[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 38, Number 25 (Monday, June 24, 2002)]
[Pages 1061-1064]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks at the Leon H. Sullivan Summit Dinner

June 20, 2002

    Well, thank you all very much. The kindest gift anyone can give a 
President and his family is prayer, and I appreciate the prayers.
    I'm so honored to be with you all to pay tribute to an exceptional 
man and to further a great cause. Leon Sullivan understood an important 
principle: If we want to live in a world that is free, we must work for 
a world that is just. The free people of America have a duty to advance 
the cause of freedom in Africa. American interests and American morality 
lead in the same direction. We will work in partnership with African 
nations and leaders for an African continent that lives in liberty and 
grows in prosperity.
    I want to thank Andrew Young for his service to our great country. I 
appreciate his friendship. I also want to welcome my friend the 
President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria on the stage, and I want to 
congratulate him on receiving the prestigious Leon H. Sullivan Summit 
Award. You have picked a good man. I want to thank Jack Kemp for 
supporting this organization. I appreciate his--[applause].
    It has been my honor tonight to meet the Sullivan family, headed by 
a fantastic lady, Grace Sullivan, who has raised beautiful children, 
people who are willing to follow the example of their dad. We were--Hope 
and I were talking about that we had a lot in common. You know, we both 
have got famous fathers and strong mothers. [Laughter] I appreciate very 
much Julie and Howard and meeting the grandkids. It's a thrill to be 
here. Your dad and your grandfather was a great American. That's the 
only way to call it.
    I appreciate so very much members of my Cabinet and my inner circle 
being here, of course, the great Secretary of State, Colin Powell; 
Secretary of Treasury Paul O'Neill; the National Security Adviser, 
Condoleezza Rice. I see the Deputy Director of HUD, my friend, Alphonso 
Jackson.
    I also appreciate Members of Congress who are here tonight; members 
of the diplomatic corps. It's good to see the Ambassadors from the 
African nations, many of whom I've had a chance to spend some quality 
time with. It's great to see Coretta Scott King here as well.
    Thank you all for coming and supporting this important dinner. Thank 
you for giving me the chance to talk about my administration's plans for 
the continent of Africa.
    I'm really grateful, though, that the Secretary of State and 
Treasury are here. See, it was last May that Secretary Powell became the 
first member of my Cabinet to travel to Africa. And this May, Secretary 
O'Neill was the latest member of my Cabinet to travel to Africa. He and 
Bono were quickly dubbed ``The Odd Couple.'' [Laughter] But they soon 
found out that the rock star could hold his own in debates on real 
growth rates and that the Secretary of Treasury is second to none in 
compassion. I knew the trip had had an effect on our Secretary when he 
showed up in the Oval Office wearing blue sunglasses. [Laughter]
    Here's what we believe. Africa is a continent where promise and 
progress are important, and we recognize they sit alongside disease, 
war, and desperate poverty, sometimes even in the same village. Africa 
is a place where a few nations are havens for terrorism and where many 
more--many

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more--are reaching to claim their democratic future. Africa is a place 
of great beauty and resources and a place of great opportunity, so 
tonight I announce that in order to continue to build America's 
partnership with Africa, I'll be going to the continent next year.
    Can I come to your place? I think the President has in mind a 
particular stop. [Laughter] Put me on the spot here, right with all 
these cameras. [Laughter]
    I look forward to the trip. I really do. It's going to be a great 
trip, and I look forward to focusing on the challenges that we must face 
together.
    Everyone in this room is joined by a common vision of an Africa 
where people are healthy and people are literate, a vision that builds 
prosperity through trade and markets, a vision free from the horrors of 
war and terror. America will not build this new Africa; Africans will. 
But we will stand with the African countries that are putting in place 
the policies for success through important new efforts such as the 
Millennium Challenge Fund. And we will take Africa's side in confronting 
the obstacles to hope and development on the African continent.
    One of the greatest obstacles to Africa's development is HIV/AIDS, 
which clouds the future of entire nations. The world must do more to 
fight the spread of this disease and must do more to treat and care for 
those it afflicts. And this country will lead the effort.
    My administration plans to dedicate an additional $500 million to 
prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV. And as we do so, we will 
work to improve health care delivery in Africa and in the Caribbean. 
This will allow us to treat one million women annually and to reduce the 
mother-to-child transmission by 40 percent within 5 years or less in the 
countries we target.
    Every year--it's important for my fellow Americans to understand 
this statistic--every year, approximately 2 million HIV-infected women 
give birth. More than one in three will pass the virus on to her baby, 
meaning that on the continent of Africa there are close to 2,000 more 
infected infants every day.
    We will begin to save many of these young lives by focusing our 
efforts on countries where the problem is most severe and where our help 
can have the greatest impact. We will pursue proven and effective 
medical strategies that we know will make a difference. And when the 
lives of babies and mothers are at stake, the only measure of compassion 
is real results.
    In places with stronger health care systems, we'll provide voluntary 
testing, prevention, counseling, and a comprehensive therapy that we 
know is highly effective in reducing virus transmission from mother to 
child. We know it works. In places with weaker health care systems, 
we'll provide testing and counseling and support one-time treatment 
programs that reduce the chances of infection by nearly 50 percent.
    Most importantly, we will make a major commitment to improve health 
care delivery systems in these countries. We will pair hospitals in 
Africa with hospitals in America. We will deploy volunteer medical 
professionals to assist and train their African counterparts, and we 
will recruit and pay African medical and graduate students to provide 
testing and treatment and care. As health care delivery systems improve 
in these nations, even more progress will be possible. And as we see 
what works, as we're confident that our money will be well spent and 
results will matter, we will make more funding available.
    I want to thank the Members of Congress who have supported this 
initiative. I particularly want to thank Senators Helms and Frist and 
Congressman Jim Kolbe of Arizona. I'm also pleased that organizations 
exercising on--exercising leadership on this issue will join our 
efforts, particularly the Pediatric AIDS Foundation, headed by Elizabeth 
Glaser. And I will call upon other industrialized nations and 
international organizations to join as well, so that we can bring hope 
of life to hundreds of thousands of African children.
    This $500 million commitment is the largest initiative to prevent 
mother-to-child transmission of HIV by any government in history. It's 
important for you to know that this funding will complement the nearly 
$1 billion we already contribute to international efforts to combat HIV/
AIDS. The money will complement the $2.5 billion we plan to spend on 
research and development of new drugs and treatments, and it will 
complement

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the $500 million we've committed to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS and 
other infectious disease.
    Lack of education is the second great barrier to progress in Africa. 
Tonight I announce that my administration plans to double, to $200 
million over 5 years, the funding devoted to an initiative I put forward 
last year to improve basic education and teacher training in Africa.
    Here's what we believe we can achieve. With that money we will train 
more than 420,000 teachers, provide more than 250,000 scholarships for 
African girls, and partner with historically Black colleges and 
universities in America to provide 4.5 million more textbooks for 
children in Africa. As we do so, we'll make sure the school system is 
more open and more transparent, so African moms and dads can demand 
needed reform.
    Education is the foundation of development and democracy in every 
culture, on every continent. And we'll work to give Africa's children 
the advantages of literacy and learning so they can build Africa's 
future.
    The third great obstacle to Africa's development is the trade 
barriers in rich nations and in Africa, itself, that impede the sale of 
Africa's products.
    The African Growth and Opportunity Act is a tremendous success. My 
administration strongly supports efforts in Congress to enhance AGOA. 
And to encourage more U.S. companies to see Africa's opportunities 
firsthand, I propose holding the next AGOA Forum in Africa to coincide 
with my visit.
    We will continue to explore a regional free trade agreement with the 
Southern African Customs Union.
    Africa also stands--also stands to gain even greater benefits from 
trade if and when we lower trade barriers worldwide. And so I'm 
committed to working in partnership with all the developing countries to 
make the global trade negotiations launched in Doha a success. And we 
look forward to advancing all of our development priorities with African 
countries at the upcoming World Summit in Johannesburg.
    Expanding global trade in products and technologies and ideals is a 
defining characteristic of our age, capable of lifting whole nations out 
of the cycle of dependency and want. In this country we will work to 
ensure that all Africa--all of Africa--is fully part of the world 
trading system and fully part of the progress of our times. It is 
important for my fellow citizens to know we will build trade with Africa 
because it is good for America's prosperity, trade is good for building 
prosperity in Africa, and it is good for building the momentum of 
economic and political liberty across that important continent.
    And finally, for Africans to realize their dream of a more hopeful 
and prosperous future, Africa must be free from war and free from 
terror. Many African nations are making real contributions to the global 
war on terror, particularly my friend President Obasanjo. I can remember 
his phone call right after September the 11th, and Mr. President, I want 
to thank you for your condolences and your support.
    I've asked Congress this year to provide an additional $55 million 
in funds to help African nations on the frontlines of our mutual war to 
defend freedom.
    The United States is committed to helping African nations put an end 
to regional wars that take tens of thousands of lives each year. We will 
help African nations organize and develop their ability to respond to 
crises in places such as Burundi. We'll work closely with responsible 
leaders and our allies in Europe to support regional peace initiatives 
in places such as the Congo.
    And we will also continue our search for peace in Sudan. My policy 
towards Sudan seeks to end Sudan's sponsorship of terror and to promote 
human rights and the foundations of a just peace within Sudan, itself. 
My envoy for peace in Sudan, former Senator John Danforth, has made 
progress toward a ceasefire and improved delivery of humanitarian aid to 
such places as the Nuba Mountain region of Sudan.
    Since September the 11th, there's no question the Government of 
Sudan has made some useful contributions in cracking down on terror, but 
Sudan can and must do more. And Sudan's Government must understand that 
ending its sponsorship of terror outside Sudan is no substitute for 
efforts to stop war inside Sudan. Sudan's Government cannot continue to 
talk peace but make war, must not continue to block and manipulate U.N.

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food deliveries, and must not allow slavery to persist.
    America stands united with responsible African governments across 
the continent--and we will not permit the forces of aggression and chaos 
to take away our common future. We jointly fight for our liberty. We 
chase down coldblooded killers one at a time, and we do so for the 
common good of all people.
    Leon Sullivan wrote and spoke of a vibrant partnership between 
America and Africa that, in his words, would help mold Africa into a new 
greatness, glorious to see. Tonight his vision must be our mission. 
Together, we can chart a new course for America's partnership with 
Africa and bring life and hope and freedom to a continent that is 
meeting the challenges of a new century with courage and confidence.
    May God bless the people of Africa, and may God continue to bless 
America. Thank you for having me.

Note: The President spoke at 7:35 p.m. in the Marriott Ballroom at the 
Marriott Wardman Park Hotel. In his remarks, he referred to Andrew 
Young, former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations; President Olusegun 
Obasanjo of Nigeria; former Representative Jack Kemp; Coretta Scott 
King, widow of Martin Luther King, Jr.; and musician and activist Bono.