    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2007, Book I)]
    [February 14, 2007]
    [Pages 144-145]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks Following a Meeting With President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia
    February 14, 2007

        President Bush. Madam President, thanks for coming. This is the
    second Oval Office visit I've had with the first democratically elected
    woman President from Africa. Now, the first time we met you were
    wondering whether or not it was possible to achieve your dreams, and you
    asked for our help. I was impressed by your spirit at the last meeting.
        This meeting, there is no doubt in your mind that you can achieve
    your dreams. And I am impressed by your confidence but, more
    importantly, your deep concern for the people of Liberia. And so I
    pledge our ongoing help to you and your Government. I thank you very
    much for setting such a good example for not only the people of Liberia
    but for the people around the world, that new democracies have got the
    capability of doing the hard work necessary to rout out corruption, to
    improve the lives of the citizens with infrastructure projects that
    matter. And we want to help you; we really do.
        Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and
    the President worked out a agreement that I hope other nations follow,
    and that is, we effected debt relief for Liberia. And I call upon other
    nations that have got debt with this vital country to follow our lead
    and to give this country a chance to succeed.
        Secondly, today we're announcing an initiative where the Treasury
    Department is providing monies so that the IMF and other international
    bank--lending institutions will be able to have the confidence in going
    forward to help relieve obligations of Liberia. And the reason this is
    important is, you want to give this young country a chance to succeed by
    eliminating some of the interest obligations and burdens so that there
    is room to grow.
        And so, Madam President, I love your spirit. We spent a lot of time
    talking about education. If anybody who understands the importance of
    education, it's the President. She understands that her country has got
    vast potential; it's got resources, but the biggest potential of all is
    the people. And we want to help you. Really glad you came back. I'm
    thrilled to call you friend.
        President Johnson Sirleaf. Mr. President, I'm just so pleased for
    this extraordinary opportunity to meet you a second time in 1 year. We
    came back this time to report on progress, to tell you in this first
    year of our administration, with the strong support of your Government--
    led by yourself, personally--we've been able to set our goals. We've
    identified the four areas in which we want to concentrate our effort,
    and that's peace and security, economic revitalization, governance and
    the rule of law, and infrastructure.
        And under each of these areas we've achieved important first steps.
    We've set the country on the way to recovery, and now we're back here to
    tell you that we're about to embark on the next phase. And the next
    phase is to do even more: get our kids back in school, to create jobs
    for our people, to open up our economy, restart our mines and our
    forestry sector and our agriculture, get our refugees and our displaced
    persons back into their villages and in their communities, on their
    farms, producing for self-sufficiency.
        All of those things are beginning to happen. Our kids are back in
    school; our enrollment has increased by 40 percent. And now, as he told
    you, we just need to get this debt off our backs. And that's the last
    thing you've done for us. And Secretary Rice was just exceptional in
    taking the leadership yesterday in our forum. And once she did that,
    others are beginning to follow.

    [[Page 145]]

    And you've just made a great call to all of them to tell them to follow.
    And we think it's going to happen. If we get the 3.7 external billion
    debt off us, we can then access resources; we can expand the progress
    we've made; we can accelerate the implementation of all of our programs.
        And so we're just so pleased about that. We thank you for what is
    being done in the security sector reform, the training of our new army,
    the professionalization of our police force. All of that will enable us
    to consolidate the peace and then really begin to deliver to the
    Liberian people. We're fighting corruption; we're starting to put people
    in court; we've created a code of conduct for public officials,
    anticorruption policy and strategy.
        All of these things would not have happened, Mr. President, if we
    didn't have your strong support and the support of your colleagues in
    the Government and also on the Hill. We're thankful that we enjoy
    bipartisan support on the Hill. And we're meeting a lot of them in these
    2 days. And they've just been there for us and giving you the support
    that you need from there to enable you to continue to support us.
        We want you to know: Liberian people are very thankful; Liberian
    people are resolved never to go to war again. They want the simple
    things in life: send their children to schools, have jobs, be able to
    give their families a square meal at the end of the day, be able to get
    around. And we want you to know that those things are happening. We
    thank you for how--what you have done to put us on this path.
        President Bush. Thank you, Madam President. Thank you very much.

    Note: The President spoke at 2:18 p.m. in the Oval Office at the White
    House.