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Skriven 2007-07-17 23:31:02 av Whitehouse Press (1:3634/12.0)
Ärende: Press Release (0707176) for Tue, 2007 Jul 17
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President Bush Meets with United Nations Secretary General Ban-Ki-Moon
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For Immediate Release Office of the Press Secretary July 17, 2007

President Bush Meets with United Nations Secretary General Ban-Ki-Moon Oval
Office

˙ /news/releases/2007/07/20070717-6.wm.v.html ˙˙Presidential Remarks
˙˙Audio ˙˙Photos

˙˙˙˙˙ In Focus: Global Diplomacy

2:16 P.M. EDT

PRESIDENT BUSH: Mr. Secretary General, welcome; thanks for coming. We've
just had a wide-ranging and full discussion on a lot of issues. First, Mr.
Secretary General, I appreciate you, one, taking on this job; two, working
extremely hard; and, three, doing a fine job. I admire the values you hold
dear to your heart and I appreciate the chance to share some thoughts with
you.

We discussed a lot of issues. We have discussed Darfur. We discussed
proliferation. We discussed the potential trial for -- about Hariri. The
Secretary General and I talked about the speech I gave yesterday on the
Middle East. We have talked about Afghanistan and Iraq.

And one of the things I briefed the Secretary on was my views about
extremism and these radicals that will do anything to disrupt the goals set
by the United Nations and/or disrupt the advance of democracy in peaceful
societies. Al Qaeda is strong today, but they're not nearly as strong as
they were prior to September the 11th, 2001, and the reason why is, is
because we've been working with the world to keep the pressure on, to stay
on the offense, to bring them to justice so they won't hurt us again; to
defeat them where we find them.

And now we find them in Iraq. These killers in Iraq, people who will kill
innocent life to stop the advent of democracy, people who are trying to get
on our TV screens on a daily basis to drive us have got ambitions and
plans. These people have sworn allegiance to the very same man who ordered
the attack on September the 11th, 2001, Osama bin Laden. And they want us
to leave parts of the world, like Iraq, so they can establish a safe haven
from which to spread their poisonous ideology. And we are steadfast in our
determination to not only protect the American people, but to protect these
young democracies. And I appreciate your interest in the subject.

Al Qaeda would have been a heck of a lot stronger today had we not stayed
on the offense. And it's in the interest of the United States to not only
defeat them overseas so we don't have to face them here, but also to spread
an ideology that will defeat their ideology every time -- and that's the
ideology based upon liberty.

So Mr. Secretary General, I'm proud to have you here and thank you for your
leadership.

SECRETARY GENERAL BAN KI-MOON: Thank you very much, Mr. President. This is
my second time for meeting with you in this Oval Office. I appreciate your
strong support and active participation of the United States in the United
Nations. And I'm very much grateful for all the strong support for
peacekeeping operations.

In addition to what President Bush has just mentioned on the issues we have
covered, I'd like to mention just a few important, from my perspective.

First of all, I welcome the interest which you have announced yesterday for
the comprehensive Middle East peace process. As a member of the Quartet, I
am prepared to work very closely to see expedited peace process in the
Middle East.

As for Iraqi situation, this is a problem of the whole world. And as far as
the United Nations is concerned, we are prepared to contribute to Iraqi
government and people to help them overcome this difficulty, in close
coordination with the MNF and including the United States. We are going to
help their political facilitation, as well as economic and social
reconstruction. And we also are going to continue the international compact
process for Iraq, as well as expanded -- foreign ministers meeting. This
will provide good opportunity for Iraqi people and international community
to work together for peace and security in Iraq.

In Darfur situation we have made considerable progress. And we are going to
step up the political process. We have made a positive development
yesterday in Tripoli through the meeting chaired by United Nations and
African Union. We are going to have negotiation, pre-negotiation in Arusha,
Tanzania in early August. We are also going to facilitate humanitarian
assistance. I'm going to step up efforts to deploy hybrid operations as
soon as possible in Darfur to resolve this issue as soon as possible. In
that regard, I appreciate U.S. government strong support in this matter.

On climate change, which is very important issue for all humankind, I
appreciate President Bush's initiative during Heiligendamm G8 summit
meeting. I extended an official invitation to President Bush today to
attend, to participate in a high-level U.N. debate on climate change, which
will be held on September 24th. Your participation will be very much
appreciated and I'm looking forward to welcoming you to New York.

Lastly, on North Korean nuclear issue, I appreciate the U.S. government
initiative and flexibility in promoting development of these issues. I'm
encouraged and I welcome the recent development of situation. I hope that
the parties concerned, including DPRK, will take necessary measures to
implement this joint statement to realize the denuclearization of the
Korean Peninsula as soon as possible.

Thank you very much for your hospitality.

PRESIDENT BUSH: Thank you, sir. Thank you all.

END 2:24 P.M. EDT

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