SECRETARY POWELL: Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. It was my great pleasure to receive the President of Yugoslavia, President Kostunica, this afternoon, and we had a good conversation. I began our conversation by extending my heartiest congratulations and expression of my admiration to him and his colleagues for what they have achieved over the last six or so months in Yugoslavia and in Belgrade, and encouraged him to keep moving in the direction of democracy and economic freedom, and indicated to him that he would continue to enjoy the strong support of the United States. He received similar assurances from President Bush and Vice President Cheney and Dr. Rice earlier today.
We had a candid discussion of the situation in the region, the situation in Kosovo and Montenegro and Macedonia, and of course we had a good candid conversation on the International Criminal Tribunal for Yugoslavia and the expectations we have for that tribunal. And I went through the process of certification with the President that I went through at the end of March to make my certification with conditions to the Congress, and I indicated to him that the donors conference and our participation in the donors conference was part of that conditioning, and I looked forward to seeing what else Yugoslavia will be doing in the weeks ahead that will allow me to make a judgment with respect to releasing that condition or whether or not I have been able to satisfy that condition in a way that satisfies the law.
But, on balance, it was an excellent discussion and I would now invite the President to say a few words, if you choose to. Mr. President.
PRESIDENT KOSTUNICA: Mr. Secretary of State, thank you very much. It was an interesting discussion that we had. I informed Mr. Powell about the situation in the region, including the problems being solved or controlled at the south of Serbia, problems with our legal framework for transition on a Serb government in Kosovo, as well as the relations within Yugoslav Federation.
We have been encouraged by understanding in detail and support for the efforts of new authorities in Yugoslavia to find democratic solutions, to give priority to political dialogue in all the cases when it comes to the south of Serbia -- relations between Serbia and Montenegro, redefining Yugoslav federal state -- which is of utmost importance for the stability in the region.
We have discussed a number of other issues, including complying with our international requirements. I am talking about ICTY. And we are trying and we defined something at this moment is our point of view, our conception. It is that cooperation with The Hague Tribunal is something that is necessary for this country, being a member of United Nations, and behaving as a good member of the international community.
In that respect, we expect that in quite a short time Yugoslav Government is going to adopt -- or prepare a law on the cooperation with The Hague Tribunal, and in quite a short time also after that the Yugoslav parliament would adopt that law. That will make our cooperation with The Hague Tribunal legally regulated, easier, based on firm legal principles.
Of course, nothing is so easy in the situation in which we are. We are facing other problems, the problems of very important donors conference, United States taking part and supporting that conference. We have been discussing that matter. It is in some, of course, connection with the problem with our cooperation with The Hague Tribunal. Those are the matters that we are going to discuss, to think it over.
What is my basic impression after talks with President Bush, Vice President Cheney and Dr. Rice is that we are entering really a new, very important stage in Yugoslav-American relations and that we should be encouraged by that what has been achieved right now and what we are waiting for.
Thank you very much.