[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2007, Book II)]
[December 11, 2007]
[Pages 1538-1540]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks Following a Meeting With President Giorgio 
Napolitano of Italy
December 11, 2007

    President Bush. Mr. President, it's my honor to welcome you to the 
Oval Office. Our--we just had a very substantive meeting. And it will be 
my honor to feed you a lunch. I doubt it is going to be--the food will 
be as good as the food I had when I visited your beautiful country.
    Bilateral relations with the United States and Italy are very good. 
We have a lot of interchange between our countries, with business as 
well as travel. And there are millions of Italian Americans who will be 
pleased, Mr. President, to know we've got good relations.
    Secondly, we just had a really around-the-world trip as we discussed 
problem areas and our mutual desire to work together to help solve those 
problems.
    We discussed Afghanistan, Lebanon, Kosovo. I briefed the President 
on the recent Annapolis Conference that we hosted to help get the peace 
process started between the Palestinians and Israelis. We had a very 
compatible relation--discussion because by and large, we're in agreement 
on how to advance the solutions to these issues.
    And finally, I'm--have expressed and will continue to dialog with 
the President about my deep concern about Iran. Iran is dangerous. 
Iran--we believe Iran had a secret military weapons program. And Iran 
must

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explain to the world why they had a program. Iran has an obligation to 
explain to the IAEA why they hid this program from them. Iran is 
dangerous, and they'll be even more dangerous if they learn how to 
enrich uranium.
    And so I look forward to working with the President to explain our 
strategy and figure out ways we can work together to prevent this from 
happening for the sake of world peace.
    So I'm sure proud to have you here, Mr. President, and welcome.
    President Napolitano. Thank you very much, Mr. President. It has 
been a great pleasure for me to accept your invitation. You kindly 
addressed me 6 months ago when you were in Rome, and we had already then 
very positive talks.
    And in the past few months, there have been important and rather 
positive developments in the international situation. First of all, I 
wanted to express to President Bush my deep appreciation for the 
responsibility he wanted to take to foster negotiations between Israel 
and the Palestinian authorities in view of a peace treaty.
    Italy is present in several areas of crisis. In this moment, it is 
an Italian general who is taking the command of the Kabul region in 
Afghanistan. In Iraq, we give our contribution to the stabilization of 
the country, participating in NATO training activities. And as a matter 
of fact, there has been an undeniable improvement in the security 
conditions in Iraq in the past few months.
    In fact, generally speaking, we share the same concerns, and we 
express a common commitment. And speaking particularly of Kosovo, we 
could verify how close are our positions on the way to deal with the 
independence of Kosovo, taking into account the difficult overall 
situation in the region.
    We want to discuss constructively our positions on all questions and 
all threats. We just want to give our contribution and our idea how to 
face successfully all threats, including the relative threat of nuclear 
weaponization of Iran.
    I just want to add a word about Europe, because in the past few 
months, there has been something important. Europe was able--European 
Union was able to overcome a stalemate, a very dangerous institutional 
stalemate. The constitutional treaty has been put aside, but a new 
treaty has been outlined unanimously, and the day after tomorrow it will 
be signed in Lisbon. And on the basis of this new treaty, which has to 
be ratified by the signed--I am sure it will be ratified by all 27 
member states--we'll have new figures; we'll have new institutions more 
capable to affirm the role of a united Europe on the international 
scene.
    Italy and Europe both must take their responsibilities for 
international security and peace for the cause of liberty and democracy. 
And the more Europe will be united and will be effective, I think the 
better we can reach these goals. We cannot ask the United States to take 
care of our security. International security is a common duty, and 
Europe must be up to this challenge.
    Thank you very much, Mr. President.
    President Bush. Thank you, sir. Glad you're here.

Note: The President spoke at 11:48 a.m. in the Oval Office at the White 
House. President Napolitano referred to Brig. Gen. Federico Bonato, 
Italian Army, commander, Regional Command Capital, NATO International 
Security Assistance Force, Afghanistan.

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