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Remarks by President Bush and Prime Minister Abe of Japan in Joint Press Availability.

Article Excerpt
WASHINGTON -- Camp David

11:09 A.M. EDT

PRESIDENT BUSH: Thank you. Welcome. Mr. Prime Minister, Shinzo, welcome to Camp David. I thank you very much for making the long journey. I also thank you for bringing your gracious wife to dinner last night.

The Abes and Laura and I had a really good dinner; it was very relaxed. The Prime Minister married very well. I was so impressed by Akie's compassion, her intelligence and I will tell you, Shinzo, that Laura feels like she has a new friend now, and so do I. So we're really glad you're here.

We had the kind of discussion you'd expect allies to have. I would describe the talks as -- first of all, Shinzo and I met alone for a good period of time. Our talks were very relaxed, but they were strategic. We think about the interest of our country and we think about the interest of maintaining peace in the world. The alliance between Japan and the United States has never been stronger. And the Prime Minister and I will work hard to keep it that way. It's in the interest of our peoples that we work closely.

I told Shinzo one way to do so, of course, is to visit. I hope he comes to my ranch soon. I looked forward to welcoming here to Camp David, but I also look forward to taking him down there -- one might call it a little slice of heaven.

We talked about the fact that our alliance -- and it is a global alliance -- is rooted in common values, especially our commitment to freedom and democracy. We discussed ways we can continue to partner together. There's no more important partnership than that through the six-party talks. We spent a lot of time talking about North Korea and our mutual desire for North Korea to meet its obligations. Our partners in the six-party talks are patient, but our patience is not unlimited. We expect North Korea to meet all its commitments under the February 13th agreement, and we will continue working closely with our partners.

In Iran, we speak with one voice to the regime in Iran. Our nations have fully implemented the sanctions imposed by the U.N. Security Council in response to Iran's pursuit of nuclear weapons. Further defiance by Iran will only lead to additional sanctions and to further isolation from the international community.

Japan is the second largest donor to the people of Iraq and the third largest donor nation to the people of Afghanistan, and I thank you, Shinzo and I thank the people of Japan for helping these young democracies survive in a troubled world. I firmly believe that we're helping lay a foundation for peace for generations to come.

Over lunch the Prime Minister and I will discuss his upcoming trip to the Middle East. I will remind him he'll be traveling into an important region, where extremists and radicals are trying to prevent the hopes of moderate people, trying to stop peaceful societies from emerging. I'm looking forward to hearing about your trip before you leave, and I'm looking forward to hearing from you after you've been there.

Shinzo and I talked about trade and the Doha round. We have a lot of bilateral trade between our two nations. Last year it totaled more than $270 billion, and that's positive for the American people and the people of Japan. Any time you have a lot of trade, there's always complicated trade issues. One such issue, of course, I brought up to the Prime Minister is I'm absolutely convinced the Japanese people will be better off when they eat American beef. It's good beef, it's healthy beef; as a matter of fact, I'm going to feed the Prime Minister and his delegation a good hamburger today for lunch.

But we also...

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