[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 41, Number 12 (Monday, March 28, 2005)]
[Pages 509-517]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
The President's News Conference With President Vicente Fox of Mexico and 
Prime Minister Paul Martin of Canada in Waco, Texas

March 23, 2005

    President Bush. Thank you all for coming. It's my honor to welcome 
two friends to Baylor University. First, I want to thank the Baylor 
University family for providing these facilities for us. Your 
hospitality is awesome.
    I appreciate the meetings we just had. Our relationships are 
important today. We intend to keep our relationships strong. Our 
relationships will be equally important for the years to come.
    And so we had a good discussion about prosperity and security. And 
it turns out the two go hand in hand. It's important for us to work to 
make sure our countries are safe and secure, in order that our people 
can live in peace as well as our economies can grow. We've got a lot of 
trade with each other, and we intend to keep it that way. We've got a 
lot of crossings of the border. I intend to make our borders more secure 
and facilitate legal traffic.
    We've got a lot to do. So we charged our ministers with the task of 
figuring out how best to keep this relationship--these relationships 
vibrant and strong. And I appreciate the commitment of the Prime 
Minister and the President toward a spirit of partnership to outlast 
whatever politics may occur; that puts in place a firm commitment to 
markets and democracy and freedom and trade and mutual prosperity and 
mutual security.
    And so I want to welcome our friends. After we go through this 
exercise of democracy--that being answering your questions--I'm looking 
forward to hosting them to the ranch for a little lunch and a further 
discussion. We'll be spending time talking about the neighborhood, the 
countries in our region, and how best we can work together to make sure 
that democracy is firmly a part of the future of this neighborhood of 
ours.
    And so, Mr. President, welcome. The podium is yours, sir.
    President Fox. Thank you very much, President Bush. I want to also 
extend a greeting to Prime Minister Paul Martin and my gratitude for 
this wonderful reception, for this wonderful facility here at Baylor 
University, and, of course, my gratitude to the authorities here in 
Waco, the venue of this important event.
    Today we have met to hold a very important encounter that has to do 
with the future of our nations. In the last decade, trade between our 
countries, the flows of investment, of the creation of jobs have held a 
good pace. And these efforts have been successful thanks to NAFTA. This 
bilateral cooperation, this trilateral cooperation has now become 
strengthened, and it has expanded. But above all, we are making progress 
on a daily basis toward greater understanding, toward greater knowledge 
and greater cooperation between our three Governments and our three 
countries.
    Through the Partnership for Security and Prosperity and the quality 
of life of North America, today we begin a new phase. We are in a world 
that is constantly changing and that demands that we meet the new 
challenges and opportunities. We also face new threats that carry a risk 
for our societies. But we also want to work toward the good performance 
of our economies. This is why my Government is working toward a true 
coordination with our partners in North America. We are seeking an 
objective balance between the concerns that have to do with security and 
those that have to do with having a good and agile flow of goods and 
people across the borders.
    North America should be the most competitive region in the world. It 
should be the safest region in the world. And 10 years ago, we took a 
great step in that direction. As Governments, we are obligated to turn 
this objective into a permanent process, to continue taking steps 
forward. This Partnership for Security, this Partnership for Prosperity, 
for the quality of life can have no other objective beyond improving the 
quality of life, itself, and the development of our peoples and of our 
societies.
    Today my friend from Canada, Mr. Paul Martin, and the President of 
the United States, George Bush, all of us feel proud to present this 
joint statement to you. It reflects a shared vision for North America 
that will

[[Page 510]]

be a framework for cooperation, for partnership between our Governments 
and nations.
    Thank you.
    Prime Minister Martin. Good afternoon. It's a real pleasure to be 
here in Texas and to stand with President Bush and President Fox as 
representatives of a strong North America. We represent three sovereign 
nations that have formed one of the most successful partnerships in the 
world.
    That being said, we also recognize that we cannot be complacent. The 
world is not standing still. New economic powerhouses such as China and 
India are rising, and we face new opportunities, but we also face new 
challenges. And this requires a new partnership, stronger, more dynamic, 
one that is focused on the future. We are determined to forge the next 
generation of our continent's success. Now, that's our destination. The 
Security and Prosperity Partnership that we are launching today is the 
roadmap to getting there.
    I'm going to be a little longer than you were, President Bush, 
because I've got to do this in two languages. [Laughter]
    Here in North America, we have many achievements to celebrate. But 
we do know that we cannot be complacent. The world does not stand still. 
New opportunities present themselves, as well as new challenges, as well 
as threats. In a world in constant change, we need a renewed 
partnership, more strong, dynamic. And we must have a roadmap that will 
bring us there. The roadmap is the North American Partnership for 
Security and Prosperity, which we are starting today.
    [Inaudible]--ways to help our citizens with healthier, safer, and 
more productive lives; for good jobs, for higher income; as well as a 
secure continent, cleaner water, cleaner air.
    One thing is very clear, and that is when we work together as 
countries to make North America safer and more competitive, then the 
fact is all of the continent and all of our citizens benefit from that 
collective achievement.
    The partnership that we are starting today acknowledges the fact 
that in a modern world, the objectives of prosperity, security, and a 
better quality of life have never been as interdependent.
    What we seek to do is to improve the competitiveness of our 
industries, expand consumer choice by cutting redtape. We want to 
eliminate regulations that are a nuisance, not a necessity. And we want 
to maintain the highest standards of health care and safety for our 
citizens. We want to pursue agreed approaches based on sound science 
that will help us avoid the risk of hidden protectionism and, some would 
advocate, in responding to BSE. And I want to thank President Bush; I 
want to thank President Fox for the support that they have shown. We 
look forward to the day in the future when, notwithstanding all of the 
lobbying, all the legal challenges, all of North America is open to our 
safe and high quality beef.
    In terms of security, we understand that protecting our borders is a 
crucial checkpoint on the road to our collective prosperity. Our safe 
borders secure our people not only against terrorism, but they make 
possible a speedy flow of goods, services, and people and information 
among our three nations. And standing on the shoulders of the Smart 
Borders Initiative, we are making new investments in security and in 
defense spending. Quite simply, Canada is a full and forceful partner in 
building a secure North America.
    We have agreed--and I've got a long list here, Mr. President, which 
I'm going to forgo, basically a long list of items that we have agreed 
that we will task our ministers to accomplish, and then we will hold 
them to account, as we will be held to account by our people. Let me 
just say that this great--that these measures involve everything from 
how do we deal with our borders, how do we deal with infectious 
diseases, and how do we deal with fresh water concerns like Devil's 
Lake, which I will be talking to you about over lunch.
    Let me just say that when a public health risk emerges, we want our 
laboratory centers in Winnipeg, in Atlanta, and in Mexico City talking 
to each other. We want to improve our air and our water quality, and we 
also want to make NAFTA work. And what that means--and, again, this is 
something we'll be talking about--is that we want the decisions of our 
dispute settlement panels to be respected and implemented. We want to 
resolve our differences in a fair manner based

[[Page 511]]

on the rule of law. And I'll continue to press for the resolution of 
softwood lumber dispute, and I look forward to discussing means as to 
how we make this partnership work better.
    Let me just say that we have committed as leaders to meet on a 
regular basis. We're going to do this to assess our progress.
    The efforts deployed over the last decade have been fruitful. It is 
up to us now to meet the new challenges and to seize the new 
opportunities that present themselves to us.
    Mr. President, the efforts of the past decade have been successful, 
but as we've said this morning, it now falls to us to respond to new 
challenges, to seize new opportunities. The Security and Prosperity 
Partnership is our commitment to do so together.
    President Bush. Thank you, Paul. I appreciate that very much.
    We'll now answer two questions a side. I'll start with Jennifer 
Loven [Associated Press].

Theresa Marie Schiavo

    Q. Thank you, sir. Can you tell us what actions you support, since 
the Federal courts continue to decline to allow the reinsertion of Terri 
Schiavo's feeding tube? And have you discussed options, next steps with 
your brother the Governor of Florida?
    President Bush. I have not discussed next steps with the brother--my 
brother, who is the Governor of Florida. I have looked at all options 
prior to taking the action we took last weekend in concert with 
Congress. And we felt like the actions taken with Congress was the best 
course of action. This is an extraordinary and sad case, and I believe 
that in a case such as this, the legislative branch, the executive 
branch ought to err on the side of life, which we have. And now we'll 
watch the courts make its decisions. But we looked at all options from 
the executive branch perspective.

Democracy in the Americas/Immigration Policy

    Q. Mr. President Bush, many countries of Latin America in recent 
years have elected leaders from the left. What possibility do you see as 
far as the arrival of a leader from the left in Mexico in the future? 
And on security, how difficult is it for you to keep your national 
security policy in place when you have a border where terrorists can go 
through that border, according to your Cabinet? What do you think of 
those illegal crossings?
    President Bush. I am pleased that there are democracies in our 
hemisphere. As a matter of fact, every country is a democracy except 
one, Cuba. And that's incredible progress. And I look forward to working 
with whomever the people of Mexico choose. The choices as to who will 
lead Mexico--or any other country--is not the choice of the United 
States President, the United States Government, or the United States 
people. It is the choice of the Mexican people. And I know the people of 
Mexico are proud of their democracy. I'm proud of the democratic 
traditions upheld by Vicente Fox.
    In terms of the border, listen, we've got a large border. We've got 
a large border with Canada. We've got a large border with Mexico. There 
are some million people a day crossing the border from Mexico to the 
United States, which presents a common issue, and that is, how do we 
make sure those crossing the border are not terrorists or drugrunners or 
gunrunners or smugglers?
    And I have told the President that we will--I will continue to push 
for reasonable, commonsense immigration policy with the United States 
Congress. It is an issue with which I have got a lot of familiarity. 
After all, I was the Governor of this great State for 6 years, and I 
dealt with this issue a lot, not only with President Fox's predecessor 
but with Governors of border States--Mexican border States, Tamaulipas 
and Nuevo Leon. And I know what--I know the issue well. And I will 
continue to call upon Congress to be commonsensical about this issue.
    And the basis of the policy is that if there is a job opening which 
an American won't do, in other words--and there's a willing worker and a 
willing employer, that job ought to be filled on a legal basis, no 
matter where the person comes from. That makes sense. We need a 
compassionate policy. In other words, if this is in place, then someone 
will be able to come and work from Mexico in the United States and be 
able to go home, back and forth across the border in a legal fashion. 
That seems to make sense to me. It's a commonsensical way of doing 
things.

[[Page 512]]

    I think we ought to have a policy that does not jeopardize those 
who've stood in line trying to become legal citizens. We want to reward 
those who have been patient in the process. There's plenty of Mexican 
citizens who have applied for citizenship. They should--their position 
in line should not be preempted because of--there's a worker program. 
But there's a better way to enforce our border, and one way is to be 
compassionate and decent about the workers who are coming here to the 
United States.
    And, Mr. President, you've got my pledge: I'll continue working on 
it. You don't have my pledge that Congress will act, because I'm not a 
Member of the legislative branch. But you will have my pledge that I 
will continue to push our Congress to come up with rational, commonsense 
immigration policy.

Cooperation in North America

    Q. Thank you, Prime Minister. A question to yourself and to 
President Bush and President Fox as well. You've been talking about 
cooperation, what you, Prime Minister, referred to as the new generation 
of success or the next generation of success. Keeping in mind, in front 
of us, the European Union, how much is this partnership a first step 
towards continental integration? If so, how far would you like to go? 
And can you give us some sort of a roadmap and perhaps give us a 
distinction between partnership and integration?
    Prime Minister Martin. Well, what we're really talking about here is 
not a big bang; we're talking about big progress. And if you look at 
each of the areas in which we have tasked our ministers, based on the 
work that they have already done, that is precisely what is coming out 
of this meeting, and that's precisely why we want to be able to measure 
the success and hold people accountable for the targets that we have 
set.
    So when you're talking about security, there's no doubt about the 
importance of the security of our borders, given the increase in 
Canada's defense budget, our ability to work together, that obviously we 
want to make sure that there is the greatest degree of coordination 
between our defense and our border sources.
    In terms of the economy, getting rid of nuisance regulation, making 
sure that we have better rules of origin, essentially what we want to do 
is to make sure, given the threat that we face from rising economies 
elsewhere, but primarily in Asia--both the threats and an opportunity, 
by the way--that, in fact, North America is as strong and as competitive 
as it can possibly be. And there should be no restriction on that--
quality of life, the environment, how we work together--so that 
essentially what we really want to do is to make very, very substantial 
progress and to make sure that we continue to do it, so that the forces 
of protectionism never take over North America and that we're as 
competitive as we can.
    I just wanted to say that what we're trying to do is not a big bang; 
what we're truly seeking to do is major progress. And this is in the 
field of border security, for example, what we have done so far. We went 
even further, and now the Government of Canada is spending money on its 
borders and its defense. And we're going much further in terms of 
elimination of nuisance regulations so that Canada can be competitive in 
the United States as it is in Canada and Mexico, but also maintaining 
quality of life, environment, working together. That's what we're 
seeking to do.
    President Fox. Thank you. I feel that the purpose that we have 
discussed today is clear. This is an objective that has been coming on 
for several months now as a result of an intense dialog. We are talking 
about a partnership--that is the key word, ``partnership''--a 
partnership for security and a partnership for prosperity, a partnership 
that is based on human capital and that aims to improve the quality of 
life. This is the key element of this new task that we have laid out for 
ourselves. We have built upon NAFTA's achievements. It is widely--the 
benefits of NAFTA are widely known, but now we find new challenges that 
demand that we take new actions. These actions are defined in the 
program that is being launched through these precise instructions that 
we have given our ministers, our working groups, and their instructions 
are to carry out these ideas in the next 90 days.

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    So we are going to work through several approaches, and our purposes 
are based on three pillars of this proposal. The three pillars are 
security, to address any threat that might arise from abroad, address 
internal threats. We need to address also the inefficiencies in the 
movement of people, merchandise, and goods. We must also look to join 
talent, strategy, and resources to improve North America's 
competitiveness with other countries and other regions of the world. We 
need a level of competitiveness that allows us to reach the objectives 
that we have laid out for ourselves.
    We need to reduce the costs of doing trade. We have a lot of trade 
between our three countries, and we feel that we can still bring down 
the costs of trade much more, and that will allow the trade between our 
countries to increase even more. We think that the biggest challenge of 
the 21st century will have to do with human capital, investing in our 
people, investing in technology, and that is another thing that we are 
going to work on.
    Moreover, we are partners in protecting the environment. We are 
partners to protect our natural resources. We are partners to protect 
the health of our people. And we are partners, too, in the broadest 
sense of the word. So that is the road that we have before us. We have a 
timeline, and we have responsibilities to carry out, and we will make 
sure that these things happen.
    President Bush. The future of our three countries will best be 
served by establishing trade relations with the rest of the hemisphere. 
It's kind of the most logical extension of a vision that recognizes that 
common trading areas are going to be needed in order to maintain 
lifestyle, particularly as the Far East begins to emerge as strong 
competitors for capital and goods and services and markets.
    We started to advance this idea in Quebec City, as a matter of fact, 
in 2001 with the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas. To me, that's the 
most practical extension of the recognition of the realities that we're 
all going to be facing as the 21st century evolves. In order to make 
sure that the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas has a chance to 
succeed, it is important to show the sovereign nations in South America 
that trade has worked amongst the three of us. NAFTA has been a success. 
All you've got to do is go down to the border of our State. If you could 
have gone down 10 years ago and gone down today, you would have seen a 
marked difference of quality of life on both sides of the border. I 
mean, it's been a very successful program in order to lift the standard 
of living in Mexico and the United States.
    And I think when people see that we're willing to continue to work 
through issues--Canada, the United States, and Mexico--it may make it 
more palatable for countries to recognize the benefits of trade. So that 
the vision that you asked about in your question as to what kind of 
union might there be, I see one based upon free trade, that would then 
entail commitment to markets and democracy, transparency, rule of law.
    To this extent, we have entered into an agreement with the Central 
American nations called CAFTA. I think--I know it's an important part of 
the prosperity agenda throughout the hemisphere, and I asked Congress to 
make sure that they approve CAFTA this year.
    Thank you. Caren [Caren Bohan, Reuters].

Situation in North Korea

    Q. Secretary Rice has made clear that the United States is growing 
impatient with North Korea's refusal to come back to the six-way talks. 
And there has been talk that the United States has a June deadline. What 
consequences would there be if they don't come back to the talks? And 
also, is China doing enough to keep the pressure on?
    President Bush. Thank you for bringing up Secretary Rice. She just 
got back from her trip Monday evening and came down to Crawford 
yesterday to brief me on the trip. I'm grateful that she took time out 
of her schedule to come down and talk about not only the discussions she 
had with China but discussions she had with South Korea and Japan, the 
leaders of India and Pakistan. And she also went to Afghanistan, so she 
had an extensive trip. It was about a 2-hour briefing, I want you to 
know.
    We didn't set deadlines. What we said is what we've said to North 
Korea, ``If you want

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to--if you want the way forward, if you want to be accepted by the 
world, if you want not to be isolated, get rid of your weapons 
programs.'' And fortunately, it's not just the United States of America 
saying that. China says that. As a matter of fact, it was here at 
Crawford that Jiang Zemin, at the ranch, said that the foreign policy 
goal of the Chinese is for there to be no nuclear weapons on the Korean 
Peninsula. And Hu Jintao made that clear to Secretary Rice that that is 
still the objective of the Chinese Government, so we share an objective. 
We share a goal. The Japanese share that goal. The South Koreans share 
that goal. The Russians share that goal.
    So we've got five nations saying the same thing to Korea--North 
Korea, and we'll continue saying it to North Korea. And I'm a patient 
person, and so are a lot of people that are involved in this issue. But 
the leader of North Korea must understand that when we five nations 
speak, we mean what we say. And there is a way forward, and I repeat, 
for Kim Chong-il. And it's his choice to make. We've made our choice. 
China has made its choice. The other countries have made their choices. 
And for the sake of peace and tranquility and stability in the Far East, 
Kim Chong-il must listen.
    And so I am pleased with the report I got from the Secretary. I am 
pleased today that Hu Jintao and the Chinese Government expressed 
continued interest in this subject and understanding of the importance 
of the five of us working together to achieve the common objective that 
we have set out.

Immigration Policy/Energy

    Q. Mr. Presidents and Mr. Prime Minister, I wanted to ask you what 
concrete actions do your Governments want to lay out in order to make 
this partnership a reality as far as energy markets, which is a very 
critical issue for all of our countries--energy markets? I also want to 
ask you, in this Security and Prosperity Partnership, when will you 
include the migratory--or immigration policy in this partnership? And, 
President Bush, I wanted to ask you about your opinion about those 
people who are hunting migrant people along the border.
    President Bush. I'm against vigilantes in the United States of 
America. I'm for enforcing law in a rational way. That's why we've got a 
Border Patrol, and they ought to be in charge of enforcing the border.
    We talked about migration, of course; we spent a lot of time talking 
about migration. We've got a big border with Canada, a big border with 
Mexico, and it's an important issue. But the issue on the borders is not 
just people; it's goods and services. And so the agreements we're 
talking about, the way to strengthen our relationships, of course, 
includes our border policy. And we'll continue to include border policy.
    I forgot the other part of your three-part question. What's that--
you have something else you asked? I can't remember what it was.
    Q. About energy.
    President Bush. Oh, energy, yes.
    Look, yes, we're using a lot of it, and we need to conserve better 
in the United States. We're dependent on energy from overseas, and we've 
got to become less dependent on energy from overseas. We appreciate the 
fact that Canada's tar sands are now becoming economical, and we're glad 
to be able to get the access toward a million barrels a day, headed 
toward 2 million barrels a day. And I want to thank--and that's, by the 
way, an advantage for open trade. The American people must understand 
that when there is open trade, it helps solve our energy deficiency.
    But one thing we can certainly do is cooperate better on sharing 
technologies. Look, we're going to have to change our habits. We're 
going to have to develop a hydrogen-powered automobile. And we look 
forward to working together. We've got integrated automobile industries 
between the three of us. And someday, hopefully, our automobile 
industries in our respective countries will be on the leading edge of 
technological change when it comes to helping change the habits of our 
consumers.
    We're going to need liquefied natural gas coming into our three 
countries and into our markets. And I look forward with the Presidents 
on how to develop more access to liquefied natural gas, which--and 
there's a lot of natural gas in the world. The question is, how do we 
economically get it to our respective markets?

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    I recently went and saw those developing zero-emission coal-fired 
plants. I think we spent about a billion dollars on what's called the 
FutureGen Project. Look forward to working with our respective countries 
on sharing technologies and how to move forward to come up with zero-
emissions coal-fired plants.
    And so there's a lot we can do and will do on energy. But there's no 
question the United States of America is hooked on foreign sources of 
energy. And I put forth a strategy to the United States Congress in 
2001; they're still debating it, the issue. Now is the time to get a 
bill to my desk; this is the year. People see the prices of their 
gasoline rising at the pumps, and I am concerned, and the American 
people are concerned. And it's now time to implement the strategies that 
we laid out in legal--in the law.
    But, no, this is a very important subject matter. Thank you for 
bringing it up. We spent a lot of time discussing it.
    President Fox. As far as concrete actions, the first concrete 
actions are those that have to do with all of the topics addressed by 
this Partnership for Security and Prosperity and quality of life. And 
the first concrete actions are going to be a specific charge of 90 days 
to present detailed ideas at 12 different working groups, working tables 
that have to do with the general ideas that we are laying out here.
    Another concrete action that we have agreed to is that the three 
Presidents feel that about halfway through this 90-day period of time, 
we need to be able to assess the direction, the pace, and the degree to 
which these issues are becoming a reality towards the end of those 90 
days. We want to be sure to have that final report be complete with all 
of the detail necessary, with all of the vision necessary that the 
Presidents have laid out.
    Concrete actions in this sense also have to do with a sector-by-
sector analysis so that from these analyses, we can create a strategy 
sector by sector, perhaps third-generation strategies that go beyond 
anything we've done before to make the economies work well jointly; also 
concrete actions as far as security along the borders and especially in 
our territories. Specifically in Mexico, we want to ensure peace and 
tranquility for our society. We want to provide guarantee to our people 
that our security plans are working in every sense. Mexico has a very 
ambitious security package that starts with our southern border, with 
our brothers, friends, neighbors, and partners in Central America, where 
we also want to address the issue of security because, in the end, this 
has repercussions throughout North America.
    Concrete action will be taken as far as quality of life issues, 
health, education. I repeat, we are going to write these down, write 
these objectives down in black and white and carry out--and have this 
plan well configured and consolidated within the next 90 days to make 
sure that it is feasible, because all of us have a sense of urgency. We 
want to make North America into the most competitive region in the 
world, and we can do it with actions in the fields of energy, education, 
technology, security, and through protecting our natural resources. This 
should serve to give us the level of competitiveness that we seek.
    In effect, we discussed immigration. We discussed it as a trilateral 
issue. We discussed the issue of border crossings, and how we can 
protect our borders and be efficient along the border, and also how we 
can keep people from crossing who shouldn't be crossing and address the 
threats that our nations have faced. So this is something that we also 
look at jointly. And in the end, this also has to do with 
competitiveness, and it also has to do with reaching the objectives that 
we have for security and quality of life.
    Prime Minister Martin. In terms of energy as--we all know of the 
tremendous capacity that exists within Mexico. President Bush has 
referred to the tar sands, which are a great, great opportunity. And in 
fact, the whole energy sector, I think, for all of us is a huge, huge 
opportunity in terms of our competitiveness with the rest of the world. 
But in addition to the tar sands, you've got our conventional sources. 
You've got the Beaufort, the Hull, the question of pipelines that 
eventually will be addressed.
    But there are also other areas, renewables. The President talked 
about clean coal technology, as an example. Renewables are dependent 
upon technology. And we're putting a lot now into wind pump--into wind 
power.

[[Page 516]]

There is, in the province of Saskatchewan, a major project going on in 
terms of CO2 sequestration, which essentially will be a major factor in 
fighting--in the whole climate change issue, and tremendous 
opportunities for us using these new technologies.
    But the other thing that I would like to highlight as well, in 
addition to nuclear, is Canada has great potential in terms of hydro-
electricity--northern Manitoba, Quebec, Newfoundland, and Labrador, to 
simply only give you a couple of examples. And what we've got to do--
especially looking at the failure of the electricity grid in North 
America a year ago--we've got to make sure that that grid is very, very 
sound. So the opportunities for cooperation are huge.
    President Bush. The final question, Paul.

Canada-U.S. Relations

    Q. My question is both to President Bush and Prime Minister Martin. 
You've had some very sharp differences with Canada in the past, 
especially on issues like missile defense. Has this strained relations? 
And is the door still open for Canada to join missile defense in the 
future, something you call fundamental to the defense of North America?
    Prime Minister Martin. Our relationships are very, very strong and 
in a wide range of areas. And the fact that the three of us are meeting 
here today and that we have put out what is really quite an ambitious 
program that is going to be measurable, I think is an indication of 
that.
    Are there differences of opinion? Of course there have; there have 
been throughout our history, and there will be in the future. On BMD, 
the file is closed. But our cooperation in terms of defense, in terms of 
our borders, in terms of the defense of our common frontiers, is very--
is not only very clear but it is being accentuated. And I've got to take 
that one step further. The defense of North America is not only going to 
take place in North America. Canada is playing an increasing load, as an 
example--role in Afghanistan, and that's also part of the defense of 
North America.
    So we're working together, and we're going to continue to work 
together increasingly in the whole way in which we establish a common 
security, in which we protect it, in our defense.
    With respect to the shield, this is an issue that is closed. But in 
terms of capacity to work together, this is something where we have 
provided major budgetary increases, because we want to protect ourselves 
at home in Canada. We want to assume our responsibilities in North 
America at the border level, in the north, and with the oceans. But we 
must also say that Canada will accentuate its role in Afghanistan. That 
shows you to what extent the defense of North America is not only here 
in North America, but really that speaks of the necessity to bring the 
battle beyond our borders.
    President Bush. It's interesting, ``sharp differences.'' I guess 
that's--``sharp'' means kind of, if you think about what that means, 
that means maybe differences so that we can't have a positive 
relationship. I view them--look, we've got differences. I don't know if 
you'd categorize them as differences that would then prevent us from 
finding common ground. I don't view it that way. I can understand why 
people disagree with certain decisions I have made, but that doesn't 
prevent us from cooperating in intelligence sharing, for example.
    You know, a lot is made about softwood lumber, and it's clearly a 
sensitive issue. I know it firsthand. I've heard it ever since I became 
elected President. People are frustrated that we haven't got it solved. 
I understand that. But think about all the trade we've got between our 
countries. And we've resolved a lot of issues in a positive manner, and 
we'll continue to resolve them. I mean, we had an issue with cows, and 
that is getting resolved. I'm amazed that we don't have more sharp--
whatever you call them--disagreements because we're doing a lot 
together.
    In other words, what I'm telling you is that I think the 
relationship is very strong and very positive. And just because somebody 
doesn't agree with our policy doesn't mean that we can't continue to 
have very positive relationships. The relationship with Mexico and the 
relationship with Canada are very important for the United States of 
America. And there's going to be disagreements and differences. And the 
fundamental question

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is, do we have the capacity to continue moving forward with the 
relationship? And the answer is, absolutely.
    And I want to thank the leaders for coming. People of our respective 
countries will see how vital these relationships are. And I look forward 
to our ministers reporting back with concrete action. They will be held 
to account, you're right, Mr. Prime Minister--and look forward to saying 
to our respective peoples that--and making clear that the relationship 
between America, Canada, and Mexico is vital to our mutual prosperity, 
mutual health, and the benefit of our folks.
    Thank you all for coming. Good to see you all.

Note: The President's news conference began at 11:22 a.m. in the Bill 
Daniels Activity Center at Baylor University. In his remarks, he 
referred to Gov. Jeb Bush of Florida; former President Jiang Zemin and 
President Hu Jintao of China; and Chairman Kim Chong-il of North Korea. 
Prime Minister Martin made a portion of his remarks in French and 
President Fox spoke in Spanish, and their remarks were translated by 
interpreters.