[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2007, Book II)]
[November 16, 2007]
[Pages 1478-1482]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]
Remarks Following a Meeting With Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda of Japan
November 16, 2007
President Bush. Mr. Prime Minister, welcome to the White House. I
really appreciate the opportunity to get to know you better. I'm looking
forward to our lunch.
This is an important visit. It's the first visit the Prime Minister
has taken since he has assumed his important office. It's a recognition
that our alliance is vital for peace and security. The alliance between
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our two countries is rooted deeply in our strong commitments to freedom
and democracy. The Prime Minister and I are going to keep it that way.
One of the things we've decided to do is to continue to make sure the
U.S.-Japanese relationship is the cornerstone of security and peace. And
I appreciate you being here.
We'll continue to work together to advance freedom, security, and
prosperity in our respective regions and beyond. We discussed a lot of
ways that we can make the world a better place by working together. We
discussed North Korea and the six-party talks. I appreciate Japan's
participation in the six-party talks. Together with China, Russia, and
South Korea, our two nations are pressing North Korea to fulfill its
obligation to abandon all its nuclear weapons programs as well as its
proliferation efforts. The six-party talks have delivered measurable
results. The plutonium production facilities at Yongbyon are now being
disabled, under six-party supervision.
Hard work still remains to be done. North Korea has agreed to
provide a full declaration of all its nuclear programs and proliferation
activities by the end of this year. Full declaration is one of the next
steps North Korea must take to keep the six-party talks moving towards
the goal of a Korean Peninsula without nuclear weapons.
We also discussed the issue of Japanese citizens abducted by North
Korea. I reminded the Prime Minister of one of the most moving moments
of my Presidency, when the mother of a young
girl who had been abducted by the North
Koreans came to visit me. I told her, and I'm going to tell the Japanese
people once again, we will not forget this issue. I understand, Mr.
Prime Minister, how important the issue is to the Japanese people, and
we will not forget the Japanese abductees, nor their families.
We discussed Afghanistan and Iraq. Japanese naval forces have made
valued contributions to Operation Enduring Freedom, which supports
Afghanistan's young democracy. Over 6 years, Japanese vessels refueled
ships from 11 coalition nations nearly 800 times.
Mr. Prime Minister, I appreciate the great leadership that you are
showing as you work to reauthorize the Japanese refueling mission.
Japanese air defense--Self-Defense Forces continue to serve bravely to
support coalition efforts in Iraq. Japanese planes have flown more than
600 sorties, carrying more than half a million tons of cargo from many
nations. And, Mr. Prime Minister, like I told you in the Oval Office, I
appreciate the contribution that the Japanese people are making to help
this young democracy.
We discussed the realignment of our military forces, and we'll
continue to do so with Secretary Gates over
lunch. Our two nations continue to implement changes in our force
posture that will help our alliance meet the challenges of the 21st
century.
We discussed Iran. The Prime Minister and I agree that a nuclear-
armed Iran would threaten the security of the Middle East and beyond.
Our two nations are united in our efforts to change the regime's
behavior through diplomacy. We agreed that unless Iran commits to
suspend enrichment, international pressure must, and will, grow.
We discussed Burma. The Prime Minister and I condemned the regime's
crackdown on democratic activists. We call for the release of Aung San
Suu Kyi and all other political prisoners.
We're for a genuine dialog between the regime and those who seek a
democratic future for Burma. U.S. sanctions on the regime are in place.
Japan has canceled an aid grant. The Prime Minister told me his
Government is reviewing other aid projects to ensure that they directly
benefit the people of Burma.
We discussed our strong economic relationship. Prime Minister Fukuda
and I discussed his plans for economic reform in
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Japan. We discussed Doha and will continue our discussions over lunch.
I think we're going to serve the Prime Minister--I hope we serve him
some good U.S. beef, which is a good way to bring up the subject of
beef. We hope we're able to have the Japanese market fully open to all
U.S. beef and beef products, consistent with international guidelines.
We discussed climate change and energy security. Our two nations
share a similar approach to addressing the issues of climate change and
energy security. We see real promise in our ongoing efforts to bring
major developed and developing economies together around key elements of
a future global agreement on climate change and energy security. And the
truth of the matter is, we need to be in the lead, Mr. Prime Minister,
because it's going to be our economies and our nations that develop most
of the new technologies that will enable us to be better stewards of the
environment.
And finally, we discussed the G-8, and I want to thank you for
taking the lead in the G-8. I'm looking forward to attending.
All in all, we had a great discussion that will be continued during
lunch. Mr. Prime Minister, welcome to the United States, and I thank you
for your friendship.
Prime Minister Fukuda. Well, on this first overseas trip after
taking office, I have come to this one and only ally for Japan, the
United States of America. And I had a very substantive meeting with
President Bush just now. And I look forward to a further exchange of
views with the President after this. But since this is a very good
opportunity, I would like to express some of my views on the basis of
the discussions we had earlier.
First of all, we agreed with--that Japan-U.S. alliance is playing an
indispensable role in enabling Japan and the United States to address
global issues together and also provides the basis for our active
diplomacy vis-a-vis Asia.
For over half a century, Japan and the United States, at times, have
overcome difficulties together and have built a solid and resilient
alliance. And we today enjoy this relationship thanks to the efforts
made by countless people in our two countries and exchanges among them.
Now, to further cement the foundation for our bilateral relations in
the future, without taking for granted our current solid relations, I
explained to the President my initiative to strengthen Japan-U.S.
exchanges, including intellectual exchanges. And I received heartfelt
support for this idea from President Bush.
Secondly, we discussed synergies between our respective Asia
policies and Japan-U.S. alliance. I explained to the President that the
solid Japan-U.S. alliance will provide the foundation for Asia's peace
and prosperity. And realizing a stable and open Asia that advances in
prosperity by further deepening our relations with Asian countries on
the basis of Japan-U.S. alliance will be in our mutual interests. And I
told the President I'm convinced that such active diplomacy vis-a-vis
Asia in turn will further strengthen our alliance.
Following this meeting here, I shall be attending a series of ASEAN-
related summit meetings in Singapore, and I desired to visit Washington,
DC, and have discussions with President Bush because of my belief
regarding our alliance. And I'm extremely encouraged by the President's
support.
We also discussed issues that Japan and U.S. need to address
jointly, and particularly--in particular, North Korea and the fight
against terrorism. With regard to North Korean nuclear programs, we
agreed that Japan and U.S. need to maintain close coordination with each
other, in order to achieve complete abandonment of all nuclear weapons
and programs by North Korea, through the six-party talks. President Bush
stated that he will never forget the abduction issue, and on that basis,
he once
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again expressed his commitment for unchanged support to the Japanese
Government.
We should never allow Afghanistan to once again become a hotbed for
terrorism. And we agreed that Japan and the United States should
continue to work together with the international community in the fight
against terrorism. And I communicated to President Bush that I shall do
my level best to achieve an early passage of a bill for the early
resumption of the refuel activities in the Indian Ocean by the Japanese
Maritime Self-Defense Force. President Bush expressed his appreciation
for Japan's support for the international community's fight against
terrorism and the hope that refueling operations will be resumed soon.
With regard to Myanmar, I stated that I have been working on the
Government of Myanmar for democratization and improvement of the human
rights situation. And with regard to Iranian nuclear development, we
cannot--never tolerate--and we agreed that we shall together work to
raise pressure with the international community so that the--then Iran
will comply with the relevant U.N. Security Council resolutions.
And in this age of rapid changes, we--on the basis of Japan-U.S.
alliance, Japan intends to exercise more active leadership in addressing
the problems of Asia and international community.
And further, we shall have discussion with President Bush over lunch
on new, important issues. Japan shall be holding--hosting two important
national conferences next year. One is the G-8 summit at Lake Toya in
Hokkaido, in July. And the important theme for that meeting will be
climate change. On this issue, Japan and the United States, through
close coordination over the past half year or so, have led international
discussions. And through a new forum for negotiations at the U.N., we
very much hope that we will have discussions with President on closer
cooperation on global warming measures so that concrete results will be
achieved for an effective framework for the future.
And through further coordination, we would like to achieve a
successful G-8 summit on the global climate change issue and other
matters as well, because I believe that we can have useful discussions
that will allow science and technology to achieve continued economic
growth and also achieve global warming measures and energy security.
The other important conference Japan will be hosting is the
International Conference in African Development, because that is a
matter that the international community together should address. And
this is the--[inaudible]--fourth Tokyo International Conference on
African Development that will be held in Japan in May. And we would like
to tie the findings and results of that meeting to the G-8 summit. And
again, we'd like to engage in cooperation with the United States. And
there also is a question of health care in Africa, and again, we would
like to work in cooperation with the United States on that health care
issue.
As the world economy faces numerous challenges, Japan and the United
States, I believe, should work together on a global scale in the
economic area, including intellectual property protection and for the
sustainable development of developing countries.
There was a reference to beef. I hope that--well, we are addressing
the beef issue on the basis of scientific findings. We are still in the
process of our bilateral meetings.
I wanted to take this opportunity to express my appreciation for the
very warm welcome by President Bush and the people of the United States.
And I look forward to addressing our common challenges together, hand in
hand with President Bush.
Note: The President spoke at 11:40 a.m. in the Cross Hall at the White
House. In his remarks, he referred to Sakie Yokota, mother
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of Megumi Yokota, who was abducted by North Korean authorities; and Aung
San Suu Kyi, leader of the National League for Democracy in Burma. Prime
Minister Fukuda spoke in Japanese, and his remarks were translated by an
interpreter.