Text 104, 544 rader
Skriven 2004-11-17 23:33:00 av Whitehouse Press (1:3634/12.0)
Ärende: Press Release (0411179) for Wed, 2004 Nov 17
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Press Background Briefing on the President's Apec/Colombia Trip by Senior
Administration Officials
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For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
November 17, 2004

Press Background Briefing on the President's Apec/Colombia Trip by Senior
Administration Officials
James S. Brady Briefing Room



12:25 P.M. EST

MR. McCORMACK: This is the APEC-Colombia trip, pre-trip briefing. Normally,
we would have Dr. Rice doing these briefings, as is practice, but because
of yesterday's announcement we have three background briefers for you,
three senior administration officials who are going to be talking about the
President's visit down to Santiago, where he's going to have the APEC
meeting, he's going to have a bilateral meeting with the Chilean President,
then some other bilateral meetings while he's down there. He's going to
travel on to Colombia, and these guys will fill you in on what's going to
be going on, so I'll turn it over to them now.

Q Can we have them on the record, as we would have Dr. Rice?

MR. McCORMACK: I think for this briefing, Terry, if you'd bear with, we're
going to do this one on background and we'll take a look at future
briefings on the record.

Q Can we vote on that? (Laughter.)

MR. McCORMACK: Yes, and it's a democracy of one, and I vote that it's on
background. (Laughter.)

Q They did vote on it, November 2nd -- they won. (Laughter.)

MR. McCORMACK: All right, let me turn it over to our briefers.

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Good afternoon. On Friday, November 19th,
the President and the First Lady will travel to Santiago, Chile to attend
the 12th Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation leaders meeting. APEC is a
unique forum that bridges the Pacific and links the world's most dynamic
and fastest-growing economies. The President will meet individually with
many Asian and Western Hemisphere leaders to discuss ways to promote free
trade and economic growth, and deepen our security cooperation to ensure
our continued prosperity.

Following the APEC leaders meeting, President Bush will remain in Santiago
for an official visit with Chilean President Lagos. The President is
looking forward to the opportunity to discuss important regional and
bilateral issues with President Lagos. Chile is a good ally of the United
States. The two Presidents will explore ways to deepen our cooperation,
strengthen democratic institutions and promote free trade in the Americas.

Upon departing Chile, the President will travel to Cartagena, Colombia, to
meet with Colombian President Alvaro Uribe. The President looks forward to
discussing with President Uribe the many ways the United States and
Colombia are working together as close allies to protect and promote
democracy, human rights and the rule of law, fight terrorism and drug
trafficking, and promote prosperity through economic growth and
opportunity.

The two Presidents will recognize the major progress made under Plan
Colombia to win the war against narco-terrorist groups in Colombia, and
will emphasize our mutual interest in advancing free trade throughout the
Americas.

I'll outline the President's schedule and then we'll be happy to take your
questions.

On Friday, November 19th, the President and Mrs. Bush will depart Fort
Hood, Texas for Santiago, Chile. On Saturday, the President and Mrs. Bush
will participate in a series of bilateral meetings with leaders of Canada,
China, Japan, Republic of Korea, and Indonesia. Later, the President will
attend APEC working meetings. That evening, the President and Mrs. Bush
will attend the APEC leaders official dinner and cultural presentation.

On Sunday, the President will have a bilateral meeting with the President
of Mexico. The President will attend a series of working APEC -- series of
working APEC meetings, culminating with a reading of the meeting's final
declaration. That evening, the President will participate in a bilateral
meeting with President Lagos of Chile at the presidential palace, La
Moneda. Following the bilateral meeting, the two Presidents will conduct a
press briefing. To conclude the evening, President Lagos will host a social
dinner for the President and Mrs. Bush.

On Monday, the President departs Santiago for Cartagena, Columbia. There,
the President will meet President Uribe for a bilateral meeting and working
lunch. Following lunch, the two Presidents will conduct a joint press
availability. The President and Mrs. Bush will depart Columbia on Monday
afternoon and arrive at the family's ranch in Waco, Texas, later that
evening.

The press office can fill you in on schedule changes or additions, and if
there are any other bilaterals, we will keep you informed of those, as
well.

With that, we are happy to take your questions.

Q What do you expect in a way of an -- or do you expect an explicit
endorsement from APEC of the U.S. approach to North Korea?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Well, we're working on a number of
initiatives both on the security side, on the economic side. At this point,
our primary objective on the security side is to get concrete
implementation of the Bangkok commitments that were reached by the leaders
last year, and these were primarily focused on eliminating the weapons of
mass destruction, eliminating transnational terrorist groups, and
addressing other terrorist threats. In terms of any specific language on
Korea, it's premature to say at this point whether we expect to get an
agreement yet.

Q Well, last year there was not one. It was not obtained. Is it something
you're seeking this year?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: As you probably know, two years ago at Los
Cabos, the 21 APEC economies put out a very strongly worded statement
calling on North Korea to give up all of its nuclear weapons programs. And
that stands as APEC's position on this. We since then have started the
six-party talks, as you know. And at APEC, the leaders from the five
parties in the six-party talks that are all calling on North Korea to give
up its nuclear weapons programs will -- they'll attend and they'll talk to
the President. This will be at the top of the agenda with President Hu, of
China; President Roh, of South Korea; Prime Minister Koizumi; and President
Putin. So the work on North Korea at APEC has already been done by APEC as
a whole. This is an opportunity to use the meetings to start getting down
to the business of getting North Korea to give up its weapons programs.

Q Did I miss it? Did you mention a Russian bilateral?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: No Russian bilateral has been scheduled
yet. We're working on a number of other potential bilaterals. And if there
is going to be one, we'll make sure we let you know.

Q How do you do that, in terms of moving forward with North Korea? As you
noticed, I'm sure, that President Roh is in Los Angeles. He mentioned that
taking a hard line over North Korea's nuclear weapons program would have
"grave consequences." What can the President say to him when they meet?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: They've had several meetings -- President
Bush and President Roh in person, and many calls on the telephone. And
we've had excellent discussions and excellent cooperation in the six-party
talks with our Republic of Korea allies. And if you look through the
statements that have come out of Seoul, they have been quite firm that
progress, for example, in north-south economic cooperation, would hinge on
this issue. In the six-party talks, the ROK delegation has been quite firm
and quite tough.

We've been successful with China, with Japan, Korea and Russia in getting
in the North Koreans into this multi-lateral process -- they, of course,
wanted it to be a bilateral U.S.-DPRK process -- and to getting everyone in
the region saying with one voice, they have to give up the nuclear weapons.

The key now is to get the North Koreans to respond to the proposal that we,
the U.S., put forward in the last session, which is a proposal for how we'd
resolve this in a way that eliminates all the programs -- uranium,
plutonium -- and also opens up possibilities for the DPRK to enjoy better
relations not only with their neighbors, but with us.

So a lot of it is getting down to brass tacks and tactics. The general
framework for a resolution everyone now is beginning to agree on.

Q Understood. And the South Koreans or -- and the Chinese want some new
flexibility. Is the U.S. and the President willing to provide some new
flexibility?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: If you look at what both the Chinese and
the ROK side are saying in these -- in some of their public statements,
they're calling on all parties to be flexible. Both Beijing and Seoul want
to get these talks going, and want to move forward with the diplomacy, as
do we. And if the North Koreans are prepared to come and talk seriously,
we're ready to go. And that's one thing that bonds all five parties: we're
all ready to go; we're all trying to get the North Koreans to show up. I
think that's part of what's behind some of the rhetoric coming out of
Beijing and Seoul -- they're trying to encourage the North Korean side to
come back.

Q On the same point, just to follow up on Norah's -- one interpretation is
they're trying to entice them back, as you said. The other interpretation
is that your proposal has been out there now since June -- is that right?
Right. That it hasn't yet drawn the North Koreans out, and that the Chinese
and the South Koreans have gone off in a significantly other direction.
We've seen now very strong wording from both the South Korean President and
from the Chinese, basically saying this proposal is not enough, and
creating exactly the kind of fissure here that the President has been
trying to avoid. So tell us how that closes up?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: I think if you look at the totality of what
the Chinese and the ROK officials and leaders are saying, and if you --
from our perspective -- hear what they're saying in the talks, themselves,
we don't see the split. We still have more work to do. There's no doubt
about that.

And we've made considerable yardage on some of the key issues, that this is
multilateral, that all programs -- uranium and plutonium -- have to be
included, that there has to be a strategic decision by the DPRK. Some of
the big key elements now, all five parties agree on. And the North Koreans,
themselves, did not reject our proposal in June. But they stalled. They
stalled to see if they could get a better deal; they were holding out. And
part of the business at APEC is for all of the leaders who participate --
whose countries participate, to talk and to find ways to make it clear to
the DPRK that it's in their best interest to get back into the talks soon.

Q And last year, I think, the Presidents -- the President met together with
the Koreans and the Japanese --

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Two years ago at Los Cabos.

Q And you're not doing that this year?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: This year, he's going to have separate
bilats.

Q And last year he did separate bilats?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Right. In Bangkok.

Q Was there a sense that trying to do this all together doesn't work?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: No, it worked very well. One of the keys to
success here, and one of the reasons we actually were able to create
six-party talks was because the U.S., Japan, and the ROK have been
coordinating very closely for some time now, as you know. And so that
trilateral meeting was very useful. If you look back on it, this is two
years ago, but President Bush and then President Kim Dae-jung, Prime
Minister Koizumi came out with a joint statement that then propelled the
broader statement by the 21 economies. So for that purpose, it was very
helpful.

But logistically and because there are other issues bilaterally with Japan
and Korea, we've decided this time, and they also wanted to do separate
ones -- obviously, there will be overlap on this North Korea issue.

Q Can I follow on that? You mentioned the North Koreans have been stalling,
and there was a sense in recent months that the North Koreans were waiting
to see how the election was going to turn out. And I wonder if you could
tell us how that piece affects the dynamic, what the President's message is
going to be to his six-party talk partners, and how soon do you think next
meeting could be put together?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Well, from our perspective, I think it
sends a good signal that the President was reelected, that he's going to
move forward with the six-party talks and with close U.S., Japan, and ROK
coordination. We're going to work with China to get them working the
problem in a way they never have before. They're already taking
unprecedented steps to try to solve an issue that they once used to say was
a purely U.S.-DPRK issue. So in terms of keeping on that path, it's going
to be helpful.

We -- all five of the other parties, as I said, are ready to go, and all
five are calling on North Korea to come to the table. The Chinese have
recently had senior visitors to Pyongyang. The Russians, the Japanese and
the South Koreans have all had their interactions. And this is a common
theme that the people in Pyongyang are hearing. But as to when they'll
come, I haven't checked KCNA this morning, but I haven't seen any
acceptance yet.

Q Can I follow up on that? Regarding a Chinese -- the President's meeting
with Chinese counterpart, what should be a specific message from President
Bush to Chinese President Hu? Since the end of the election, nothing
happened. And you might not have any good news from Pyongyang for China, so
what -- maybe we should send a more stronger message to Chinese President
and maybe kind -- are we going to twist muscle, or whatever? What is your
specific message to Chinese authority at this moment?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: You mean on North Korea or more generally?

Q Yes, on North Korea.

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: On North Korea. Well, the President and
President Hu have a very good relationship. And it's clear to us that
President Hu attaches great importance to this meeting and to his
relationship with the President. And we're hoping they can have a very
frank discussion about how to make progress. And a lot of that is getting
the North Koreans to the table, getting them to acknowledge and include the
dismantlement of their highly enriched uranium program, which everyone in
the region knows exists, but the North Koreans continue to pretend doesn't.
So it's figuring out ways, with China, to keep moving forward on that
front.

Q Could I follow up on the China question? Does the United States recognize
the 1992 consensus that there is only one China, that both sides should
come to the table under that umbrella to negotiate about a resolution? And
would the President talk to the Chinese President to urge the restart of
the talks on the Taiwan issue?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: You know our policy. The President's policy
on this has been very consistent. We have a one China policy. We have
obligations under the Taiwan Relations Act we take very seriously. We
oppose any unilateral changes to the status quo. We don't support
independence for Taiwan. And we'd like to see some dialogue. There's been
dialogue before across the straits. We think that's good for both parties
and for the entire region. We'd like to see that move forward.

We've noted that Chen Shui-bian has said some positive things about the
1992 meetings. We've noted that Beijing has at times put forward some
positive notes about the future. In general, we'd hoped to see those
continue and form the basis for progress.

Q But do you recognize in 1992 there was a consensus that there is only one
China? That each side could interpret it differently?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: We've not -- that was a meeting that we
were not in, nor were we asked at the time or since to endorse.

Q Also on that meeting with China, will the President bring up the issue of
foreign exchange, and particularly China's efforts or lack of efforts to
de-link the yuan to the dollar? I know they've taken some minor steps
towards that direction, but not much.

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: In terms of the specifics of what they
discuss, it will depend on what actually transpires in the room. But the
issue -- there has been a variety of economic issues that the President has
consistently raised in his bilateral discussions with Chinese leaders,
including President Hu. And he's had a consistent practice of raising this
issue, among others, as something that's a matter of concern for us. So I
expect that he will.

Q But what will be the message that the President will give the Chinese
President in regards to foreign exchange? What will he say to him?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Well, there has been a consistent message
that Secretary Snow has delivered publicly that I think you've heard, which
is that we believe the best economic systems are those that operate under
the terms of free trade, free exchange rates, and free movement of capital.
And that forms the basis of the comments that have been made by the
Secretary and by the President.

Q Can you just -- if I remember correctly at Bangkok, there was the
establishment of some kind of working group to examine the liberalization
of the exchange rates in China. What happened to that?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Frankly, I don't recollect that there was a
working group.

Q There was. It was a suggestion -- that was the big triumph. The
suggestion was --

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Right, right. It wasn't an APEC-specific
mechanism. It was a --

Q No, no, it was a bilateral --

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: What we did is we created a bi-technical
group, a technical working group with the Treasury Department on our side
and relevant Chinese officials on their side, to bring together our experts
and their experts to talk about a variety of issues, technical issues
regarding the reform of the financial sector in China. The work under that
technical group has been ongoing since that time.

Q Is there anything in particular to say, this is the stage that it's at,
or that is what it has to show for that?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Well, there has been a series of things
that you've probably seen if you've been watching what's happened in China,
in terms of specific changes that they've adopted. A lot of them are
incremental steps involving one aspect of reform of their financial system
or another. And to one extent or another, we hope that our technical
exchanges with the Chinese have been helpful in the decisions that they
have made regarding ultimately reforming their financial system and laying
the groundwork for additional steps going forward.

Q Could I ask you just one quick question about Hu Jintao, just to -- there
has been a lot of talk here about the President's new mandate. Of course,
in the year that has passed, Hu Jintao is a much empowered figure in
Beijing. How is that changing your read of your capacity to do business
with him and the nature of his diplomacy?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: You're referring to Hu ascending to the
Chairmanship of the Central Military Commission in the party plenum. I
can't believe I just rattled that off. (Laughter.)

No, that was an important development for China and for Hu. And President
Bush had an excellent relationship with his predecessor as President and as
Chairman of the Central Military Commission, Jiang Zemin. But President Hu
now does have something of a mandate, and he has a lot of tasks he has to
tackle. And so they're going to have a broad discussion on a number of
issues ranging from North Korea to the economic issues that my colleague
mentioned, trade issues, to the question of human rights and religious
freedom, which is always on the agenda.

But we find increasingly that the leaders in Beijing are willing to talk
about this in a way that's more forward-looking, future oriented. And
regional issues -- the questions of APEC, itself, will all be on the agenda
-- and the President, who has generally been quite engaging and willing to
talk about these things frankly.

Q How much prominence with terrorism take at this summit as compared to the
last two?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Well, since the 2001 summit, there's been
-- APEC has increasingly turned its attention to security issues, starting
with the issues of terrorism and then ultimately culminating last year with
the Bangkok commitments, which focus on terrorism, WMD, and other threats.
There are specific initiatives that we're working on that are designed to
implement the commitments that were made last year and to advance further
previous initiatives that were done through the APEC process. The specifics
we'll have to see at the summit, itself, in terms of what ultimately comes
out and what the leaders agree to.

Q But I take it, though, that there are other -- I was just going to say, I
take it that there are other issues, though, that are taking prominence
over terrorism this year?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: You mean within the formal APEC agenda?

Q Yes.

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: No, if you look at the actual schedule of
the discussions, you'll see that there are two retreats that have been
scheduled. One is focused on economic issues -- if I describe it broadly as
economic issues. And the second is focused on the issues of human security,
which includes a broad range of security-related matters, including the
issue of terrorism.

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: One thing -- if I could -- one thing I
think you'll find in these discussions is that -- and one thing that's very
encouraging from our perspective is that these initiatives -- which we're
working and which we're making a lot of progress on -- that they are
initiatives coming out of Beijing or Tokyo or Canberra or Jakarta. They're
not American initiatives. These are -- some are, but they're coming from
across the region, and there's now a real buy-in to this mission for APEC,
which is important because the APEC member economies are building the
capacity in the Asian Development Bank, in cross national cooperation on,
for example, fighting bioterrorism and diseases in this new center in
Singapore. There's a lot of sort of, cross cutting regional cooperation
that's building in APEC, which is exactly what, I think, the President
wanted in Shanghai when we had the first APEC meeting after 9/11.

Q Two more Latin America questions?

Q Yes, I need to ask one.

Q When the President -- a couple of weeks after he took office, he said,
"Good foreign policy begins in our backyard." And I'm wondering, by that
standard, what achievements do you think the administration goes to Chile
with, and what are the top priorities for the second term, with respect to
reaching out to Latin America?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: It's important to note that the first
foreign trip the President is taking after this election is to Chile,
obviously for the APEC leaders summit, but that APEC leaders summit
includes Canada, Mexico, Peru, Chile and the United States. And this gives
us an opportunity to highlight the fact that the Americas don't sit alone
in the world, that they're actually connected to Asia, and that the APEC
countries on the American side of the Pacific and the Asian countries on
the Asian side of the Pacific actually form some of the most dynamic
economies in the region. So that's a big focus, bridging the Americas and
Asia.

But he's following it up with a trip to Cartagena, Colombia, and then at
the end of the month he's going to Canada. So within a month of being
elected, he will have visited three countries within the Western
Hemisphere.

And from our point of view, we're going to Chile with a strong record in
the hemisphere; a strong record on trade, a strong record on democracy
promotion, a strong record on building relationships and addressing some of
the big challenges we face in the hemisphere now, especially as we kind of
move from a stage in which we had one hemisphere-wide commitment to
democracy, to free markets and to economic integration, and actually trying
to make those real, and deliver the benefits of democracy to the people of
the region.

Q What is the message that President Bush is going to convey to his Mexican
counterpart? And I wonder if immigration will be part of the agenda, since
the immigration was also in the agenda on the recent bilateral commission
meeting in Mexico City?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Migration issues are always on the agenda
with Mexico there. They're important issues for the United States; they're
important issues for Mexico. Secretary Powell was in Mexico City recently
during the binational commission and highlighted the fact that migration
issues remain a priority for the Bush administration. And that, obviously,
will be one of the important topics that the two discuss.

But Mexico and the United States have developed a very important and
cooperative relationship, not just on bilateral issues, but on larger
regional issues. And those regional issues are also going to be high on the
agenda.

Q Thank you. You have already answered some of my question, but there is a
big problem with drugs and terrorism in the Americas. Does the President
plan to offer Colombia and other countries more money to fight the drug
war?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Well, I mean, we're still -- we've got
plenty of money devoted to drugs and terrorism, and we're still at the
bottom -- at the back end of a budget cycle. We're, obviously, looking
ahead to a budget cycle, and there is going to be more money for -- to
fight drugs and terrorism. So the short answer to the question, of course,
is, yes.

But the bigger answer to the question is that one of the important reasons
we're going to Cartagena is that it allows us to stand with a leader like
President Uribe, who has really made a tough stand against terrorism,
against drug trafficking, and who has actually linked the two in the
region. And we, through our policy, have linked these two, and effectively
we are attacking both terrorism and drug trafficking as a single
phenomenon. And this is an important message, and it's one that we hope
will resonate through the region.

Q China has been cutting -- a trade question -- China has been cutting a
number of trade pacts with countries in South Asia, and we're starting to
hear from some U.S. companies that they're concerned about getting shut out
of those markets. Can you speak to that a little bit? Do they have reason
to be concerned?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Yes, the issue of free trade agreements is
actually -- the proliferation of trade agreements is something that I --
will be on -- we expect will be on the mind of a number of the leaders at
the -- during the discussions on economic issues, because there has been an
increasing network of free trade agreements among the Asia Pacific nations.
Part of it, it reflects the fact that the Asia Pacific countries are now
developing strong linkages among themselves, but with that come the issues
that you're describing where among -- in the business community and others,
there's a concern that these, what people call the spaghetti bowl of trade
agreements, could create conflicting rules and ultimately divert trade or
shut people out of particular markets.

What we've done here is we -- here in this administration from the
beginning has been push the agenda of competitive trade liberalization
where we've pushed for trade liberalization through bilateral means,
regional means, and as well as global means. And we're pursuing that
through the -- the global track of that through the WTO, the bilateral
track through willing partners such as the Singaporeans and others in the
Asia Pacific region, and then regionally as appropriate.

So it's a factor -- to answer your question directly, that dynamic you're
describing is a factor that informs and motivates the broader agenda that
we have to open markets more generally. But it's not a specific concern.

Thank you.

END 1:51 P.M. EST
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