[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2008, Book I)]
[February 27, 2008]
[Pages 278-282]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks Following a Meeting With Prime Minister Mirek 
Topolanek of the Czech Republic and an 
Exchange With Reporters
February 27, 2008

    President Bush. We'll have opening statements, and then we'll accept 
two questions a side. Mr. Prime Minister, welcome. We value our 
friendship and our partnership with the people of the Czech Republic. I 
remember well my visit to your beautiful country.
    We've had a significant discussion today. It turns out, the year 8 
is an important number in Czech history. And we're determined to make 
the year 2008 a strong chapter in our relationship. We view the Czech 
Republic as a strategic partner. We've discussed a variety of issues. I 
want to talk about two issues.
    First, visa waiver, I've always felt our visa laws needed to change. 
I didn't like the idea that we treated our friends in the Czech Republic 
differently than other friends in Europe. There's new law in place, 
which requires leadership from the countries, such as the Czech 
Republic. And, Mr. Prime Minister, you and your Government are providing 
that leadership.
    We signed an important memorandum of understanding. We were able to 
do so because your negotiators were very smart. They represented your 
people very well. We still have more work to do, but I'm confident we 
can get it done. And I hope the people of the Czech Republic understand 
that your Government and your country is ahead of the line of anybody 
else when it comes to a visa waiver program. And I congratulate you on 
your leadership.
    Missile defense, it's in our interest to put defenses in place to 
deal with the true threats of the 21st century. Russia is not a threat 
to peace. Regimes that adhere to extremist ideologies who--which may 
have the capability of launching weapons to those of us who love 
freedom, they're the threats to peace. And a missile defense system is 
aimed to deal with those threats.
    And of course, we want it in the context not only of a bilateral 
relationship but in the context of NATO. We're both strong partners of 
NATO. NATO has got to be in a position to deal with the true threats of 
the 21st century. And so we had a good discussion on this important 
issue.
    In our discussions, I strongly respect the sovereignty of the 
Government of the Czech Republic. Where they have concerns, of course, 
we'll listen. And so I want to thank you for that. And at the same time, 
of course, we discussed very important research and development 
opportunities, defense cooperation activities.
    And finally, I thank the Prime Minister for the courage and 
sacrifice of the troops that are in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Prime 
Minister said that there will be a reduction in troops in Iraq, and I 
fully understand that. After all, we're reducing our troops based upon 
success. And I thank your willingness to send troops into Afghanistan. 
It makes sense to help young democracies thrive. They will look back at 
these decisions, Mr. Prime Minister, and say, thank goodness for the 
peace that prevailed as a result of the hard decisions we made today.
    And I welcome you. You're welcome. Thank you for coming.
    Prime Minister Topolanek. Okay. Well, I think that President Bush 
already mentioned everything that I wanted to mention originally. 
However, let me revisit or come back to the issue of number 8 and its 
importance in our history. Number 8 played a very important, nay, a key 
role in the history of the Czech nation.
    In 1918, when the first Czechoslovak republic was founded, it was 
founded with help and assistance from the American President, Woodrow 
Wilson. Unfortunately, 1938, which was the time of the Munich

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agreements, the Americans were not with us, and therefore, it was an 
unfortunate year. Similarly, as 1948, we commemorated 60 years since the 
coup d'etat of the Communists in 1948 just on the 25th of February. In 
1968, the Prague Spring has occurred, and unfortunately, after a few 
months of relative liberty and freedom, we were occupied by the Soviet 
armies.
    So what I want to say is, in terms of these number 8 years, it was 
always very important for the Czech Republic, nay, even decisive, 
whether we were with the Americans or whether we were on our own. And I 
really wish that the year 2008 will become a similarly important year 
both for the Czech Republic and also for the United States of America 
and our mutual relationship.
    And I believe that stationing the missile defense system in our 
country is, in terms of its importance, similarly important to those 
events I've been just mentioning in relation to the number eight in our 
history.
    And everybody is, of course, interested to find out whether an 
agreement has been already done. There are only three words remaining to 
be resolved and discussed. [Laughter] But sometimes one word matters a 
lot, and sometimes an agreement might fail just because of one word. But 
this is not the case. These are just minor details, and I'm sure that 
we're going to finalize it very soon.
    And in terms of the Visa Waiver Program, I would like to use this 
opportunity and thank President Bush for his efforts. And I very much 
appreciate when a politician or a person says something or promises 
something and he also delivers on this promise. And this is the case.
    So I would like to thank President Bush for his leadership, but I 
also would like this leadership to become his ownership. [Laughter] And 
of course, there are many politicians in the world, but there are very 
few politicians who are real statesmen. To have one's principles, to 
stick to those principles irrespective of--to go against all odds and 
adhere to those principles, this is what only very few people can do. 
We've not spoken about this extensively, but this is what I appreciate 
the most.
    What I believe is of--also of equally significant importance is the 
starting of the strategic dialogue between the two countries, between 
the U.S. and the Czech Republic. And I think the outcome of these 
negotiations is also very good. Both countries, we agreed on research 
and development in the area of missile defense and, generally, in the 
defense systems.
    Just one marginal note on the Visa Waiver Program and process, I 
think that the negotiations have been really tough, and the result 
achieved is a true breakthrough, a breakthrough moment. I think that 
this is a great achievement, because, first, we joined the Schengen 
zone, which enabled the Czech citizens to travel from Lisbon as far as 
Vilnius without the use of any passport or ID. And we did the same for 
our citizens, in terms of traveling to Canada and the United States of 
America. So we guaranteed one of the basic human rights, which is 
freedom of movement.
    We, at the same time, are fully aware of the risks and dangers of 
security nature, which exist all over the world. And therefore, we want 
to guarantee higher security to our nation. And also, the agreement 
takes into consideration the reciprocal principle: the principle of 
reciprocity.
    I also would like to mention that a great deal of our discussion 
revolved around issues of human rights----
    President Bush. Yes.
    Prime Minister Topolanek. ----in the world. We spoke about Cuba. We 
spoke about the recent events and our hope for the future. And we also 
talked about other countries, which so far have not been so fortunate to 
live in freedom like the Czech Republic.
    I'm personally very happy from this meeting. I would like to thank 
President Bush for his openness and for this wonderful meeting. Thank 
you very much.

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    President Bush. Thank you. Good job. A couple of questions. Jennifer 
[Jennifer Loven, Associated Press]. One second, please.
    Q. Thank you, sir.
    President Bush. Jennifer.

Missile Defense System

    Q. Can you elaborate a little on what's holding up an agreement on 
the missile defense? And how close are you to getting an agreement with 
the Polish Government as well?
    President Bush. Well, I appreciate that. Obviously, this is a 
complicated issue that requires the United States, one, to make the case 
of why a missile defense is needed in the first place; that it is aimed 
to bring stability to Europe; that it's important for mutual security; 
that it fits into the concept of NATO and will honor the sovereignty of 
the Czech Republic or Poland.
    And so the discussions revolve around a status-of-forces-type 
agreement, which requires understanding by the Czech Government of 
exactly what is meant when it talks about stationing a radar site. We 
will be coming to their country--under what conditions? How will people 
conduct themselves? And these are all very legitimate questions that the 
Prime Minister is asking. The same questions are being asked in Poland.
    And I explained to the Prime Minister the following thing: People 
are wondering, well, is this aimed at Russia? Is this an anti-Russian 
system? And the answer is, of course not. The system we're developing 
will be able to deal with one, two, or three types of incoming missiles. 
Russia could overwhelm a system like this. This is a system to deal with 
threats that will be evolving in the 21st century.
    And so the Prime Minister made it very clear, when it comes to the 
Russian issue, that his Government will be making the decisions about 
any so-called presence. Do we want the Russians to be able to, you know, 
allay their fears by understanding what's going on? And of course, we 
do. But he made it clear to me that the Czech Republic will be making 
decisions about who will be--who gets to come into their country. And I 
fully understand that.
    And so, you know, there's a lot of discussions going on. These 
aren't easy agreements to put in place, but we feel optimistic that we 
will get this done. As the Prime Minister said, we're down to a couple 
of words. What you probably want to know is the three words. I'm not 
going to tell you. [Laughter] I am not going to tell you; that's five 
words. I tell you, I'm not going to do the three. [Laughter]
    Q. How close are you, sir? How close are you to----
    President Bush. Close. Three words is close. We started off with a 
blank page, and now we're down to three words. But anyway, look, there 
is a will to get this done for the sake of mutual security and for the 
sake of peace.
    Prime Minister Topolanek. Just to be more specific regarding these 
three words or outstanding issue----
    President Bush. Wait a minute; you're making me look bad here. 
[Laughter]
    Prime Minister Topolanek. It actually relates to environmental 
protection and the standards that should be adopted. So we're actually 
looking for the standards, which would be the strictest possible 
standards, to be applied in terms of ensuring and guaranteeing 
environmental protection. But that's just a technical matter, which is 
going to be resolved very soon. It's not any problem.
    President Bush. Yes. Why don't you call on somebody from the--from 
your press corps, if you care to. You call on someone.

Missile Defense System/Russia

    Q. Mr. President, would it be acceptable for the United States to 
have the radar in the Czech Republic without interceptors in Poland, 
should that----
    President Bush. I don't see how. You've got to have interceptors in 
order to make

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this system work. The idea is to use a radar system to detect a launch 
headed toward NATO countries, and then shoot the thing down. And in 
order to make this system work, there has to be an integrated system.
    And of course, what we will work to do is, one, make this system 
effective, integrated, comprehensive. And the interesting opportunity is 
for Russia to realize the benefits of such a system by extending the 
radar coverage into their country, because they will be under the same 
threat of radicalism that we will be, we collectively.
    If some of these countries develop a weapon that's capable of 
developing a nuclear warhead, free nations, nations such as Russia, do 
not want to be in a position of political blackmail. And our job as 
leaders is to deal with the issues of the day, but also deal with the 
issues of tomorrow in a way that yields a peaceful world. And that's 
what we're doing.
    Stretch [Richard Keil, Bloomberg News].

Kosovan Independence/Intelligence Reform Legislation

    Q. Mr. President, thank you. You--I have a national security 
question in two parts. You just talked about the importance of stability 
in Europe. How does it serve our national security to support the 
redrawing of borders in Europe vis-a-vis Kosovo?
    And secondly, can you say how has our national security actually 
been degraded by the lapse of FISA?
    President Bush. First, let me talk about Kosovo. We discussed 
Kosovo. As a consequence of the war that took place during the leaders--
during the tenure of Mr. Milosevic, one of the effects has been the 
desire for the--those of us in the United Nations to promote what's 
called the Ahtisaari plan, which is a 
supervised, independent Kosovo.
    This is a difficult issue, and I understand it's a difficult issue. 
But the U.S. Government supports this supervised independence. We 
believe in free societies, and we believe it will eventually lead to 
peace. But there's no--no border has been withdrawn in that sense, 
Stretch. It's a--Kosovo is a--Kosovo itself's borders have been clearly 
defined. The type of government has changed. Now, as part of the 
Ahtisaari plan, we fully expect this 
independent Kosovo to honor minority rights within their borders. And so 
my--our position has been clear.
    Secondly, you asked about whether or not the United States of 
America should be able to listen to terrorists' phone calls coming into 
the United States. And the answer is, absolutely, we should be doing 
this. There is still an extremist threat. People still want to attack 
our country, and we better understand what they're thinking and what 
they're planning and who they're talking to.
    And yet unfortunately, a law passed to give our professionals the 
tools has expired. And it's expired because people want to take class-
action lawsuits against private phone carriers and other companies that 
have--were believed to have helped us protect America. It's not fair to 
say to a company that was believed to have helped us, it's important for 
you to help us, and then you get sued for billions of dollars. And such 
a policy would make it very difficult to get companies to fully 
cooperate with us in the future.
    The law is expired, but my fellow citizens must understand, the 
threat to America has not expired. And our citizens who are paying 
attention to this debate must understand, without law, America will be 
more vulnerable to attack. Democrats and Republicans supported this law, 
and the House leaders must bring it to the floor, where it will pass 
with both Republican and Democrat vote. And if this law is allowed to 
expire, America will be more vulnerable. And that is inexcusable, and 
it's indefensible.

Czech Opposition Leaders' Visit to Syria

[At this point, a reporter asked a question in Czech, and no translation 
was provided.]

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    Prime Minister Topolanek. Well, actually, I think the same as you 
think. Well, if he traveled with Mr. Zaoralek--together with Mr. 
Zaoralek, then I think it is unforgivable.
    Well, first of all, I would like to say that these activities of the 
opposition leaders and their foreign policy does not really serve the 
interests of our country. And I would like to remind you that when I was 
in the opposition--and we were in the opposition--we never created any 
kind of foreign policy on our own. And therefore, I understand the 
reasons for this study-visit to Syria. I would be much happier if they 
traveled as tourists and nothing else.
    I would like to actually mention that I got this present from the 
state Secretary of Commerce, Mr. Gutierrez. It is a bracelet, and there 
is a simple word on it, which is cambio, meaning ``change.'' And in 
Cuba, you can actually get arrested for wearing this bracelet. But when 
I come back home, I will wear this just for the sake of Mr. Paroubek and 
Mr. Zaoralek. [Laughter]
    President Bush. Thank you. Thank you all.
    Prime Minister Topolanek. Thank you very much.

Note: The President spoke at 10:54 a.m. in the Oval Office at the White 
House. In his remarks, he referred to former President Martti Ahtisaari 
of Finland, United Nations Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for 
the Future Status Process for Kosovo. Prime Minister Topolanek referred 
to Parliament Member Lubomir Zaoralek and Leader of the Opposition Jiri 
Paroubek of the Czech Republic. Prime Minister Topolanek spoke in Czech, 
and his remarks were translated by an interpreter.