[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 44, Number 39 (Monday, October 6, 2008)]
[Pages 1271-1272]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks Following a Meeting With Prime Minister Gordon Brown of the 
United Kingdom

September 26, 2008

    President Bush. Mr. Prime Minister, welcome. The United States has 
got a great friendship with Great Britain, and you and I have worked 
hard to make sure that friendship stays strong. And I appreciate you 
coming down from New York, and I thank you for the consultations on this 
current economic issue.
    What the Prime Minister wants to know is, is the plan we've devised 
big enough to make a difference, and is it going to be passed? And I 
told him the plan is big enough to make a difference, and I believe it 
is going to be passed. And I really want to thank you very much for 
staying in touch during this difficult period of time, not only for us 
but for people all around the world.
    Secondly, we talked about trade. There's no stronger advocate for 
free and fair trade than Prime Minister Brown has been. And I appreciate 
your strong support for trade; because he knows what I know, that if--
the best way to help deal with poverty and hopelessness is to give 
people opportunity through free and fair trade.
    And so I thank your steadfast support on Doha. I told him that we 
are still optimistic that the Doha round can be reinvigorated, and we 
strategized as to how to do that. And I thank you for your advice on 
that.
    Finally, we talked about Iraq and Afghanistan. Both our nations 
still have troops in those two countries. We're helping young 
democracies not only survive but grow and thrive. And I fully believe 
that when people look back at this period of history, they will say, 
thank goodness the United States and Great Britain stood strong, because 
we're helping to lay the foundation of peace for generations to come.
    So I welcome you back to the Oval Office. Thank you for coming.
    Prime Minister Brown. It's a great privilege to be here this 
afternoon. And I thank you for your hospitality, President Bush.
    We talked about a number of issues: Iraq; Afghanistan; the trade 
talks; what's happening in Russia and in the--in Georgia; and about the 
general situation in the world economy. And we concentrated on the 
financial issues that are being raised in every country of the world by 
what's happening because of financial turbulence on the markets.
    America and Britain have always stood together, and as one, in times 
of difficulty and challenge. And I said to President Bush this afternoon 
that facing this global turbulence, Britain supports the financial plan. 
And whatever the details of it, it's the right thing to do to take us 
through these difficult circumstances.
    I was also able to tell President Bush that other countries whom 
I've talked to during the course of the last week in New York--every 
continent, all the members of the G-7, believe that America deserves the 
support of the rest of the world in the action it's taking to secure 
stability and to deal with the turbulence in the financial markets. And 
we will continue to support the administration and the government in 
everything that it's doing to try to restabilize the financial markets 
and to bring about economic growth in all our countries.
    We also talked about what is the pathway forward. Our G-7 finance 
leaders--ministers will meet on October the 9th. The International 
Monetary Fund will meet on October the 10th. And the issues that have 
been raised by the problems in the financial system and the principles 
that might underlie future policy--transparency, good housekeeping, 
integrity, and at the same time, of course, international cooperation 
for the future--these are all issues that will be discussed in

[[Page 1272]]

detail by our finance ministers, and they will bring proposals for the 
future to us.
    Stability is the first duty of governments, and we are determined 
that our continuing cooperation will enhance the stability of our 
economies and bring the prosperity that is what we want for every single 
citizen of the world.
    President Bush. Thank you, Gordon. Good job.

Note: The President spoke at 5:46 p.m. in the Oval Office at the White 
House. This item was not received in time for publication in the 
appropriate issue.