Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld traveled to several countries over the weekend, meeting with his counterparts and leaders in each.

America’s top Defense official visited Russia, Tajikistan Uzbekistan

Rumsfeld met with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov on Friday in preparation for talks between U.S. President George W. Bush and Putin.

“Discussions between the Untied States and Russia have been proceeding along and they’re heading toward the meetings between President Bush and President Putin in New York, Washington and then Crawford (Texas),” Rumsfeld told reporters on his way to Moscow on Friday. “It’s useful we think to have some of the underbrush cleared away and to try help further crystallize a few of the issues that remain.”

Rumsfeld explained that there were several issues that the countries needed to discuss.

“There are any number of political, economic and security issues,” Rumsfeld said. “It’s an important relationship to the United States and to Russia, and the discussions have been going on at various levels in various departments.”

Ivanov commented on the role of Russia in the coalition of countries battling terrorism.

“I’m asked by the media virtually every day if Russian troops will participate in the Afghanistan operation or not,” Ivanov added. “I say no, day after day, and I want to say that no one of our partners asks us to take such a step.”

Rumsfeld’s met with Foreign Minister Talbak Nazarov on Saturday to discuss the use of bases in Tajikistan for coalition forces. Both sides say that no agreement has yet been reached, but that the talks are moving forward.

“The discussions are going forward. There will be assessments made as to what might be appropriate, and then those discussions will proceed,” Rumsfeld told reporters on Saturday. “All I can say is that we just had a very fine and forthcoming discussion.”

Nazarov agreed, but declined to elaborate on the talks.

“We are talking about the assessment by experts of the future cooperation,” Nazarov said.

Tajikistan borders Afghanistan, as does Uzbekistan, where Rumsfeld met with leaders on Sunday to secure relations with the former Soviet republic.

Rumsfeld would not comment on whether the visits were aprecursor to operations involving the countries.

“I think trying to interpret visits of government officials to other countries in terms of what that might or might not mean for operations would be a mistake and I would caution people against it,” Rumsfeld said. “We allow those countries to characterize the kind of assistance they’re providing rather than our trying to characterize it. So I think it’s a mistake to think that one can read what we might or might not do from these kinds of trips.”

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