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Skriven 2006-03-30 23:33:02 av Whitehouse Press (1:3634/12.0)
Ärende: Press Release (0603308) for Thu, 2006 Mar 30
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President Bush and Prime Minister Harper of Canada Deliver Remarks in
Mexico
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For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
March 30, 2006

President Bush and Prime Minister Harper of Canada Deliver Remarks in
Mexico
Fiesta Americana Condesa CancŖn Hotel
CancŖn, Mexico


˙˙˙˙˙ In Focus: Global Diplomacy

5:40 P.M. (Local)

PRESIDENT BUSH: Mr. Prime Minister, thank you. This is a -- we've had a day
full of talks. I had a really good meeting with the Prime Minister on the
choppers flying to the Mayan ruins. We've also had a very good meeting
here. We talked about a lot of subjects.

I view the relationship with Canada as a vital relationship for the United
States. The relationship, of course, is defined government-to-government.
It's also defined people-to-people, and there's a lot of people in my
country who respect Canada and have great relations with Canadians, and we
intend to keep it that way.

The Prime Minister, of course, was -- made an emphatic case for softwood
lumber. And I appreciate his steely resolve to get something done. And I
assured him that our intention is to negotiate in good faith, in a timely
fashion to resolve this issue. And I appreciate your -- appreciate you
pushing.

We also talked about the mutual values we share: respect for human life and
human dignity. And along those lines, I want to thank you very much for two
things, one, the quick response that your government and your country gave
to those who suffered by Katrina. It indicates the Canadian peoples desire
to help humans when they suffer. I appreciate very much your trip to
Afghanistan and you and your government's support of their fledgling
democracy, support of people that have been under the brutal thumb of
tyrants -- so brutal they wouldn't let young girls go to school -- and it's
representing the great Canadian tradition of really helping restore human
dignity to people's lives.

The Prime Minister and I talked about a variety of subjects. We've got a
lot of common interests. We've got a lot of trade between our countries --
nearly half a billion dollars in -- $500 billion in the year 2005. And that
trade means jobs on both sides of the border. And it's our intention to
make sure that we continue to trade as freely as possible so that our
people can benefit. All in all, Mr. Prime Minister, I found today to be a
valuable day and I want to thank you very much for your candor.

PRIME MINISTER HARPER: Thank you very much, Mr. President. (Speaking
French.)

I'll try to repeat all of that. (Laughter.) First of all, just to begin by
saying that we had a long meeting both this morning and this afternoon, the
President and I, discussing particularly global security issues of national
and shared security interests.

And as you know, we're cooperating on these things in places like
Afghanistan, Sudan, Haiti. Canada and the United States from time to time
will disagree on particular courses of action that should be taken, and we
may have different perspectives and even different interests, but there
should be no doubt that Canada and the United States share very important
common values -- values like freedom, democracy, human rights and the rule
of law. We believe that these values are important not only for Canada and
the United States, but they are the right of every people on the face of
the Earth. We may disagree on how we get there, but that's the objective
that we share.

We're going to meet later on in the spring to further discuss cooperation
on some of these matters. We're also going to be discussing some
initiatives we've taken to task some of our officials to discuss some
energy and environmental concerns. We're anxious -- we're in a continental
security market and we're anxious to see our officials discuss not just
energy security, but how we can harness energy, new energy technology to
make real progress on greenhouse gas emissions and also on pollution. So
we'll have some discussions in the next few weeks along those lines.

We're going to move quickly to renew -- to sign an agreement to renew
NORAD, to take that to parliament in the not-too-distant future.

Of course, we discussed softwood lumber. The President has expressed his
desire to see a resolution. I certainly accept at face value the
President's commitment to that. I just reminded the President that Canada's
position on this is very clear, and if we don't see a resolution, Canada is
certainly going to continue to pursue all its legal options, as well as
enhanced support for our industry through this battle.

We talked about issues like passports, Devil's Lake, BSE, all areas where
there remain some difficulties and some (inaudible), but I think we agreed
to work together to seek some collaboration on all these fronts. In
particular -- and I didn't mention this in French -- we've asked -- we're
going to be asking Secretary Chertoff and Minister Day to meet as soon as
possible, at the highest levels, to do what we can to see how we can
accommodate congressional legislation on passport travel issues. These
present for us some pretty significant challenges and we are concerned
about the disruptions to trade and other travel that this may bring about.

And let me just end by saying as I think you heard me say a few days ago, I
expressed through Ambassador Wilkins and I've had a chance to do it
(inaudible) how much the government of Canada appreciates the actions taken
by our allies and our friends both in the United Kingdom and in the United
States in the liberation of the hostages that were held in Iraq. You know,
Iraq, in particular, has been a source of some disagreement -- dare I say
some tension -- between our two peoples, but I think this incident reminds
us that when the chips are down we all pull together and support each
other. I hope that's a lesson we keep in mind for the future.

END 5:51 P.M. (Local)
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