Pelosi Statement on Recent Congressional Delegation Trip to India

WASHINGTON, April 1, 2008 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Speaker Nancy Pelosi and
House Members who traveled on the congressional delegation trip to India and
Europe held a news conference today to discuss their recent trip, including
their visit with the Dalai Lama and their meetings concerning the global
climate crisis. Below are her opening remarks:

"Good morning. Over the Easter recess, I had the privilege of joining Mr.
Markey and Mr. Sensenbrenner, the Chair and Ranking Member of the Energy
Independence and Global Warming Select Committee, on a trip to India to talk
about the issue of global warming, its significance to our national security,
to our environment, to our economy, and to our preservation of this planet --
God's beautiful gift to us.

"On the way, we visited with Prime Minister Gordon Brown in the United Kingdom
and talked to him about issues that related to national security, terrorism
issues, as well as the important global warming issue. In India, we were
greeted at the highest level by the Prime Minister of India, in the nonprofit
sector by Dr. R.K. Pachauri, who shared the Nobel Prize with Al Gore, who
guided us through what was happening in the nonprofit sector in terms of
renewable energy resources, bringing light to 1 billion Indians by using solar
and other renewables. We met with leaders in New Delhi and Mumbai, who were
in the lead on the issue of global warming, whether it was through their
initiatives in transportation, buildings, renewables, and the rest.

"We learned a lot on our trip. The purpose was to see how we could work
together with India, a country with 400 million people who are without
electricity, but nonetheless having a major responsibility as a rapidly
developing country on this important issue. That is important, as I said, not
only to our environment, but to our national security.

"As fate would have it, when we planned out trip, we really didn't realize
what would be happening following March 10 in Tibet. We planned to visit His
Holiness the Dalai Lama, to pay our respects to him, to join in his ongoing
call for negotiations with the Chinese government for autonomy for Tibet.
Again, as fate would have it on March 10, the 49th anniversary of the Chinese
driving His Holiness the Dalai Lama out of China, the protests there were met
by a crackdown of the Chinese government, so we were there at a time when
again, it was our fate to be there, and our fate to help.

"I myself am personally calling once again on the Chinese government to join,
to sustain negotiations with His Holiness for a peaceful outcome to what is
happening in Tibet for their autonomy, to immediately have independent outside
monitors to review what happened in Tibet. The Chinese government is saying
His Holiness is the instigator of violence -- here is a person who is the
personification of non-violence. They must have medical care brought in for
those who have been deprived of it, to free those in prison who have been
arrested for peacefully protesting.

"I was honored to travel with this high-level delegation, members who are here
this morning: Congressman Markey, Congressman Sensenbrenner, Congresswoman
Hilda Solis, Congresswoman Anna Eshoo, both of California, Congressman Jim
McDermott of Washington State, Congressman George Miller of California,
Congressman Rush Holt of New Jersey, Congressman Jay Inslee of Washington
State, and also Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton of Washington D.C., who
cannot be with us today, but was with us on the trip."

Visit http://www.speaker.gov

SOURCE Office of the Speaker of the House

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