    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2007, Book I)]
    [May 4, 2007]
    [Pages 536-538]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks Following Discussions With Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong of Singapore
    May 4, 2007

        President Bush. Now, Mr. Prime Minister, thank you. Welcome back.
    Every time I visit with the Prime Minister of our friend Singapore, we
    have a strategic dialog.

    [[Page 537]]

        And today I talked to Prime Minister Lee about America's desire to
    stay in close contact with not only Singapore but our partners in what
    we call the ASEAN nations; those would be Southeast Asian nations.
        To this end, the Prime Minister has invited me and I've accepted an
    invitation to go back to Singapore to talk to our partners and friends
    about trade and security, and we'll do so on my way to the APEC meetings
    in Australia.
        Prime Minister Lee. Yes, in September.
        President Bush. So thanks for the invitation in September. That's
    right.
        We talked about a lot of issues. We talked about our bilateral
    relations, which are very strong, and thank you for your leadership on
    that issue. We talked about Iraq and Afghanistan. I thank the
    Singaporean Government and the people of Singapore for supporting a
    Provincial Reconstruction Team in Afghanistan, which will help that--the
    people of that young democracy realize a brighter future. It's a strong
    commitment, Mr. Prime Minister. And I also thank you for the missions
    and the help you've provided to the people of Iraq.
        We talked about the Iranian issue. We, of course, talked about North
    Korea. Now, there is no better person to talk about the Far East with
    than Prime Minister Lee. He's got a very clear vision about the issues,
    the complications, and the opportunities.
        And so I welcome you back, and thanks so much for the amount of time
    that you're willing to give.
        Prime Minister Lee. Well, thank you, President Bush. We had a very
    good discussion. Our bilateral ties between Singapore and America are in
    very good repair, so we spent very little time discussing that. But I
    thanked the President for the steadfastness and resolve with which he's
    tackling the very complicated problems in the Middle East and Iraq, as
    well as the Israel-Palestinian issue.
        It's critical for us in Southeast Asia that America does that and
    that the President continues to give strong leadership on that because
    it affects America's standing in Asia and the world and also the
    security environment in Asia, because extremists, the jihadists, watch
    carefully what's happening in the Middle East and take heart or lose
    heart depending on what's happening there.
        We discussed America's relations in Asia, with China, with Japan,
    Korea. Those two are important to Southeast Asia because they set the
    context within which Southeast Asia can prosper. And good relations
    between America and the major countries, China and Japan, are critical
    because the Southeast Asian countries want to be friends with both and
    do not want to have to choose sides with either.
        Within Southeast Asia, I encouraged the President to deepen and
    strengthen the already good ties with--between the Southeast Asian
    countries, ASEAN, and America, both as a group and also bilaterally,
    individually with single countries. The President is going to come to
    Singapore for the commemorative 30th anniversary meeting of the dialog
    between ASEAN and the United States. And I suggested to the President
    that we should consider suitable new initiatives which perhaps would be
    able to take our relations another step forward.
        But overall, the relations are in good repair. More can and will be
    done. But I look forward to deepening and strengthening not just
    relations but also the friendship between our two countries.
        President Bush. Thank you, Mr. Prime Minister.
        Prime Minister Lee. Thank you, Mr. President.
        President Bush. Thank you all. Thank you.

    Note: The President spoke at 11:03 a.m. in the Oval Office at the White
    House.

    [[Page 538]]