on the immediate task of assuring that the Russian President honors the commitment that he undertook to the European presidency to have the withdrawal of Russian forces begin as of today. And it is our very strong view that it didn’t take that long for Russian forces to get in; it really shouldn’t take tha...