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Ärende: Press Release (0611161) for Thu, 2006 Nov 16
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President Bush Visits National Singapore University
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For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
November 16, 2006

President Bush Visits National Singapore University
University Cultural Centre Theatre
National Singapore University
Singapore



6:04 P.M. (Local)

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much. Good evening. Laura and I are really
pleased to be back in Singapore. And I appreciate the chance to come and
speak to you at this fine university. I thank the government and the people
of Singapore for such gracious hospitality. I'm particularly pleased that
my friend, the Senior Minister Goh, and his wife are with us today. Mr.
Minister, thank you for joining us. (Applause.)

I also had a very fine meeting with Prime Minister Lee earlier. I've come
to know him as a wise man. I appreciate his good counsel. He's a friend and
a partner, and he's a strong voice for peace and prosperity in Asia.

Our roots, America's roots in Singapore are deep and enduring. I don't know
if you know this or not, but our first counsel to Singapore arrived in the
1830s to promote American trade in this region. His wife was the daughter
of one of America's most famous patriots, Paul Revere. She came to love the
city and she came to love its people. And to show that love, she donated a
bell that was cast by the Revere Foundry to the old St. Andrew's Church.
The Revere bell is now in the National Museum of Singapore, and it is a
symbol of the long affection between the people of our two nations.

The story of Singapore is a story of people who overcame challenges and
transformed a small port city into one of the most prosperous nations on
Earth. Many of you have parents or grandparents who remember riding ox
carts, and now fly across the oceans from one the world's most modern
airports. Some learned four national anthems over their lifetime --
Britain's, Japan's, Malaysia's, and finally, Singapore's. Others recall
Singapore's early days and the pessimists who predicted that a small
country with no natural resources was doomed to fail.

By your effort and enterprise, you have proven the pessimists wrong. And
today, Singapore has one of the most vibrant economies in the entire world.
In many ways, Singapore's transformation from a small trading outpost to a
confident and prosperous leader is the story of Asia. Like Singapore, this
region was mired in poverty after the second world war. Like Singapore, the
region had to overcome challenges that included war and occupation and
colonialism. Like Singapore, the region faced threats from movements that
sought to destabilize governments and impose their ideology on others. And
like Singapore, the region has overcome these challenges, and the Asia we
see today is the fastest growing and most dynamic region in the world.

The United States has long recognized that it is in our interests to help
expand hope and opportunity throughout Asia. And our policies have
reflected this commitment for more than six decades. By opening our doors
to Asian goods, America has ensured that Asian workers and businesses and
entrepreneurs would have access to the world's largest economy. By
maintaining a strong military presence in the region, America has helped
provide stability. And with these actions, America has helped contribute to
the modern and confident Asia we see today -- a region where people's
incomes and opportunities are rising, where businesses compete in the
global economy, and where citizens know that a world growing in trade is a
world expanding in opportunity.

In this new century, America will remain engaged in Asia, because our
interests depend on the expansion of freedom and opportunity in this
region. In this new century, our trade across the Pacific is greater than
our trade across the Atlantic, and American businesses see a bright future
in your thriving economies and rising middle class.

In this new century, we see threats like terrorism and proliferation and
disease that have the potential to undermine our prosperity and put our
futures in doubt. Amid these challenges, we hear voices calling for us to
retreat from the world and close our doors to its opportunities. These are
the old temptations of isolationism and protectionism, and America must
reject them. We must maintain our presence in the Pacific. We must seize on
our common opportunities. We must be willing to confront our common
threats. And we must help our partners build more hopeful societies
throughout this vital part of the world.

Building more hopeful societies starts with opening up to the opportunities
of a global trading system. By opening up to trade, countries attract
foreign investment they need to provide jobs and opportunities for their
people. By opening up to trade, countries help attract the know-how that
will enable them to compete in a global marketplace. And by opening up to
trade, countries build wealth and empower their citizens.

The United States has long been committed to a global trading system that
is free and that is fair. And so is Singapore. Singapore was the host of
the first meeting of the World Trade Organization in 1996, where we
announced an important new agreement on information technology goods. A
decade later, America and Singapore are again close partners working toward
a common purpose, a breakthrough in the Doha negotiations. Only an
ambitious Doha agreement with real market access can achieve the economic
growth and development goals that this world has set, and we look to
nations across the Asia Pacific region to help put these vital talks back
on track.

To help build momentum for more open global trade we're also opening up
markets with individual nations. On this side of the Pacific, America has
negotiated free trade agreements with Singapore and Australia, and we're
negotiating similar agreements with Malaysia and South Korea. On the other
side of the Pacific, we have successful free trade agreements with Canada
and Mexico and Chile, and we've concluded negotiations with Peru. America
believes in free and fair trade, and we will continue to open up new
avenues to commerce and investment across this region.

Tomorrow I'm going to travel to Vietnam for the annual Summit of the Asia
Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum. APEC has a vital role to play in
promoting more open trading. In 1994, in Bogor, Indonesia, APEC reached an
historic agreement to liberalize trade and investment throughout the region
by 2020, and the United States strongly supports this goal. Recently, some
APEC members have advanced the idea of a free trade agreement for the
entire APEC region. I believe this idea deserves serious consideration. The
United States believes that APEC is the premier economic forum in the
region. We believe APEC has immense potential to expand free trade and
opportunity across the Pacific, and we will do our part to help APEC become
a stronger organization that serves as an engine for economic growth and
opportunity throughout the region.

The remarkable economic growth that this region has achieved points to a
clear lesson: The expansion of trade is the most certain path to lasting
prosperity. America will continue to pursue trade at every level with
individual countries, across all regions and through the WTO. We will work
to remove barriers to trade and investment, and by doing so, we will help
reduce poverty and promote stability. And we will give citizens on both
sides of the Pacific a brighter future.

Building more hopeful societies means working together to confront the
challenges that face the entire region. Open markets and the
entrepreneurial spirit have set off historic economic booms in Asia. This
economic growth creates new opportunities, and yet, we've got to recognize
it creates new challenges. We must find the energy to power our growing
economies. We must counter the risk of pandemic disease. And we must bring
more people into the circle of development and prosperity. Meeting these
challenges will require the effort of every nation, and you can count on
the commitment of the United States.

As the economies of the Asia Pacific thrive and expand, one of our most
pressing needs will be an affordable, reliable supply of energy. Four of
the world's top five energy consumers are APEC members, and the region's
need for energy is going to continue to rise. The answer to this challenge
is familiar in Asia: Harness the power of technology. Together, we must
unleash the same spirit of innovation and enterprise that sparked the Asian
economic revolution to spark a new revolution in new energy technologies.

America knows the importance of developing new energy sources because we
are too dependent on a single source, and that is oil. So we're investing
aggressively in clean coal technology, renewable fuels like ethanol and
biodiesel, and hydrogen fuel cells. Since 2001, we've spent nearly $10
billion on clean energy technologies, and we're going to invest even more
in the years to come. Across this region, we're cooperating with friends
and allies to share our discoveries. We are learning from your experiences,
and we're going to work together to improve new energy technologies -- it's
in our mutual interest to do so.

This cooperation includes several key initiatives that hold the promise of
a cleaner and more energy-efficient world. Through the Asia Pacific
Partnership on Clean Development and Climate, the United States is working
with Australia and China and India and Japan and South Korea to share best
practices and deploy new energy technologies. Last month our partnership
announced nearly 100 new projects, ranging from clean coal to renewable
energy to more efficient buildings. These new technologies are helping us
to improve our energy security, and as importantly, are helping to improve
air quality by cutting greenhouse gas emissions.

Through the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership, America is working with
other leaders in nuclear energy, like Russia and France and Japan, to help
developing nations use civilian nuclear energy, while guarding against
weapons proliferation. And through the APEC Biofuels Task Force, we're
working with nations across the region to search for new ways to replace
oil with clean fuels made from palm oil and sugar cane and other natural
products.

My hope is that the investments that we make today will enable you to drive
different kind of automobiles, and to heat your homes and air-condition
your homes using different sources of energy. It's in the world's interest
that we work together to end our addiction from oil.

Keeping our economies growing also requires protecting the health of our
people. Four years ago we saw the SARS virus inflict terrible damage on
Asian Pacific economies, a virus that claimed the lives of hundreds of
people all across the world. Now this region faces a new threat of avian
flu, and we're working together to address that threat. Vietnam was
recently among the nations hardest hit by avian flu. Then Vietnam's leaders
started to share information with the international community, and improve
monitoring and public awareness, and take the difficult step of culling
birds that might be infected. Vietnam's decisive actions have paid off.
When I arrive in Hanoi for the APEC summit tomorrow, the country will have
gone more than a year without a human case of avian flu. Our strategy is
beginning to work.

At our summit, leaders will reaffirm our mutual responsibilities to report
new avian flu cases, to contain the spread of animal outbreaks, and to
follow wise preparedness plans. We've taken the important steps to stop the
spread of avian flu, but we must continue to increase cooperation to ensure
that if the pandemic ever does break out, the world will be ready to deal
with it.

America has committed over $15 billion to fight the spread of HIV/AIDS
across the world. Today, Vietnam has an estimated 280,000 citizens who
suffer from this deadly virus, and many more who are in danger of becoming
infected. Through our emergency plan for AIDS relief, we're working with
Vietnam to do something about it. We've launched an ambitious five-year
program to help Vietnam meet three clear goals: to support treatment for
22,000 people; to support care for 110,000 people; and to support testing
and prevention for 660,000 people.

Since 2004, we've provided more than $138 million for this plan. We've
helped bring relief to thousands of Vietnamese. It is in our interest to
help defeat the spread of HIV/AIDS. This is a global challenge that grows
daily and must be confronted directly. And I look forward to working with
our Asian partners to do our duty to defeat this disease.

Our partners also know they can count on the United States when a disaster
strikes suddenly. After the tsunami struck in 2004, we quickly dispatched
military assistance and humanitarian relief to save lives and help
devastated communities rebuild. By coming to the aid of people in dire
need, America showed the good heart of our citizens and the depth of our
friendship in this region.

Our commitments extend far beyond responding to disaster, and they must if
we expect this world to be peaceful and prosperous. We're helping countries
like the Philippines and Indonesia to provide their children an education
that prepares them to succeed in the global economy. My administration
started a new and bold foreign policy -- foreign aid initiative called the
Millennium Challenge Account. The United States will provide financial
assistance to developing nations that govern justly -- in other words,
fight corruption -- that invest in their people and enforce the rule of
law. We've signed a Millennium Challenge threshold agreement with the
Philippines. We will soon begin discussions with Peru. And, tomorrow, we
will sign an agreement with Indonesia. By providing governments that are
committed to reform vital aid we will help bring this region closer to a
day when the benefits of economic growth and prosperity reach every
citizen.

America has a clear approach to the challenges of the Asia Pacific region.
We believe that alleviating poverty and fighting disease and harnessing the
benefits of technology require partnership, not paternalism. And the United
States makes this pledge: Every nation that works to advance prosperity,
health and opportunity for all its people will find a ready partner in the
United States.

Building more hopeful societies depends on a foundation of security. At the
start of this young century, the nations of the Asia Pacific region face a
profound challenge: The same technology and global openness that have
transformed our lives also threaten our lives. The same innovations that
make it easier to build cars and computers make it easier to build weapons
of mass destruction. The same advances in international transportation and
finance that allow a manufacturer in Singapore to sell electronics to a
store in San Francisco would also allow a proliferating regime in the Far
East to sell dangerous technologies to a terrorist organization in the
Middle East.

The danger is unmistakable. In an age of unprecedented technological
advances, irresponsible behavior by a few can have catastrophic
consequences for the entire world. The people of this region understand the
threat that the world faces because they have been the targets of terrorist
violence. The terrorists have attacked a nightclub in Bali, a hotel in
Jakarta, a ferry packed with passengers in Manila Bay, a school full of
children in Russia, Australia's embassy in Indonesia, and other targets.

The killers who committed these acts of terror are more than criminals;
they are followers of a clear and focused ideology that hates freedom and
rejects tolerance and despises all dissent. Their stated goal is to
establish a totalitarian Islamic empire stretching from Europe to Southeast
Asia. The greatest danger in our world today is that these terrorists could
get their hands on weapons of mass destruction and use them to blackmail
free nations or to kill on an unimaginable scale. This threat poses a risk
to our entire civilization, and all our nations must work together to
defeat it.

In this region, the most immediate threat of proliferation comes from North
Korea. America's position is clear: The transfer of nuclear weapons or
materiel by North Korea to states or non-state entities would be considered
a grave threat to the United States, and we would hold North Korea fully
accountable for the consequences of such action. For the sake of peace, it
is vital that the nations of this region send a message to North Korea that
the proliferation of nuclear technology to hostile regimes or terrorist
networks will not be tolerated.

After North Korea's recent nuclear test, the United Nations Security
Council passed a unanimous resolution making it clear that the regime's
pursuit of nuclear weapons is unacceptable. The resolution imposes
sanctions on North Korea's regime and America will work with our partners
to enforce those sanctions. We'll also continue working with Japan and
China and South Korea and Russia through the six-party talks. Our nations
are speaking with one voice: The only way for North Korea to move forward,
for the good of their people, is to abandon its nuclear weapons programs
and rejoin the international community.

North Korea recently took an encouraging step when it agreed to come back
to the table and re-start the six-party talks. The United States wants
these talks to be successful, and we will do our part. If North Korea
chooses a peaceful path, America and our partners in the six-party talks
are prepared to provide security assurances, economic assistance and other
benefits to the North Korean people.

Ultimately, the success of these talks depends on the regime in North
Korea. Pyongyang must show it's serious -- show it is serious by taking
concrete steps to implement its agreement to give up its nuclear weapons
and weapons programs.

As we work for a Korean Peninsula free of nuclear weapons, we're also
strengthening defense cooperation in the Asia Pacific region. Unlike
Europe, where our security cooperation takes place through the NATO
Alliance, America's security cooperation in Asia takes place largely
through bilateral defense relations.

America places the highest value on these partnerships. We're committed to
strengthening our existing partnerships and to building new ones. With
Japan, we continue to work closely to field a missile defense system to
protect both our countries and others in the region from rogue regimes
threatening blackmail and/or destruction. With South Korea, we have
upgraded our deterrent capabilities, while reducing our footprint and
repositioning U.S. troops stationed in the country. With Australia, we're
working to improve joint training of our forces, and increase cooperation
in areas such as intelligence and missile defense research. With the
Philippines, we're working to improve the capabilities of the nation's
armed forces to fight terrorism and other threats. With India, we signed an
historic agreement to expand defense cooperation, increase joint exercises
and improve intelligence sharing. With Vietnam, our Navy has made four port
calls over the past three years, the first visits by U.S. military ships
since the Vietnam War. And with Singapore, we signed a new strategic
framework agreement that provides for joint military exercises and
cooperation in military research and development.

By building new defense relationships and strengthening existing alliances,
we are ensuring that the forces of freedom and moderation in this region
can defend themselves against the forces of terror and extremism.

In addition to these bilateral defense relationships, America welcomes the
growing multilateral security cooperation in this region. Today, Singapore,
Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia are coordinating patrols in the Strait of
Malaka, and working to combat terrorism, piracy and human trafficking.
Through the Proliferation Security Initiative, 80 countries are cooperating
to stop the spread of weapons of mass destruction and related materiel
through air, land and sea.

APEC members know that advancing trade and opportunity throughout the
Pacific requires safe travel and transport, so we will continue to work
together to improve the security of our ports and airports and
transportation routes.

With all these efforts, the nations of this region are answering the
threats of the 21st century. And in doing so, we are laying the foundation
of security and peace for generations to come. In the long run, the surest
path to security is the expansion of liberty and freedom. History shows
that free societies are peaceful societies. Democracies do not attack each
other. Governments accountable to voters focus on building roads and
schools, not weapons of mass destruction. Young people who have a say in
their future are less likely to search for meaning in extremism. And
nations that commit to freedom for their people don't support terrorists
and extremists, but, in fact, will join together to defeat them.

America is committed to advancing freedom and democracy as the great
alternatives to repression and radicalism. We will take the side of
democratic leaders and reformers. We will support the voices of tolerance
and moderation across the world. We will stand with the mothers and fathers
in every culture who want to see their children grow up in a caring and
peaceful society.

We recognize that every democracy will reflect the unique culture and
history of its people. Yet, we recognize that there are universal freedoms,
that there are God-given rights for every man, woman and child on the face
of this Earth. The people of Asia have faith in the power of freedom
because you've seen freedom transform nations across your continent.

At the beginning of World War II, this side of the Pacific had only two
democracies: Australia and New Zealand. Today, millions of Asians live in
freedom. Freedom has unleashed the creative talents of people throughout
Asia. Freedom has helped prosperity sweep across the region.

In all that lies ahead, the people of this region will have a partner in
the American government and a friend in the American people. Together, the
people of America and Asia have endured dark and uncertain hours. Together,
we've seen modern nations rise from the rubble of war and launch dynamic
economies that are the envy of the world. Together, we will confront the
challenges of the new century and build a more hopeful and peaceful and
prosperous future for our children and our grandchildren.

I appreciate your hospitality. Thank you for letting me come by and share
some thoughts with you. May God bless the people of Singapore. (Applause.)

END 6:33 P.M. (Local)

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