[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: GEORGE W. BUSH (2001, Book I)]
[April 2, 2001]
[Pages 353-355]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]
Remarks Following Discussions With President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt and an Exchange With Reporters
April 2, 2001
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
[[Page 354]]
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.
U.S. Navy Aircraft Incident
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 air men 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 [David Gregory, NBC News] steal your
question? That's very inhospitable of you. [Laughter]
Middle East
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?
[[Page 355]]
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.
U.S. Navy Aircraft Incident
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
crewmembers. And we expect that plane to be returned to us.
Note: The President spoke at 12:14 p.m. in the Oval Office at the White
House. In his remarks, he referred to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of
Israel. A tape was not available for verification of the content of
these remarks.