[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 44, Number 24 (Monday, June 23, 2008)]
[Pages 874-876]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks Following a Meeting With Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev of 
Bulgaria

June 18, 2008

    President Bush. Mr. Prime Minister, welcome to the Oval Office. It 
was about a year ago that I had the great pleasure of visiting your 
beautiful country, and I want to thank you for the warm hospitality you 
showed. And thank you for giving me a chance to welcome you here to the 
Oval Office. We had a very extensive conversation.
    Prime Minister Stanishev. Indeed.
    President Bush. And that's what you'd expect among friends.
    First, I want to congratulate you and thank you and the Government 
for the role you have played in the Western Balkans. You've been a 
constructive force for stability, a constructive force for hope. You've 
projected a hopeful future and--for the people in Kosovo and Serbia. And 
I want to thank you for that. It's really important that there be 
leadership in the neighborhood, and you've provided it.
    Secondly, I want to thank you very much for your nation's strong 
contributions to helping others realize the blessings of liberty, 
whether it be in Afghanistan or Iraq. I fully understand how difficult 
these issues can be. On the other hand, you understand how hopeful the 
world can be when people live in free societies. So I want to thank you 
and I want to thank the people of your country for the sacrifices that 
you have made.
    Thirdly, we talked about our--a mutual concern, and that's energy. 
How do we get more energy on the market? How do we help others--our 
respective countries and others realize the blessings of additional 
energy supply? I mean, we're in a world that is--where supply has 
exceeded--where demand has exceeded supply. There's high prices. Both 
our countries--the people in our countries are wondering, what do we 
intend to do about it?
    And so we had a good discussion about the diversification of energy 
supply. I really appreciate the Prime Minister's discussion about 
nuclear power. Prime Minister, we're trying to expand nuclear power here 
in the United States of America because it's clean, it's renewable, and 
it'll help us become less dependent on hydrocarbons.
    We talked about two other issues that are of importance to the Prime 
Minister and the people of his country. First, we talked about visas. I 
fully understand the concerns of your people when it comes to visas. 
People say,

[[Page 875]]

on the one--we're helping; we're part of a very important coalition; 
we're allies, and yet we don't get treated the same as other people 
within the EU.
    Prime Minister Stanishev. It was a good breakthrough.
    President Bush. And today, because of the Prime Minister's hard 
work, there has been a breakthrough on the visa waiver, as an important 
step toward achieving the same status as other countries in the EU. And 
I want to congratulate you on that. Thank you for your hard work, and 
thank you for your care about the people of your country.
    Finally, I applauded the Prime Minister for his and his Government's 
work on dealing with corruption. I reminded the Prime Minister that all 
of us have got a responsibility to deal with corruption. When we find 
corrupt officials in the United States, we expect them to be--within the 
rule of law--be dealt with. And that's what you're doing. And the people 
who ultimately benefit from that decision are the people of your 
country. I mean, they--I know they appreciate your tough stand. Nobody 
wants to have a government where it looks like a few benefit at the cost 
of many.
    And so your tough stance have made a big difference. I'm proud that 
you're here. I want to thank you for it. You're a good, young, strong 
leader, and that's said from an old guy.
    Prime Minister Stanishev. Thank you.
    President Bush. Welcome.
    Prime Minister Stanishev. Thank you.
    President Bush. Yes.
    Prime Minister Stanishev. Well, thank you, Mr. President, for the 
good words about Bulgaria, indeed. And my assessment is that our 
relations have reached the level of strategic partnership. And I see no 
contradiction in this with our good behavior and our contributions to 
the European Union.
    President Bush. That's right.
    Prime Minister Stanishev. I think Bulgaria proved in the last 
several years that we can be good contributors of stability for NATO, we 
can be active in the European Union, and we can develop our excellent 
relations with the United States--because it is amazing that in 18 
years, our countries have reached this level of trust, confidence. And 
from this point of view, I appreciate your very strong leadership role 
in the support of the reform process in Bulgaria.
    President Bush. Yes, sir.
    Prime Minister Stanishev. It is never easy. It requires a lot of 
efforts, persistence. Results do not always come overnight, but they 
develop. And everyone who comes to Bulgaria after several years of 
absence is saying the country has made great progress. And the United 
States have always been very helpful in this process.
    I must say that we see our role in the region as a country which is 
bridging and guaranteeing stability both for the Western Balkans and for 
the broader Black Sea area, which are very important, because without 
stability in the Balkans, without European perspective and NATO 
perspective for these countries, we cannot speak about real prosperity 
and democracy in the region. The region has many wounds from the war in 
former Yugoslavia, and they have to be healed. And the international 
presence is very important and the European perspective as well.
    And we also see the importance of the Black Sea area, both 
politically, from the point of view of security issues and from the 
point of view of energy issues. And I appreciate the dialog which we had 
on diversification of energy supply, on nuclear energy. Bulgaria will be 
developing our nuclear facilities, not only the new ones, but there are 
many other projects where American companies can participate in nuclear 
issues, but also in thermal powerplants, many other energy projects, 
because we want to be, indeed, a hub of energy stability in the region. 
We want to be enough independent. We want to be exporter of energy.
    We are good partners in Afghanistan, in Iraq, in Kosovo. And 
Bulgaria really is not simply a beneficiary of our membership in NATO or 
the European Union, but we are a contributor because we know our 
responsibilities. And we shall not give up from these responsibilities 
because there are many challenges around the world. We have to overcome 
them together with our friends and partners.
    I thank you very much for this support and for the American experts 
who worked on this

[[Page 876]]

declaration on visa waiver. You, Mr. President, were the first to say 
that this is not a normal situation, when two nations have such 
confidence, when we have 200,000 Bulgarians living in the United States, 
more and more Americans coming to Bulgaria, to have this obstacle for 
normal human contacts. There is a way to go; there is work to do. But we 
shall do it together, and I believe that the sooner we achieve--make our 
business, the better for the citizens of the two countries.
    And finally, thank you also for the supporting the reforms in the 
fight against organized crime and corruption. Bulgaria is a nation which 
became member of the European Union, which is modernizing. Our economic 
growth is excellent. Our performances in economy are good. And we see 
the reforms in fight against organized crime and corruption, the 
judiciary reform, as a very important further precondition for our 
economic growth and for the development of the nation.
    And I remember that last year, you supported the establishment of 
the new State Agency for National Security. I can say with satisfaction 
that it is already operational. It works excellently with American 
services, and it has operations which are bringing concrete fruits. But 
there is work to do.
    President Bush. Thank you for coming.
    Prime Minister Stanishev. Thank you, Mr. President.
    President Bush. Yes. Thank you. Thank you all.

Note: The President spoke at 11:48 a.m. in the Oval Office at the White 
House.