President Bush Participates in Joint Press Availability with Prime Minister Gord

April 17, 2008,PRESIDENT BUSH: Thank you all. Mr. Prime Minister, welcome to the Rose Garden. Glad you're here. It's a beautiful day. I'm -- been a pleasure to welcome a good friend to the Oval Office, and had a good discussion.,Appreciate our special relationship with Britain, and I believe that the actions we've taken are making it stronger. We spent time talking about the terrorists and extremists. I would remind my fellow citizens that just days after the Prime Minister took office, his country was attacked by murderers and extremists. And he handled the situation brilliantly. Prime Minister Brown understands our enemies remain determined to strike our countries and to kill our people. He and I share a determination, a fierce determination, that these evil men must be stopped and that we can defeat their hateful ideology by the spreading of liberty and freedom., We're working together in Iraq. I want to appreciate the sacrifice of the British troops, their families and the British people. During the recent fighting in the Basra province, our nation's coordinated our support for the Iraqi security forces as they took on extremists and criminals. Most thankful for the brilliance of the British helicopter crews that fired under courage and helped evacuate wounded Iraqi soldiers.,I talked to the Prime Minister about my meetings with General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker and why I made the decision I made about our troop levels in Iraq. Appreciate the fact that the Prime Minister briefed me on what the British commanders are saying about Iraq. The key thing there is that we're working very closely together, and that we're making progress.,Also talked about Afghanistan with the Prime Minister. Appreciate the 7,900 British troops that are serving bravely in that country. We talked about the very successful NATO summit that we just concluded in Romania. And we talked about our commitment to see to it that we succeed in Afghanistan.,Spent some time on Iran. Our position is clear that we're going to work together, along with other nations, to make it abundantly clear to the Iranian regime that they must not have the capability of developing a nuclear weapon.,We talked about Zimbabwe. And I appreciate Gordon Brown's strong position on that issue. And I appreciate the fact that he went to the United Nations and made it abundantly clear that which I feel, as well, which is, you can't have elections unless you're willing to put the results out. What kind of election is it if you not let the will of the people be known?,I appreciate those in the region who have spoken out on this issue. Appreciate the fact that some in the region have spoken out against violence. More leaders in the region need to speak out. And the United Nations and the AU must play an active role in resolving the situation in Zimbabwe.,We shared our deep concern about the people in Darfur. And I -- I share frustrations that the United Nations-AU peacekeeping force is slow in arriving. I made the decision not to put our troops in there on the expectation that the United Nations, along with the AU, could be effective -- and they haven't been as effective as they should be, and we'll continue to work to help them., We talked about our joint desire to train health care workers in Ethiopia, Kenya, Mozambique and Zambia, as well as our continued effort to confront disease, whether it be malaria and HIV/AIDS.,And then of course we spent time on our economy -- ies. (Laughter.) That would be two economies. (Laughter.) We first spent some time on the global financial markets, and then we spent time talking about what each of us are doing in our respective countries to deal with our financial circumstances. We spent some time on trade. The worst signal we could send during this global uncertainty is that the world is going to become more protectionist and less willing to open up markets. And I want to thank Gordon Brown for his strong belief that the Doha Rounds ought to proceed. I agree with you, sir, and believe we can make good progress toward that end.,We talked about the climate change issue. I gave a speech right here in the Rose Garden yesterday. I don't know whether any of our press corps read it, but it was a far-reaching speech that talked about our commitment to deal with the issue in such a way that we can develop technologies without wrecking our economy. And it was in clear recognition that unless countries like China and India are at the table, any agreement is not going to work. And I assured the Prime Minister that by the time the G8 comes, we will work hard to make sure we can reach an international consensus that will be effective.,All in all, we had a fabulous conversation. I'm looking forward to dinner tonight. The Prime Minister is bringing his wife Sarah up here to the White House. And I'm -- Laura and I are going to cook you up a meal. (Laughter.) Well, we'll eat one with you. (Laughter.) Thanks for coming.,PRIME MINISTER BROWN: Thank you very much, Mr. President. Let me first of all thank you for your warm welcome, for your hospitality, and for your offer to cook the meal this evening. (Laughter.) And let me thank you most of all for your leadership. The world owes President George Bush a huge debt of gratitude for leading the world in our determination to root out terrorism, and to ensure that there is no safe haven for terrorism and no hiding place for terrorists., It's my profound belief that over many decades, no international partnership has served the world better than the special relationship between our two countries, the United States and the United Kingdom. And following our excellent meeting, I'm able to report that the bond between our two countries is stronger than ever.,From the darkest days of the Second World War, when the strongest transatlantic partnership was forged to defend freedom, to the challenges we face together against terrorism in every part of the world, our alliance will remain strong and steadfast in standing for freedom and for justice. And we will continue to work together with the strenuous efforts we are making together in Iraq and Afghanistan.,Today we agreed our determination that in advance of the July G8 meeting in Japan, where all the major economies will meet together, we will do everything in our power to ensure economic stability and growth. We should be vigilant in maintaining the proactive approach to monetary and fiscal policy to enable our economies to resume their paths of upward growth. We want all our international partners to do the same. To ensure greater confidence in the financial system, all countries should ensure the immediate implementation of the plans for transparency and disclosure and risk management agreed by our finance ministers.,We agreed to work, and President Bush has just referred to this, for an early world trade deal that will give new confidence to the international economy at this time. An enhanced dialogue between oil consumers and oil producers, with rising output from the oil-producing countries, should help stabilize and then cut the price of oil, now at over $110 a barrel.,We want to work with the World Bank and agricultural producers to enhance food supply, tackle food shortages, and increase agricultural production. And both Britain and America are taking action to help the housing market for homeowners and those who want to buy their homes for the first time.,President Bush and I also talked about an agreed new work programs between our two governments on development. And let me acknowledge the pioneering work of President Bush's administration in tackling on the African continent HIV/AIDS and addressing the scandal of avoidable deaths from malaria.,We agreed to work together, as President Bush has just said, to increase the number of doctors, nurses and midwives in Ethiopia, Kenya, Mozambique and Zambia -- a down payment which, if extended to the whole of Africa, would lead to one-and-a-half million more health service, health care workers.,At the same time, the professionalism and commitment of our brave forces serving alongside America with determination in Iraq and Afghanistan was a subject of much of our discussions. We praise the commitment of the troops of both America and Britain and all who serve in these two countries. And we believe that our program of overwatch in Basra in the south of Iraq is making substantial progress. At the same time, we've agreed at the NATO summit in Bucharest measures that we can take so that we match the military effort in Afghanistan with proposals that will enable economic and social development of that country. America and Britain have the first and second largest number of forces in both these countries, and we are determined on the success of our missions.,We reiterated our command stand on Darfur, and we want to see talks from the rebels and the government working together. We reiterated our common stand also on Burma, where it is important to repeat the call for reconciliation. And on the situation in Zimbabwe, President Bush has made a strong statement that I entirely endorse, calling for full democratic rights of the Zimbabwean people to be respected, and that elections that happen have got to be not only reported but be fair and be seen to be fair in the interest of democracy, not just in Zimbabwe but the reputation of democracy throughout Africa and the world.,We have repeated our common commitments in the fight against terrorism, and will continue to work together at every level to defeat terrorism wherever it is. Iran continues to defy the will of the international community, and we are agreed on the need to strengthen the sanctions regime and ensure that these sanctions are effectively implemented. I will be talking to my European colleagues in the next few days about how we can move forward with both these issues throughout Europe. And we want to extend measures to include investment in liquefied national [sic] gas.,We also discussed climate change, following President Bush's announcement yesterday. And we agreed we must work internationally to secure progress at the G8 and towards a post-Kyoto deal on climate change.,President, this is an ambitious agenda that we share together. It can only be achieved by closer cooperation that will happen over these next few months. I look forward to continuing to work with President Bush and his administration in taking it forward. And thank you for your warm welcome and hospitality.,PRESIDENT BUSH: Yes, sir. We'll take two questions a side. Hunt. Terry Hunt.,Q Thank you, Mr. President. You said last week that Iraq was not an endless war, but others have called it an open-ended war and a war with no end in sight. Do you agree with those descriptions?,And Mr. Prime Minister, you met today with the three candidates who want to succeed President Bush. Did you feel a special kinship with any one of them? And do you think that the transatlantic relationship will improve under the next President? Thank you.,PRESIDENT BUSH: One of those three has a good chance of winning. (Laughter.) Look, I'm interested in succeeding in Iraq. I mean, it's -- this is a mission that is succeeding on the security front, it's getting better on the economic front, and it's improving on the political front.,And therefore my statement has been, we'll have the troops there necessary to succeed. It's -- it hasn't been easy; it's been difficult. It's taking longer than I anticipated. But it's worth it. A failure in Iraq would embolden al Qaeda, would give al Qaeda a huge victory, enable them to more likely establish safe haven in a wealthy country from which to launch attacks against us.,And a failure in Iraq would send a message to Iran that the United States and its allies were not intent upon making sure that they stay within the borders of their country and stop promoting terrorism through organizations like Hezbollah, and they wouldn't take us seriously when it came to stopping their desires to have a nuclear weapon. Failure in Iraq would send a message to our friends, you can't count on America.,Success in Iraq will be a significant blow to both al Qaeda and Iran's ambitions. And it's worth it, in my judgment, to succeed against al Qaeda, the very country -- the very group of people that attacked our country, and those who would like to do so again, even on a more massive scale. And it's worth it to say to the theocrats in Iran that you must reform and that we're going to work to prevent you from having a nuclear weapon.