Text 3297, 83 rader
Skriven 2006-09-29 23:31:18 av Whitehouse Press (1:3634/12.0)
Ärende: Press Release (0609295) for Fri, 2006 Sep 29
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President Bush Welcomes President Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan to the White
House
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For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
September 29, 2006

President Bush Welcomes President Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan to the White
House
The Oval Office

President's Remarks view

˙˙˙˙˙ In Focus: Global Diplomacy

11:51 A.M. EDT

PRESIDENT BUSH: Mr. President, thank you for coming. It's been my honor to
welcome the President of Kazakhstan back to the Oval Office. He informed me
that the first time he was here was when my dad was the President. And I
welcome you back.

We've just had a very important and interesting discussion. We discussed
our desire to defeat extremism and our mutual desire to support the forces
of moderation throughout the world. I thanked the President for his
contribution to helping a new democracy in Iraq survive and thrive and
grow.

I thank very much the President for his concerns about Afghanistan's
democracy, and his willingness to help in Afghanistan. We talked about our
mutual -- our bilateral relations, and our mutual desire to -- for
Kazakhstan to join the WTO. We talked about our commitment to institutions
that will enable liberty to flourish.

I have watched very carefully the development of this important country
from one that was in the Soviet sphere to one that now is a free nation.
And I appreciate your leadership, Mr. President. And I welcome you here to
the White House, and I'm looking forward to buying you lunch. (Laughter.)

PRESIDENT NAZARBAYEV: (As translated) Thank you very much, Mr. President,
for hospitality and for warm feelings that I feel in this country and for
the invitation. This is the third time that I'm in the Oval room since the
independence of our country and as I am the President of Kazakhstan. And
Kazakh nation never had experienced statehood before, and I had this
blessing of becoming the first President of Kazakhstan, and the United
States was the country that supported our independence and recognized it
from the very first days. Thus in economics, in energy partnership, in
policy, in war on terrorism, we've truly become close partners.

And Kazakhstan today is very proud that we have the highest rate of
economic growth in the world, and a lot of countries learn from the
experience of Kazakhstan today. But that wouldn't be possible if Taliban
would not be defeated in Afghanistan. And that war was led by United
States. And nobody in Central Asia will feel safe and peace if we'd be
surrounded by countries populated with terrorist people, and if we'd be
surrounded by countries where some people crave to put their hands on the
nuclear weapons, which Kazakhstan renounced in the past voluntarily, and
thus contributed significantly to global security.

The United States is the major investor -- foreign investor into
Kazakhstan. One-third of all foreign investments in Kazakhstan are from
United States. And after this meeting, we'll publish the joint declaration,
and you will -- in that declaration, you will read about the details and
what we have discussed and what we have achieved during these negotiations.

And I'm here today to tell once again that Kazakhstan is a friend of the
United States because the United States is the country that guaranteed
stability and protection of Kazakhstan when Kazakhstan renounced nuclear
weapons, and we will continue to work in all fields of our cooperation that
exist today.

PRESIDENT BUSH: Thank you.

END 11:56 A.M. EDT

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