Pelosi Remarks Before Meeting With President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo of the Philippines

Pelosi Remarks Before Meeting With President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo of the
Philippines

WASHINGTON, July 30 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Speaker Nancy Pelosi held a
brief press availability this afternoon with President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo
of the Philippines before their meeting in the Capitol. Below are their
remarks:

Speaker Pelosi. Good afternoon. It's a great privilege for me to welcome the
President of the Philippines to the Capitol of the United States. President
Macapagal Arroyo is a well-respected leader internationally and a successful
leader in the Philippines.

Our relationship is one between the United States and the Philippines that is
valued by all of us here. So, I'm pleased to welcome the President as well as
the Speaker, as well as the Ambassador.

Sixty years ago, Filipino soldiers helped in the war -- helped in World War
II. We made promises then about honoring the service that they gave to the war
effort and the peace effort. That was rescinded in the '40s. And I'm very
pleased that in our recovery package in January that we passed legislation
recognizing our obligation to them. That is just one part of our important
relationship between our two countries.

I look forward to discussion with the President about counterterrorism, about
economic growth, which has been very successful in the Philippines, and about
climate change. We go to Copenhagen in December and issues like deforestation
and protecting the environment -- God's beautiful gift to us -- will be very
important, an issue of dialogue between our two countries.

I feel personally close to the Philippines, Madam President. When I went to
college over 50 years ago, my roommate there was from the Philippines. So
early on, I got an orientation about the Philippines that is very much a part
of who I am now.

Your leadership is, as I said earlier, respected internationally, certainly,
in the United States of America. I look forward to our discussions and I'm
pleased to welcome you and introduce you to our friends in the press.

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. Thank you very much. Thank you very much
for welcoming me here Speaker. Looking forward to a good discussion with you.

Speaker Pelosi. Thank you all very much.

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