[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 42, Number 23 (Monday, June 12, 2006)]
[Pages 1074-1075]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks Following Discussions With President Denis Sassou-Nguesso of the 
Republic of the Congo

June 5, 2006

    President Bush. It's been my honor to welcome the President of the 
Congo here to the Oval Office. Mr. President, welcome. Thank you for 
coming. I welcome you not

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only as the President of your country but as a leader of the African 
Union.
    We had a very constructive discussion about a variety of issues. We 
talked about our common commitment to help end the genocide in Darfur. I 
appreciate the President's leadership in helping negotiate a peace 
agreement, and I appreciate his leadership in working with the United 
Nations so we can get the AU forces blue-helmeted as quickly as 
possible.
    And one of my interests, of course, is to join with African nations 
in combating HIV/AIDS, and I want to congratulate the President for the 
low infection rate in Congo. Thank you for your leadership on that 
issue.
    We've had a very good visit here, and I look forward to seeing you 
in St. Petersburg, Russia, where we can continue our discussions. So, 
welcome.
    President Sassou-Nguesso. I, first of all, thank you, Mr. President, 
and I want to say to everyone that I'm very happy and honored to be 
here, actually for the second time, because in 1990, President Bush--
father of President Bush now--welcomed me to this house on a state 
visit. So I'm very happy to be here, Mr. President.
    Indeed, President Bush is absolutely right; we discussed a lot of 
issues that we're all interested in: peace, security, and not just in 
Africa, but beyond Africa, in the world. We talked about terrorism; we 
talked about the Iranian nuclear issue; we talked about the dialog 
that's about to open up, I hope, and that will bring good results to 
that problem.
    And on behalf of all of Africa, I thank President Bush for his 
commitment in fighting AIDS, the commitment of the United States in the 
fight against HIV/AIDS. As you know, we had a special meeting on AIDS at 
the United Nations General Assembly, and as you know also, Africa is the 
continent that suffers the most from this scourge.
    And we also talked about African development issues. We talked about 
the situation in the Gulf of Guinea, and the Congo Basin, the NEPAD, 
Project for African Development in Africa. And I was happy to see 
President Bush give his entire support to the development of Africa.
    And I'm, again, very happy with this very useful meeting that we had 
with President Bush here. And I'm very happy for the fact that we're 
going to see each other in St. Petersburg, because President Putin 
invited me to come to the G-8 Summit as a representative for Africa.
    I thank President Bush for his very friendly and warm welcome. And 
I'm very happy to be here, back in the White House.

Note: The President spoke at 9:51 a.m. in the Oval Office at the White 
House. President Sassou-Nguesso spoke in French, and his remarks were 
translated by an interpreter. President Sassou-Nguesso referred to 
President Vladimir Putin of Russia.