[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 43, Number 18 (Monday, May 7, 2007)]
[Pages 579-580]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks Following Discussions With Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong of 
Singapore

May 4, 2007

    President Bush. Now, Mr. Prime Minister, thank you. Welcome back. 
Every time I visit with the Prime Minister of our friend Singapore, we 
have a strategic dialog.
    And today I talked to Prime Minister Lee about America's desire to 
stay in close contact with not only Singapore but our partners in what 
we call the ASEAN nations--those would be Southeast Asian nations.
    To this end, the Prime Minister has invited me and I've accepted an 
invitation to go back to Singapore to talk to our partners and friends 
about trade and security, and we'll do so on my way to the APEC meetings 
in Australia.
    Prime Minister Lee. Yes, in September.
    President Bush. So thanks for the invitation in September. That's 
right.
    We talked about a lot of issues. We talked about our bilateral 
relations, which are very strong, and thank you for your leadership on 
that issue. We talked about Iraq and Afghanistan. I thank the 
Singaporean Government and the people of Singapore for supporting a 
Provincial Reconstruction Team in Afghanistan, which will help that--the 
people of that young democracy realize a brighter future. It's a strong 
commitment, Mr. Prime Minister. And I also thank you for the missions 
and the help you've provided to the people of Iraq.
    We talked about the Iranian issue. We, of course, talked about North 
Korea. Now, there is no better person to talk about the Far East with 
than Prime Minister Lee. He's got a very clear vision about the issues, 
the complications, and the opportunities.
    And so I welcome you back, and thanks so much for the amount of time 
that you're willing to give.
    Prime Minister Lee. Well, thank you, President Bush. We had a very 
good discussion. Our bilateral ties between Singapore and America are in 
very good repair, so we spent very little time discussing that. But I 
thanked the President for the steadfastness and resolve with which he's 
tackling the very complicated problems in the Middle East and Iraq as 
well as the Israel-Palestinian issue.
    It's critical for us in Southeast Asia that America does that and 
that the President continues to give strong leadership on that because 
it affects America's standing in Asia and the world and also the 
security environment in Asia, because extremists, the jihadists, watch 
carefully what's happening in the Middle East and take heart or lose 
heart depending on what's happening there.
    We discussed America's relations in Asia, with China, with Japan, 
Korea. Those two are important to Southeast Asia because they set the 
context within which Southeast Asia can prosper. And good relations 
between America and the major countries, China and Japan, are critical 
because the Southeast Asian countries want to be friends with both and 
do not want to have to choose sides with either.
    Within Southeast Asia, I encouraged the President to deepen and 
strengthen the already good ties with--between the Southeast Asian 
countries, ASEAN, and America, both as a group and also bilaterally, 
individually with single countries. The President is going to come to 
Singapore for the commemorative 30th anniversary meeting of the dialog 
between ASEAN and the United States. And I suggested to the President 
that we should consider suitable new initiatives which perhaps would be 
able to take our relations another step forward.

[[Page 580]]

    But overall, the relations are in good repair. More can and will be 
done. But I look forward to deepening and strengthening not just 
relations but also the friendship between our two countries.
    President Bush. Thank you, Mr. Prime Minister.
    Prime Minister Lee. Thank you, Mr. President.
    President Bush. Thank you all. Thank you.

Note: The President spoke at 11:03 a.m. in the Oval Office at the White 
House.