[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 41, Number 22 (Monday, June 6, 2005)]
[Pages 915-918]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks Following Discussions With President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa 
and an Exchange With Reporters

June 1, 2005

    President Bush. Mr. President, welcome back.
    We've just had a wide-ranging discussion on very important issues. 
We spent time talking about our bilateral relations. I would 
characterize our bilateral relations as strong. We spent time talking 
about the continent of Africa.
    And Mr. President, I want to thank you for your leadership. South 
Africa is a great country. The President has used his position to not 
only better the lives of his own people but to work to bring stability 
and peace to the region and to the continent.
    We talked about several situations that are of concern to our 
Government, most notably Darfur. I want to thank you for your leadership 
there. The President has got troops there. Deputy Secretary Zoellick is 
on the way to Darfur. This is a serious situation. As you know, former 
Secretary of State Colin Powell, with my concurrence, declared the 
situation a genocide. Our Government has put a lot of money to help deal 
with the human suffering there.
    Later on today I'll be meeting with the head of NATO, who has agreed 
to help the AU position troops so that humanitarian aid can reach these 
poor folks as well as getting--bringing stability and hopefully some 
breathing room so there can be a political agreement. But the President 
gave me some good advice on that situation, and I want to thank you for 
that.
    As well, we'll discuss, later on, ways to cooperate to make the 
world a more peaceful place. But Mr. President, again, I really 
appreciate you coming. It's great to see you.
    President Mbeki. Thank you very much, President. I must say thank 
you very much, Mr. President, for asking us to come. And again I must 
say I agree very much with the President about the state of the 
relations between our two governments and the two countries, indeed very 
strong. And President, I appreciate it very much the commitment you have 
demonstrated now for some years with regard to helping us to meet our 
own domestic South African challenges as well as the challenges on the 
African continent.
    They are--I'm afraid you have--I'm going to create more problems for 
you, President--[laughter]--because I'm going to ask for even more 
support.
    President Bush. That's all right. [Laughter]
    President Mbeki. Because the contribution of the United States to 
helping us to solve the issues that lead to peace and security on the 
continent, that contribution is very vital. The contribution, President, 
to helping us in terms of the economic recovery and development of the 
continent, particularly via NEPAD, is very important.
    And I--we believe very strongly, President, that the forthcoming G-8 
summit in Gleneagles in Scotland, has the possibility to communicate a 
very strong, positive message about movement on the African continent 
away from poverty, under development, these conflicts. And clearly, your 
presence, Mr. President, in terms of the practical outcomes, your 
contribution to the practical outcomes of the G-8 summit is critically 
important.
    But thanks very much.
    President Bush. Thanks.

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    We'll answer a couple of questions, if that's all right. April 
[April Ryan, American Urban Radio Networks].

Sudan/Deep Throat

    Q. Yes, Mr. President. First, for you--what are your thoughts about 
the fact that Deep Throat has been outed----
    President Bush. Yes--[laughter].
    Q. ----and also the fact, Mr. President, is he a hero in your mind?
    And Mr. President, on the issue of Darfur, Sudan, a new survey came 
out by the Zogby International poll that finds 84 percent of Americans 
polled feel that the U.S. should not tolerate an extremist government 
committing such attacks and should use its military assets, short of 
using military combat troops on the ground to protect civilians there.
    President Bush. Let me first say something. We are working with NATO 
to make sure that we are able to help the AU put combat troops there. 
And as a part of that, I believe a transport plane of ours, for example, 
will be a part of this mission.
    I think later on today I'm going to speak to the Prime Minister of 
Canada, who has also been very strong about dealing with Darfur, and I 
will thank him for his contributions.
    You know, there was an interesting revelation yesterday, Mr. 
President, about a news story--a massive news story that took place when 
I was a pretty young guy. And for those of us who grew up in the late--
got out of college in the late sixties, and the Watergate story was a 
relevant story, and a lot of us have always wondered who Deep Throat 
might have been. And the mystery was solved yesterday.
    Q. Is he a hero?
    President Bush. He was--it's hard for me to judge. I'm learning more 
about the situation. All I can tell you is, is that it's--it was a 
revelation that caught me by surprise, and I thought it was very 
interesting. I'm looking forward to reading about it, reading about his 
relationship with the news media. It's a brandnew story for a lot of us 
who have been wondering a long time who he was. I knew it wasn't you. 
[Laughter] You weren't even born during that period.
    Q. Oh, yes I was; I was born. I was old enough.
    President Bush. Barely. Barely. That's a compliment, Mr. President. 
[Laughter]
    President Mbeki. It is. [Laughter] No, we--our view has been that 
it's critically important that the African continent should deal with 
these conflict situations on the continent, and that includes Darfur. 
And therefore, indeed, you will notice that we have not asked for 
anybody outside of the African Continent to deploy troops in Darfur. 
It's an African responsibility, and we can do it.
    So what we've asked for is the necessary logistical and other 
support to be able to ensure that we discharge our responsibilities. I 
should say that. Even the first troops deployed in Darfur, which were 
from Rwanda and Nigeria, the U.S. military forces sent the planes that 
actually did the airlift of those forces to Darfur. That's the kind of 
support I would ask for, and indeed, as the President has indicated, we 
even went to NATO, who also agreed to support.
    So I don't think it's--certainly from the African perspective, we 
wouldn't say we want deployment of U.S. troops in Darfur. We don't. On 
the continent, we've got the people to do this--military, police, 
other--so long as we get this necessary logistical support. I think 
that's what's critically important.
    President Bush. Do you want to call on somebody from your press 
corps?
    President Mbeki. Anybody?

Group of Eight/Africa

    Q. President Bush, with about 4 weeks left to go to the G-8 summit, 
do you still--do you have any reservations about British Prime Minister 
Tony Blair's Commission for Africa report, especially with reference to 
the international finance facility?
    President Bush. We have made our position pretty clear on that, that 
it doesn't fit our budgetary process. On the other hand, I've also made 
it clear to the Prime Minister, I look forward to working with Great 
Britain and other countries to advance the African agenda that has been 
on the G-8's agenda for--ever since I've been the President.
    And the President and I were talking about the positive steps that 
have been taken. The NEPAD agreement was presented as a result

[[Page 917]]

of G-8 meetings; commitment to trade as well as humanitarian help have 
all emerged as a result of the conversations through the G-8 and 
commitments as a result of the G-8. And I hope to advance the agenda, 
what I call the compassion agenda.
    And by the way, the thing I appreciate about the President is he 
understands it's a two-way street we're talking about. I mean, countries 
such as ours are not going to want to give aid to countries that are 
corrupt or don't hold true to democratic principles, such as rule of law 
and transparency and human rights and human decency. That's where the 
President has played such a vital role, because South Africa has been a 
stalwart when it comes to democratic institutions.
    But, no, we've got more work to do. I'm looking forward to sitting 
down not only at the table with the leaders from the G-8 countries but 
as well with leaders from the continent of Africa--and other countries 
are coming. So it's going to be quite a meeting.
    Keil [Richard Keil, Bloomberg News].

Elections in Egypt

    Q. Mr. President, looking back over the last year, you talked an 
awful lot about the importance of free and fair elections in Iraq, which 
most international observers now believe is what took place. Given the 
lesson that you say that that leaves for the region, do you think that 
Egypt is now on pace for the same free and fair elections? And if not, 
what do they need to do to get there?
    President Bush. Interesting question. I spoke to President Mubarak 
today, and I--he talked to me, by the way, about him calling his 
Attorney General to--calling upon his Attorney General to investigate 
the disturbance around one of the polling sites. And I urged him once 
again to have as free and fair election as possible, because it will be 
a great legacy for his country. It will be a--he's publicly stated he's 
for free and fair elections, and now is the time for him to show the 
world that his great country can set an example for others. He assured 
me that that's just exactly what he wants to do. And I will, to the best 
of my ability, continue to try to convince him that it's in not only 
Egypt's interest but the world's interest to see that Egypt have free 
and fair elections.
    Listen, the definition of free and fair, there's international 
standards, of course, but people ought to be allowed to vote without 
being intimidated. People ought to be allowed to be on TV, and if the 
Government owns the TV, they need to allow the opposition on TV. People 
ought to be allowed to, you know, carry signs and express their 
displeasure or pleasure. People ought to have every vote count. And 
those seem like reasonable standards.

Zimbabwe

    Q. My colleague will ask the question.
    President Bush. It's a relay. [Laughter]
    President Mbeki. It's a relay. [Laughter]
    Q. Mr. President, does your administration still regard Zimbabwe as 
an outpost of tyranny?
    President Mbeki, do you still regard that as an unhelpful 
characterization?
    President Bush. I brought up Zimbabwe. It's--obviously, we are 
concerned about a leadership that does not adhere to democratic 
principles and, obviously, concerned about a country that was able to, 
for example, feed herself, now has to import food, as an example of the 
consequence of not adhering to democrat principles.
    The President, who has been very much involved in this issue, gave 
me a briefing on, for example, different ways that the people are trying 
to reconcile their difference of opinion within Zimbabwe. But it's a 
problem.
    President Mbeki. Yes, you see, the critical challenge, as I'm sure 
you are aware, is to assist the people of Zimbabwe to overcome their 
political problems, their economic problems. There's problems even now 
of food shortages because of the drought.
    And so what is really critically important is to see in what ways we 
can support the opposition party, the ruling party in Zimbabwe to 
overcome these problems. And clearly, one of the critically important 
things to do is to make sure that you have the political arrangements 
that address matters of rule of law, matters that address issues of the 
freedom of the press, issues that address questions of freedom of 
assembly, a whole range of matters which require that the Zimbabweans 
have a look at the constitution and look at the legislation.

[[Page 918]]

    And this is a direction in which we're trying to encourage them to 
move, so that they create this political basis where everybody is 
comfortable that you've got a stable, democratic system in the country, 
which is critically fundamental to addressing these other major 
challenges of ensuring the recovery of the economy of Zimbabwe and 
really improving the lives of the people. So that's the direction we're 
taking.
    President Bush. Well, thank you all for coming. I owe the President 
a lunch.

Note: The President spoke at 12:03 p.m. in the Oval Office at the White 
House. In his remarks, he referred to Prime Minister Paul Martin of 
Canada; W. Mark Felt, Deputy Director of the FBI during the Nixon 
administration whose identity as the informer known as ``Deep Throat'' 
during the Watergate scandal was revealed on May 31; Prime Minister Tony 
Blair of the United Kingdom; and President Hosni Mubarak and Attorney 
General Maher Abdel Wahed of Egypt. The President also referred to the 
African Union (AU) and the New Partnership for Africa's Development 
(NEPAD).