Text 3677, 352 rader
Skriven 2006-11-20 23:31:22 av Whitehouse Press (1:3634/12.0)
Ärende: Press Release (0611204) for Mon, 2006 Nov 20
====================================================

===========================================================================
President Bush Meets with President Yudhoyono of Indonesia
===========================================================================

For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
November 20, 2006

President Bush Meets with President Yudhoyono of Indonesia
Bogor Palace
Bogor, Indonesia


˙˙˙˙˙ Joint Statement Between the United States and the Republic of
Indonesia ˙˙˙˙˙ President's Trip to Southeast Asia

6:45 P.M. (Local)

PRESIDENT YUDHOYONO: Your Excellency, President Bush, members of the press,
let me speak in Bahasa Indonesia.

(As translated.) Ladies and gentlemen, today we have received a visit of
President Bush, who has come here to increase our cooperation and
friendship between Indonesia and the United States. And we just discussed a
number of agenda in order to increase our relations.

In the bilateral meeting I expressed my thanks for the cooperation and
assistance given by the United States to Indonesia in the field of
economics, investment, trade, education, health, technology, military, and
so on. I also expressed thanks for the U.S. assistance and also other
countries during the Aceh tsunami and also, more recently, during the
earthquake in Yogyakarta and central Java, which shows solidarity and
cooperation between the two countries.

After that, we discussed in detail a number of cooperation in our agenda.
We discussed health cooperation, especially on how to fight avian flu and
other infectious diseases, which are found in the tropical areas,
especially in Indonesia.

On education, we already have good cooperation and we will continue this
cooperation and hope this cooperation will continue between Indonesia and
the U.S. as part of our education agenda.

We also discussed energy and we spent time discussing bio-energy fuels. And
I'm glad that President Bush has said that he would share technology in
other matters relating to development of alternative energy.

Lastly, we discussed how to deal with natural disasters, especially on how
to build an early warning system in Indonesia. I expressed my appreciation
to the assistance given by the United States government and we also
cooperate also with other countries on building this early warning system.

We also discussed a number of international issues, global issues, such as
the situation in the Middle East, the situation in North Korea, Iraq, and
also Palestine, and of course, we agree on the need to find a solution to
these issues.

After the discussions we had a meeting with civic leaders and we discussed
all the things that we discussed earlier in the bilateral meeting,
especially on how to improve the quality of life and how to make
Indonesia-U.S. partnership -- contribute to improving this quality of life.

The discussions were open, frank, constructive, sometimes critical, and
what is important is that we tried to discuss cooperation on how to make
Indonesia-U.S. relations touch on the lives of our people.

PRESIDENT BUSH: Mr. President, thank you very much. Thanks for the
invitation to come back to your beautiful country. Laura and I are thrilled
to be here and we're looking forward to our dinner tonight with you and
your wife and your delegation. You lead a large and diverse nation with a
very bright future.

During my visit here, we're going to continue to work to build a
relationship between our two nations that will last beyond the immediate.
It's a relationship that should last for decades to come. It's important to
our nation that we have good, strong relations with Indonesia.

We've just come from the APEC summit in Vietnam, and the people of
Indonesia should know that when their elected leader speaks, other leaders
listen, as do I. Mr. President, you're well-respected in the international
community, and I appreciate your perspective on global and international
issues, and thank you for sharing them with me again today.

This afternoon we also discussed bilateral initiatives that will expand
opportunity for the people of Indonesia, and at the same time, deepen our
partnership. We support your country's reform efforts, Mr. President. I
thank you for your leadership on that important issue. The Indonesian
President understands that economic reform and fighting corruption and
investing in people will help this important nation succeed.

We are committed to helping you on all these initiatives. Last week we
signed a $55 million Millennium Challenge Account threshold agreement. This
agreement means that the American people will support Indonesia's efforts
to reform its democratic institutions and strengthen governance. We would
not have made this commitment, Mr. President, if you were, yourself, not
committed to reform.

The agreement is going to help fund your strategy to immunize your children
against deadly diseases. We support your attempts to modernize your
education system. We have pledged and provided over $150 million to the
Indonesian government to help provide the tools that will give the next
generations of Indonesians the chance to realize their enormous potential.
One thousand schools spread across eight provinces in Indonesia are now
benefitting from our education partnership. As I told you in our meeting,
we will continue to help.

Our two nations continue to build strong trade and investment
relationships. We're determined to grow our economies in a way that are
sustainable. Last week, we signed an agreement to help Indonesia conserve
its forests. Together, our nations will fight illegal logging while
promoting trade in forest products that does not threaten the region's
environmental quality.

Our two nations recognize we must explore alternatives to fossil fuels. The
President and I have spent quite a bit of time talking about this important
issue. The people of Indonesia have got to know that, for national security
purposes and for economic security purposes, America must spend research
money to enable us to have alternative sources of energy from oil.

I told the President that I am committed to sharing technologies as they
become developed to help us all become less dependent on oil, and I
appreciate your commitment, sir, to biofuels as an alternative source of
energy.

We talked about avian influenza. In this world of ours today, if there's an
influenza outbreak in Vietnam, it could affect Indonesia or the people of
America. And therefore, we need to work in a collaborative way to deal with
this grave threat. We'll continue to fund our partnership on this issue,
Mr. President, as well as our partnership to protect public health in
Indonesia.

We support Indonesia's growing global role. Indonesia will soon take a seat
on the United Nations Security Council. We discussed threats to global
security and how, together, our two nations can help provide a peaceful way
forward.

We discussed North Korea, and we discussed Iran. Both regimes have nuclear
ambitions. Nuclear weapons in the hands of these regimes would make the
people of the Middle East and Northeast Asia less secure. The President and
I discussed how the International Atomic Energy Agency and the six-party
talks provide the best opportunity to seek peaceful, diplomatic solutions
to our concerns about these weapons programs.

The United Nations requires reform to become a more effective institution,
and I know that Indonesia will be a strong voice for positive change in the
United Nations. And we look forward to having you on the Security Council.

The American people and the Indonesian people have both suffered from the
acts of violent extremists. Our nations are determined to take effective
action against terror networks that plot new attacks against innocent
people. Indonesia is an example of how democracy and modernization can
provide an alternative to extremism. And we appreciate your leadership, Mr.
President. Your democracy is making Indonesia strong and better able to
play a positive role in Southeast Asia and the world. Our talks today have
been very constructive. I appreciate your hospitality. And I presume we'll
take some questions.

PRESIDENT YUDHOYONO: Thank you very much, Mr. President.

Q I would like to ask you -- as you mentioned before, Indonesia now is
growing toward democratization, and how do you think the process of
democratization in Indonesia -- the progress of democratization is going?
And I have a second question.

PRESIDENT BUSH: How many do you get to ask here in Indonesia?

Q Excuse me?

PRESIDENT BUSH: How many questions do you get to ask? (Laughter.) Keep
firing away. You're just setting a bad example for the American press
corps. (Laughter.)

Q Well, lots of Indonesians think that you have a hidden agenda going here
--

PRESIDENT BUSH: Oh, yes?

Q -- such as securing your Exxon deal in Natuna. And what is your comment
on that?

PRESIDENT BUSH: Well, we didn't discuss it. No, we did not discuss it. You
asked about Indonesian democracy -- here's living proof, right here. He ran
a campaign; he said, vote for me, I will do the following things; he's
following through on his promises. The elections were open, the elections
were clean, the elections were fair. And you elected a good President, who
is working hard to -- in a tough job. I don't think the American people
understand how big Indonesia is -- 17,000 islands, 6,000 of them inhabited,
with a variety of demographics. The President kindly hosted a meeting today
with civil society leaders, which points up to the diversity of this great
nation -- different religions, different backgrounds, different people, all
united under a democratic -- under a democracy.

And so I would say your progress is very good. But we all have work to do
in our respective democracies. Our transition to democracy wasn't all that
smooth in America. If you study American history, we had some rough go for
a while. And it's hard work to make sure the institutions are sound so that
people can live in a free society that's based upon the rule of law. But
the President is committed to it, and he's working hard to it, and I would
say you're making good progress.

Terry Hunt -- go ahead and yell it.

Q Mr. President --

PRESIDENT BUSH: Oops, don't yell it. (Laughter.)

Q Mr. President, you've talked about the dangers of leaving Iraq too soon,
but you haven't talked about what risks might be involved in adding tens of
thousands of troops to secure Baghdad, as Senator McCain has suggested.
What are the downsides, if any, for that approach?

And I'd like to ask the President of Indonesia, what suggestions did you
make to President Bush about his Iraq policy?

PRESIDENT BUSH: Terry, we haven't made up -- I haven't made any decisions
about troop increases or troop decreases, and won't until I hear from a
variety of sources, including our own United States military. As you know,
General Pace, who is the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is in the
process of evaluating a lot of suggestions from the field and from people
involved with the Central Command, as well as at the Pentagon. And they
will be bringing forth the suggestions and recommendations to me here as
quickly as possible.

But, so I haven't -- there's no need to comment on something that may not
happen. But if it were to happen, I will tell you the upsides and downside.

PRESIDENT YUDHOYONO: My view on how could we work together at ending
conflict in Iraq, in finding a proper and realistic solution for Iraq is
that global community must be also responsible in solving the problems in
Iraq. Talking about long-term state building, nation building in Iraq, I
think it's not only the responsibleness of the missions of the United
States and other countries who are now involved in Iraq, but of course, is
the roles and responsibility of other missions, as well -- other
communities, as well.

Indonesia believes very strongly if we could work together, if we share and
exchange ideas, then there must be a proper and realistic solution in the
long-term in finding, again, a proper solution for Iraq that's good for
Iraq, good for neighboring countries, good for the U.S., good for
Indonesia, and good for all communities in the world.

Q I would like to ask Mr. President Bush -- President Bush -- relations
between the United States and Indonesia is strong, and as you said, the
United States is a longstanding partner of Indonesia. As you already know,
Indonesia is currently developing alternative energy. Are you willing to
cooperate in this area? And can the United States share its technology with
Indonesia and help us --

PRESIDENT BUSH: Yes, thanks. I'm very supportive of biofuel initiatives,
starting in our own country. It's important for us to develop alternative
ways to power our vehicles if we want to become less dependent on oil. And
so, for example, we're now consuming about 5 billion gallons of ethanol,
which is a fuel made, in our case, from corn. The President and I spent a
fair amount of time talking about the ability to develop biofuels,
particularly, in Indonesia's case, from sugar cane, as well as palm oil.
And the technologies are available to convert sugar into ethanol. For
example, the country of Brazil powers its automobiles with about 85 percent
of all fuels from ethanol from sugar cane.

The other interesting fact for people to understand is that the technology
to have a gasoline-driven automobile be powered by ethanol is very simple.
It's what's called flex-fuel automobiles. And so there's -- we're on the
beginning stages of really a change in how we consume energy. And it's in
the world's interest that we promote biofuels.

Where the United States needs to go, though, is that we can't rely upon
corn only to develop our ethanol. And so we're spending a lot of money on
cellulosic research, and that is the ability to convert wood chips, for
example, to ethanol. And as those technologies become feasible and
economic, we will share them with other countries. It's in our interests,
it's in the U.S. interest that others use biofuel, as well as our own.

And so I'm optimistic about the technologies that are developing. I'm also
realistic to understand it's going to take a while to get them -- to bring
them to -- to make them economic. But we're spending a lot of money on this
type of research. And the President needs to know that as it becomes
commercially capable, we'll share it.

Q President Bush, here in the world's most populous Muslim nation,
thousands have demonstrated for days, saying that your policy in the Middle
East and Iraq and elsewhere is anti-Islamic. How do you fight that
impression? Doesn't it require more than just reassertion of your existing
foreign policy goals?

And for President Yudhoyono, did you, in your talks with President Bush,
urge him to begin a withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq as soon as
possible?

PRESIDENT BUSH: I'll be glad to answer it for him -- no, he didn't. But he
can answer it for himself. (Laughter.)

Look, I applaud a society where people are free to come and express their
opinion. And it's to Indonesia's credit that it's a society where people
are able to protest and say what they think. It's not the first time, by
the way, where people have showed up and expressed their opinion about my
policies. But that's what happens when you make hard decisions.

My answer to people about whether or not -- how do you comfort people of
the Muslim faith that our policies are open, is that I believe freedom is
universal and democracy is universal. I don't believe it's the sole right
of the United States or the sole right of Methodists. I believe in the
universality of freedom. And therefore -- and I believe people desire to
live in free societies, and I believe the vast majority of people want to
live in moderation and not have extremists kill innocent people.

And so, therefore, our policies are to promote that kind of form of
government. It's not going to look like America, it's going to be different
from America. And I also would tell people that democracies yield peace.
Democracies don't fight each other. One of the reasons why I am proud to
call this President friend is because he understands the power of
democracy, and he understands it's a universal right.

And so therefore, to say spreading democracy is anti-religious -- it's the
opposite of that. Democracy means you can worship any way you choose,
freely. And so, look, people protest, that's a good sign. It's a sign of a
healthy society.

PRESIDENT YUDHOYONO: Well, to elaborate my first view on Iraq, I would like
to say that probably we have to think about developing a triple-track
solution. One is really important is having national reconciliation in
Iraq, together with the empowerment of the existing national government is
very important so Iraq can handle her own problem.

Second is, of course, we have to involve other parties. We have to probably
deploy -- employ new set up of security forces in parallel with some day,
this on a proper timetable, the disengagement of U.S. military forces and
other coalition forces from Iraq.

And, of course, the third track is also not to be neglected is how do the
international community work together in conducting reconstruction and
rehabilitation of Iraq after the conflict.

So I think we have to combine all those three solutions before actually the
United States can determine what the possible policies to be developed in
the future related to the withdrawal or disengagement of the U.S. forces
from Iraq.

Q -- (inaudible) -- U.S. forces should remain in Iraq?

PRESIDENT YUDHOYONO: I think I have explained my view on those three tracks
of solution. And the future disengagement of U.S. forces from Iraq must be
connected to the other two that I have mentioned already.

Thank you.

END 7:05 P.M. (Local)
===========================================================================
Return to this article at:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/11/20061120-4.html

 * Origin: (1:3634/12)