[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 43, Number 23 (Monday, June 11, 2007)]
[Pages 759-760]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks Following Discussions With Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan in 
Heiligendamm

June 6, 2007

    President Bush. It's good to be with a friend, Shinzo Abe. We 
recently met at Camp David, and now we have a--we were on the phone 
since then, and now we have a chance to further our discussions.
    We talked about a lot of subjects. Particularly, we talked about 
North Korea. There is a common message here, and that is, we

[[Page 760]]

expect the North Koreans to honor agreements. And it's very important 
for the Japanese people to know that I strongly support Shinzo Abe's 
desire to deal with this very important issue of--the abduction issue.
    Likewise, we had an extensive discussion about energy and climate 
change. I reminded the Prime Minister that his great country and great 
economy is going to lead the way when it comes--along with the United 
States, in leading the way coming to develop technologies that will 
enable us to be--change our energy habits and, at the same time, be good 
stewards of the environment. And we discussed ways to develop a 
framework that has the flexibility and, at the same time, the goals so 
we can encourage the world to move in that direction.
    It's good to be with a friend.
    Prime Minister Abe. This is the sixth time that I'm having 
discussions with George, and as we always do, this time we were able to 
have a very frank exchange of views on many things. On North Korea, 
unfortunately, the North Koreans have not done anything to implement the 
initial actions. And also on the issue of abduction, they have not taken 
any sincere actions to resolve that issue. So we agreed that the G-8 
leaders need to send a strong message to North Korea on these issues. 
And also on the abduction issue, I explained the Japanese position to 
George once again, and I was able to gain his understanding on this 
issue, as he has always shown understanding.
    On climate change, I explained the Japanese proposal to the 
President, and we agreed that Japan and the United States would be 
working together for the creation of an effective framework which is 
flexible, and that we would be cooperating to achieve that end in the 
future.
    We reconfirmed the fact that the alliance we have between Japan and 
the United States in dealing with issues like North Korea and climate 
change is truly an alliance for Asia and an alliance for the entire 
world, for that matter.
    President Bush. Thank you, sir. Thank you all very much.

Note: The President spoke at 3:29 p.m. at the Kempinski Grand Hotel 
Heiligendamm. Prime Minister Abe spoke in Japanese, and his remarks were 
translated by an interpreter. A tape was not available for verification 
of the content of these remarks.