[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 12]
[House]
[Page 17948]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]


[[Page 17948]]

                     A NEW RELATIONSHIP WITH RUSSIA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Weldon) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. WELDON of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, tonight I rise to applaud 
those colleagues of ours who will join me tomorrow, equally divided 
between both sides of the aisle. Ten of our colleagues will join me as 
we travel to Moscow. The purpose of our trip is to lay the foundation 
for a new relationship with the Russian people and the Russian 
Government.
  Over the past 2 months, we have worked out an in-depth assessment of 
a way to engage the Russian people. Not to pour massive amounts of 
American money into Russia, because that is not the answer, but ways to 
continue to support those efforts that are already underway by private 
foundations, by nonprofit groups, by academic institutions, and, in 
some cases, by governmental entities.
  The document and the process that will be speaking to our Russian 
counterparts will include a new era of engaging Russia, the culture, 
the economy, the environment, justice and legal system, health care, 
science and technology, defense and security, agriculture, space, local 
government and energy.
  Today, I had a chance to brief our colleagues on the other side of 
the Capitol in both parties, and the White House and the National 
Security Council as well. This new initiative is designed to create a 
new era of opportunity for us where Americans and Russians can work 
together. We will also be providing an opportunity for the Russian 
Parliament, the Duma, and the Federation Council to enact a piece of 
legislation that I will be introducing in the Congress, and they are 
identical, that calls for a joint task force on terrorism, a 
legislative task force that has Russian members of the Duma and the 
Federation Council working with Members of the Congress and the Senate, 
the House and the Senate. This will follow and support the efforts of 
our two Presidents. Our meetings will include senior leaders of the 
Duma, members of the Federation Council, the Minister of Interior for 
Russia, and members of President Putin's leadership in terms of 
security and foreign policy and the other major issues that we will be 
dealing with.
  We will leave Moscow on Saturday and travel to Rome where we have 
planned meetings with the King of Afghanistan, who is in exile, and 
leaders of the opposition forces in that country. We will be extending 
our best wishes and our praise to the King as he attempts to reunify 
the people of that troubled country and to let him know that Americans 
do not have a problem with the Afghan people, that we want to be their 
friends.
  We will leave Rome and travel on to Turkey where we will meet with 
the leadership of the Turkish Government, letting them know that we 
appreciate their support and solidarity with the U.S. and the allies, 
that we appreciate the work of the Turkish military, and that we 
appreciate their friendship during this troubled time.
  I look forward to the trip. Our colleagues are giving up time that 
they could be home with their constituents. It is an important role 
they are playing to support our President in his effort to have a 
unified world in eradicating the terrorism that has done so much 
devastation here in this country in this past month.
  So I thank our colleagues for being involved in this process. We will 
issue a report upon our return, giving the response by the various 
parties that we meet and making recommendations back to our colleagues 
about future actions.

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