For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
April 2, 2001
Remarks by President Bush and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Photo Opportunity
The Oval Office
12:14 P.M. EDT
PRESIDENT BUSH: I'm going to start
off with a statement; the President will make a
statement. We'll have two questions from the American press,
two questions from the Egyptian press. And then you'll be
asked to leave in a prompt fashion. (Laughter.)
Of course, it is my honor to welcome the
President of Egypt here to the Oval Office. I had the honor
of meeting the President a couple of years ago. I found him
to be an engaging, charming, strong leader then; my opinion hasn't
changed after our good, frank discussion today.
We're friends. We will remain
friends. And we will work together to bring peace to the
Middle East. And we'll work together to try to convince all
parties involved to lay down their arms, so there would be less
violence. I'm also committed to working with the President
on relations -- economic relations that will be to the advantage of
both our countries.
And so it is my high honor to welcome
President Mubarak here to the Oval Office and to the United States.
Mr. President.
PRESIDENT MUBARAK: Thank
you. I'm so pleased to come here for the first time to meet
with my friend, President Bush, in the Oval Office. He's a
friend. I know him some time ago. And I'm very
keen to work with him on all issues concerning the Middle East,
especially the Middle East problem.
We are working very hard and we are going to
cooperate very hard in the direction of peace because our main concern
is peace and stability in the area of the Middle East, which is in the
interest of the United States, of Egypt, Jordan and all countries in
the area. We are going to do our best, we are going to
cooperate with the main players, with the United States. And
I have great hopes that President Bush will do the maximum effort of
that so as to reach lessening the tension and resume negotiations,
which is vitally important.
Q Mr. President, on
China, do you consider the American service personnel
hostages? And, secondly, is it true that the Chinese have
already boarded our Navy spy plane, and how do you react to that?
PRESIDENT BUSH: My reaction is, is
that the Chinese must promptly allow us to have contact with the 24
airmen and women that are there and return our plane to us without any
further tampering. I sent a very clear message and I expect
them to heed the message.
Q Have they boarded the
plane, sir?
PRESIDENT BUSH: My message stands
for itself.
Q Will you be more
involved sir --
Q The Middle East
situation is deteriorating --
PRESIDENT BUSH: Yes, ma'am?
Q Actually, sir, I had
another question, altogether, but the point is --
PRESIDENT BUSH: Did Gregory steal
your question? That's very inhospitable of
you. (Laughter.)
Q The Middle East
situation, sir, is deteriorating day by day. The press is
speculating the American administration is disengaging itself from the
area. Can the Middle East afford this vacuum by the absence
of an active American role? And have you formulated a new
approach, if any?
And, President Mubarak, please comment
afterwards.
PRESIDENT BUSH: Well, we're very
engaged in the Middle East and will remain so. As a matter
of fact, the Secretary of State has been involved on the telephone this
morning with Prime Minister Sharon. I have had numerous
telephone conversations with leaders in the Middle
East. I'll continue to be actively engaged at promoting a
peaceful resolution of the issue. After all, most of our
conversation today was talking about how to bring peace in the Middle
East.
I understand that we can facilitate
peace. We can't force a peace. And we will use our prestige
and influence as best we can to facilitate a peace. Part of
it is to build a strong foundation for peace in the Middle
East. It's important for us to build strong relationships
with countries such as Egypt, and Jordan, and other countries in the
Middle East who have got a stake in peace. But
we will remain very actively engaged. And, hopefully, there
will be positive results.
It is very important for people to realize
that the United States will not set a timetable that meets our specific
needs. The only lasting peace is one in which the parties
involved come to the table. And the role for strong
countries like ourselves and Egypt is to encourage, first, the violence
to end; and, secondly, for discussions to begin again. And
I'm very optimistic and hopeful that we'll be able to achieve that.
Q Mr. President --
Q Mr. President, your
comments --
Q A comment from
President Mubarak --
PRESIDENT BUSH: Hold
on. AP man. AP man. Excuse
me. Oh, sorry.
PRESIDENT MUBARAK: I think the
President told you everything about that. He is committed to
work for peace. We are not going to impose any solution on
the parties. We are going to facilitate the situation so
that they can sit together, negotiate, and we will help them to reach a
final conclusion for peace. Because all of us need stability
in the area.
Q The U.S.-Egypt
relation is bigger than just the peace --
PRESIDENT BUSH: Of course.
Q Is that true?
PRESIDENT BUSH: Oh,
absolutely. The U.S.-Egyptian relation is about economic
commerce; it's about cultural exchanges.
Absolutely. But one of the key things is that we can use our
historic relationship to work together to bring peace in the Middle
East. It's an important part of our relationship, but not
the only important part.
Q Mr. President, do you
see this accident as a provocation on the part of China or a true
accident? And what will it do to U.S.-Chinese relationships,
especially your decision on selling arms to Taiwan?
PRESIDENT BUSH: Well, I made a very
clear statement about how I viewed the incident. It is clear
that we had a plane flying in international -- over international
waters, that was damaged. It landed. And we expect there to
be contact as soon as possible with our crew members. And we
expect that plane to be returned to us.
END
12:21 P.M. EDT
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