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President Bush Participates in Joint Press Availability with United Kingdom
Prime Minister Brown
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For Immediate Release Office of the Press Secretary June 16, 2008

President Bush Participates in Joint Press Availability with United Kingdom
Prime Minister Brown Foreign _ London, England

˙ /news/releases/2008/06/20080616-1.wm.v.html ˙˙Presidential Remarks
˙˙Audio ˙˙Photos

˙˙˙˙˙ Trip to Europe 2008

11:00 A.M (Local)

PRIME MINISTER BROWN: I'm delighted to welcome President Bush and the First
Lady back to London. And his visit today is an opportunity to celebrate the
historic partnership of shared purpose that unites the United Kingdom and
the United States of America. We both share a great love of history and
about how we have forged the ideas of democracy and liberty over centuries.
And the special partnership that President Bush and I both agree today is a
partnership not just of governments but of peoples is driven forward not
simply by mutual interests, but by our shared values: both countries
founded upon liberty, our histories forged through democracy, our shared
values expressed by a commitment to opportunity for all, putting into
practice what Churchill called the "joint inheritance of the English
speaking world."

So let me thank President Bush for being a true friend of Britain and for
the importance he attaches to enhancing our transatlantic partnership, from
the work we do in Afghanistan and Iraq to every part of the world. And let
me thank him for the steadfastness and the resolution that he has shown in
rooting out terrorism in all parts of the world; in working for a Middle
East peace settlement; in bringing hope to Africa; in working for a free
trade world, where in spite of today's difficulties with oil and food
prices, there is and should be a wider and deeper prosperity in the future
for all.

Now in our substantive and wide-ranging talks last night and this morning,
the President and I have discussed a number of central issues. We have
discussed Iran's nuclear ambitions. We have discussed Iraq and Afghanistan,
where our forces are working side by side. We have discussed the criminal
cabal that now threatens to make a mockery of free and fair elections in
Zimbabwe. We have discussed what we can do about democracy in Burma.

We have resolved, first of all, as we did some years ago, that it is in the
British national interest to confront the Taliban in Afghanistan or
Afghanistan would come to us. And so today Britain will announce additional
troops for Afghanistan, bringing our numbers in Afghanistan to the highest
level. And let me thank our troops, and the troops of America and 42 other
countries who are in Afghanistan, as I thank our forces in Iraq for their
courage and for their professionalism. And let me acknowledge the bravery
of the five members of the 2nd paratroop regiment, British men who have in
the last few days sacrificed their lives for freedom. Eighteen months ago,
the Taliban boasted that they and their paid foreign fighters would drive
our forces out of southern Helmand. Now most agree that security is on the
way to being transformed. Last week in Paris a total of 80 countries
pledged $20 billions, with nearly a billion from the United Kingdom to
support the Afghan National Development Strategy.

Our aim is to generate progress, where the fourth poorest country in the
world, laid low by decades of conflict, can as a democracy enjoy peaceful
social and economic development, with our forces, over time, moving from a
direct combat role to train and support Afghanistan's own army and police.

In Iraq, there is still work to be done, and Britain is playing and will
continue to play its part. Where we have over 4,000 troops in Basra, we
will continue the shared policy of Iraqis taking more control over their
own affairs, moving from combat to overwatching Basra. Our policy is
showing success as we continue the task we have set ourselves: strong and
well-trained Iraqi forces capable of securing the peace, firm commitments
to new local government elections soon, and speeding up the social and
economic development of Iraq so that people have a stake in the future.

Our message today to the Iranian people is that you do not have to choose
the path of confrontation. The latest rounds of talks with the Iranians
took place over the weekend. Once again, we put our enhanced offer on the
table, including political and economic partnership, and help with nuclear
technology for civilian use. We await the Iranian response and we'll do
everything possible to maintain the dialogue. But we are also clear that if
Iran continues to ignore united resolutions, to ignore our offers of
partnership, we have no choice but to intensify sanctions. And so today
Britain will urge Europe and Europe will agree to take further sanctions
against Iran.

First of all, we will take action today that will freeze the overseas
assets of the biggest bank in Iran, the bank Melli.

And second, action will start today for a new phase of sanctions on oil and
gas. And I will repeat that we will take any necessary actions so that Iran
is aware of the choice it has to make: to start to play its part as a full
and respected member of the international community or face further
isolation.

We discussed the deteriorating situation in Zimbabwe. In recent weeks,
under Robert Mugabe's increasingly desperate and criminal regime, Zimbabwe
has seen 53 killings, 2,000 beatings, the displacement of 30,000 people,
the arrest and detention of opposition leaders, including Morgan
Tsvangirai, and this is wholly unacceptable. Mugabe must not be allowed to
steal the election that is now less than two weeks away. And that is why we
call for Zimbabwe to accept a United Nations human rights envoy to visit
Zimbabwe now, and to accept the international monitors from all parts of
the world who are available to ensure that this is a free and fair
election.

We agreed that at the G8 in Japan, the United Kingdom and the U.S.A. would
propose a plan to recruit and train health workers for the poorest
countries. To save the lives of mothers who needlessly die in childbirth,
we are developing proposals to tackle the diseases that bring needless
death and suffering, including malaria, AIDS, and neglected tropical
diseases. And we agreed also to work together to ensure G8 commitment to
scale up funding on education and get the remaining 72 million children who
do not go to school today into school.

The world oil prices trebled in recent months. In the right of this, I
welcome Saudi Arabia's initiative to host a producer-consumer summit in
Jeddah on the 22nd of June. And we will all work together to ensure an
enhanced dialogue between oil producers and consumers.

And the President and I also agreed that over the next few weeks we need to
press hard to achieve a world trade deal. Both of us are ensured that this
could unlock new opportunities for the world economy. It would also help
reduce high global food prices.

Finally, we go from here to Northern Ireland. The United States has played
an essential role in securing peace in Northern Ireland and helping the
people of Northern Ireland move away from conflict to potentially a new
prosperity. And I want to thank President Bush for his personal efforts to
speed up the Northern Ireland peace process, and to make sure that there is
investment in Northern Ireland, not just from the rest of the United
Kingdom, but from America.

And I thank him for his work to ensure that the recent investment
conference in Northern Ireland was a huge success, and there will be
further announcements of jobs in Northern Ireland today. America has played
a huge role in this peace process, and President Bush is to be thanked by
all the people of the United Kingdom for what he has done.

So, Mr. President, I thank you again for your friendship, for your
leadership, for your commitment to us continuing to work together to solve
the challenges facing the world. I'm pleased you're here. I value the gains
we've made together, and I look forward to our continued friendship.

PRESIDENT BUSH: Thank you, Mr. Prime Minister. And I thank you very much
for your friendship, thank you for your hospitality. This is -- this has
been a good trip. By the way, some are speculating this is my last trip.
Let them speculate. Who knows? (Laughter.) But it's been a -- we had a
great dinner last night. I want to thank you and Sarah. And thanks for
calling together the historians. It's a -- you know, Great Britain has
produced great historians. And I am -- I love reading a lot of their works,
and it was so kind of you to have them over. And the food was good, too.
(Laughter.)

And also we had a great visit yesterday. Laura and I went to see Her
Majesty, the Queen. I thank her for her hospitality. And then yesterday at
the embassy, thanks to our Ambassador, I had the opportunity to speak to
some of your soldiers. And I was -- listened to their stories of courage
and bravery and sacrifice, and it was so -- really touching. And I really
appreciate the British people supporting the people who wear the uniform.
And I am looking forward to going to Northern Ireland this evening. You've
taken the lead. We're just pleased to help. And hopefully this visit will
help keep the process moving.

First thing about Gordon Brown, he's tough on terror, and I appreciate it
-- and so should the people of Great Britain and the world. He fully
understands that while some want to say that the terrorist threat is gone
or there's nothing to worry about, it is something to worry about. And he
was -- you were tested early in your Prime Ministership. You dealt with the
challenge. And I appreciate your continued focus and your understanding
that we've got to work together to protect our people, and your
understanding that freedom is transformative, and the ultimate way to
succeed against these extremists who use murder as a way to achieve their
political objectives is to marginalize them through the advance of liberty.

And that's what we're doing in places like Afghanistan and Iraq. And it is
tough work. It's hard to take a society that had been ravished [sic] by
brutality and convince people to take the risk necessary to work for civil
society and freedom for women and to educate their children. But I believe
it's necessary work, for the sake of peace and for our security. And I
believe it's in the moral interests of comfortable nations to help others
realize the blessings of liberty. Oh, for some that sounds like hopeless
idealism; for those of us involved with making public policy necessary to
protect our people, it is the only realistic way to guarantee the peace for
our people.

And so you've been strong on Afghanistan and Iraq, and I appreciate it. But
more importantly, the people of Afghanistan and Iraq appreciate it. The
march to democracy is never smooth. We've had our own history. America is
viewed as a great democracy; just remember, many of our citizens were
enslaved for a long period of time before we finally got it right.

But it's in our interests to help these folks. It's in our interests little
girls go to school in Afghanistan. It's in our interests that there be free
elections in Iraq. And it's in our interests that we help these governments
survive. And it's taken sacrifice from our people, I understand that. The
fundamental question of history is going to look back on it, is did we
understand the duty that we've been called to do, to protect ourselves and
hope others? And this Prime Minister has understood the duty.

No, I know there's a lot of discussion here in the British press about,
well, you know, is there going to be enough troops, or not enough troops,
and all that business; is he trying to distance this, that and the other --
it's just typical. But I just want to remind you that he has left more
troops in Iraq than initially anticipated. And like me, we'll be making our
decisions based upon the conditions on the ground, the recommendation of
our commanders, without an artificial timetable set by politics.

I thank you for your troop announcement today in Afghanistan, as well. Then
you issued a strong statement on Iran. It was a clear statement, and it was
a strong statement, and it was a necessary statement, because the free
world has an obligation to work together in concert to prevent the Iranians
from having the know-how to develop a nuclear weapon. And now is the time
to work together to get it done, and I appreciate your statement. Hopefully
the Iranian leadership will take a different position then the one they've
taken in the past, which is basically, who cares what the free world says,
we're going to -- we'll go our own way. And now has faced -- they face
serious isolation, and the people who are suffering are the Iranian people.
We have no qualms with the Iranian people. As a matter of fact, we want the
Iranian people to thrive. It's in our interests that there be a hopeful
society. It's their government who has denied them their rightful place in
the world.

And so I want to thank you very much for working hard to, you know, to help
keep this coalition together to provide pressure necessary so we can solve
the problem diplomatically. That's my first choice. Iranians must
understand all options are on the table, however.

Thank you for your strong words on Zimbabwe. And I -- you know, you
obviously are emotional on the subject and I don't blame you, because the
people of Zimbabwe have suffered under Mugabe leadership, and we will work
with you to ensure these good folks have free and fair elections to the
extent -- best extent possible, which obviously Mr. Mugabe does not want to
have.

We talked about Darfur. We talked about Burma. I strongly support your
health care worker initiative. I'm looking forward to going to the G8 to
articulate that. And we expect the people of the G8 -- the leaders of the
G8 countries to fulfill their obligations, because last year we met and we
had a -- we discussed a lot of issues, including HIV/AIDS and malaria on
the continent of Africa, and they all came forth and said, we'll match the
United States -- except most nations haven't matched the United States to
date except for Great Britain, and they haven't done their part in matching
the United States.

And so my message at the G8 is: Looking forward to working with you; thanks
for coming to the meeting -- just remember, there are people needlessly
dying on the continent of Africa today, and we expect you to be more than
pledge-makers. We expect you to be check-writers for humanitarian reasons.

We did talk about energy and Doha. I'm concerned about Doha. I'm concerned
that while we're making some progress on the agricultural side, that
nations such as Brazil and India and China are not making corresponding
openings on manufacturing and service -- and the service sector on their
part. And in order to have a successful round, which I believe is essential
-- and so does Gordon -- to fight off protectionism and help poor nations
develop, that now is the time to get a Doha Round completed. And in order
to do so, there has to be more movement on the manufacturing and service
sector so there can be a fair and equitable deal.

Finally, we talked about global climate change and briefed Gordon on our
strategy for the major economies meeting to hopefully reach an
international goal for 2050 that will have intermediate strategies that are
binding on each nation within the U.N. framework. And the reason why I
believe this is the right approach to take, that unless China and India are
a part of a binding international agreement -- and the United States --
then we will not have effective policy in dealing with climate change. It
might make us all feel good, but the results won't be satisfactory. And so
hopefully in Seoul, South Korea coming up there will be a major economy
meeting agreement on a long-term goal with binding commitments.

Mr. Prime Minister, all in all, it's been a great meeting. Thank you for
the conversation and thank you for your friendship.

PRIME MINISTER BROWN: Thank you.

Q Nick Robinson, BBC News.

PRESIDENT BUSH: Who? (Inaudible.) (Laughter.)

Q Good to have you here.

PRESIDENT BUSH: Missed the hat. (Laughter.)

Q Prime Minister, isn't it time to withdraw British troops from Iraq in
order to send them where the military really needs them, to Afghanistan, or
are you too worried about his reaction if you do?

PRESIDENT BUSH: We miss you, Nick, we miss you, buddy.

Q Are you prepared to see British troop withdrawn from Iraq while you're
still in office, or are you concerned about the symbolic significance of
that?

PRIME MINISTER BROWN: Can I just say that in Iraq there is a job to be done
and we will continue to do the job, and there's going to be no artificial
timetable. And the reason is that we are making progress -- making progress
in the Iraqis themselves being trained up to run the (inaudible) forces,
and of course to be the police men and women in their areas. And we're
making progress also because we hope local government elections will happen
later this year. We hope to return the airport that we are responsible for
in Basra to civilian use, as well. And most of all, in the next stage, we
want to see the economic and social development of Basra and the southern
part of Iraq proceed, so that people have a stake in the future.

So, yes, we are moving from what we call "combat" to
"overwatch", and
that's been announced many months ago -- yes, as a result of what happened
in Basra a few months ago we have kept higher the level of troops that are
necessary, but yes, also, we have a job that's still to be done. And that
job is to train up the forces, that job is to speed up economic and social
development, and that job is to have local government elections so that
Iraqis can take control of their own democracy. And I'm determined that we
continue to do that job.

And that will happen not at the cost of lesser troops for Afghanistan, but
with more troops going to Afghanistan. The Defense Secretary will announce
later this afternoon that we will send more troops to Afghanistan. The
reason is that we want to help the Afghans train up their own army and
their own police forces, and the reason is we want to have better equipment
in Iraq -- in Afghanistan in future; and therefore there's going to be a
reconfiguration of our troops, with some coming out and some more going in,
and that an overall increase in the numbers so that we will have the
highest level of troops in Afghanistan. You cannot trade numbers between
the two countries.

There is a job to do in Iraq, and I've described it. And there is a job to
do in Afghanistan, and we will continue to do it. And the fact that 43
countries are helping us in Afghanistan and 80 countries are supporting the
economic and social development of Afghanistan shows how in this country,
which is one of the poorest in the world, we are trying to make progress
more quickly. So the announcement will come later today from the Defense
Secretary.

PRESIDENT BUSH: We're withdrawing troops. We anticipate the 30,000 surge
troops will be coming home by July -- more or less, 30,000. And so the plan
is, bring them home based upon success. That's what we expect the British
Prime Minister to do. That's what I'm doing -- that as the Iraqis are
trained up, as they're taking more responsibility, as the security
situations decline, as the economy is improved, as political reconciliation
is taking place, we can bring more troops home. That's the whole purpose of
the strategy. And so, give the Iraqis more responsibility. Let them take
more -- be in more charge of their own security and their own government,
and that's what's happening.

And so, you know, I mean -- look, the key thing for me is that I have --
you know, is that Gordon shares with me his plans. He listens to -- he
talks to his commanders and he picks up the phone and says, here's what
we're thinking. So there's no surprises. And as I said yesterday on TV
here, I have no problem with how Gordon Brown is dealing with Iraq. He's
been a good partner and -- but, as I told you, we're bringing ours home,
too.

Q Mr. President, I'd like to ask you about recent events along the
Pakistan-Afghanistan border. Do you back President Karzai when he says he
may send his troops into Pakistan to take care of some of the militants who
are launching attacks on his territory? And do you think that the
agreements that the new government of Pakistan is pursuing with some of the
militant tribes in that area amount to the sort of appeasement that you
talked about in your speech last month?

And Mr. Prime Minister, I'd like to ask you about the meeting, upcoming
meeting, in Saudi Arabia. What do you expect to come out of that meeting?
And do you think it would be helpful if your friend there standing there,
Mr. Bush, were to see you in Jeddah at that meeting?

PRESIDENT BUSH: Our strategy is to deny safe haven to extremists who would
do harm to innocent people. And that's the strategy of Afghanistan; it
needs to be the strategy of Pakistan. It's in all our interests to prevent
those who murder innocent people to achieve political objectives to gain
safe haven.

And so we'd look forward to working -- I mean, one thing that can happen is
there can be, you know, more dialogue between the Pak government and the
Afghan government. There was -- in the past they had a jirga amongst tribal
leaders in the region on both -- from both sides of the border that made a
difference. And I think that would be a good idea to restart the jirga
process.

I know there needs to be dialogue between the intel services between the
respective countries. And I know there needs to be better cooperation, and
there needs to be trilateral cooperation on the border; trilateral being
Pak, Afghan and coalition border patrols to prevent people from coming back
and forth to cross the border.

And there's a lot of common ground. I repeat, it is no one's interest that
extremists have a safe haven from which to operate. And I'm, you know --
and obviously it's a testy situation there. And if I'm the President of a
country and people are coming from one country to another -- allegedly
coming from one country to another -- to kill innocent civilians on my
side, I'd be concerned about it. But we can help. We can help calm the
situation down and develop a strategy that will prevent these extremists
from, you know, from developing safe haven and having freedom of movement.

PRIME MINISTER BROWN: Can I say, I'm traveling to Jeddah next Sunday at the
invitation of the King of Saudi Arabia. And I want a long-term dialogue,
and this is part of a process, not an event, between oil producers and oil
consumers. I think there is a view developing that the price of oil is
increasingly dependent not just on today's demand and supply factors but on
what people perceive as demand outstripping supply next year, in the medium
term, and in the long term.

And I want to tell the King of Saudi Arabia and others who are there that
the world will build more nuclear power. And I have suggested that on
present trends it would be about a thousand nuclear power stations over the
next 30 years. The world will increase its use of renewables. The world
will increase its use of coal. It will lessen its dependence on oil, and
that the world is determined to make a more efficient use of oil.

And I think this dialogue between producers and consumers is absolutely
essential. President Bush has just been in Saudi Arabia. I have not been
there recently. I want to go and talk to the King and talk to others there
about what I believe should be a process whereby we understand what are the
pressures on demand in future years, as well as we understand the pressures
on supply. And I believe that that long-term debate about the future can
have an effect on today's markets.

Now, that's what the debate is about, and that is part of a process that I
hope will continue, if necessary, with a meeting in London later, and with
further meetings so that there is a genuine dialogue between producers and
consumers about what is the most worrying situation in the world at the
moment, and that is the trebling of the price of oil.

Q Mr. President, in his last major speech, Tony Blair said on Iraq, "Hand
on heart, I did what I thought was right. But if I got it wrong, I'm
sorry." Is it possible you got it wrong? Would you share at this point
those slightly more reflective sentiments? And in particular, should you,
in retrospect, perhaps have concentrated a little more on Afghanistan?

And could I ask the Prime Minister, is the Lisbon Treaty dead in the water
now? And if so, what happens next for Europe?

PRESIDENT BUSH: History will judge the tactics. History will judge whether
or not, you know, more troops were needed earlier, troops could have been
positioned here better or not. Removing Saddam Hussein was not wrong. It
was the right thing to do. Right thing to do for our security, right thing
to do for peace, and the right thing to do for 25 million Iraqis. And now
the fundamental question is will we have the willpower and the patience to
help the Iraqis develop a democracy in the heart of the Middle East. It's a
democracy that's not going to look like America, it's not going to look
like Great Britain, but it's a democracy that will have government
responsive to the people. People say, was that worth it, is it necessary.
Absolutely it's necessary if you believe we're in an ideological war being
-- the theaters of which right now, the most notable theaters are
Afghanistan and Iraq.

The strategic implications of a free Iraq are significant for our future.
For example, a free Iraq will make it easier to deal with the Iranian
issue. A free Iraq will send a clear signal to reformers and dissidents,
would-be journalists throughout the Middle East that a free society is
available for you, as well. And the question facing the Western world is,
will we fall prey to the argument that stability is more important than
forms of government; that what appears to be stable and peaceful -- is that
more important than how people live their lives, what kind of government?
You just heard the Prime Minister speak eloquently about Zimbabwe. The
lesson there is, forms of government matter.

Freedom has had a transformative effect in Europe, in the Far East. And the
fundamental question is, will we work to see it have a transformative
effect in the Middle East? Now, there are many doubters. I understand that,
because there is some who say that perhaps freedom is not universal. Maybe
it's only Western people that can self-govern. Maybe it's only, you know,
white-guy Methodists who are capable of self government. I reject that
notion. I think that's the ultimate form of political elitism, and I
believe an accurate reading of history says that freedom can bring peace we
want. And it'll bring peace to the Middle East, unless of course we become
isolationist; unless of course we lose our confidence; unless of course we
quit. And, so, yes, I'm sure there's people will say, they could have done
things better here and there. But I'm absolutely confident that the
decision to remove Saddam Hussein was the right decision.

PRIME MINISTER BROWN: And can I just emphasize, the passion for freedom I
think is a universal value, and I believe that Iraq is a democracy today
because of the action that we have taken. And our next task is to make sure
that all Iraqis feel that they have an economic stake as well as a
democratic stake in the future of the country. And that's why the work
continues.

On Europe, I'll meet Brian Cowen, the Taoiseach of Ireland, when I'm in
Belfast later today. The legal position on the European treaty is very
clear, that all 27 members must sign and therefore ratify the treaty before
it comes into force. It is for each member to decide its own process for
doing so, and we will continue our process of debating this in the House of
Lords, and then royal assent during the course of this week.

I think a short period of reflection is necessary for the Irish to put
forward their proposals about how they will deal with this, and we look
forward to the Irish coming to the European Council on Thursday with a view
of what should be done. I believe that when David Miliband makes a
statement to the House this afternoon following a meeting of the European
foreign ministers, he will be able to say that all the European Union
members believe that Ireland should be given this time to reflect on what
they need to do, and then make their proposals about how the situation can
be resolved.

Q Good morning, Mr. President, Prime Minister. I'd like to ask you both
about Iran. President Bush, you've talked about it at every stop. A similar
process, it seems, that is deterring North Korea from its nuclear ambitions
has basically allowed North Korea [sic] to make progress toward nuclear
weapons. At what point are you willing to draw a line here with Iran, and
isn't Iran seemingly learning a lesson from the North Korea experience?

PRESIDENT BUSH: Ed, I just strongly disagree with your premise that the
six-party talks has encouraged Iran to develop nuclear weapons. I don't
know why you have even come to that conclusion, because the facts are the
six-party talks is the only way to send a message to the North Koreans that
the world isn't going to tolerate them having a weapon.

I mean, in other words, they are -- we'll see what they disclose, but we
hopefully are in the process of disabling and dismantling their plutonium
manufacturing. We're hopefully in the process of getting them to disclose
what they have manufactured and eventually turning it over. We're hopefully
in the process of disclosing their proliferation activities, and it's a
six-party process. I mean, the only way, in my judgment, to diplomatically
solve these kinds of problems with nations like Iran and North Korea,
non-transparent nations, is through a multilateral process, where there's
more than one nation sending the same message to the leaders of these
respective countries.

And so I disagree with your premise. As a matter of fact, the Iranians must
understand that when we come together and speak with one voice, we're
serious. That's why the Prime Minister's statement was so powerful, and
that's the lesson that the North Koreans are hearing. And so it's -- I said
the other day that, you know, one of the things that I will leave behind is
a multilateralism to deal with tyrants, so problems can be solved
diplomatically.

And the difficulty, of course, is that sometimes economics and money trumps
national security interests. So you go around asking nations -- by the way,
it's not a problem for Great Britain -- so you say to your partners, don't
sell goods; you know, let's send a focused message all aiming to create the
conditions so that somebody rational shows up. In other words, people
hopefully are sick of isolation in their respective countries, and they
show up and say, we're tired of this; there's a better way forward.

And in order for that to be effective, Ed, there has to be more than one
voice. So if I were the North Koreans and I were looking at Iran, or the
Iranians looking at North Korea, I'd say, uh-oh, there are coalitions
coming together that are bound tightly -- more tightly than ever in order
to send us a focused message.

And, you know, let me just say one thing about the Iranian demand for
civilian nuclear power. It's a justifiable demand. You just heard the Prime
Minister talk about the spread of civilian nuclear power, which I support
-- starting in my own country, by the way; we need to be building civilian
nuclear power plants.

And so when the Iranians say, we have a sovereign right to have one, the
answer is, you bet, you have a sovereign right, absolutely. But you don't
have the trust of those of us who have watched you carefully when it comes
to enriching uranium, because you have declared that you want to destroy
democracies in the neighborhood, for example. Therefore -- and this is the
Russian proposal, by the way -- therefore we'll provide fuel for you, and
we'll collect the fuel after you've used it so you can have your nuclear --
civilian nuclear power, which undermines what the Iranians are saying, and
that is, we must enrich in order to have civilian nuclear power. You don't
need to enrich to have civilian nuclear power. The Russian proposal is what
we support. This proposal wouldn't have happened had there not been a
multilateral process.

And so what these nations need to see is we're serious about solving these
problems. And the United States spends a lot of time working with our
partners to get them solved.

Thank you very much.

PRIME MINISTER BROWN: Thank you all very much.

END 11:34 A.M. (Local)

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