布什与英国首相布朗出席会议讲话(2008-06-16)

situations decline, as the economy is improved, as political reconciliation 1 is taking place, we can bring more troops home. Thats the whole purpose of the strategy. And so, give the Iraqis more responsibility. Let them take more -- be in more charge of their own security and their own government, and thats whats happening.

And so, you know, I mean -- look, the key thing for me is that I have -- you know, is that Gordon shares with me his plans. He listens to -- he talks to his commanders and he picks up the phone and says, heres what were thinking. So theres no surprises. And as I said yesterday on TV here, I have no problem with how Gordon Brown is dealing 2 with Iraq. Hes been a good partner and -- but, as I told you, were bringing ours home, too.

Q Mr. President, Id like to ask you about recent events along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. Do you back President Karzai when he says he may send his troops into Pakistan to take care of some of the militants 4 who are launching attacks on his territory? And do you think that the agreements that the new government of Pakistan is pursuing with some of the militant 3 tribes in that area amount to the sort of appeasement 5 that you talked about in your speech last month?

And Mr. Prime Minister, Id like to ask you about the meeting, upcoming meeting, in Saudi Arabia. What do you expect to come out of that meeting? And do you think it would be helpful if your friend there standing 6 there, Mr. Bush, were to see you in Jeddah at that meeting?

PRESIDENT BUSH: Our strategy is to deny safe haven 7 to extremists who would do harm to innocent people. And thats the strategy of Afghanistan; it needs to be the strategy of Pakistan. Its in all our interests to prevent those who murder innocent people to achieve political objectives to gain safe haven.

And so wed 8 look forward to working -- I mean, one thing that can happen is there can be, you know, more dialogue between the Pak government and the Afghan government. There was -- in the past they had a jirga amongst tribal 9 leaders in the region on both -- from both sides of the border that made a difference. And I think that would be a good idea to restart the jirga process.

I know there needs to be dialogue between the intel services between the respective countries. And I know there needs to be better cooperation, and there needs to be trilateral cooperation on the border; trilateral being Pak, Afghan and coalition 10 border patrols to prevent people from coming back and forth 11 to cross the border.

And theres a lot of common ground. I repeat, it is no ones interest that extremists have a safe haven from which to operate. And Im, you know -- and obviously its a testy 12 situation there. And if Im the President of a country and people are coming from one country to another -- allegedly coming from one country to another -- to kill innocent civilians 14 on my side, Id be concerned about it. But we can help. We can help calm the situation down and develop a strategy that will prevent these extremists from, you know, from developing safe haven and having freedom of movement.

PRIME MINISTER BROWN: Can I say, Im traveling to Jeddah next Sunday at the invitation of the King of Saudi Arabia. And I want a long-term dialogue, and this is part of a process, not an event, between oil producers and oil consumers. I think there is a view developing that the price of oil is increasingly dependent not just on todays demand and supply factors but on what people perceive as demand outstripping 15 supply next year, in the medium term, and in the long term.

And I want to tell the King of Saudi Arabia and others who are there that the world will build more nuclear power. And I have suggested that on present trends it would be about a thousand nuclear power stations over the next 30 years. The world will increase its use of renewables. The world will increase its use of coal. It will lessen 16 its dependence 17 on oil, and that the world is determined 18 to make a more efficient use of oil.

And I think this dialogue between producers and consumers is absolutely essential. President Bush has just been in Saudi Arabia. I have not been there recently. I want to go and talk to the King and talk to others there about what I believe should be a process whereby we understand what are the pressures on demand in future years, as well as we understand the pressures on supply. And I believe that that long-term debate about the future can have an effect on todays markets.

Now, thats what the debate is about, and that is part of a process that I hope will continue, if necessary, with a meeting in London later, and with further meetings so that there is a genuine dialogue between producers and consumers about what is the most worrying situation in the world at the moment, and that is the trebling of the price of oil.

Q Mr. President, in his last major speech, Tony Blair said on Iraq, "Hand on heart, I did what I thought was right. But if I got it wrong, Im sorry." Is it possible you got it wrong? Would you share at this point those slightly more reflective sentiments? And in particular, should you, in retrospect 19, perhaps have concentrated a little more on Afghanistan?

And could I ask the Prime Minister, is the Lisbon Treaty dead in the water now? And if so, what happens next for Europe?

PRESIDENT BUSH: History will judge the tactics. History will judge whether or not, you know, more troops were needed earlier, troops could have been positioned here better or not. Removing Saddam Hussein was not wrong. It was the right thing to do. Right thing to do for our security, right thing to do for peace, and the right thing to do for 25 million Iraqis. And now the fundamental question is will we have the willpower and the patience to help the Iraqis develop a democracy in the heart of the Middle East. Its a democracy thats not going to look like America, its not going to look like Great Britain, but its a democracy that will have government responsive to the people. People say, was that worth it, is it necessary. Absolutely its necessary if you believe were in an ideological 20 war being -- the theaters of which right now, the most notable theaters are Afghanistan and Iraq.

The strategic implications of a free Iraq are significant for our future. For example, a free Iraq will make it easier to deal with the Iranian issue. A free Iraq will send a clear signal to reformers and dissidents, would-be journalists throughout the Middle East that a free society is available for you, as well. And the question facing the Western world is, will we fall prey 21 to the argument that stability is more important than forms of government; that what appears to be stable and peaceful -- is that more important than how people live their lives, what kind of government? You just heard the Prime Minister speak eloquently 22 about Zimbabwe. The lesson there is, forms of government matter.

Freedom has had a transformative effect in Europe, in the Far East. And the fundamental question is, will we work to see it have a transformative effect in the Middle East? Now, there are many doubters. I understand that, because there is some who say that perhaps freedom is not universal. Maybe its only Western people that can self-govern. Maybe its only, you know, white-guy Methodists who are capable of self government. I reject that notion. I think thats the ultimate form of political elitism 23, and I believe an accurate reading of history says that freedom can bring peace we want. And itll bring peace to the Middle East, unless of course we become isolationist; unless of course we lose our confidence; unless of course we quit. And, so, yes, Im sure theres people will say, they could have done things better here and there. But Im absolutely confident that the decision to remove Saddam Hussein was the right decision.

PRIME MINISTER BROWN: And can I just emphasize, the passion for freedom I think is a universal value, and I believe that Iraq is a democracy today because of the action that we have taken. And our next task is to make sure that all Iraqis feel that they have an economic stake as well as a democratic stake in the future of the country. And thats why the work continues.

On Europe, Ill meet Brian Cowen, the Taoiseach of Ireland, when Im in Belfast later today. The legal position on the European treaty is very clear, that all 27 members must sign and therefore ratify 25 the treaty before it comes into force. It is for each member to decide its own process for doing so, and we will continue our process of debating this in the House of Lords, and then royal assent 26 during the course of this week.

I think a short period of reflection is necessary for the Irish to put forward their proposals about how they will deal with this, and we look forward to the Irish coming to the European Council on Thursday with a view of what should be done. I believe that when David Miliband makes a statement to the House this afternoon following a meeting of the European foreign ministers, he will be able to say that all the European Union members believe that Ireland should be given this time to reflect on what they need to do, and then make their proposals about how the situation can be resolved.

Q Good morning, Mr. President, Prime Minister. Id like to ask you both about Iran. President Bush, youve talked about it at every stop. A similar process, it seems, that is deterring 27 North Korea from its nuclear ambitions has basically allowed North Korea [sic] to make progress toward nuclear weapons. At what point are you willing to draw a line here with Iran, and isnt Iran seemingly learning a lesson from the North Korea experience?

PRESIDENT BUSH: Ed, I just strongly disagree with your premise 28 that the six-party talks has encouraged Iran to develop nuclear weapons. I dont know why you have even come to that conclusion, because the facts are the six-party talks is the only way to send a message to the North Koreans that the world isnt going to tolerate them having a weapon.

I mean, in other words, they are -- well see what they disclose, but we hopefully are in the process of disabling and dismantling 29 their plutonium manufacturing. Were hopefully in the process of getting them to disclose what they have manufactured and eventually turning it over. Were hopefully in the process of disclosing their proliferation activities, and its a six-party process. I mean, the only way, in my judgment 30, to diplomatically solve these kinds of problems with nations like Iran and North Korea, non-transparent nations, is through a multilateral process, where theres more than one nation sending the same message to the leaders of these respective countries.

And so I disagree with your premise. As a matter of fact, the Iranians must understand that when we come together and speak with one voice, were serious. Thats why the Prime Ministers statement was so powerful, and thats the lesson that the North Koreans are hearing. And so its -- I said the other day that, you know, one of the things that I will leave behind is a multilateralism to deal with tyrants 31, so problems can be solved diplomatically.

And the difficulty, of course, is that sometimes economics and money trumps 32 national security interests. So you go around asking nations -- by the way, its not a problem for Great Britain -- so you say to your partners, dont sell goods; you know, lets send a focused message all aiming to create the conditions so that somebody rational shows up. In other words, people hopefully are sick of isolation 24 in their respective countries, and they show up and say, were tired of this; theres a better way forward.

And in order for that to be effective, Ed, there has to be more than one voice. So if I were the North Koreans and I were looking at Iran, or the Iranians looking at North Korea, Id say, uh-oh, there are coalitions 33 coming together that are bound tightly -- more tightly than ever in order to send us a focused message.

And, you know, let me just say one thing about the Iranian demand for civilian 13 nuclear power. Its a justifiable 34 demand. You just heard the Prime Minister talk about the spread of civilian nuclear power, which I support -- starting in my own country, by the way; we need to be building civilian nuclear power plants.

And so when the Iranians say, we have a sovereign right to have one, the answer is, you bet, you have a sovereign right, absolutely. But you dont have the trust of those of us who have watched you carefully when it comes to enriching uranium, because you have declared that you want to destroy democracies in the neighborhood, for example. Therefore -- and this is the Russian proposal, by the way -- therefore well provide fuel for you, and well collect the fuel after youve used it so you can have your nuclear -- civilian nuclear power, which undermines what the Iranians are saying, and that is, we must enrich in order to have civilian nuclear power. You dont need to enrich to have civilian nuclear power. The Russian proposal is what we support. This proposal wouldnt have happened had there not been a multilateral process.

And so what these nations need to see is were serious about solving these problems. And the United States spends a lot of time working with our partners to get them solved.

Thank you very much.