    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2007, Book II)]
    [July 16, 2007]
    [Pages 970-971]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks Following a Meeting With President Lech Kaczynski of Poland
    July 16, 2007

        President Bush. Mr. President, welcome to the United States. Poland
    and the United States have a very unique and strong relationship. And
    the President and I have just had a very constructive dialog. And, by
    the way, Mr. President, there are a lot of my fellow citizens who trace
    their heritage back to Poland who are delighted to welcome you to
    America.
        And along those lines, I fully understand a lot of Polish citizens
    would like to travel to the United States. And so my friend the
    President has once again brought up to me the visa waiver issue, which I
    fully understand, Mr. President, and thank you for your candor. And I
    will continue to work with Congress to change a law that needs to be
    changed.
        Poland is a strong ally. And Poland has taken some very difficult
    decisions to help a young democracy survive in the face of extremist
    threats. And I want to thank you, Mr. President, and the Polish people
    for supporting the people of Afghanistan and Iraq.
        War is never popular. But having heard from the Iraqi leaders today
    and their expression of gratitude, not only to the Polish Government but
    the Polish people and the American people for supporting this democratic
    experiment, Mr. President, it reminds me of how important what we're
    doing is.
        America is, of course, pleased that the Polish economy is strong. We
    want our friends to prosper. Of course, the President, in all modesty,
    reminded me that's the purview of the Prime Minister. Of course, I reminded the President he knows the
    Prime Minister quite well. [Laughter]
        And finally, we talked about how we can enhance the mutual security
    issues. And there's no better symbol of our desire to work for peace and
    security than working on a missile defense system, a missile defense
    system that would provide a--security for Europe from single or dual-
    launch regimes that may emanate from parts of the world where leaders
    don't particularly care for our way of life and/or are in the process of
    trying to develop serious weapons of mass destruction.
        And I thank you, Mr. President, for your vision and your
    understanding about the nature of the world in which we live. And I
    thank you for working on behalf of securing the security of others. And
    we continue to work and consult very closely with you. And so we welcome
    you. Thank you for coming.
        President Kaczynski. Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. President has already
    briefed you about the issues we were talking about during our meeting.
    And concerning visa waiver, we discussed the issue; however, it is in
    the hands of the Congress. We do understand that the legislative process
    in the U.S. is very--it is stable, and it is really hard to change that
    binding law, that existing law. And so we are looking forward to
    positive changes in this area.
        Another very important issue is the issue of missile defense. And I
    would like to emphasize that we discussed it in terms of defensive
    instruments because it is aimed at defense of our democracies against
    the countries who might have or already do have nuclear weapons and
    weapons of mass destruction. So it is really a defense instrument--
    missile defense instrument. And so I do hope that all this project--the
    whole project will be completed successfully.
        And we also discussed other forums which could foster and strengthen
    our mutual relations and also the NATO. And this issue of strengthening
    our cooperation will be discussed at the level of the Secretary of
    Defense of the United States of America

    [[Page 971]]

    and also our Defense Minister of the Republic of Poland and on the level
    of experts. And our conversation, our meeting is not over yet, and there
    are some issues we are going to--[inaudible].
        President Bush. I've got to buy him some lunch. [Laughter]
        Thank you, sir. Yes. Thank you all. Thank you.

    Note: The President spoke at 11:44 a.m. in the Oval Office at the White
    House. In his remarks, he referred to Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski
    of Poland. President Kaczynski referred to Secretary of Defense Robert
    M. Gates; and Minister of National Defense Aleksander Szczyglo of
    Poland. President Kaczynski spoke in Polish, and his remarks were
    translated by an interpreter.