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Skriven 2007-02-12 23:31:10 av Whitehouse Press (1:3634/12.0)
Ärende: Press Release (070212) for Mon, 2007 Feb 12
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President Bush Meets with President Adamkus of Lithuania
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For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
February 12, 2007

President Bush Meets with President Adamkus of Lithuania
Oval Office

President's Remarks

˙˙˙˙˙ In Focus: Global Diplomacy

11:02 A.M. EST

PRESIDENT BUSH: It's my honor to welcome a personal friend and a friend of
freedom and peace to the Oval Office. Mr. President, I respect you, I
respect your country. Lithuania has been a country whose history has been
one of great tragedy. You, yourself, have lived through that tragedy. And
it's so refreshing for a person like me to talk to somebody and to
strategize with somebody who knows the great blessings of living in a free
society.

The example of your country is an important example for the world, and that
is that freedom is universal, that those of us who have the benefits of
living in a free society must prevent a country such as yours from ever
again being subjected to the tyranny of a few. You know full well the
suffering that your relatives went through.

And, therefore, I find it -- I'm not surprised that in a struggling
democracy like Afghanistan, your country has stood up bravely to support
the Karzai government and the people of Afghanistan. And I thank you. And I
thank the citizens of your country for your willingness to contribute to
peace by helping a young democracy survive. I thank you very much for your
support for the people of Iraq. It's hard work in Iraq. But, nevertheless,
it is inspiring to know that Lithuania has said, we want to help the people
realize the blessings of a free society.

We talked about a lot of issues. We talked about energy independence. I was
very pleased by the strategy that you and others in the Baltics are working
to achieve to achieve energy independence. We share the same objectives
here in America, and I look forward to working with you as new technologies
become available to make us all less dependent on oil and natural gas.

Secondly, the President was quite adamant about visa waiver. I can
understand your strong position, Mr. President. I thank you very much for
your clarity of thought. There should be no doubt that here in the Oval
Office that President Adamkus represented the will of the majority of the
Lithuanian people, when we discussed visa waiver and his desire for the
people of his country to be treated like most of the other people in the
European Union. I assured him we'll work with Congress to get a fair piece
of legislation forward as quickly as possible so we can deal with this
issue once and for all.

All in all, I'm so grateful that you and the First Lady came by to say
hello here in the Oval Office. And I know Laura was very much looking
forward to entertaining your good wife over there at the Residence. I
thought the business session here went very well in a very constructive
way. And, again, I welcome you back to the Oval Office.

PRESIDENT ADAMKUS: Thank you very much, Mr. President. I believe the visit
is just reconfirmation of the Lithuanian people for what we stand for. And
I believe there is no doubt that our commitments -- international
commitments, joining United States, actually based on the principles,
principles which were the guiding light for us during the very difficult
times of the Soviet occupation, almost for half of the century.

But at the same time, like I indicated to you, knowing what it means to be
free and knowing, I mean, that this freedom still is not available in some
parts of the world, this is why we are with our, I would say, meager
resources, but standing by you in Afghanistan, in Iraq, in Kosovo. And
definitely we are going to stand shoulder to shoulder just to make sure
that the remaining Iraq people who cannot even enjoy today those kind of
privileges -- free speech, respect for human rights -- would be given to
them.

So I want to just thank you once again, I mean, for the support we are
receiving. We are going to work together, especially in developing
situations like we just mentioned during our conversations here about the
latest statements in Munich. I believe this is not going to sway away the
free people from the -- I mean, its ideals, the direction we are going
together, and I think that the final outcome will be this is what we dream
about, this is for what the American people stand for, for centuries and
the day is coming.

PRESIDENT BUSH: Thank you, sir.

PRESIDENT ADAMKUS: Thank you very much.

END 11:07 A.M. EST

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