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Skriven 2006-11-17 23:31:06 av Whitehouse Press (1:3634/12.0)
Ärende: Press Release (0611175) for Fri, 2006 Nov 17
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Press Briefing by Press Secretary Tony Snow and David McCormick, Deputy
National Security Advisor for International Economic Affairs
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For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
November 17, 2006

Press Briefing by Press Secretary Tony Snow and David McCormick, Deputy
National Security Advisor for International Economic Affairs
Filing Center
Thang Loi Hotel
Hanoi, Vietnam


˙˙˙˙˙ APEC 2006 ˙˙˙˙˙ President's Trip to Southeast Asia

5:17 P.M. (Local)

MR. SNOW: The President had a series of meetings today. The first was with
Prime Minister Howard of Australia. You probably already have seen their
readout after the meeting. There's not much I can add to it. The two of
them had a wide-ranging discussion, spent a lot of time talking about the
war on terror and, particularly, what's ongoing in Iraq. They agreed that
it's important to continue to work with Prime Minister Maliki to develop
greater capability on the part of Iraqis from the security, political, and
economic standpoints.

They also touched upon the Middle East situation and hoping that there's
going to be the possibility to continue working toward the road map between
Israel and the Palestinians. They talked about energy concerns and
technologies that might provide ways to deal with global warming. The
President, I think, mentioned earlier that they ranged from clean coal
technology to alternative fuels to nuclear energy.

There was a brief discussion, as well -- and you'll forgive me, I'm going
to go through my notes here -- they talked about North Korea, as well,
making sure that we continue to maintain pressure on the North Koreans to
find a diplomatic way to ensure a non-nuclear Korean Peninsula, and also
David Hicks, the Australian citizen who has been held in Guantanamo. The
Prime Minister expressed his desire to make sure that Mr. Hicks gets tried,
and the President did, as well.

That's sort of the basic readout there. A series of meetings with the Prime
Minister -- the President, the Prime Minister and the Communist Party
General Secretary in Vietnam. Do you have the names of all, or should I
read them out for you? Okay, I will assume that that means that -- so
you've got the book.

All of the conversations really followed a similar track. First, the
Vietnamese were very eager to talk about economic reform in the country and
building closer ties with the United States, in terms of enhancing economic
cooperation. Obviously, PNTR was a big part of that. The President stressed
his determination and his support for PNTR -- determination to get it
passed. WTO accession, he congratulated the Vietnamese on that. They
continue to maintain that this is the beginning of a longer reform effort,
and they certainly are eager to have American cooperation on that.

I'm going to flip through my notes here. Again, you've got general
readouts. One of the things the President said -- and I know that there's
been a lot of interest in his reflections on being in Vietnam -- one of the
things that he did add to what he had told you earlier, and he's said this
on a number of occasions -- not only did he appreciate the friendliness of
the people, but he also thought it was important for the American people to
understand how eager the Vietnamese are to build closer relations with the
United States -- he said that that might come as a surprise to the American
people -- and reassured them about the importance of trade and closer ties.

Also he said that it's important for the Vietnamese people to know that the
United States "wants you to succeed." He said he's impr essed with the
reforms that have taken place, but also understands that reform is hard. On
the other hand, as you have a growing level of affluence, there is going to
be a corresponding pressure for increasing economic, political and
religious freedoms. And the President stressed the importance of working on
the human rights front, because that was going to be important for the
long-term success of Vietnam.

One of the other things that the Vietnamese also were at pains to say is --
and this is a pretty direct quote from the Chairman of the Communist Party,
the General Secretary -- he said we want to, "put aside the past and look
forward to the future." That is a theme that we heard from all three of the
Vietnamese leaders. As far as they're concerned, they do not want to dwell
on the Vietnamese War, although there are ongoing issues, in terms of
dealing with some of the aftermath of the war. But the most important thing
for them is to build closer ties, and that not only involves the economy,
but also security, cultural exchanges -- the President at one point saying
that he would welcome having more Vietnamese students coming to attend
college in the United States.

And I think that generally covers sort of the basics. Dave, do you want to
give us a quick readout on what to expect for tomorrow?

MR. McCORMICK: Tomorrow the morning begins with several bilats and a couple
specific events that the President has scheduled -- a bilateral with the
President Republic of Korea, a meeting with several ASEAN leaders, a visit
to the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command, and then an embassy greeting,
followed by a lunch with the Prime Minister of Japan.

The APEC leaders summit begins with the first session tomorrow afternoon,
and that first session is focused primarily upon the core economic agenda,
trade liberalization. We would expect that there will be a very robust
discussion of Doha -- our preliminary discussions with a number of the
countries involved in the trade minister meetings over the last day or two
-- I think that will be a very fruitful discussion, and voicing a common
commitment to restart Doha.

There will also be a discussion of the free trade agreement or the concept
of a free trade agreement for Asia Pacific. And as the President
foreshadowed in his speech in Singapore, this is an idea that a number of
Asian countries, Asian leaders and business leaders have voiced over the
last several years. It's something that the President has said is really a
significant idea worth real consideration, and I expect there will be a
good discussion of that, as well as an assessment of where we are among
APEC members on the realization of the Bogor goals, and aspirations that
were set and what the path ahead is on realizing those objectives.

Day two of APEC, Sunday, will focus on other dimensions of prosperity. APEC
has captured a number of key themes; obviously the core of this is the
economic agenda, but there's also been a focus over the last four or five
years on the security dimensions that are so critical to economic
prosperity. So avian flu, AIDS, secure trade -- these are issues that
certainly will be discussed on day two. I also expect there will be a very
good discussion of North Korea. The President has foreshadowed that in all
of his discussions, all of his bilaterals. I expect that that will be part
of the dialogue.

And there will also be a very, very good conversation, I suspect, around
APEC reform and the investment and resources and focus that the members of
APEC will bring in the future to ensure that APEC continues to be even more
robust in the future in terms of realizing a common set of Asia Pacific
objectives.

Why don't I stop there.

MR. SNOW: Okay. Just a couple of other obvious points that I skipped over
with the Vietnamese meetings, and let me stress these. The President, as I
mentioned, talked about trade; also health cooperation, especially with
regard to HIV/AIDS and avian influenza. It's important not only as a
template for how to deal with some of these problems, especially how the
Vietnamese have been very proactive in taking on HIV/AIDS and avian
influenza, but it also sets a good example within the region.

On the MIA issue, he thanked the Vietnamese for strong cooperation and
hopes for further cooperation with regard to archival investigations, and
also thanked them for not only the strong statement, but also their
cooperation in working on the North Koreans. The President stressed that we
do not have complaints with the North Korean people; in fact, we want to
help them. They're starving and oppressed, he said, and the most important
challenge now is to get the government to renounce nukes.

And with that, we'll take questions.

Q Tony, I have one for you, and one for David. The one for you is, did the
President give the Prime Minister a gift today for his birthday?

MR. SNOW: No. At least there -- but on the other hand, we have a state
dinner tonight; maybe there will be something then.

Q And tomorrow, at ASEAN, do you expect either Thailand or Burma to be
present in the room with the President?

MR. McCORMICK: Certainly Thailand I expect to be there. I'm not sure --

Q I know there was talk of the Vietnamese of trying to get Burma into this
meeting, over objections from the United States. Do you know if that --

MR. McCORMICK: Not to my knowledge. I don't know.

MR. SNOW: Don't know. No? Gordon Johndroe says Burma will not be there. We
will count that as definitive.

Q What will be the message to the Thai Prime Minister, given the recent
coup?

MR. SNOW: Well, what we have said is we expect and encourage Thailand to
return to democracy as soon as possible. That's been the message from day
one; that hasn't changed.

Q Did the North Koreans express -- did the Vietnamese express any opinion
about the U.S. view on North Korea?

MR. SNOW: Yes, they share it. They do not want a nuclear peninsula and they
have been supportive of our view, and the President thanked them for that.

Q Do we know the agenda of the President's meeting with President Putin on
Sunday?

MR. SNOW: Well, obviously, there will be discussion -- generally, the war
on terror. There will clearly be discussions of Iran. But I think rather
than my trying to set an agenda for the two, we'll let the leaders do that
and once they've done it, we'll tell you about it.

Q Are there plans for a North Korea statement out of APEC this year?

MR. McCORMICK: Certainly that will be an agenda item and there was
discussion of whether there will be an actual statement or not. To be
determined.

Q Tony, further on North Korea, can you be a little more specific than you
were in the gaggle this morning about exactly what standard you expect the
South Koreans to meet on the U.N. sanctions? You seemed to suggest this
morning that they may not be living up to it the way that the U.S.
government would like to see --

MR. SNOW: David, rather than trying to presage the conversations the
President will be having with President Roh, one thing the United States
does expect is that all parties to the six-party will be working for full
implementation of U.N. Security Council Resolution 1718. And if there are
areas of disagreement, I'm sure that they will be covered in the bilateral.
But I'm not going to get ahead of the conversation between the two.

Okay. Thank you.

END 5:31 P.M. (Local)
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