[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2005, Book II)]
[November 6, 2005]
[Pages 1654-1656]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks in a Discussion With Young Leaders in Brasilia, Brazil
November 6, 2005

    U.S. Ambassador to Brazil John J. Danilovich. Mr. President, Secretary Rice, fellow Brazilians, I'd like 
to thank you all for being here this morning. It's a pleasure

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for us to welcome you here on this beautiful Sunday morning in Brasilia.
    Brazil is a land of promise, of enormous potential, and of great 
possibilities. And the promise, potential, and possibilities of Brazil 
are perhaps no more visible than in yourselves. I want to thank you for 
the opportunity of the President and the Secretary, of meeting with you 
today. To a large extent, the future of your country lies in your hands, 
and the President looks forward to discussing things of relevance to 
Brazil and the United States and our important bilateral relationship. 
And with that being said, I'd like to turn the----
    The President. John, let me say 
something. The Ambassador is trying to cull me out of the conversation 
early on. [Laughter] Listen, thank you for coming. First, I am here 
because I want to send a very clear signal to the people of Brazil that 
the relationship between America and Brazil is an important 
relationship, that Brazil is a friend, and that Brazil has got an 
important part of working with America to bring prosperity to not only 
our own citizens but to help others as well and by doing so, kind of lay 
the--lay conditions for a peaceful continent.
    It's in our interests that our neighborhood be a prosperous 
neighborhood. It's in our interests that we work with the largest 
country in the neighborhood. And so I come to not only discuss 
philosophy and points of view with you but also to meet with President 
Lula, with whom I've got a good 
relationship.
    He is a person who had to make 
some tough decisions. That's what leaders have to do; you've got to make 
tough decisions. And he's made hard decisions for the people of Brazil. 
He is--the economy is going well here, which is good news. He also has 
got a good heart. And I share the same concern he has; I share a concern 
of making sure that the least fortunate among us has a chance to survive 
and succeed.
    And so this is going to be a good trip here, and I'm grateful for 
you all taking time to come by and visit. I look forward to having a 
fruitful discussion with you. And we'll start with Carlos.
    Participant. Thank you very much, Mr. President. Latin Americans for 
a long time have had a love-hatred relationship with the U.S. Latin 
Americans admire the military and economic power of the United States, 
its popular culture, and many values with which they share. But Latin 
Americans resist the somewhat missionary nature of U.S. when justifying 
its international actions--for instance, when the U.S. exports 
democracy, exports market economies, or even exports civil liberties. 
This has been really very much criticized or contested, even in this 
region of the world. The Mar del Plata incidents of a few days ago, 
during the Summit of the Americas, showed that the mood of the 
demonstrators may easily go beyond the acceptable limits in--
civilization.
    My question now: Is the U.S. able to pinpoint the causes for these 
disagreements that they have with the opinionmakers here in Latin 
America, and does the U.S. have a clear strategy to change this love and 
hatred relationship into one of cooperation and friendship?
    The President. Well, first of all, I--we met in a society which 
allows people to express their different points of view. In other 
words--which is positive--I expect there to be dissent. That's what 
freedom is all about. People should be allowed to express themselves. 
And so what happened in Argentina happens in America. That's positive. 
Can you imagine being in a society where people were not allowed to 
express their positions?
    Secondly, I fully understand there's, at times, a view of America 
that is, in my opinion, not an accurate view. I mean, you say, 
``missionary zeal to spread democracy''--I do have a deep desire to help 
others assume a democracy that is a democracy that conforms to their 
traditions and their customs. And the reason why is

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because the world has seen that democracies do not fight each other.
    As an example, war broke out in Europe in the early 1900s, as well 
as the mid-1900s. And yet we've had no war in Europe since. And one of 
the reasons why is because the nations of Europe became democracies, not 
American democracy but democracies that reflected the values of the 
people in that country--in their countries.
    One of the stories I like to share with people--it's an interesting 
story, and I think an illustration of what I'm trying to do--is that 
Japan was the sworn enemy of the United States in the late 1940s. My 
dad was a soldier, Navy pilot, and fighting 
the Japanese. Today--I'm going to Japan in 2 weeks. I will be sitting 
down with one of the best friends that I have in the international 
arena, Koizumi. That's interesting, isn't 
it? What happened between the time when America was fighting Japan and 
when, now, Japan is an ally with the United States in dealing with a 
tyrant in North Korea, for example? And what 
happened was, Japan adopted a Japanese-style democracy.
    And so I am anxious to work with countries to help make sure that 
the institutions, universal institutions of democracy become entrenched 
in society: freedom to worship, freedom of the press, rule of law.
    I will also tell you, I firmly believe that a society which is 
democratic is one much more likely to be able to deal with the social 
ills of a society. I mean, a democracy is one in which minorities have 
rights and can express themselves through the legislative process. 
Tyrannies are such that minorities don't have rights, unless you happen 
to be aligned with the tyrant.
    And so, one, I don't think America, nor Brazil, should ever back 
down from believing in the universality of freedom and democracy. 
Secondly, I hope that I am able to do so in a way that explains our 
position, as opposed to alienating people. And one of the reasons I've 
come to Brazil is to make that eminently clear, that the United States 
is a friend of Brazil and that our values that we discuss are universal 
in nature. They apply to Brazil equally as they apply to America.
    So very good question, Carlos.

Note: The President spoke at 9:54 a.m. at the U.S. Embassy. In his 
remarks, he referred to President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva of Brazil; 
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi of Japan; and Chairman Kim Chong-il of 
North Korea. The participant spoke in Portuguese, and his remarks were 
translated by an interpreter. The Office of the Press Secretary also 
released a Spanish language transcript of these remarks. A portion of 
these remarks could not be verified because the tape was incomplete.