President Bush Participates in Press Availability with President Kufuor of Ghana

February 20, 2008 ,PRESIDENT KUFUOR: Mr. President, I believe we agreed to expose ourselves to the ladies and gentlemen of the media. (Laughter.) And so we are ready for your questions.,PRESIDENT BUSH: Let me have a -- you want me to say something initially, Mr. President?,PRESIDENT KUFUOR: Well, you may, Mr. President.,PRESIDENT BUSH: See, he doesn't want to hear what I said upstairs again. But I do want to say a couple of comments. First of all, thank you very much for your warm hospitality. I am really happy to be in Ghana, as is my wife -- this is her second time here, Mr. President. And I want to thank you for this grand welcome. And I appreciate your leadership.,Upstairs we talked about the Millennium Challenge Account. It is a sizeable sum of taxpayers' money, aimed at helping you achieve your objectives, because your government, led by you, is one that fights corruption and invests in its children, invests in the health of its citizens.,I'm oftentimes asked, what difference does it make to America if people are dying of malaria in a place like Ghana? It means a lot. It means a lot morally, it means a lot from a -- it's in our national interest. After all, if you believe we're in an ideological struggle against extremism, which I do, the only way these people can recruit is when they find hopeless people. And there's nothing more hopeless than a mother losing a child needlessly to a mosquito bite.,We spent time talking about trade, and I'm looking forward to meeting some of your businesses today, Mr. President. I believe firmly in fair trade, and I'm a strong supporter of AGOA. My predecessor put it in office; I worked to get it reauthorized. It's an important part of your development. Your businesspeople are making decisions. Your businesspeople are employing people in your country. And your businesspeople should have access to markets.,I do want to announce today that -- I am announcing a new initiative dealing with disease, and that is, our plan is to make it available a total of $350 million over five years, to target what they call Neglected Tropical Diseases, such as hookworm or river blindness. This is all part of our initiative -- whether it be on HIV/AIDS or malaria, to help save lives. And so, Mr. President, we're looking forward to working with you to help save lives and to bring hope to families.,I want to also announce today that we're going to devote nearly $17 million this year to help you on fighting malaria. I firmly believe your government will do a fine job in getting mosquito nets and -- to your people and medicines to your people. And so we're looking forward to helping you.,I also want to thank you for your leadership, Mr. President. As I said upstairs, I don't think a lot of people in Ghana -- I hope a lot of people in Ghana understand this, what I'm about to say, but you're really one of the respected leaders around the world, because of your firm commitment to peace. I thank you for your leadership here on the continent of Africa. My administration's strategy is to support African leaders to deal with Africa's problems.,I know there's a controversial subject brewing around that's not very well understood, and that's why would America stand up what's called AFRICOM? Let me talk about a couple of points there, Mr. President. First, this is a unique command structure for America. It is a command structure that is aiming to help provide military assistance to African nations, so African nations are more capable of dealing with Africa's conflicts -- like peacekeeping training. Obviously, we've got an issue in Darfur, that we've got to all work together to solve. And I'm very pleased that the AU and U.N. hybrid force should be moving in there. I'd like to see it moving quicker, but the whole purpose of AFRICOM is to help leaders deal with African problems.,Secondly, we do not contemplate adding new bases. In other words, the purpose of this is not to add military bases. I know there's rumors in Ghana, "All Bush is coming to do is try to convince you to put a big military base here." That's baloney. (Laughter.) Or as we say in Texas, that's bull. (Laughter.) Mr. President made it clear to me, he said, look, we -- you're not going to build in any bases in Ghana. I said, I understand; nor do we want to. Now, that doesn't mean we won't develop some kind of office somewhere in Africa. We haven't made our minds up. This is a new concept.,Now, Mr. President, I appreciate you giving me time to address this issue. I want to dispel the notion that all of a sudden America is bringing all kinds of military to Africa. It's just simply not true. This is a way of making our command relevant to the strategy that we have put in place. And I feel no more confident than describing -- I feel very confident in describing that strategy next to you, because I am confident, Mr. President, in your capacity to be a strong leader. You've proved that to be the case.,And finally, he said we're both leaving office together. That's true. But we're going to leave strong, with our heads held high, and we're going to sprint to the finish, aren't we Mr. President?,PRESIDENT KUFOUR: Indeed. Thank you. (Applause.),PRESIDENT BUSH: Good, thank you. Questions?,PRESIDENT KUFOUR: Thank you, Mr. President. Well, may I just compliment what the President has just said. I am happy, one, for the President dispelling any notion that the United States of America is intending to build military bases on the continent of Africa. I believe the explanation the President has given should put fade to the speculation, so that the relationship between us and the United States will grow stronger and with mutual respect. And that's for one.,Two, I should thank the President for the initiative he's just announced of creating a fund to fight the neglected diseases on the continent. My government, for example, and I would say that for perhaps all African governments, is committed to fighting these diseases, but on a very shoestring budget, so that if our friends internationally would come out and launch initiatives like this to support us fight these diseases, then I will say, welcome and thank you for that initiative.,Then the $17 million you are extending to my government to help in the fight against malaria. Just this morning I saw in one of our papers that malaria, which perhaps kills more of us than even HIV/AIDS in Ghana, has increased by about 13 percent in our community. So any help that we can get in our fight to contain and eradicate this disease should be most welcome to the people of Ghana. And I thank you for what you've done.,PRESIDENT BUSH: Yes, sir. Thank you.,PRESIDENT KUFUOR: Thank you. I believe we'll --,PRESIDENT BUSH: Want to answer a few questions?,PRESIDENT KUFUOR: Yes, we can take questions.,PRESIDENT BUSH: All right, good. Why don't you call on somebody in your press.,PRESIDENT KUFUOR: Please. Now you identify yourself. Whoever is going to speak should identify themselves and the papers or radio stations, television stations they are working for.,Q Good morning, your Excellencies, President Kufuor and President Bush. Thank you for taking my questions. First, a little bias, first to President Kufuor. I would like to know, fighting HIV/AIDS and malaria is the focus of this visit, but can you tell us in what other concrete terms this visit will benefit the economy of Ghana, and Ghanaians in particular, since both of you leave office at the end of this year?,And then to President Bush, we know that your support for the fight against HIV/AIDS has been driven by promoting sexual abstinence and fidelity to each other's partner. In African societies, we know that this doesn't really strike a chord because multiple sexual relationships or partner relationships is the reality, though it's not spoken of in public. So how realistic an approach would you want to be adopted in fighting HIV/AIDS within this particular context? Thank you.,PRESIDENT BUSH: Yes, thanks.,PRESIDENT KUFUOR: I answer first. The fight against HIV and malaria is not time-bound, I'm sure you would agree with me. The malaria, for instance, was with us from perhaps time immemorial, and it's still with us. Fortunately we happen to be living in science and technology times, and solutions are being found quickly to pandemics. So within my time, I am happy the President of the United States of America has come out with large resources, talking of something like $45 billion -- it's not something you hear of every day.,So I welcome that. And this money I hope will be put to the best uses in terms of engaging the best scientific and technological means to tackle this disease. The research is still ongoing. Nobody is announcing a find yet. But we shouldn't give up. And within my time, I'm happy this help is coming to infuse the efforts we are already making, so that the researchers will continue, and long after me, perhaps, some clever person, scientist, may come out with a solution. This is how I want to look at this. I do not give a time bound to the solution that we seek.,PRESIDENT BUSH: First of all, obviously the status quo is not acceptable. One of the reasons that I was motivated to put forth a significant request to our Congress for a comprehensive program to deal with HIV/AIDS is I felt it was unacceptable to stand by and watch a generation of people, a generation of folks be eradicated.,And so I understand customs and norms, but it seems like to me that if you really want to solve the problem, step one is to have a comprehensive prevention program. And you mentioned abstinence -- no question, that's a part of the program, or be faithful. But also, I just want to remind you, there's a third part called condoms. So we have an ABC program that is a comprehensive part of the strategy.,And it's working. Uganda, for example, was the first country to really put the ABC strategy in place, and the results are measurable. All I'm interested in is results. I'm wise enough to set the strategy and change the tactics if they're not working.