For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
June 1, 2005
President and South African President Mbeki Discuss Bilateral Relations
The Oval Office
12:03 P.M. EDT
PRESIDENT BUSH: Mr. President, welcome back.
We've just had a wide-ranging discussion on very important issues.
We spent time talking about our bilateral relations. I would
characterize our bilateral relations as strong. We spent time talking
about the continent of Africa.
And, Mr. President, I want to thank you for your leadership. South
Africa is a great country. The President uses his position to not only
better the lives of his own people, but to work to bring stability and
peace to the region and to the continent.
We talked about several situations that are of concern to our
government, most notably Darfur. I want to thank you for your
leadership there. The President has got troops there. Deputy
Secretary Zoellick is on the way to Darfur. This is a serious
situation. As you know, former Secretary of State Colin Powell, with
my concurrence, declared the situation a genocide. Our government has
put a lot of money to help deal with the human suffering there.
Later on today I'll be meeting with the head of NATO, who has
agreed to help the AU position troops so that humanitarian aid can
reach these poor folks, as well as giving -- bringing stability and
hopefully some breathing room so there can be a political agreement.
But the President gave me some good advice on that situation, and I
want to thank you for that.
As well, we'll discuss, later on, ways to cooperate to make the
world a more peaceful place. But, Mr. President, again, I really
appreciate you coming. It's great to see you.
PRESIDENT MBEKI: Thank you very much, President. I must say thank
you very much, Mr. President, for asking us to come. And again I must
say I agree very much with the President about the state of the
relations between our two governments and the two countries. It is
very strong. And, Mr. President, I appreciate it very much the
commitment you have demonstrated now for some years with regard to
helping us to meet our own domestic South African challenges, as well
as the challenges on the African continent.
They are -- I'm afraid you have -- I'm going to create more
problems for you, President -- (laughter) -- because I'm going to ask
for even more support.
PRESIDENT BUSH: That's all right. (Laughter.)
PRESIDENT MBEKI: Because the contribution of the United States to
helping us solve the issues that lead to peace and security on the
continent, that contribution is very vital. The contribution,
President, to helping us in terms of the economic recovery and
development of the continent, particularly via NEPAD, is very
important.
And I -- we believe very strongly, President, that the upcoming G8
summit in Gleneagles in Scotland has the possibility to communicate a
very strong, positive message about movement on the African continent
away from poverty and the development -- these conflicts. And
clearly, your presence, Mr. President, in terms of the practical
outcomes, your contribution to the practical outcomes of the G8 summit
is critically important.
But thanks very much.
PRESIDENT BUSH: Thanks.
We'll answer a couple of questions, if that's all right. April.
Q Yes, Mr. President. First, for you -- what are your thoughts
about the fact that Deep Throat has been outed --
PRESIDENT BUSH: Yes -- (laughter.)
Q -- and also the fact, Mr. President, is he a hero in your
mind?
And, Mr. President, on the issue of Darfur, Sudan, a new survey
came out by the Zogby International Poll that finds 84 percent of
Americans polled feel that the U.S. should not tolerate an extremist
government committing such attacks and should use its military assets,
short of using military combat troops on the ground to protect
civilians there.
PRESIDENT BUSH: Let me first say something. We are working with
NATO to make sure that we are able to help the AU put combat troops
there. And as a part of that, I believe a transport plane of ours, for
example, will be a part of this mission.
I think later on today I'm going to speak to the Prime Minister of
Canada, who has also been very strong about dealing with Darfur, and I
will thank him for his contributions.
You know, there was an interesting revelation yesterday, Mr.
President, about a news story -- a massive news story that took place
when I was a pretty young guy. And to those of us who grew up in the
late -- got out of college in the late '60s, the Watergate story was a
relevant story, and a lot of us have always wondered who Deep Throat
might have been. And the mystery was solved yesterday.
Q Is he a hero?
PRESIDENT BUSH: He was -- it's hard for me to judge. I'm learning
more about the situation. All I can tell you is, is that it's -- it
was a revelation that caught me by surprise, and I thought it very
interesting. I'm looking forward to reading about it, reading about
his relationship with the news media. It's a brand-new story for a lot
of us who have been wondering a long time who it was. I knew it wasn't
you. (Laughter.) You weren't even born during that period.
Q I was, I was born. I was old enough.
PRESIDENT BUSH: Barely. That's a compliment, Mr. President.
(Laughter.)
PRESIDENT MBEKI: No, we -- our view has been that it's critically
important that the African continent should deal with these conflict
situations on the continent. And that includes Darfur. And therefore,
indeed, you will notice that we have not asked for anybody outside of
the African continent to deploy troops in Darfur. It's an African
responsibility and we can do it.
So what we've asked for is the necessary logistical and other
support to be able to ensure that we discharge our responsibilities. I
should say that. Even the first troops deployed in Darfur were from
Rwanda and Nigeria. The U.S. military forces sent the planes that
actually did the airlift of those forces to Darfur. That's the kind of
support I would ask for, and indeed, as the President has indicated, we
even went to NATO, who also agreed to support.
So I don't think it's -- certainly from the African perspective, we
wouldn't say we want deployment of U.S. troops in Darfur -- on the
continent. We've got the people to do this -- military, police, other
-- so long as we get this necessary logistical support. I think that's
what's critically important.
PRESIDENT BUSH: Do you want to call on somebody from your press
corps?
PRESIDENT MBEKI: Anybody?
Q President Bush, with about four weeks left to go to the G8
summit, do you still -- do you have any reservations about British
Prime Minister Tony Blair's Commission for Africa report, especially
with reference to the international finance facility?
PRESIDENT BUSH: We have made our position pretty clear on that,
that it doesn't fit our budgetary process. On the other hand, I've
also made it clear to the Prime Minister I look forward to working with
Great Britain and other countries to advance the African agenda that
has been on the G8's agenda for -- ever since I've been the
President.
And the President and I were talking about the positive steps that
have been taken. The NEPAD agreement was presented as a result of G8
meetings; commitment to trade, as well as humanitarian help have all
emerged as a result of the conversations through the G8, and
commitments as a result of the G8. And I hope to advance the agenda,
what I call the compassion agenda.
And by the way, the thing I appreciate about the President is he
understands it's a two-way street we're talking about. I mean,
countries such as ours are not going to want to give aid to countries
that are corrupt, or don't hold true to democratic principles, such as
rule of law and transparency and human rights and human decency.
That's where the President has played such a vital role, because South
Africa has been a stalwart when it comes to democratic institutions.
But, no, we've got more work to do. I'm looking forward to sitting
down not only at the table with the leaders from the G8 countries, but,
as well, with leaders from the continent of Africa -- and other
countries are coming. So it's going to be quite a meeting.
Keil.
Q Mr. President, looking back over the last year, you talked an
awful lot about the importance of free and fair elections in Iraq,
which most international observers now believe is what took place.
Given the lesson that you say that that leaves for the region, do you
think that Egypt is now on pace for the same free and fair elections?
And, if not, what do they need to do to get there?
PRESIDENT BUSH: That's an interesting question. I spoke to
President Mubarak today, and I -- he talked to me, by the way, about
him calling his attorney general to -- calling upon his attorney
general to investigate the disturbance around one of the polling
sites. And I urged him once again to have as free and fair election as
possible, because it will be a great legacy for his country. It will
be a -- he's publicly stated he's for free and fair elections, and now
is the time for him to show the world that his great country can set an
example for others. He assured me that that's just exactly what he
wants to do. And I will, to the best of my ability, continue to try to
convince him that it's in not only Egypt's interest, but the world's
interest, to see Egypt have free and fair elections.
Listen, the definition of free and fair, there's international
standards, of course, but people ought to be allowed to vote without
being intimidated; people ought to be allowed to be on TV, and if the
government owns the TV, they need to allow the opposition on TV; people
ought to be allowed to carry signs and express their displeasure or
pleasure; people ought to have every vote count. And those seem like
reasonable standards.
Q My colleague will ask the question.
PRESIDENT BUSH: It's a relay. (Laughter.)
Q Mr. President, does your administration still regard Zimbabwe
as an "outpost of tyranny"?
And, President Mbeki, do you still regard that as an unhelpful
characterization?
PRESIDENT BUSH: I brought up Zimbabwe. It's -- obviously, we are
concerned about a leadership that does not adhere to democratic
principles, and, obviously, concerned about a country that was able to,
for example, feed herself, now has to import food, as an example of the
consequence of not adhering to democrat principles.
The President, who has been very much involved in this issue, gave
me a briefing on, for example, different ways that the people are
trying to reconcile their difference of opinion within Zimbabwe. But
it's a problem.
PRESIDENT MBEKI: Yes, you see, the critical challenge, as I'm sure
you are aware, is to assist the people of Zimbabwe to overcome their
political problems, their economic problems. There's problems even now
of food shortages because of the drought.
And so what is really critically important is to see in what ways
we can support the opposition party, the ruling party in Zimbabwe to
overcome these problems. And, clearly, one of the critically important
things to do is to make sure that you have the political arrangements
that address matters of rule of law, matters that address issues of the
freedom of the press, issues that address questions of freedom of
assembly; a whole range of matters which require that the Zimbabweans
have a look at the constitution and look at the legislation.
And this is a direction in which we're trying to encourage them to
move, so that they create this political basis where everybody is
comfortable that you've got a stable, democratic system in the country,
which is critically fundamental to addressing these other major
challenges of ensuring the recovery of the economy of Zimbabwe, and
really improving the lives of the people. So that's the direction
we're taking.
PRESIDENT BUSH: Well, thank you all for coming. I owe the
President a lunch.
END 12:17 P.M. EDT
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