    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2005, Book I)]
    [June 30, 2005]
    [Pages 1092-1098]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks on the Upcoming Group of Eight Summit
    June 30, 2005

        Thank you all. Thanks a lot. Please be seated. Thanks for the warm
    welcome. It's a pleasure for Laura and me to join
    you here at the Smithsonian, where America's heritage is kept and where
    the achievements of all cultures are celebrated.
        I thank Wally Stern for your kind
    introduction and for his leadership of the Hudson Institute. I
    appreciate all the Hudson Institute members who are here. Thank you for
    your service to our country.
        I want to thank the members of the diplomatic corps who have joined
    us. I appreciate your coming. I particularly want to say thanks to the
    Ambassadors from the African nations who are here. I have visited your
    beautiful and hopeful continent, and next month, Laura will travel to South Africa, Tanzania, and Rwanda to
    highlight the partnership we're building on education, the empowerment
    of women, and the fight against HIV/AIDS. She's a really good ambassador
    for our country.
        I want to--I appreciate our Secretary of State who has joined us
    today. Condoleezza Rice, I'm proud you're
    here. Thanks for joining us. You're doing a fabulous job, by the way.
        Ambassador Rob Portman, the U.S. Trade
    Representative is with us. Ambassador, thanks for joining us. Andrew
    Natsios, Administrator of USAID, is with
    us. Good to see you, Andrew. Thanks for coming. Randy Tobias, who is the U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator--
    Ambassador Randy Tobias--thank you for joining us, Mr. Ambassador. I
    appreciate your noble work.
        I want to thank Senator Sam Brownback
    and Congressman Jim Kolbe and Congresswoman
    Nita Lowey for joining for us. We're honored
    you're here. Thanks for coming.
        Secretary Ann Veneman, the UNICEF
    executive director, is with us. It's great to see you, Ann. Thanks for
    being here. I want to thank Larry Small,
    the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institute.
        I want to thank Dr. Julian Raby, the
    director of the Freer and Sackler Galleries of Art. I appreciate Herb
    London, the president, Ken
    Weinstein, the executive officer of the
    Hudson Institute. And thank you all for being here.
        Next week, I'm going to head to the G-8 summit in Scotland. Out
    there, I'll meet with leaders of the industrialized nations. As in
    earlier meetings, we will discuss the great political and economic
    progress being made in Africa and the next steps

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    we can take with African leaders to build on that progress. The whole
    world will benefit from prosperity and stability on the African
    continent. And the peoples of Africa deserve the peace and freedom and
    opportunity that are the natural rights of all mankind.
        We seek progress in Africa and throughout the developing world
    because our interests are directly at stake. September the 11th, 2001,
    Americans found that instability and lawlessness in a distant country
    can bring danger to our own. In this new century, we are less threatened
    by fleets and armies than by small cells of men who operate in the
    shadows and exploit weakness and despair. The ultimate answer to those
    threats is to encourage prosperous, democratic, and lawful societies
    that join us in overcoming the forces of terror, allies that we're
    finding across the continent of Africa. We fight the war on terror with
    our power. We will win the war on terror with freedom and justice and
    hope.
        We seek progress in Africa and throughout the developing world
    because conscience demands it. Americans believe that human rights and
    the worth of human lives are not determined by race or nationality or
    diminished by distance. We believe that every life matters and every
    person counts. And so we are moved when thousands of young lives are
    ended every day by the treatable disease of malaria. We're moved when
    children watch their parents slowly die of AIDS, leaving young boys and
    girls traumatized, frightened, and alone. Peoples of Africa are opposing
    these challenges with courage and determination, and we will stand
    beside them.
        Yet the continent of Africa is so much more than the sum of its
    problems. After years of colonization and Marxism and racism, Africa is
    on the threshold of great advances. Economic growth is at the highest
    level in 8 years. Leaders have emerged from South Africa to Nigeria to
    Kenya, to broker an end to old conflicts. Last yearalone, five nations
    south of the Sahara held successful democratic elections. All who live
    in Africa can be certain, as you seize this moment of opportunity,
    America will be your partner and your friend.

        In a developing world, we have an unprecedented opportunity to help
    other nations achieve historic victories over extreme poverty, with
    policies and approaches that are tested and proven. These victories will
    require new resources. The United States has tripled overseas
    development aid to Africa during my Presidency, and we're making a
    strong commitment for the future. Between 2004 and 2010, I proposed to
    double aid to Africa once again, with a primary focus on helping
    reforming countries.

        Yet new resources are not enough. We need new thinking by all
    nations. Our greatest challenge is to get beyond empty symbolism and
    discredited policies and match our good intentions with good results.

        First, overcoming extreme poverty requires partnership, not
    paternalism. Economic development is not something we do for countries;
    it is something they achieve with us. Their leaders, by definition, must
    play the main role as agents of reform and progress, instead of passive
    recipients of money.

        Over the decades, we've learned that without economic and social
    freedom, without the rule of law and effective, honest government,
    international aid has little impact or value. But where there's freedom
    and the rule of law, every dollar of aid, trade, charitable giving, and
    foreign and local investment can rapidly improve people's lives.

        Economic aid that expects little will achieve little. Economic aid
    that expects much can help to change the world. Through the Millennium
    Challenge Corporation, established a year-and-a-half ago,

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    America has begun awarding generous financial aid to countries that
    fight corruption, embrace democratic government, encourage free markets,
    and invest in the health and education of their people.
        Eight nations in Africa are now moving toward grants. In April,
    Madagascar became the first country to sign a Compact that begins aid to
    vital development projects. In the last 6 weeks, the MCC board has
    approved three Compacts, one with an African nation, and I expect the
    MCC to move quickly in the future. Governments making the hard choices
    deserve our strong support. I call upon the United States Congress to
    fully support this initiative for new hope and progress across the
    developing world.
        Second, overcoming extreme poverty goes hand in hand with improving
    the environment. Stagnant economies are one of the greatest
    environmental threats in our world. People who lack food and shelter and
    sanitation cannot be expected to preserve the environment at the expense
    of their own survival. Poor societies cannot afford to invest in
    cleaner, more efficient technologies. Indira Gandhi spoke of poverty and
    need as the greatest polluters. The long-term answer to environmental
    challenges is the rapid, sustained economic progress of poor nations.
        The best way to help nations develop while limiting pollution and
    improving public health is to promote technologies for generating energy
    that are clean, affordable, and secure. Some have suggested the best
    solution to environmental challenges and climate change is to oppose
    development and put the world on an energy diet. But at this moment,
    about two billion people have no access to any form of modern energy.
    Blocking that access would condemn them to permanent poverty, disease,
    high infant mortality, polluted water, and polluted air.
        We're taking a better approach. In the last 3 years, the United
    States has launched a series of initiatives to help developing countries
    adopt new energy sources, from cleaner use of coal to hydrogen vehicles
    to solar and wind power to the production of clean-burning methane to
    less-polluting powerplants. And we continue to look for more
    opportunities to deepen our partnerships with developing nations. The
    whole world benefits when developing nations have the best and latest
    energy technologies.
        Third, overcoming extreme poverty will require lifting a burden of
    debt that we know poor nations cannot repay. Unending debt payments have
    fewer resources for governments to spend on the needs of their people
    and make it impossible to join the global economy as a full participant.
    Zambia, for example, is spending more on debt service than the
    Government's entire budget for health and education. Last year, poor
    nations owed $7 billion in debt payments to creditors. This burden is
    hurting people in desperate need, and this burden must be lifted.
        In 2001, I challenged the World Bank to give 50 percent of its aid
    to poor countries in grants instead of loans. And the bank has moved
    steadily closer to that goal. With the leadership of Great Britain and
    the United States, the G-8 countries are urging cancellation of $40
    billion in debt owed by 18 of the world's poorest nations, including 14
    nations in Africa. Twenty more countries can qualify for this debt
    forgiveness in the future, with good government and sound economic
    policies. We're determined not only to relieve debt but to erase it, so
    nations in need can face the future with a clean slate.
        Fourth, overcoming extreme poverty will require greater trade. While
    aid and debt relief can create better conditions for development, it is
    trade that provides the engine for development. Only 30 years ago, South
    Korea's per capita GDP was equal to that of many African countries.
    Thanks to export-led growth, South Korea is as rich as many European
    countries. This example

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    can be multiplied throughout the world and lift great numbers of people
    out of poverty.
        The developing world stands to gain the most from an open trading
    system. Historically, developing nations that open themselves to trade
    grow at a rate several times higher than countries that practice
    protectionism. The poor of the world do not experience trade as
    globalization. They experience trade as running water and electric power
    and decent housing, broader education, and better health care for their
    families.
        Too many nations have been cut off from the economic progress of our
    time, and we must expand the circle of trade to include them. Under the
    African Growth and Opportunity Act, which has reduced barriers to trade,
    U.S. exports to sub-Sahara Africa increased 25 percent last year. And
    America's imports from AGOA countries rose 88 percent. Now we must take
    the next large step, expanding the entire global trading system through
    the Doha negotiations. The World Bank estimates that completing these
    negotiations could add $350 billion annually to developing countries'
    incomes and lift 140 million people out of poverty. The Doha
    negotiations are the most practical and important antipoverty initiative
    in the world, and we must bring them to a prompt and successful
    conclusion.
        Fifth, overcoming extreme poverty will require an atmosphere of
    peace, achieved in some cases by effective African military forces that
    can end terrible conflicts. Recent wars--recent history shows how wars
    and internal conflicts can stop the development of whole nations. But
    we're seeing progress. Tens of thousands of refugees who fled war are
    returning home in places such as Liberia and Sierra Leone and Burundi.
    We can add to this progress. Over the next 5 years, America will provide
    training for more than 40,000 African peacekeepers as part of a broader
    initiative by the G-8 countries. We will help African forces to preserve
    justice and order on the African continent.
        We're strongly committed to peace for all the peoples of Sudan.
    American mediation was critical to ending a 20-year civil war between
    north and south, and we're working to fully implement the comprehensive
    peace agreement signed last January. Yet the violence in Darfur region
    is clearly genocide. The human cost is beyond calculation. In the short
    term, more troops are needed to protect the innocent, and nations of the
    African Union are stepping forward to provide them.
        By September, the African Union mission in Sudan will grow from
    2,700 to 7,700 personnel. In a NATO operation next month, the United
    States military will airlift more than 1,000 Rwandan troops. We will
    support the construction of additional 16 base camps over the next 2
    months, and we will provide communications and vehicle maintenance for
    the entire force.
        In the long run, the tragedy in western Sudan requires a settlement
    between the Government and the rebels. And our message is clear: All
    sides must control their forces, end the killing, and negotiate the
    peace of a suffering land.
        Finally, overcoming extreme poverty will require humanitarian aid
    that focuses on results, not merely on inputs and other flawed measures
    of compassion. True compassion is measured by real improvements in the
    lives of men, women, and children. And that is the goal and that is the
    focus of American policy.
        Aid from America will help avert a famine this year in the Horn of
    Africa. All told, nearly 60 percent of global food aid to the continent
    of Africa comes from the United States, and Americans are proud to give
    that aid.
        And since 2003, our country has undertaken a major effort against
    HIV/AIDS, the largest health initiative in history to combat a specific
    disease. Across Africa, we're working with local health officials to
    expand AIDS testing facilities, to train and support

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    doctors and nurses and counselors, to upgrade clinics and hospitals, to
    care for children orphaned by AIDS, and to support pastors and priests
    and others who are teaching young people the values of respect and
    responsibility and prevention. We're making life-giving treatment
    possible for more than 230,000 adults and children in Africa. We're
    determined to reach our 5-year goal of treating 2 million.
        This effort is succeeding because America is providing resources and
    Africans are providing leadership. Local health officials set the
    strategy, and we're supporting them. We're also respecting the values
    and traditions of Africa. Uganda and other nations are applying a
    prevention strategy called ABC, Abstinence, Be faithful in marriage, and
    Condoms. ABC is balanced, effective, and reflects the moral teachings of
    African cultures. And no one is helped when outsiders try to impose a
    lower standard of responsibility.
        Today, in Africa, the United States is engaged as never before.
    We're seeing great progress, and great needs remain. So this morning, I
    announced three additional initiatives to help Africans address urgent
    challenges. Across the continent, there is a deep need for the
    empowerment of women, and that begins with education. Educated young
    women have lower rates of HIV/AIDS, healthier families, and higher rates
    of education for their own children. Yet only half of the children
    complete primary education in Africa.
        Together with African leaders, we must work for the education of
    every African child. And to move closer to that goal, today, I proposed
    a double funding for America's African Education Initiative. In the next
    4 years, we should provide $400 million to train half a million teachers
    and provided scholarships for 300,000 young people, mostly girls. We
    hope other nations will join us. We must give more girls in Africa a
    real chance to avoid exploitation and to chart their own future.
        Another important aspect of empowerment and the fight against AIDS
    is the legal protection of women and girls against sexual violence and
    abuse. Many African nations have already taken steps to improve legal
    rights for women. South Africa, for example, has an innovative model to
    fight rape and domestic violence, special units in hospitals where
    victims can report crime and receive counseling and care, and special
    judges and prosecutors and police units to ensure that criminals are
    punished.
        Today I announce a new effort to spread this approach more broadly
    on the continent. I ask Congress to provide $55 million over 3 years to
    promote women's justice and empowerment in four African nations, nations
    that can stand as examples of reform for others. I'll urge other
    G-8 nations to join us in protecting the lives and the rights of women
    in Africa.
        African health officials have also told us of their continuing
    battle with malaria, which in some countries can cause more death than
    AIDS. Approximately one million last year alone died on the African
    continent because of malaria. And in the overwhelming majority of cases,
    the victims are less than 5 years old, their lives suddenly ended by
    nothing more than a mosquito bite. The toll of malaria is even more
    tragic because the disease itself is highly treatable and preventable.
    Yet this is also our opportunity, because we know that large-scale
    action can defeat this disease in whole regions. And the world must take
    action.
        Next week at the G-8, I will urge developed countries and private
    foundations to join in a broad, aggressive campaign to cut the mortality
    rate for malaria across Africa in half. And our Nation is prepared to
    lead. Next year, we will take comprehensive action in three countries,
    Tanzania, Uganda, and Angola, to provide indoor spraying, long-lasting
    insecticide-treated nets, and effective new combination drugs to treat
    malaria. In addition, the Gates Foundation of

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    Seattle is supporting a major effort to control malaria in Zambia. We've
    had a long tradition of public-private action. I'm grateful to have this
    strong partner in a good cause.
        America will bring this antimalaria effort to at least four more
    highly endemic African countries in 2007 and at least five more in 2008.
    In the next 5 years, with the approval of Congress, we'll spend more
    than $1.2 billion on this campaign.
        An effort on this scale must be phased in to avoid shortages of
    supplies. Yet we intend this effort to eventually cover more than 175
    million people in 15 or more nations. We want to reduce malaria
    mortality in target countries by half and save hundreds of thousands of
    lives.
        I urge other wealthy nations and foundations to participate and
    expand this initiative to additional countries where the need is
    pressing. Together, we can lift this threat and defeat this fear across
    the African continent.
        Over the last 4 years, the United States has stood squarely with
    reformers in Africa on the side of prosperity and progress. We've
    tripled our aid to Africa; we plan to double it once again. But more
    than this, we're standing for good government and energy development and
    debt relief and expanded trade, all of which will help African peoples
    live better lives and eventually overcome the need for aid.
        America is acting in these areas because we share with Africans,
    themselves, a vision of what the continent can become--a model of
    reform, a home to prosperous democracies, and a tribute to the strong
    spirit of the African peoples. This vision is necessary, realistic, and
    already on its way to achievement.
        By standing with the hopes of Africa, America is also showing the
    kind of country we want to be. This weekend, we mark the anniversary of
    our founding. We celebrate our Declaration of Independence and the
    universal appeal of liberty it proclaims. We celebrate our men and women
    in uniform who protect and defend our freedom on missions far from home.
    And Americans on this Fourth of July can also celebrate a great
    tradition of generosity, a tradition of relief after World War I, the
    Marshall plan and the Peace Corps, a tradition that is strong in our own
    time.
        Two years ago, a little girl in Namibia was born to a mother and
    father who both had HIV. She had the disease as well. The name her
    parents gave her translates as the phrase, ``There is no good in the
    world.'' Months ago, the girl was very sick and losing weight and close
    to death. But today, she and her entire family are receiving life-saving
    medicine. Now she's a beautiful, shy, thriving 6-year-old, with a new
    life ahead of her, and there's a little more good in the world.
        Across Africa, people who were preparing to die are now preparing to
    live. And America is playing a role in so many of those miracles. We're
    a nation that repays our blessings with generosity to others. When we
    work with Africans to bring food to starving regions and malaria
    treatments to remote villages and miracle drugs that restore the dying
    to strength, this is part of our calling in the world. And as we answer
    that call, it makes us proud to be Americans.
        Thanks for coming. May God bless you. Thank you all.

    Note: The President spoke at 9:40 a.m. in the Meyer Auditorium at the
    Freer Gallery. In his remarks, he referred to Walter P. Stern, chairman
    of the board of trustees, Hudson Institute. The Office of the Press
    Secretary also released a Spanish language transcript of these remarks.

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