[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 43, Number 2 (Monday, January 15, 2007)]
[Pages 17-18]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks Following a Meeting With President Jose Manuel Durao Barroso of 
the European Commission

January 8, 2007

    President Bush. I'm very pleased to welcome back my friend Jose 
Barroso. Thank you. We just had a great discussion about the importance 
between--of relations between the United States and the European Union. 
Jose has got a really important job, and I think he's doing it really 
well.
    Our discussion was frank; it was open. We talked about the 
importance of the transatlantic relationship and how we can work to 
improve it. We talked about the importance for Europe and the United 
States to resolve any differences we have when it comes to the Doha 
round for trade, so that we can promote international trade. We both 
recognize that the best way to help impoverished nations is to complete 
this Doha round and to encourage the spread of wealth and opportunity 
through open and reasonable and fair trade.
    Jose and I talked about the Middle East. There's no question that 
the Israeli-Palestinian issue is on a lot of people's minds. We are 
dedicated to a two-state solution, two democracies living side by side 
in peace. And we talked about ways that we need to work together to see 
if we can't bring that vision to fruition.
    We're going to talk about Darfur here at lunch. I know that Jose is 
as committed as I am to helping solve what I've called a genocide. It is 
outrageous that people are being treated the way they are, and I'm 
confident Europe and the United States can work with other friends and 
allies around the world to help solve that difficult problem.
    We talked about Iran. We talked about Syria. We talked about Iraq. 
We talked about a lot of issues. We also talked about the importance of 
energy independence and, at the same time, being wise stewards of the 
environment. We are very hopeful that the use of technologies and good 
policy will help us diversify our energy supplies and be able to assure 
future generations that the environment of the world will be better off.
    And so I thought it was a constructive dialog. Glad to have you 
back.
    President Durao Barroso. Thank you very much, George. It was, 
indeed, a pleasure to meet again, President Bush. We have now these very 
regular meetings, and it's always a great occasion to exchange views on 
such important subjects.
    In fact, we have considered bilateral and global issues. On 
bilateral, I underlined the importance we give to further--to make go 
further, go faster, to go deeper in our economic transatlantic 
partnership. This is the most important economic relation in the world, 
the relation between the United States of America and the European 
Union. And we believe we can achieve more if we look at it in a 
comprehensive manner. And I hope that now there will be some concrete 
work so that in our regular institutional summit, between the European 
Union and the United States, we can achieve some more complete results.
    Of course, the most crucial factor is the succession--successful 
negotiations for Doha. Doha is not just about trade; it's also about 
development; it's about having a multilateral approach to trade. There 
is now the defining moment. We are really at defining moment, and we had 
a very good exchange, and we gave instructions to all negotiators to 
come with a solution as soon as possible. And of course it is important 
to engage also others, because this is a real global agreement that we 
are trying to build. And it will be a very important signal for the 
world community if we show that it is possible to have a global approach 
to trade and development.
    Another global issue, but where United States and Europe have a very 
good--and we hope to improve relation and dialog--is precisely energy 
and climate. When we speak about climate change, it's not just about the 
environment--of course environment is crucially important--but it is 
also about global security. It's also about economic development and 
sustainability.
    And so we are hoping to deepen our dialog on climate change, on 
technologies, on curbing emissions, on progress in terms of energy 
efficiency and in security. Of course, the key

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is diversification--diversification in all aspects, and we believe the 
work going on between our respective experts is a good signal of the 
commitment of our joint commitment to fight climate change, and also to 
have a more common approach to the problems of global security regarding 
energy.
    We will, of course, consider other issues in the working lunch we're 
going to have. President Bush spoke about Darfur. I've been in Darfur 
recently. I can tell that's really a tragedy, what's going on, and we 
cannot accept that tragedy going on without a firm, united response of 
the international community.
    So, once again, it was a pleasure meeting President Bush in the 
White House. I'm very much looking forward to other occasions where we 
can show to the world that this relation--the relation between Europe 
and the United States of America is, indeed, more important than ever.
    President Bush. Thanks, Jose. Thank you. Appreciate it.

Note: The President spoke at 12:09 p.m. in the Oval Office at the White 
House. The Office of the Press Secretary also released a Spanish 
language transcript of these remarks.