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Skriven 2005-11-06 23:33:12 av Whitehouse Press (1:3634/12.0)
Ärende: Press Release (051106) for Sun, 2005 Nov 6
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President Participates in Roundtable with Young Leaders in Brazil
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For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
November 6, 2005

President Participates in Roundtable with Young Leaders in Brazil
United States Embassy
Brasilia, Brazil


˙˙˙˙˙Trip to Latin America: Brazil
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9:54 A.M. (Local)

AMBASSADOR DANILOVICH: Mr. President, Secretary Rice, fellow Brazilians,
I'd like to thank you all for being here this morning. It's a pleasure for
us to welcome you here on this beautiful Sunday morning in Brasilia.

Brazil is a land of promise, of enormous potential and of great
possibilities. And the promise, potential and possibilities of Brazil are
perhaps no more visible than in yourselves. I want to thank you for the
opportunity of the President and the Secretary, of meeting with you today.
To a large extent, the future of your country lies in your hands, and the
President looks forward to discussing things of relevance to Brazil and the
United States and our important bilateral relationship. And with that being
said --

THE PRESIDENT: John, let me say something -- the Ambassador is trying to
cull me out of the conversation early on. (Laughter.) Listen, thank you for
coming. First, I'm here because I want to send a very clear signal to the
people of Brazil that the relationship between America and Brazil is an
important relationship, that Brazil is a friend, and that Brazil has got an
important part of working with America to bring prosperity to not only our
own citizens, but to help others, as well, and by doing so, kind of lay the
-- lay conditions for a peaceful continent.

It's in our interests that our neighborhood be a prosperous neighborhood.
It's in our interests that we work with the largest country in the
neighborhood. And so I come to not only discuss philosophy and points of
view with you, but also to meet with President Lula, with whom I've got a
good relationship.

He is a person who had to make some tough decisions -- that's what leaders
have to do; you've got to make tough decisions. And he's made hard
decisions for the people of Brazil. He is -- the economy is going well
here, which is good news. He also has got a good heart. And I share the
same concern he has -- I share a concern of making sure that the least
fortunate among us has a chance to survive and succeed.

And so this is going to be a good trip here, and I'm grateful for you all
taking time to come by and visit. I look forward to having a fruitful
discussion with you. And we'll start with Carlos.

Q Thank you very much, Mr. President. (As translated) -- Latin Americans
for a long time have had a love-hatred relationship with the U.S. Latin
Americans admire the military and economic power of the United States, its
popular culture, and many values with which they share. But Latin Americans
resist the somewhat missionary nature of U.S. when justifying its
international actions. For instance, when the U.S. exports democracy,
exports market economies, or even exports civil liberties. This has been
really very much criticized or contested, even, in this region of the
world. The Mar del Plata incidents of a few days ago, during the Summit of
the Americas, showed that the mood of the demonstrators may easily go
beyond the acceptable limits in -- civilization.

My question now: Is the U.S. able to pinpoint the causes for these
disagreements that they have with the opinion-makers here in Latin America,
and does the U.S. have a clear strategy to change this love and hatred
relationship into one of cooperation and friendship?

THE PRESIDENT: Well, first of all, I -- we met in a society which allows
people to express their different points of view. In other words -- which
is positive. I expect there to be dissent. That's what freedom is all
about. People should be allowed to express themselves. And so what happened
in Argentina happens in America. That's positive. Can you imagine being in
a society where people were not allowed to express their positions?

Secondly, I fully understand there's, at times, a view of America that is,
in my opinion, not an accurate view. I mean, you say, "missionary zeal to
spread democracy" -- I do have a deep desire to help others assume a
democracy that is a democracy that conforms to their traditions and their
customs. And the reason why is because the world has seen that democracies
do not fight each other.

As an example, war broke out in Europe in the early 1900s, as well as the
mid-1900s. And yet we've had no war in Europe since. And one of the reasons
why is because the nations of Europe became democracies -- not American
democracy, but democracies that reflected the values of the people in that
country -- in their countries.

One of the stories I like to share with people -- it's an interesting
story, and I think an illustration of what I'm trying to do -- is that
Japan was the sworn enemy of the United States in the late 1940s. My dad
was a soldier, Navy pilot, and fighting the Japanese. Today -- I'm going to
Japan in two weeks. I will be sitting down with one of the best friends
that I have in the international arena, Koizumi. That's interesting, isn't
it? What happened between the time when America was fighting Japan and
when, now, Japan is an ally with the United States in dealing with a tyrant
in North Korea, for example? And what happened was, Japan adopted a
Japanese-style democracy.

And so I am anxious to work with countries to help make sure that the
institutions, universal institutions of democracy become entrenched in
society -- freedom to worship, freedom of the press, rule of law.

I will also tell you I firmly believe that a society which is democratic is
one much more likely to be able to deal with the social ills of a society.
I mean, a democracy is one in which minorities have rights and can express
themselves through the legislative process. Tyrannies are such that
minorities don't have rights, unless you happen to be aligned with the
tyrant.

And so, one, I don't think America, nor Brazil, should ever back down from
believing in the universality of freedom and democracy. Secondly, I hope
that I am able to do so in a way that explains our position, as opposed to
alienating people. And one of the reasons I've come to Brazil is to make
that eminently clear, that the United States is a friend of Brazil, and
that our values that we discuss are universal in nature. They apply to
Brazil equally as they apply to America.

So very good question, Carlos.

END 10:02 A.M. (Local)

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