For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
July 18, 2001
Remarks by the President in Roundtable Interview with Foreign Press
The Old Family Dining Room
July 17, 2001
10:43 A.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT: I'll make a few
comments. Did anybody hear what I said at the World
Bank? Nobody? (Laughter.) You're
kidding me. I spend all this time writing this speech and
nobody listens.
Here's what I said. I said that
in Europe I talked about a house of freedom; I talked about opening
doors -- that means expanding freedom by enlarging NATO and the
European Union. I also talked about opening windows, so that
America, our allies and friends can more clearly see the problems that
face those who are -- the developing world.
And so I laid out a strategy that I'm
going to pursue in Genoa, that one says that those of us who are
prosperous must continue to put policies in place to enhance
prosperity: lower taxes, less regulation and free
trade. Secondly, that we have -- must work together to
develop a new security arrangement that will help address the threats
of the 21st century. In other words, prosperity for all must
include a prosperous and stable world.
Secondly, I talked about open
trade. I firmly -- I said clearly, as clearly as I could,
that the protestors in Italy have the right to express their opinion in
a peaceful way. But they hurt the case of the poor when they
argue against trade, they hurt the opportunities for developing nations
to grow. As I said, my friend, Ernesto Zedillo put it
well. He said, the thing that troubles him is that it's
clear that the protestors don't want the developing nations --
MS. COUNTRYMAN: They want to
protect the developing nations from development.
THE
PRESIDENT: Yes. All I was going to say is it's
clear they don't want the developing nations to have access to
development. And he's right.
And, thirdly, in order for developing
nations to be able to succeed, our nations and our friends must work
hard to enhance education, fight disease. I reminded folks
that we were the first nation to step up with contribution to the
HIV/AIDS fund. We're part of the strategy. We
will put more in as the fund shows success.
I believe you're going to see that at the
G-7 there will be a strong commitment for more contributions from
nations represented here at the table. We contribute nearly
a billion dollars a year in international aid to HIV/AIDS -- that's
more than double the second-largest donor in the world.
I talked about the need for the World Bank
and multilateral banks to have more grants for education and health, as
opposed to loans. I said that our nation will work to
develop a teacher-training program in Africa. My point is, is that
part of enhancing world prosperity and world freedom, that those of us
who are fortunate nations must work together to provide
opportunity: trade, better health and better
education. That was my speech; I'm sorry you missed
it. (Laughter.)
I'll be glad to answer a few questions.
Q I was going to
kick-off as the British representative. As you know, the
peace process in Northern Ireland is at a critical stage and facing
possible disaster at the moment. The Irish Prime Minister,
the Catholic Deputy Prime Minister of Northern Ireland, moderate voices
in both north and south have no less than 40 editorials in the American
newspapers, including in the Washington Post and the New York Times,
have called for decommissioning of weapons.
I quote the latest one, the Houston
Chronicle put it: "It is time, indeed, it is well past time
for the IRA to honor its commitment to the Good Friday peace agreement
by surrendering its weapons."
Is it now also time now for U.S., as you
prepare to visit Britain, to help break the logjam by calling on Sinn
Fein and its IRA associates to move on surrendering of weapons and
bring back stability to Northern Ireland?
THE PRESIDENT: We strongly
support Tony Blair and Bertie Ahern's attempts to enact the Good
Friday agreement. And one of the crucial points is
decommissioning. And my government stands side-by-side with
those two governments and those two leaders in urging all sides to
decommission, to disarm and to enact the Good Friday agreements.
The situation in Northern Ireland is
coming to a critical stage. I look forward to talking to my
friend about the issue. As I said yesterday, I stand ready
to help. But there should be no mistake that we believe the
decommissioning part of the Good Friday agreement must be upheld.
Q Mr. President,
you're coming close to Italy and to the Holy See.
THE PRESIDENT: Yes, I'm looking
forward to it.
Q What do you
expect from your first meeting with His Holiness, the Pope, considering
his position on abortions, stem cell, the death penalty?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I expect
to talk to a very principled man, who speaks from strong
convictions. And I look forward to being in the presence of
a great world leader.
In my speech in Warsaw, I reminded people
that His Holiness, and his influence had amazing effect on transforming
-- an amazing effect to encourage freedom. I believe -- I
truly believe he's a great world leader and I appreciate his efforts of
reconciliation and healing. In my country, the Holy Father
has an enormous impact, because the leaders of the Catholic Church, for
example, stand strong on the principle of life. They also
stand strong on making sure that those who have no voice are
heard. And I respect the Catholic Church, I respect the
leadership. And I look forward to a very frank discussion.
This will be my first chance to have met
the Holy Father. It's not my first time to Rome, though.
Q Are you a little
excited?
THE PRESIDENT: I'm very
excited. You can't help but be excited and be thinking about
being in the presence of a great leader, a man who has got such depth,
such spiritual strength and depth. And he's had an enormous
impact on the world.
And so I look forward to that and I also
look forward to seeing Rome again. I was there to visit my
daughter, who went to school at the American School in Rome for a
six-month period of time. Laura and I went over to visit
her, I believe it was in the fall of '98, right after my re-election as
governor of Texas. We had a wonderful experience, and I'm
looking forward to going back.
Q Mr. President,
the strong U.S. dollar is getting a real problem for the U.S. export
industry. Are you worried about this? And a
question related to this, the European countries a year ago, when they
have been here at the IMF/World Bank meeting, they were talking about
taking the role of an engine for the world economy. Do you
think, or do you expect them to take this role and if, what do you
think they're going to do?
THE PRESIDENT: If the IMF
should take a strong role for --
Q No, the European
countries taking a --
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I think
this. I think that -- let me answer the dollar question
second.
First, as to the role of market oriented
economies and democracies, we do have a role. And the first
step is to make sure our economies are strong and that we trade freely
between ourselves. That's why I urge -- as a matter of fact
today, if I'm not mistaken, the EU Trade Commissioner and Ambassador
Zoellick, the Trade Commissioner for the U.S., are making a joint
statement -- if it's not today, it's soon -- about the need to have a
new global round of trade.
In other words, I do believe that those of
us who have got rule of law and transparency in our economies, who have
got essentially market oriented economies, have an opportunity to help
spread wealth around the world.
In other words, if our economies don't
grow, it's very difficult for African nations to
grow. Because I remind you, I submit the only way for growth
is for commerce and trade and capital to exchange across borders. So
we do have a -- but we've got to make sure our own economies
grow. And part of the problem I think you're alluding to is
the fact that our economy has slowed down.
And so we have -- and I will talk about
this, what we have done to, you know, enhance economic
growth. One, we've got a tax stimulus package that's going
to be kicking in here soon. I think the checks start
actually going out this week. About $40 billion will be
injected into our economy over the next three months in terms of
rebates. So that should help bolster consumer activity.
Secondly, the Fed has continued to act to
cut rates. And whether they will or not in the future is up
to Mr. Greenspan. It's an independent part of our
government.
But, nevertheless, I can safely say to our
partners we're taking steps necessary to make sure our economy
recovers, and that includes, by the way, addressing
energy. And needless to say, we had a very frank discussion
about energy in my last trip to Europe, and I suspect we'll have
another frank discussion about energy.
One of the things -- the Prime Minister of
Canada and I have had a very interesting relationship, and one that
will continue to grow, is over energy. He knows full well --
and Canada, by the way, is now the largest supplier of energy to the
United States -- and there are some great opportunities for us to
enhance natural gas deliverability into our country by cooperating in
our own hemisphere.
My only point is that I will assure my
friends and our trading partners that we're doing our part to
strengthen our economy, but we've got to work to make sure we reduce
trade barriers in order for prosperity to continue; the strong
dollar. The dollar is what it is based upon market. And the
reason I say that is our government will not artificially enter
markets. The market decides the strength of the
dollar. And I would urge other countries, now, to do the
same thing.
A strong dollar has got, obviously,
benefits and problems for us. One, it's harder to export, but it also
helps attract capital. And much of our economy relies upon
investors investing in the U.S. because of the dollar. And
so we understand the pluses and minuses and, therefore, let the market
determine the float of the dollar.
I don't know if that answered your
question properly.
Q My question is --
I tried to follow up his question so, Mr. President, you met Prime
Minister Koizumi last month and it was a very good
meeting. But Prime Minister Koizumi tried hard to make
serious structural reform. And then the Japanese economy
continued to decline and then the yen rate -- the result is a weak yen
and a stronger dollar. So, President, are you concerned
about such a weak yen?
And may I -- President, my second part of
the question is on Kyoto protocol issues. And, President,
you know the Japanese government have been trying to persuade the
United States to participate in Kyoto Agreement, but the U.S. is still
reluctant to join. So my question is, what will be the U.S.
reaction if Japan move forward to sign the Kyoto agreement without U.S.
commitment to join the agreement?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, first I
did have a great visit with your Prime Minister. I found him
to be a very charming man, and a courageous leader. He's tackling a
very tough economic situation; a huge amount of debt. And he
is willing to work hard to restructure and reform the economy so that
there is, in fact, transparency and reality in the assessment of the
Japanese economy. And I appreciate that a lot.
I said in my statement with him at Camp
David that we firmly stand with him on his reforms. And of
course there may be a consequence as to the yen and dollar
relationship. But the market ought to make that
decision. I believe Japan -- and we hope that Japan does
restructure her economy and fully address the loans and the debt
overhang in a very constructive, forthright manner. I
believe the Prime Minister intends to do that. And I urge
him and continue to encourage him to do so.
And I appreciate his willingness to take
on this very difficult issue. And I think the Japanese people
appreciate that, as well.
Secondly, we also had a long discussion
about Kyoto, as I have with many of the leaders around the
world. And I made it clear to all the world leaders that our
country supports the goals, we just have differences on the
methodology. I reminded the people that we spend a lot of
money on understanding global warming, that we approach the issue from
a science-based perspective. That the goals are unrealistic,
however, and that the United States Congress -- Senate, made it very
clear that they were unrealistic with a 95 to nothing
vote. And that my assessment of the situation was up front.
I explained to them as clearly as I could
that our nation will work to develop a strategy that other nations can
understand clearly, but that they should make no mistake about it, that
the idea of this particular treaty -- of which there was a goal of --
for example, setting a goal of carbon reductions by 1990 -- something
less than the 1990 emissions was something that our country was unable
to withstand.
You know, some leaders were more
sympathetic than others, I must confess. Nevertheless, I do
believe that people appreciated the frank assessment. And I
believe they're going to appreciate the strategy that we lay out over
time to help meet the needs. Each country has to make its
own mind up as to how to proceed with this issue. Each
country must -- the parliaments of these countries must
deliberate. The governments must be straightforward, it
seems like to me, about the consequences. And we will see
how other nations -- I know how other nations have accepted my
declaration, we'll see how they handle it with their own internal
politics regarding this issue.
But we can continue to cooperate, and will
cooperate on technology transfers. You know, a new
generation of nuclear power and the capacity to be able to handle the
waste in a technologically feasible way makes a lot of sense.
And our nation is more than willing to
invest in new technologies and to look at how to make the world more
clean. I reminded the ministers and the leaders that this
also relates to energy. And as one of the trading partners,
significant trading partners for many countries, it seems like the
nations would want our economy to continue to grow. And,
yet, in order to do so we must address our energy needs.
There is a big debate in a America right
now about energy. But make no mistake about it, when you
import nearly 60 percent of your product from overseas that's a
dependency upon foreign sources that can create instability.
Secondly, we've got to find -- and the
State of California was the best in conservation in the
nation. They're the best at putting conservation practices
in place. But they ran out of energy. And so on
the one hand we've got to do a better job of conservation, and we
will. The Vice President has spent a lot of time talking about
that. But we've got to find more energy.
They hadn't built a power plant in 12
years in the state of California. And guess
what? When you grow your state the way they have -- in other
words, the demand increases the way it has and there is no supply, it
creates a problem. And we've got to address
that. And it must be -- and I put this in the context of an
environmental strategy. And the two go hand-in-hand as far
as we're concerned.
I talked very frankly to leaders around
the table about the need for us to continue to come up with safe
alternatives, safe disposal practices for nuclear
energy. But our nation needs to look into it, and so does
the developing world, by the way; it seems like to me.
And you know, some in Europe have a
different perspective about nuclear energy. It's an
important discussion and we'll continue to consult with our friends.
Q First of all, I
wanted to thank you for inviting us all in -- it's a high -- working in
my life.
President Putin yesterday suggested that
he wants a new security structure in Europe that would either involve
Russia in NATO, or NATO disbanded and a new infrastructure with Russia
in it. I wonder whether you think such integration can
really be on the table.
And, also, the Russians and the Chinese
have just concluded a new treaty on friendship. And both of
those countries are firmly opposed to NMD. So I wonder if
you are concerned about that issue.
THE PRESIDENT: I can understand
nations that share a large border wanting to work on a friendship
agreement. It makes sense to me.
First, let me say we did have a very
constructive meeting in Slovenia. It was a very forthright, very
straightforward, very open discussion about issues. And I
made it very clear to Mr. Putin that Russia is no longer our nation's
enemy. And, therefore, I don't think -- the "therefore" of
that is that we should not view each other with suspicion, that we
ought to think seriously about working together to get rid of a
document that codified a Cold War distrust. That's what the
ABM Treaty was. It was a document, when Russia and America
divided the world into armed camps and we stared each other down with
missiles.
I've spoken very clearly to the President
that it's time for new leadership to develop a new strategic framework
for peace. The threats that the ABM Treaty addressed no
longer exists; no longer exists. There are new threats, new
forms of terror: cyberterrorism, fundamentalist extremists,
extremism that certainly threatens us, threatens Israel, who is our
strong ally and friend, threatens Russia. We've got to deal
with it. The threat in Europe at sometime, perhaps. We must
deal with that issue. And one way to do that is coordinate security
arrangements, is to talk about how to -- as to how to deal with the new
threats, but also is to be able to have the capacity to rid the world
of blackmail, terrorist blackmail.
And so we had to have the capacity to
shoot somebody's missile down if they threatened us. It's a
defense, as opposed to relying on peace -- but with offensive weapons,
why don't we think about developing defensive systems. So
I've read with interest the statements, I've been reading with interest
the statements by a lot of people.
But this nation, I'm committing this
nation to a more peaceful world by a realistic assessment of the
threats, and we've got to address them, and I'm going
to. And I continue to consult with our allies and friends,
which I'm confident this topic will come up with Tony
Blair. I look forward to explaining him my
position. I did so with the Prime Minister, I have done so
with the leaders of every nation represented here. I did so
with Jean Chretien right here at this table during my first working
dinner as the President of the United States. He sat right
there, and we had this discussion.
I explained to him the philosophy behind
my attitudes. I firmly believe it's the right thing to keep
the peace. And I look forward to a continued dialogue
starting next -- whenever -- Sunday, I guess it is, with Mr. Putin, on
this very subject. I'm not going to speak for
him. But I will tell you, he listened very
carefully. And I appreciated that.
Now, the other question was --
Q Can both sides
belong to the same structure?
THE PRESIDENT: Oh, oh, oh,
NATO. Well, first of all, his vision, he mentioned this in
our press conference in Slovenia, as well. He talked about a
NATO that might at some point include Russia. I think that's
what he was saying. You know, I found that to be an
interesting comment, something worth noting.
In the meantime, however, there is a round
of NATO expansion -- the practicality is, there's a round of NATO
expansion next fall, a year from this coming fall, and I will reiterate
what I said. It's not a matter of when -- I mean, it's not a
matter of if, it's a matter of when. And countries that are
making progress toward democracy and working hard to conform to the
action plan, we ought to be very forward-leaning toward those
countries. I gave it very -- you should read my speech.
But I will tell you this. As
Russia looks West, she finds no enemies. She finds no
enemies. And that's the way it's going to be, so long as I'm
the President.
Q I know you like
energy questions, so I'll throw a double-barrelled energy question at
you.
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you,
sir. The Canadians are always good about
double-barrelling. (Laughter.)
Q You've expressed
a strong desire to get at the natural gas that's in the Northwest
Territories. How do you reconcile that with the very intense
political pressure to bring the gas south, through Alaska, bypassing
the Canadian resources?
And, secondly, you've talked about a
continental energy policy, energy pact. You've got free
trades with NAFTA. Would a logical next step, given the
United States' great need for water, be a water pact?
THE PRESIDENT: Very
interesting. Let me start with the energy. What
Barry is referring to is there are competing visions about how to get
natural gas from a gas plentiful part of the world into American
markets. One, an Alaska pipeline; and, secondly, a Canadian pipeline
-- or perhaps a combination of the two. We've got a debate
here in America about whether or not America ought to be exploring for
natural gas in parts of our state of Alaska. It's very
similar to the Northwest Territories in Canada.
The Canadian government has made -- along,
I might add, with the tribes in that part of the world have
made the decision that exploration for natural gas would not only be
economically beneficial, but can be done in a way that doesn't harm the
environment. I agree with their assessment.
Whether or not the United States is
willing to think along the same lines is an open question that is still
going to be debated in the United States
Senate. Nevertheless, my attitude is, we need
supply. And, therefore, I have committed myself to working
with the Canadian government to figure out how to get natural gas into
the United States.
The quicker, the better,
Barry. And we are willing to work with your government to
figure out a way that can expeditiously move gas. He's
referring -- you know, obviously, to the extent that it would be an
American pipeline, a pipeline on America soil would make it easier for
me politically. Nevertheless, I'm a practical man; I want
the gas here.
We will continue to work on the Alaska
pipeline. There are perhaps enough reserves to justify an
Alaska pipeline. I know there's enough reserve to justify a
Canadian line. It's conceivable we could have both, that
would both feed the Midwestern market and the Western market.
The second issue is hemispheric energy,
and that really pertains to -- I don't know if you know this, but
Mexico is a net importer of gas. And so we've got all of us
-- three of us are continuing to meet on how best to make sure that all
of us are able to fully explore the opportunities in the hemisphere.
But so long as Mexico imports gas from
America, it is gas that ultimately will be replaced by Canada in our
market. And we've got to encourage Mexico, and I know that
President Fox thinks this way, about enhancing exploration for what he
calls "dry gas" in the country of Mexico.
As well, we're working on electricity
hookups. And one of the things that the Prime Minister and I
have talked about, the possibility of hydroelectric power generating in
Canada, moving down through to particularly the Midwest. It
requires a significant amount of capital outlay; but, nevertheless,
it's really worth the discussion.
Water is -- I'm from a part of the world
where -- where I grew up, there was no water. And at one
time, when the price of international crude oil got down to around $10
a barrel, water was more valuable than oil -- at least where we
live. Water will forever be an issue in the United States,
particularly the Western United States. I don't know exactly
what you have in mind in terms of importation of water. I
presume it's -- perhaps some have suggested abandoned pipelines that
used to carry energy. That's a possibility. I
would be open to any discussions.
Our nation must develop a comprehensive
water strategy as we head -- particularly as these western states
continued to grow. You know, one big debate we have in
America is whether or not we build more reservoir space, more water
storage, above-ground water storage. It is a battle,
needless to say, that pits local conservationists versus those with
agricultural interests, for example. And I've looked forward
to discussing this with the Prime Minister, should he want to bring it
up, at any time, because water is valuable for a lot of our
countries. A lot of people don't need it, but when you head
South and West, we do need it.
Q Mr. President.
THE PRESIDENT: Patrice.
Q Yes. What is your vision, your
master plan for U.S.-European relations? And, more
specifically, for U.S.-EU relations for 2008, until 2008 when you leave
this house? Maybe this would be --
THE PRESIDENT: I like an
optimistic man. (Laughter.)
Q I'm not voting.
THE PRESIDENT: -- but
nevertheless, I appreciate it. (Laughter.)
Q Maybe this would
reassure all those who have questions about the U.S. strategy.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I
appreciate that. Yes. Look, when I first went to
-- my first trip to Europe was an ice-breaker. You know,
some of the leaders had come here and we had visited. But a
lot of folks had never -- you know, they had read things about me, so
they weren't able to hear my vision. They were told things
through the newspapers; sometimes things were true, sometimes frankly
not so true. But, nevertheless, it gave me a chance to have
a very honest dialogue.
Patrice, I think they realize that, one,
my nation is firmly committed to NATO, the expansion of
NATO. Our commitment to NATO is real. One of the
big issues -- that's important for people's vision of the American
role. Very important.
You know, during the course of the
campaign, I made it clear that I thought that our military should be
used to fight and win war. That's what I thought the
military was for. And that I was concerned about
peacekeeping missions, and that we've got to be very clear about -- to
our friends and allies about how we use our troops for nation-building
exercises, which I have rebuffed as a -- basically rebuffed as a kind
of a strategy for the military.
And as a result of that, some in Europe
were very concerned about our presence in the Balkans, for
example. And the Secretary of State reiterated my position
very clearly early in the administration, and I had the opportunity to
do so -- we came in together, we leave together. That's an
important statement for people to understand, that our nation will
continue to work with our European friends -- in this case, to bring
stability to the Balkans and Macedonia. We're very much
involved. We've got an ambassador on the ground there
working with the EU ambassador to bring peace. There is a
cease-fire, progress is being made, our nation is engaged and
involved.
Having said that, it's important, however,
to continue to work, though, to replace troops in a responsible manner
with civil institutions, civil structures that can do the same thing
the troops are doing.
We've got to work for a police force and
security arrangements that are run locally, so that the NATO troops at
some point in time will no longer serve as
peacekeepers. Now, that's obviously more opportunistic to do
that in Bosnia than it is in Kosovo at this point in time but,
nevertheless, we must do so.
In terms of the EU, I believe that we can
have a very constructive relationship with the
EU. Obviously, there are some concerns where we differ, but
we shouldn't allow these differences, like biotechnology, for example,
which I talked about today in my speech regarding developing
nations. The U.N. came out -- this is kind of an aside --
the U.N. came out with a very interesting study that made it clear that
biotech and biotechnology will enhance the ability of poor nations to
grow more plentiful amounts of food. We agree with that
position. And, yet, we have a disagreement with our European
friends on that, it seems like.
Nevertheless, we shouldn't allow those
disagreements to undermine and to kind of diminish the fact that we
share the same values. And it's the values that unite -- not
just the history, but the values that unite America with
Europe. The values of freedom, free press, I emphasize free
press being exercised right here in the Family Dining Room at the White
House. Free speech -- it will be exercised in Genoa, I
suspect. (Laughter.)
Free elections. Free
religion. Basic values that we share. And our
European friends, I believe, are beginning to understand that about me,
that I respect Europe, I respect our history but, most of all, I
respect the values of Europe. And that I will not let
differences of opinion get in the way for the larger
vision. And that is a Europe free and whole, a Europe
expanded, and a Europe in partnership with America. And
we'll have frank discussions.
Look, the only thing I can do in these
meetings, and I will do -- I will just tell people what I
think. I will represent my government in a way that is
forthright, transparent. People will know where we
stand. And some will like it, and some won't like
it. But they will always know that I will be willing to
listen, discuss and consult on issues of importance.
And I think people will find that my
lecture is -- my manner is not lecturing, it's hopeful and
optimistic. It is, I believe that we can -- I'm an
optimistic man. I wouldn't be sitting here as the President
if I didn't have an optimistic view of how we can work together.
And, secondly, I think people will find
that, as I said today, that I do embrace a kind of compassionate
conservatism in the international arena that recognizes that those of
us who are fortunate have an obligation to help the developing nations;
the sick.
It is unbelievable that on my watch and on
the watch of the other leaders around the table that Africa, for
example, suffers the pandemic that it does. And we must come
together, and we must take this issue incredibly seriously, and work
together to help develop -- help Africans develop a strategy of
education, treatment and cure that will work, and help fund it, and
crank up our NGO's to go help. And I think the people will
see the strategy and --
Q Does it look to
you that these big meetings are increasingly being held behind armed
camps? You were in Quebec City, WTO is going to meet in the
desert; in Genoa, they're on a boat, some of them. And
Canada is talking about making it on a mountaintop next year.
THE PRESIDENT: Let me say, I --
in Quebec City, I don't know what percentage, but I would say clearly
95 percent of the people were there to stage a peaceful protest about a
variety of issues. Some anarchists wanted to make it
difficult for the Canadian government to conduct a meeting.
And in all due respect, those who try to
disrupt and destroy and hurt are really defeating the cause of -- their
cause, it seems like to me. I think a lot of people in the
world are just kind of sick of it.
There is one thing to have an open
dialogue. It's another thing to try and hurt and
destroy. You know, secondly, as I said, the people who are
protesting are hurting the poorer nations. If they're trying
to undo trade, it seems like to me their strategy and their philosophy
will lock
people into poverty. And I strongly disagree with
them. And I made that clear in a speech
today. You need to get the exact wording in the
transcript. (Laughter.)
There should be no question about my view,
about what these voices of isolationism and protection are
doing. They can couch it in any words they
want. But they're condemning people to poverty, as far as
I'm concerned. And you know what? They need to go and ask
the people -- ask the African nations, ask what their hope
is. Find out from the people that they're supposedly
speaking on behalf of exactly what their opinion is. And
they're going to find a different point of view.
I thought Quebec City was -- first of all,
I got to see Quebec City in kind of a near-empty state, which was
beautiful. It was a fantastic venue. But, obviously, any
time you're meeting and you've got issues to discuss and there is tear
gas wafting through the air, it kind of changes the atmosphere
somewhat. But that's not going to prevent me from having a
good dialogue with the leaders.
The truth of the matter is, the
discussions inside the halls of these buildings are fairly immune to
what's going on. And the other thing is, there are some
there, they just want to get their picture on TV. And TV
cameras are powerful incentive.
Thanks, everybody.
Q Are you concerned
about Argentina?
THE PRESIDENT: I am concerned
about Argentina. I am concerned about Argentina,
Marc. And our nation is very much -- you know, watching the
situation very carefully. Late last night off the news --
I'm sure the news reported -- it looked like there was an agreement
between the governors and the central government as to how to rein in
spending, which is a very important step in a -- direction that
Argentina needs to go. We don't believe that the Argentinean
situation -- first of all, we think if the de la Rua government
continues to push for reform, we believe they can settle and calm the
situation down so there is a platform for growth.
We also are watching very carefully this
whole notion of contagion and don't believe it's going to be contagious
if, in fact, it doesn't go the way that we hope it
goes. But, yes, we're concerned about it. We're
also watching Turkey very carefully, as well.
Anyway, thanks. Enjoyed it.
END
11:23 A.M. EDT
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