Text 2390, 107 rader
Skriven 2006-03-29 23:33:22 av Whitehouse Press (1:3634/12.0)
Ärende: Press Release (060329) for Wed, 2006 Mar 29
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President Bush Welcomes President Obasanjo of Nigeria to the White House
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For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
March 29, 2006

President Bush Welcomes President Obasanjo of Nigeria to the White House
The Oval Office


˙˙˙˙˙ In Focus: Global Diplomacy

10:30 A.M. EST

PRESIDENT BUSH: Mr. President, welcome back to the Oval Office. We have
just had a discussion that covered a lot of topics. Every time I meet with
the President he brings a fresh perspective about the politics and the
situation on the continent of Africa, and I want to thank you. I want to
thank you for your leadership.

The President and I talked about Darfur and the Sudan, and I made it very
clear to him that we're deeply concerned about the humiliation, the rape,
the murder that is taking place among the -- against the citizens of
Darfur. He agreed. And I want to thank you for your compassion.

We talked and strategized about how to move forward, how to make it clear
to the Sudanese government that there will be a international response in
working toward a peace. We talked about a dual track, that the rebels must
come together and negotiate with the government, and at the same time, we
talked about bolstering the AU peacekeeping force with a Blue Helmet force.
And I explained my desire to have a NATO overlay, to make sure that force
is robust.

We talked about economic development. Of course, I brought up energy to the
President. He's -- and I talked about the situation in the Nigerian Delta.
He talked to me about his strategy to deal with the energy issue.

And finally, I appreciate the decision he made regarding Charles Taylor. In
my visit last week with the President of Liberia, we talked about Charles
Taylor. The fact that Charles Taylor will be brought to justice in a court
of law will help Liberia and is a signal, Mr. President, of your deep
desire for there to be peace in your neighborhood.

So welcome to the Oval Office. It's good to have you here, sir.

PRESIDENT OBASANJO: Thank you very much. And as usual, I want to thank you
for the warm and hardy reception that you have accorded us.

The areas that I would call the areas of concern, by the time I arrived
here last night, seemed to have been definably dealt with by this morning,
particularly the issue of Charles Taylor. And as I said to you about a
minute -- a few minutes ago, Charles Taylor should be landing in Liberia by
now, which should start putting the issue of Charles Taylor behind us.

I appreciate the understanding of everybody and the way that the issue has
been handled. I met the press earlier today to actually give what was our
own position and how we were hoping to deal with the issue of Charles
Taylor's disappearance. And of course, I do not agree, must disagree that
we have been negligent in the way we handled the Charles Taylor issue. If
we had been negligent then Charles Taylor would have got away. He would not
have been arrested if there was connivance or condonation on our part.

Having said that, we, of course, talked about the general situation of
peace and security in the West Africa sub-region, and how West Africa
sub-region, with Charles Taylor issue behind us, how West Africa sub-region
is gradually becoming a haven of peace. We have dealt with Togo, we have
dealt with Guinea-Bissau, we have dealt with Sierra Leone. Hopefully, we
are now dealing with Liberia. And things seem to be going fairly well in
Cote D'Ivoire. Well, of course, we are keenly watching the situation in
Guinea Conakry.

Then we looked at the rest of Africa, particularly Democratic Republic of
Congo, Ethiopia and Eritrea, and the Great Lakes, generally. Then we talked
about the issue of development, particularly security -- supplies,
security, stability, and also -- of hydrocarbons from the Gulf of Guinea
area, and how we are working hard to establish a Gulf of Guinea commission
that will also deal with the issue of reconciling and dealing with ending
misunderstanding among those in that -- among countries that are in the
Gulf of Guinea, how we can protect and how we can monitor what happens in
that area, because the hydrocarbon we need for our own development and we
need for the economic development and progress of the world. We are moving
in this regard not only by ourselves, but also by our -- with our
development partners.

Then, of course, we talked about NEPAD, which is where we work with the G8
and -- politically and individually.

And we -- I briefed the President on what we are doing with the Niger
Delta, which is very important. And we are very grateful that the measures
we are taking, which are essentially socioeconomic measures, to address
some of the grievances, identified grievances, will resolve the issue of
the Niger Delta.

I think these are some of the points. And I think -- I want to thank
President for remaining his charming self. (Laughter.)

PRESIDENT BUSH: Thank you, sir.

END 10:38 A.M. EST

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