Press Gaggle by Dana Perino, Dan Price, Assistant to the President for International Economic Affairs, and Dennis Wilder, NSC Senior Director for Asian Affairs
CHITOSE, Japan--(Business Wire)--
Aboard Air Force One, En Route Chitose, Japan
MS. PERINO: Okay, we are on our way to Japan for the G8. I'm going
to let Dan Price just say a few words, because you've heard from him a
lot this week, but he'll just remind you of the main issues that we
have going in. Dennis can talk a little bit about the day we're going
to have in Japan when we get there, with the bilateral, and then I'll
follow up with other questions on topics outside of that.
MR. PRICE: Yes, I'll just give really a brief summary, because
earlier this week I gave an on-the-record briefing which, I understand
for some of you was numbingly detailed.
The President is looking forward to having very good discussions,
not only with the leaders of the G8, but with the various "so-called"
outreach leaders, the leaders of the seven African nations will be
there, as well as the leaders of Brazil, India, China, Mexico, South
Africa, Australia, South Korea, Indonesia who will be there as well.
It is a very, very full agenda. As you know, there are issues of
development and disease, poverty alleviation, issues related to the
global economy, protectionism, the Doha Round, investment
liberalization, oil prices. There are issues relating to food security
and food prices. There are issues relating to climate change. There's
a series of political and security issues relating to counterterrorism
and nonproliferation, as well as regional challenges with respect to
Zimbabwe, North Korea, Burma, Sudan, Middle East, Iran, and a host of
other issues facing these leaders.
As I said, the President is looking forward to the discussion. As
he indicated, there are a number of overarching themes that we will
seek to underline. The first is accountability and keeping our
promises. The second is continuing our efforts to alleviate disease
and poverty through the new health initiatives on health care workers
and neglected tropical diseases, as well as sending a very strong
message on confronting protectionism, especially through the Doha
Round. And he will underscore his commitment to push toward a prompt
conclusion of a balanced outcome in the Doha Round this year,
recognizing that it requires contributions not only from the G8
countries, but also from the major emerging economies.
I will stop there, and turn it over to Dennis, who can give you a
briefing on the events when we land and the bilateral with Prime
Minister Fukuda.
MR. WILDER: Thanks. This is the President's fourth visit to Japan
as President of the United States. Of course it's the first time he
will go to Hokkaido, the northern -- largest northern island in Japan.
Very much looking forward to, on the first day, having a bilateral set
of meetings with the Japanese leader, Prime Minister Fukuda. After he
lands, he will go into a meeting with Prime Minister Fukuda and his
senior staff for about an hour. Following that, they will have a press
availability, and then after that will be a dinner, a private dinner.
In this case, it will be a very small dinner with the Bushes, Mr. and
Mrs. Fukuda, and the Ambassador of the United States to Japan, Tom
Schieffer, and the Japanese Ambassador to the United States.
In terms of the agenda of this meeting, as you probably saw, the
President talked to Japanese reporters earlier this week and made
clear that Japan is the cornerstone of American foreign policy in East
Asia. Many ways you can argue that this period of the Bush presidency
has been a golden age in U.S.-Japanese relations; it's one in which we
have become stronger partners in the region and in the world. We are,
of course, working on a very ambitious program of realignment of our
military forces in Japan. They'll discuss that. The Japanese are
helping to move 8,000 Marines to Guam, and their dependents, and we
are realigning our base structure in Japan to move some of our bases
out of urban areas and to consolidate bases for a better relationship
with the Japanese people.
In addition, later this year, the United States will for the first
time deploy a nuclear carrier to Japan. The Kitty Hawk is being
retired, and we will be for the first time basing a nuclear carrier
there, which we're very grateful to the Japanese people for all the
support they give to forward-deployed American forces in this area of
the world.
Other issues that the two leaders will discuss -- obviously the
six-party talks, and the next steps in the six-party talks, will be an
important part of the agenda. We are hoping that we will have the
heads of delegation meeting of the six-party talks next week in
Beijing. Chris Hill is going out to Beijing to begin those
consultations early next week, and then we hope as soon as possible to
be able to hold the heads of delegation meeting there.
Q Next week meaning the same week as the G8?
MR. WILDER: The heads of delegation may be either next week or the
week thereafter, at the end of the week.
Q Do you have rough dates?
MR. WILDER: We don't have dates yet. We're still working with the
six parties to settle the exact dates, but we're coming close.
Q Well, when you say "next week" -- I'm sorry, because it's
Saturday, are you referring to --
Q Are you on Japanese time?
Q -- this upcoming --
MR. WILDER: I'm saying the end of next week is probably the
earliest they can occur.
Q So it would be around the 11th?
MR. WILDER: The 11th, 11th or 12th, right. So we're talking about
having heads of delegations meet probably at the end of next week or
early the next week.
Q That's for the next steps on North Korea.
MR. WILDER: Right. There are several things, obviously, that the
heads of delegation will be working on. One is the verification
mechanism, how we will do verification of the declaration that the
North submitted. They'll also be working on completing the steps in
second phase. For example, we still have de-fueling of the nuclear
reactor that needs to occur. And so while about half of the rods have
been taken out of the reactor, we need to have the rest of the rods
removed and placed in the spent fuel pond. So there are many issues
related to that that need to be worked out.
And then, of course, a discussion of the next phase, moving from
disablement to dismantlement, and dealing with the questions of
ultimate disposition of the nuclear materials in North Korea.
So we're at a very pivotal point in the six-party process, and the
President and the Prime Minister of Japan will want to compare notes
and make sure we are working on the same page as we move forward.
In addition, they'll want to discuss assistance in Africa.
Japanese have a very ambitious program for assistance in Africa. And
as you know, the President is very eager to see not only the United
States, but many other nations help with poverty alleviation, health
and other issues in Africa.
I think I'll stop there, and let you ask any questions you might
have.
Q What's Japan's role in Iraq these days? Would you expect that to
be changed in any way?
MR. WILDER: Japanese today have a logistics unit stationed in
Kuwait that operates C-130 flights into Iraq. We're very happy for the
support they provide the Iraqis in that way. They also, of course,
provide substantial financial assistance to Iraq for development and
construction of the infrastructure in Iraq. They also, with
Afghanistan, provide the refueling operation for Operation Enduring
Freedom, and that is a major contribution as well to the war on
terror.
Q The Japanese leader has made movement on climate change the key
issue for him. So what is the President likely to give him?
MR. WILDER: Where is Dan?
MS. PERINO: I can answer for you. He had to go. It's not any
different from what Dan said earlier this week, what the President
said on Wednesday and Thursday in his interviews -- I guess Wednesday
were the Japanese interviews -- which is that -- a couple of things.
One, if you go back to 2007 and the G8 -- and you know these G8s build
on one another -- in May 2007, President Bush said, let's start the
major economies meeting process, so that we can have a workable setup,
where all the major economies are at the table, so that that can feed
into the U.N. process. He said that last May, right before the G8 in
Heiligendamm. That was welcomed there. Then we had the MEM meeting
there in September. There's been many others around the world. In
fact, I think most recently there was, just like last month, one in
South Korea.
So a lot of this is culminating towards getting an agreement that
we can move forward on at the G8 and the MEM -- remember, there's a G8
meeting on climate on Monday or the Tuesday -- Tuesday, and then the
next day is the Major Economies Meeting. So that will be Wednesday.
One key point on the Major Economies Meeting, which I think that
everybody in the G8 recognizes and supports, is that we have been able
to lead an effort where all the major economies are still at the
table, and they're speaking with one voice, in terms of we need to
work together to solve a problem. It is our shared responsibility and
our shared solution that will help get us there.
When it comes to specifics about how each country is going to do
that, that's a little bit harder. And people are working on that in
their own respective capitals. We're working on it in ours. Just look
at the debate over the past several years, but most recently right
there in the Senate, in June. And other countries are starting to
grapple with it, including countries like India and China, and India
last week putting forward legislation.
So we are very pleased that this past year we've been able to keep
everyone together, cement that process, keep that glued together. I
think it's fed well into the G8 process, and we are hopeful we'll be
able to accomplish what Prime Minister Fukuda has set out.
Q But you would be able to accomplish that if the United States
got on board with what the Japanese want, which is similar to what
Merkel wanted last year.
MS. PERINO: There's a lot of inputs that go into this. And the
President of the United States is not only thinking of his
constituents, but of how do you make this actually work in a way that
is practicable. And so we will continue to talk about it, we'll
represent our interests, and we will continue to make sure that India
and China and other developing nations are at the table, because one
thing that we have realized -- that we have been able to get people to
realize over those past years, that if you don't have them, you're not
going to solve the problem anyway, because it's a global problem of
global emissions. So we'll have to see how it goes.
Q Two questions for Dennis. One on the Japanese Prime Minister.
He's obviously been very weak politically at home, with low approval
ratings. Do you know what he's looking for from the President
tomorrow, to try to help him out?
MR. WILDER: I think it's quite clear that the Japanese are eager
to have the United States continue to play the very positive role
we've played on the abductee issue. Japanese public has very strong
feelings about getting positive progress on that. The President has
said we're not going to forget that issue, that it's going to be part
of the six-party process. I think the Japanese Prime Minister will, of
course, want to hear the President repeat those assurances, that the
United States is very committed to seeing progress on this issue. So I
think that will be a key issue for the Prime Minister, but also for
the Japanese people.
Other issues, I would guess, that the Japanese Prime Minister is
going to be eager to discuss -- how we move forward on climate issues
in the -- both the G8 and the Major Economies Meeting; I think they'll
want to compare notes on U.S.-Japan global policy in a lot of
different areas of the world -- Iran, Burma, I've already mentioned
North Korea.
MS. PERINO: Africa.
MR. WILDER: Africa, of course.
Q Okay, and then one question on China, if I may. The President
met, or I think gave an award a week or two ago to two Chinese lawyers
who were then detained last week by the Chinese authorities. Can you,
one, tell us anything about the meeting the President had with those,
and whether the President or anyone in his administration has
contacted the Chinese about their fate?
MR. WILDER: Just to be clear, the President met with Chinese
awardees who were given an award by the National Endowment of
Democracy. Every year when the National Endowment for Democracy gives
these awards, the President has met with the awardees. So he met in
the Roosevelt Room with several of the awardees, some of whom also
were there receiving awards for people in China who were not able to
be there, because they're imprisoned.
We were disturbed to see that the Chinese refused to allow some of
those awardees to come to a meeting with Congressman Wolf in Beijing.
And we did make representations. Our ambassador in Beijing made
representations to the Chinese side that we thought this was an
unnecessary detention of these individuals. They did not actually
arrest them, they simply detained them so that they could not come to
the meeting with Congressman Wolf. The Chinese claim was the
appropriate procedures hadn't been taken. We find that a rather thin
argument. The President will push President Hu at their meeting, their
bilateral meeting, to continue to open up China, to continue to make
it a freer place, to continue to open to freedom of religion, freedom
of press. And of course he'll want to hear what happened during the
meetings in Beijing with the representatives of the Dalai Lama.
Q So those lawyers are not in jail or anything, or house arrest,
anymore?
MR. WILDER: My understanding is they are not. And I believe that's
what we know to be the case.
Q Can I ask you a question on -- if Africa is part of the outreach
in this session, what level does Zimbabwe and the problems there
factor into these discussions? Are there going to be any discussions
specifically on dealing with Mugabe?
MR. WILDER: Yes, I believe it will be part of the G8 statement. It
will be a part of the G8 discussion. I think that the G8 will strongly
condemn what Mugabe has done, and will strongly question the
legitimacy of his government and his governing of Zimbabwe.
Q Any specific actions being discussed by the members?
MS. PERINO: I think we'll have to wait and see how the meeting
goes. I know we've got it on the agenda, of something to talk about,
but we'll keep you updated if there's more on that.
Q Is the President going to -- he's meeting tomorrow, I guess,
with the African -- is he going to make any requests of them on
Zimbabwe?
MS. PERINO: I'm sure he'll continue to ask them to speak out and
speak, as some of them have done, very strongly. But let's let that
meeting take place, and we'll update you after it happens.
Q What do you expect from the G8 statements on food and oil
prices?
MS. PERINO: Since Dan had to go, I think we can -- I'm going to
refer you to his extensive briefing from Tuesday and Wednesday,
because not a lot of it has changed. And we'll see if we can get you
more, but he had to go back up to the front.
Q Dana, the bottom line is, we are not going to see any long-term
goal declared either by the G8 or by the Major Economies Meetings?
MS. PERINO: I didn't say that. I think we're going to have to see
what we're able to achieve. I'm not going to foreshadow it here. It's
always a tricky thing that the press tries to get us to do, as we're
going into a meeting that hasn't even started yet. So let us see how
it goes, and then we'll keep you updated along the way. I have Jim
Connaughton who is on board as well. If he has more on the flight, we
could bring him back, or we'll just keep you updated while the
meetings are ongoing. I'll have him and Dan, and be able to get
information out of those meetings as quickly as possible and feed it
back to you.
Q Has the President met with the current Prime Minister before,
the Japanese -- is this his first meeting or second meeting?
MR. WILDER: No, he came to Washington. He had a meeting in
Washington with Prime Minister Fukuda. And of course they spoke last
week on the phone.
Q When was that? I remember it, but what month was that?
MR. WILDER: March, I believe.
Q Quick social question. What's he doing for his birthday?
MS. PERINO: I don't know yet. I've got to ask him. You know, he
had a big birthday party last night, with friends and family, as he
always does on the 4th of July. And he had a wonderful chocolate and
vanilla cake with vanilla ice cream. So I don't know what more he'll
do tomorrow.
MR. WILDER: We hear rumors that the Japanese are going to surprise
him with something. We don't quite know what it is.
Q Rumors or fact?
MR. WILDER: I don't work for the Japanese side, so I guess I have
to say rumors.
Q Do you know anything?
MS. PERINO: No, I don't, I really don't.
Q Are they premature, or are they -- (laughter.)
Q I have another question, on Iran. What is the U.S. response to
Iran saying -- Iran's --
MS. PERINO: We're going to have to consult with our allies about
what Iran's response means. We haven't had a chance to fully do that
yet, so those -- our representatives are talking with the rest of the
P-5, the P-5-plus-one, in this regard, which also equals six, which is
very confusing to me sometimes. But we'll just have to see how that is
received by others before we make a formal response, because that's
how we've been able to keep this process working, is making sure that
everybody is coordinated and had a chance to talk to one another
before talking about it in the press -- with the press.
White House Press Office
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