[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 42, Number 29 (Monday, July 24, 2006)]
[Page 1352]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks Following Discussions With President Hu Jintao of China in 
Strelna

July 16, 2006

    President Bush. Mr. President, thank you for coming by to say hello. 
I remember fondly your visit to Washington, DC, a very successful trip 
to our Nation's Capital and other parts of our country. I want to thank 
you for the discussion we've had today.
    The United Nations Security Council unanimously passed a resolution 
dealing with the North Korean issue, and I want to thank you for your 
leadership on that, Mr. President. We're working together on the Iranian 
issue. We talked about the Middle East. I want to thank you very much 
for our continued dialog on bilateral issues. We spent a lot of time on 
economics and trade.
    All in all, it's a continuation of the very good dialog we had 
during your trip to Washington, and I want to thank you for coming.
    President Hu. Ladies and gentlemen, I'm very happy to have the 
opportunity to meet you here. As President Bush said, just now we had a 
very friendly and candid discussion. To start with the discussion, I 
expressed my heartfelt thanks to the American side for the warm 
reception afforded to me during my visit to the United States in April 
this year by President Bush, the American Government, and the American 
people.
    In addition, we also had an in-depth discussion on the China-U.S. 
relationship and major international issues of mutual interest. Both 
President Bush and I speak highly of the development of China-U.S. 
relationship as it is today. We also are happy to see that the agreement 
President Bush and I reached on comprehensively moving forward the 
constructive and cooperative China-U.S. relationship is being gradually 
implemented.
    We both agreed to continue to view and handle the China-U.S. 
relationship from a strategic plane--I mean a long-term perspective. In 
addition, we also agreed to work hard to expand the convergent interests 
between the two countries and step up our pragmatic cooperation in the 
economic, trade, energy, science, technology, counterterrorism, 
nonproliferation, and the military fields.
    At the same time, we also believe that we need to respect and 
properly address each other's concerns and properly handle the sensitive 
issues in the bilateral relationship so that we can continue to move 
forward this relationship.
    We both believe that against the current backdrop of a complex and 
volatile international situation, to enhance the consultation and the 
coordination between China and the United States on major regional as 
well as international issues, serves the interests of both countries. 
This is also crucial to international peace and stability.
    Both sides expressed their commitment to maintain peace and 
stability on the Korean Peninsula and in Northeast Asia as a whole, and 
both sides agreed to continue their efforts to move forward the six-
party talks so that at the end of the day, the entire Korean Peninsula 
could be denuclearized in a peaceful way through dialog and in 
negotiations.
    Both sides indicated their willingness to work together to continue 
to seek a peaceful solution to the Iranian nuclear issue. We also 
discussed the situation in the Middle East.
    In this afternoon's discussion, we also spent quite a lot of time in 
an in-depth manner on our economic ties and trade and on the Taiwan 
question.
    I am satisfied with the discussion with President Bush. Thank you.
    President Bush. Thank you, Mr. President.

Note: The President spoke at 3:53 p.m. at the Konstantinovsky Palace 
Complex. President Hu spoke in Chinese, and his remarks were translated 
by an interpreter.