Remarks by President Bush and President Gul of Turkey in Photo Opportunity

WASHINGTON--(Business Wire)--Rose Garden

11:54 A.M. EST

PRESIDENT BUSH: It's been my honor to welcome the President of
Turkey here. Mr. President, I'm glad you're here. This is not his
first trip to Washington. I can remember many a time you sitting in
the Oval Office as the Foreign Minister, and now you come representing
the -- representing a great strategic partner as its President.

Turkey is a strategic partner of the United States. Relations
between the United States and Turkey are important for our country.
And we have worked hard to make them strong and I believe they are
strong. We deal with common problems. One such problem is our
continuing fight against a common enemy, and that's terrorists, and
such a common enemy as the PKK. It's an enemy to Turkey, it's an enemy
to Iraq, and it's an enemy to people who want to live in peace.

The United States, along with Turkey, are confronting these folks.
And we will continue to confront them for the sake of peace. I
strongly believe that Europe will benefit with Turkey as a member of
the European Union. I have held this position ever since I've been the
President; I feel it as strongly today as when I first articulated it.
I think Turkey sets a fantastic example for nations around the world
to see where it's possible to have a democracy coexist with a great
religion like Islam. And that's important. I view Turkey as a bridge
between Europe and the Islamic world, a constructive bridge. And so I
believe it's in the interest of peace that Turkey be admitted into the
EU.

We talked about energy and the need for all of us to help secure
more energy supplies. We talked about -- I'm about to brief the
President on my trip to the Middle East. I know he's deeply concerned
about whether or not it's possible to achieve a two-state solution in
the Middle East; I believe it is. And I'm looking forward to sharing
the strategy.

All in all, we've had a very constructive conversation, and that's
what you'd expect when you're -- when two friends are in the room
together.

So Mr. President, thank you for coming, and welcome.

PRESIDENT GUL: Thank you, Mr. President. (As translated.) I would
like to thank the President for his invitation here. Turkey and the
United States are longstanding allies and the relationship between our
two countries continue to be strengthened. We have -- we share a
common vision and we work together, and the relations between the two
countries are such that they have an impact not only on the two
countries, but also on a regional and global scale.

Our relations are important, and we will continue to work together
to ensure that peace, stability and prosperity continue to grow around
the world. And we are also working against our common enemy, the PKK,
and we have once again underlined the importance of our cooperation in
fighting against the PKK. And I would like to thank the President for
his determination as well on this regard.

As the President has said, we have discussed some other important
issues such as energy and the issues with respect to the Middle East.
The President is engaged very much in efforts to ensure peace in the
Middle East, and we believe that these are important efforts which can
yield results.

We also discussed Iraq and we will continue to discuss issues such
as Iraq, the Balkans and other issues. And I would like to thank the
President for this meeting very much.

PRESIDENT BUSH: Thank you very much, Mr. President.

END 11:59 A.M. EST

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