[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 41, Number 41 (Monday, October 17, 2005)]
[Pages 1530-1533]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks Following Discussions With President Aleksander Kwasniewski of 
Poland and an Exchange With Reporters

October 12, 2005

    President Bush. Thank you all for coming. I'll have a statement; 
Aleksander will have a statement. We'll be glad to answer two questions 
per side.
    Welcome back. This is a happy moment, because I get to see my friend 
again. It's a sad moment, because he is leaving office. He has done an 
extraordinary job. We have built a strong personal relationship, but 
more importantly, we have a strong strategic relationship with Poland, 
thanks to your leadership.
    Aleksander has helped advance the cause of peace by advancing the 
cause of freedom. He has served as a mentor for new democracies in the 
neighborhood. He has proven that you can be a friend to the United 
States and a loyal member of the EU at the same time. We have worked 
hard together to improve the lots of both our peoples.
    And Mr. President, you can leave with your--your office with your 
head held high because of the fine job you have done. I am glad you came 
back, and it's an honor to be able to praise you to the people of your 
country for a job--a fine job.
    President Kwasniewski. Thank you, sir.
    President Bush. Hold on, we're going to a little----
    President Kwasniewski. Yes. Thank you for----
    President Bush. Do want to do an interpretation?
    President Kwasniewski. Yes, I think interpretation is better.
    President Bush. Especially after what I just said. [Laughter]
    President Kwasniewski. I want to thank you very much, Mr. President. 
I want to thank you very much for those nice words. It is true that this 
visit is both a farewell visit and a visit that is a recapitulation of 
10 years of my Presidency and 10 years of Polish-American relations 
between our two countries.
    I started my Presidency in a different world, and now I'm leaving 
the office when the world is different and the world now is better, I 
believe. We are together in NATO. We are in NATO together with other 
Central and Eastern European countries. We are in NATO, together with 
the Baltic States, and we are also together in a group, in fact, family. 
Together we are building peace and stability in different parts of the 
world. We are fighting together against terrorism. We are fulfilling our 
task with joy and satisfaction, and we do it effectively. And together 
we are bringing more peace and more democracy to the world. We are also 
creating more values for the humanity. We are fighting for human rights 
and for the dignity of human beings.

[[Page 1531]]

    And we have been cooperating together with President Bush, and we 
have made together very hard and very difficult and very important 
decisions. Today we talked about what we have done together, and we have 
also talked about the fact that we will be continuing the policy of 
cooperation between the two countries and that the new Polish government 
and my successor in the Presidential office will continue this policy in 
the years to come.
    I want to say that I'm very happy that we are enjoying and following 
the values between Polish and American cooperation and that we are 
developing our contacts. We have summed up our bilateral cooperation. 
There is still very much ahead of us, and here, as you can see here on 
the table next to President Bush, there is a document that I have 
presented to him, and this document is the recapitulation of our 
achievement, and it is also the information about our future 
cooperation. It's also the encouragement to cooperate in the future.
    President Bush. Thank you.
    We'll take a couple of questions. Diedra [Nedra Pickler, Associated 
Press].

 Associate Justice-Designate Harriet Miers

    Q. Thank you, Mr. President. Why do people in this White House feel 
it's necessary to tell your supporters that Harriet Miers attends a very 
conservative Christian church? Is that your strategy to repair the 
divide that has developed among conservatives over her nomination?
    President Bush. People ask me why I picked Harriet Miers. They want 
to know Harriet Miers' background. They want to know as much as they 
possibly can before they form opinions. And part of Harriet Miers' life 
is her religion. Part of it has to do with the fact that she was a 
pioneer woman and a trailblazer in the law in Texas. I remind people 
that Harriet Miers is one of the--has been rated consistently one of the 
top 50 women lawyers in the United States. She's eminently qualified for 
the job. And she has got a judicial philosophy that I appreciate. 
Otherwise I wouldn't have named her to the bench, which is--or nominated 
her to the bench--which is that she will not legislate from the bench 
but strictly interpret the Constitution.
    So our outreach program has been just to explain the facts to 
people. But more importantly, Harriet is going to be able to explain the 
facts to the people when she testifies. And people are going to see why 
I named her--nominated her to the bench, and she's going to make a great 
Supreme Court judge.

Poland-United States Relations

    Q. Mr. President, President Bush, there is a significant change of 
power underway in Poland right now. Some have already said that they 
would ask for more from the United States in return for Polish support 
and continued engagement in Iraq. Are you aware of these positions, and 
do you expect any changes in Polish-American relations, any tougher 
talk, maybe?
    President Bush. Well, we had a talk about who might succeed 
Aleksander and their opinions. My advice would be for whoever succeeds 
the President to come and visit and to exchange visits with foreign 
ministers, such as our foreign minister as well as our minister of 
defense and to strategize. That's what friends do. They share concerns 
and share goals, and then work together to satisfy concerns and achieve 
goals. And I'm confident that's going to happen.
    President Kwasniewski. I would like to add a few words for the 
Polish media here. We have talked about this, and I think that this is 
information important for the Polish media. Poland wants the 
stabilization mission in Iraq to be a success and to complete with 
success. We want to be a serious partner, and we want to be a steadfast 
and loyal partner in the coalition. Our troops are in Iraq, and they 
will stay in Iraq until the end of January, and the decision has been 
made and nothing changes here. But we have to think about the future, 
and we have to respect the right of the new government and the right of 
the new President to make their decisions about it.
    It was the right suggestion of President George W. Bush, and the 
decision will be forwarded by me to our authorities and people in Poland 
when I come back, that after the new government is established, the new 
Polish Defense Minister and the Foreign

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Minister should come here to Washington to talk about the future, 
because the future goes far beyond January next year. And we have to 
talk about what we shall do together to continue this cause.
    President Bush. Caren [Caren Bohan, Reuters].

Syria

    Q. Thank you, sir. The Syrian Interior Minister has committed 
suicide. What are the consequences for Syria if they are implicated in 
the murder of the former Lebanese Prime Minister?
    President Bush. I don't want to prejudge the report that's coming 
out, the Mehlis report. I think it's very important for Syria to 
understand that the free world respects Lebanese democracy and expects 
Syria to honor that democracy. It's one thing to have been asked to 
remove troops and all intelligence services. Now the world wants for--
expects Syria to honor the democracy in the country of Lebanon.
    Secondly, we expect Syria to do everything in her power to shut down 
the trans-shipment of suiciders and killers into Iraq. We expect Syria 
to be a good neighbor to Iraq. We expect Syria not to agitate killers in 
the Palestinian territory. We're making good progress toward peace in 
the Holy Land, but one of the areas of concern is that foreign 
countries, such as Syria, might try to disrupt the peace process through 
encouraging terrorist activities.
    So we have a lot of expectations for Syria beyond just the Mehlis 
report. But let's see how the Mehlis report--what it says. In the 
meantime, we'll continue to work with friends and allies to send a clear 
message to the Asad Government, there are expectations involved for 
countries that want to be accepted in the international community.
    Go ahead.

Russia

    Q. It's a question for President Bush. Mr. President, we thought 
that your last summit between America and Russian leaders, American 
diplomacy was stepping up the pressure on Moscow in reference to causes 
of democratic reforms in that country and the situation in Chechnya. And 
right now we have a long list of problems between Poland and Russia. So 
what's your point of view and what would be your advice for a new Polish 
government, how we should handle that situation?
    President Bush. We've got--I've got good relations with President 
Putin; America has got a working relationship with Russia. And always, 
as a part of our discussions with Russia is my personal--when I have 
personal discussions with him, I remind him of my deep faith in 
democracy, and the people that interrelate with Russia from my 
Government remind their Russian counterparts about democracy and its 
importance.
    The reason I believe in democracy so strongly is because I believe 
in freedom, and democracy is a manifestation of free societies. I 
believe there's a desire for everybody to be free. I also know that free 
societies are peaceful societies. One of the goals of this 
administration is to promote peace, and the more democracy and the more 
freedom there is, the more likely it is the world will be peaceful.
    So we've got a consistent message to Russia, and that is that one 
should not fear democracy; one should embrace democracy. Now, having 
said that, I recognize that Russian democracy will be different from the 
United States. We don't expect every country to look like us. We just 
expect people to embrace some universal truths, the right of people to 
worship freely, the right of women to be able to equally participate in 
society--which is the case in Russia, of course--the rule of law, the 
respect for private property. These are fundamental, basic principles 
that we believe should be inherent in all societies. People need to make 
those choices themselves, but one of the roles of the United States is 
to remind people about how beneficial a democratic society can be to its 
people. And so we're consistent in our message.
    Thank you all very much.
    President Kwasniewski. Thank you. You see, this is the difference 
between the President in power--you have many questions--and the 
President who has finished his job--no questions. [Laughter] Thank you.

Note: The President spoke at 11:54 a.m. in the Oval Office at the White 
House. President Kwasniewski spoke in Polish, and his remarks

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were translated by an interpreter. In his remarks, President Bush 
referred to President Bashar al-Asad of Syria; Detlev Mehlis, head, 
United Nations International Independent Investigation Commission into 
the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri; and 
President Vladimir Putin of Russia.