Pelosi Remarks Before Meeting With German Chancellor Angela Merkel

WASHINGTON, June 26 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Speaker Nancy Pelosi held a
brief press availability this morning with German Chancellor Angela Merkel
before their meeting in the Capitol. Below are their remarks:

Speaker Pelosi. Good morning. I'm delighted to be welcoming a great
stateswoman to the Capitol of the United States -- I should say welcoming
back. Chancellor Merkel, by dent of her personal story, her political
strength, and her great leadership as Chancellor of Germany, and as former
head of the EU, has made women throughout the world very, very proud -- not
only women, all who love democracy.

Today, we look forward to a discussion about the importance of the
U.S.-Germany partnership, which is very important to us here in the Congress
and in the United States. We can continue to work together to bring security,
development, and good governance to Afghanistan as we fight together in the
war on terrorism. We can work together to resolve the financial crisis, and
Germany being one of the leading exporting countries in the world, the
Chancellor's insights on globalization will be very important to us, and have
been.

And it is appropriate that the Chancellor is visiting us on the day when the
House will take up important climate change legislation. Both as Chancellor of
Germany, as well as when she was President of the EU, this was a topic on
which she took the lead and we are following her lead. And today, hopefully,
we will have a celebration of American leadership taking its rightful place,
with German leadership on this important issue, which is an issue of security,
and economic security as well, and preserving God's beautiful gift, this
planet, in a responsible way for future generations.

So we thank the Chancellor for her leadership, we welcome her to the Capitol,
look forward to our conversation, and hope to welcome her back at her
convenience so that she can address a joint session of the Congress of the
United States. Madam Chancellor.

Chancellor Merkel. Madam Speaker, dear Nancy, thank you very much for this
gracious reception and for the very warm welcome accorded to me and the
members of my delegation.

Let me say that I am very glad to be an honored guest here at the Capitol on
this very important day -- a day where very important decisions, indeed,
groundbreaking decisions will be taken on climate change and in the interest
of combating climate change. We have always had talks that were characterized
by a spirit of being constructive of each other and also a spirit of promoting
German-American friendship. So I am all the more glad to be here today.
Climate change is indeed a very important issue and as I see it, there has
been a sea change here in the United States on that. There has indeed been a
change of trend and it's very gratifying to note this and it will further
enhance the friendship between our two countries.

And let me thank you yet again for the very warm, very gracious hospitality.

Speaker Pelosi. Thank you Chancellor Merkel. Thank you all.

SOURCE Office of the Speaker of the House

Brendan Daly, Nadeam Elshami or Drew Hammill, all of the Office of the Speaker
of the House, +1-202-226-7616