Rice to conduct bridge-building tour of Europe
New US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice will travel to eight European countries and the Middle East next week, in her first foreign trip as America’s top diplomat.
The State Department said Rice would visit nine countries and the West Bank.
She will visit Britain, Germany, Italy, France, Belgium and Luxembourg in western Europe, plus Poland and Turkey. The Middle East stop includes Israel and the West Bank. She will be gone for a week.
Among her goals are mending relations with US allies in Europe and assessing prospects for Arab-Israeli negotiations.
In France, Rice plans to give her first major speech as Secretary of State.
President George Bush also plans a trip to Europe later in February, and Rice’s visit helps prepare the way.
“She intends to promote President Bush’s vision of democracy and freedom as the keys to peace and prosperity,” State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said.
“She will work to identify a common agenda for 2005 with our European partners and our partners in the Middle East, an agenda of fighting terrorism, proliferation, disease and poverty, as we support democracy in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere.”
Boucher said Rice would discuss Nato and separate European government help for training for Iraqi security forces.
He gave no precise details of the dates of each stop.
