[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2005, Book I)]
[February 23, 2005]
[Pages 295-300]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



The President's News Conference With Chancellor Gerhard 
Schroeder of Germany in Mainz
February 23, 2005

    Chancellor Schroeder. Thank you very much, indeed, ladies and 
gentlemen. I'm very pleased, indeed, about this opportunity of welcoming 
President Bush and his wife, Laura, here in Germany. I think Mainz is an 
excellent venue for this meeting.
    We had a very, very intense discussion, and we basically covered 
each and every subject that is a high-ranking one on the international 
political agenda today.
    Now, before I go into any kind of detail, let me begin by sharing 
with you that we find it very important, sir, that you take note of one 
aspect that is important for both of us. We also talked about climate 
problems that we have worldwide, and this is an area where we also need 
a solution. You know we have different--or used to have different 
opinions about how to go about these things. The Kyoto Protocol was not 
appreciated by everybody, and that is something that has continued to 
exist. But I would like to emphasize that, despite that, we would like 
to see practical cooperation with the reduction of problems in this 
area. And we think that there could be room for maneuver, particularly 
in the field of technology, where the United States of America and 
Germany both have tremendous know-how, and we would like to deepen 
cooperation in this field, irrespective of the question of whether Kyoto 
is the right tool to be going about things or not. And that is something 
we have first said, and this is a piece of progress that you must not 
underestimate.

[[Page 296]]

    Now, over and above that, we obviously talked about all of the 
international problems on the agenda. Some of those problems have 
already been addressed yesterday in Brussels. I have to say it is good 
and it is right, and I think it is important for the development of 
peace in the world that President Bush's administration and he, himself, 
personally, have committed themselves to the situation of the Middle 
East peace process.
    I think there is hope today and even more than hope, possibly, that 
we will come to a solution here. And a solution can only ever be 
mentioned and conceived if there is a strong involvement of the United 
States of America.
    Now, obviously, the other members of the Quartet can be helpful. 
They want to be helpful; there can be no doubt. The same goes for us 
too. But I am very pleased that there is now this very strong commitment 
of the U.S. Americans to this specific problem.
    Now, we obviously talked about Iraq as well, and here, especially, 
we talked about what the perspective can be for the future. And nobody 
wants to conceal that we had different opinions about these things in 
the past, but that is the past, as I just said. And now our joint 
interest is that we come to a stable, democratic Iraq. Germany was 
certainly involved when it was about waiving debt for Iraq. You know 
that at the time we addressed this subject in New York. We have 
committed ourselves, and it was a success. We would like to see a 
situation where Iraq can use its financial scope for reconstruction and 
doesn't have to use the money on debt servicing. And what the Paris Club 
achieved was, I think, a great achievement.
    Now, secondly, we are ready, and when people like us say we're 
ready, we are ready and we do do something. We're actually doing 
already; we are training policemen and military security staff for Iraq 
in the United Arab Emirates, and there I think we can modestly say it is 
a rather successful project indeed. And all of that is, obviously, 
trying to arrange for more homegrown Iraqi security. And we are very 
much interested in not just continuing with these things but to also 
expand on those activities.
    Now, what we do not want to do in Iraq has been accepted, and we 
then said we'd be very happy to make expertise available when it is 
about the rebuilding of democratic institutions, be it questions of 
drafting a constitution but also the establishment of ministries, for 
example. Germany has a host of experience with these things, and if the 
new Iraqi Government wishes us to do so, we'd be most pleased to oblige.
    Now, the discussion about Iran took quite a bit of space during our 
meeting, and let me say openly and frankly that regarding the targets 
that we are trying to achieve, we are fully congruous; that is to say we 
absolutely agree that Iran must say no to any kind of nuclear weapon, 
full stop. That is the joint target that Europeans uphold as much as the 
U.S. Americans, and we are very much of the opinion that this is the 
target that needs to be achieved through a diplomatic negotiating path, 
if at all possible. But this means there needs to be movement on both 
sides.
    Now, we very much assume that this opportunity is there, and I very 
much am pleased to see that the activities undertaken by the three 
European powers--Great Britain, France, and Germany--find the support of 
the U.S. American President. And we very much agree that the targets 
we're going for is very much agreed: Iran must not have any nuclear 
weapons. They must waive any right to the production thereof, and they 
must renounce the right to even close the fuel cycle.
    Now, what has now been--may have done in a temporary agreement has 
to be nailed down fully and completely and, well, sustainably.
    Now, those were basically the topics that we addressed. And over and 
above that, we obviously talked about the situation in

[[Page 297]]

Europe, the situation in Russia, and in other places of our beloved 
world. All in all, from my perspective, a tremendously successful 
meeting and a very friendly conversation I'm very pleased about. Thank 
you.
    President Bush. Thank you very much for your kind hospitality. And 
Laura and I are looking forward to eating lunch 
with you and Doris. And we're so 
honored that you would greet us here in your beautiful country.
    I am--it's obvious that my--it's--an obvious decision was to come 
here on my first trip since my Inauguration. After all, Europe is 
America's closest ally. I said yesterday and I want to say it again, the 
European project is important to our country. We want it to succeed. And 
in order for Europe to be a strong, viable partner, Germany must be 
strong and viable as well. And in order for us to have good relations 
with Europe, we must have good relations with Germany. And that is why 
this trip is an important trip for my country and for me.
    And so I want to thank you very much for the chance to be here, a 
chance to reconfirm the importance of the transatlantic alliance, and a 
chance to talk about important issues. Gerhard went over the issues; I 
will go over them briefly as well.
    First, I do want to say how much I appreciated Minister 
Schily coming to Washington, DC. I had a good 
visit with him, as did other people in my administration. I appreciate 
so very much the strong cooperation between Germany and the United 
States when it comes to sharing intelligence and to working together to 
find and arrest and bring to justice people who would do harm to our 
respective peoples or anybody else in the world. And I want to thank you 
for that good work.
    Secondly, I appreciated your kind words about Iraq and the need for 
us to put past differences behind us and focus on the people of that 
country. After all, over 8 million people said, ``We want to be free.'' 
And in the face of incredible threat to their life and safety, they 
voted. And as democracies, we have now decided to help them. And I want 
to thank you for your contributions. I fully understand the limitations 
of German contribution. However, the contributions that Gerhard 
Schroeder talked about are not limited; they're important. Whether it be 
ministry building or training of law enforcement officers, those are 
vital contributions, and I appreciate--including debt relief, by the 
way, is a part of the vital contribution.
    We spent a lot of time talking about the Middle East. And I assured 
the Chancellor that this is a primary objective of my administration, is 
to help to move the process along. Peace will be achieved because the 
Israelis and the Palestinians want peace, and our job is to help them 
achieve that. And I look forward to Condoleezza Rice going to the meeting in London shortly to help 
the Palestinians develop the institutions necessary for a free society 
to emerge.
    I said in my State of the Union that I believe a settlement on this 
important issue is within reach. I said that because I believe it. And 
because it is within reach, it is vital for all of us to do--to work 
together to help both parties achieve the two-state solution, two states 
living side by side in peace.
    We spent time talking about Iran, and I want to thank Gerhard for 
taking the lead, along with Britain and France, on this important issue. 
It's vital that the Iranians hear the world speak with one voice that 
they shouldn't have a nuclear weapon. You know, yesterday I was asked 
about the U.S. position, and I said all options are on the table. That's 
part of our position. But I also reminded people that diplomacy is just 
beginning. Iran is not Iraq. We've just started the diplomatic efforts, 
and I want to thank our friends for taking the lead. And I will--we will 
work with them to convince the mullahs that they need to give up their 
nuclear ambitions.

[[Page 298]]

    I--we also talked about the environment. And obviously we've had 
differences on Kyoto. Those differences were first made known in 2001 on 
my trip to Europe. I assured the Chancellor that the United States cares 
about the quality of our air, obviously, that we spend $5.8 billion on 
technology on an annual basis to help develop ways to be able to 
maintain our standards of living and, at the same time, be good stewards 
of the environment. And we have a great opportunity to work with a great 
nation like Germany to share research, share intelligence, and not only 
to make sure that kind of--I mean, share technologies and to make sure 
that kind of technology is available for not only our own country but 
for developing countries like China and India.
    And so we have a great opportunity, I think, Gerhard, and I 
appreciate you for seeing that opportunity as well. This is an important 
trip for me, and it's--and one of the most important stops of all is 
right here in Germany. And I appreciate your hospitality.

Germany-U.S. Relations

    Q. Mr. President, when your father, 15 years ago, visited Mainz, at 
the time he talked about partnership and leadership. Would you give 
Germany the same role today, a partner to the United States of America?
    President Bush. He fondly remembers the 
trip. Thank you for remembering that he came, and I will tell him that 
the first question I got on German soil had his name in it. [Laughter]
    The United States relies upon our partnerships in the world to 
spread liberty and peace, to do our duties as a wealthy nation to help 
the poor, and to work on matters such as HIV/AIDS. And we need partners. 
And Germany is a partner. We share the same goals. We share the goal of 
a free and peaceful world. We share the goal of working together to 
convince the ayatollahs in Iran to give up their nuclear weapons 
ambitions. We care deeply about the fact that there's disease on the 
continent of Africa, a pandemic in the form of HIV/AIDS.
    And so I would call Germany a partner in peace and a partner in 
freedom and a partner of doing our duty.
    Keil. Richard Keil [Bloomberg News]. [Laughter] Here's your mike. 
He's a very tall person. [Laughter]
    Chancellor Schroeder. I see; I see.

Syria

    Q. President Bush, do you feel that you have gained any momentum 
here on this trip this week for possible new sanctions against Syria?
    And Chairman Schroeder, do you think that considering new sanctions 
on Syria is something that you could approve of at this time?
    President Bush. Dick, the--I had a good talk with President 
Chirac on this subject. France and the United 
States cosponsored a resolution in the United Nations that made it very 
clear that Syria needs to withdraw her troops from Lebanon.
    I will state it again: The position of our Government is Syria must 
withdraw not only the troops but its secret services from Lebanon. And 
Syria, in so doing, will indicate the other point that the President of 
France and I wanted to make, and that is 
those elections that are coming up need to be free, without any Syrian 
influence.
    And so the charge is out there for the Syrian Government to hear 
loud and clear. And we will see how they respond before there's any 
further discussions about going back to the United Nations.
    Chancellor Schroeder. I very much share this opinion. And let me 
also add that jointly we are of the opinion that there must be an 
international investigation on the death of former Prime Minister Hariri 
in Lebanon. That is certainly one other aspect that--where we feel we 
stand united. And the French President agrees on this as well.

[[Page 299]]

Role of NATO

    Q. Chancellor, I wanted to put a question to you. You tabled an 
initiative to NATO reform in Munich. It was tabled in your absence, and 
you then went and explained thereafter. Could you tell me where you 
agree when it comes to your ideas for NATO, but also, can you tell me 
where the differences are?
    Chancellor Schroeder. We have agreed that we are not going to 
constantly emphasize where we're not agreeing but we want to focus on 
where we do agree. And that is why I can share with you that, regarding 
the question as to where to go for NATO, we are very much of the 
opinion--and I've understood the President in such a way that we're 
jointly of the opinion--that it is necessary to take NATO and the 
European Union, both of them, and to make them into a forum for 
important international transatlantic positions, where these are openly, 
frankly, candidly discussed on a high level. That was very much what I 
wanted to say at the time, and that is still what I think to this day.
    President Bush. I interpreted the comments to mean he wants NATO to 
be relevant, a place where there is meaningful strategic dialog. And 
that was very clear to everybody sitting around the table. And the 
meeting ended with Jaap saying to everybody that he's going to come back 
with a plan to make sure that the strategic dialog in NATO is relevant. 
And so I appreciated the spirit in which those comments were made.
    Fletcher [Michael Fletcher], Washington Post.

Iran

    Q. Thank you, Mr. President. Chancellor Schroeder has said that Iran 
will abandon its nuclear ambitions only after knowing that its economic 
and legitimate security concerns have been addressed. First of all, do 
you agree with that assessment, and can that happen without the United 
States joining the talks with Iran?
    President Bush. Yes, I appreciate that. Look, first, let me just 
make this very clear: The party that has caused these discussions to 
occur in the first place are the Iranians. And the reason we're having 
these discussions is because they were caught enriching uranium after 
they had signed a treaty saying they wouldn't enrich uranium. So in 
other words, there is a--these discussions are occurring because they 
have breached a contract with the international community. They're the 
party that needs to be held to account, not any of us.
    And secondly, what we discussed with our German friends and French 
and British friends as well is a series of negotiating tactics--how to 
make sure the process moves forward without yielding to our universal 
demand.
    I might add, I believe there's another demand that makes sense as 
well, and that is that the Iranian Government listen to the hopes and 
aspirations of the Iranian people. That's what the German system does; 
that's what the American system does. We believe that the voice of the 
people ought to be determining policy, because we believe in democracy 
and freedom. And so, as we go down the road, we look forward to 
discussing ways to make--to talk with the three interlocutors without 
yielding at all on the universal demand that they must give up their 
weapons in a transparent way. And I'm hopeful we can achieve our 
objective. And we discussed tactics, some of which have bubbled up, 
obviously, into the public domain.
    And we will continue to talk tactics, to make sure that we achieve 
the objective: Iran must not have a nuclear weapon. For the sake of 
security and peace, they must not have a nuclear weapon. And that is a 
goal shared by Germany, France, Great Britain, and the United States. 
And working together, we can get this accomplished.
    Thank you all.

Note: The President's news conference began at 12:24 p.m. at the 
Electoral Palace.

[[Page 300]]

In his remarks, he referred to Doris Schroeder-Koepf, wife of Chancellor 
Schroeder; German Interior Minister Otto Schily; President Jacques 
Chirac of France; and NATO Secretary General Jakob Gijsbert ``Jaap'' de 
Hoop Scheffer. Chancellor Schroeder referred to former Prime Minister 
Rafiq Hariri of Lebanon, who was assassinated on February 14 in Beirut. 
Chancellor Schroeder and some reporters spoke in German, and their 
remarks were translated by an interpreter.