U.S. and Hong Kong (2004)

Bush to Meet With Foreign Leaders on Sidelines of APEC Forum

President will stay over in Chile, followed by stop in Colombia

Following is the transcript of the background briefing:

(begin transcript)

FOREIGN PRESS CENTER BACKGROUND BRIEFING WITH SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIALS

TOPIC: THE PRESIDENT'S TRIP TO THE ASIA-PACIFIC ECONOMIC COOPERATION LEADERS MEETING IN SANTIAGO, CHILE

THE WASHINGTON FOREIGN PRESS CENTER, WASHINGTON, D.C.
3:00 P.M. EDT, WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 2004

MR. DENIG: Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the Foreign Press Center. We are very pleased this afternoon to offer you a briefing on the President's trip to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation leaders meeting in Santiago, Chile. I want to emphasize that this is a background briefing, which means you can quote directly or indirectly, but you can only attribute to Senior Administration Officials.

The leading Senior Administration Official will have an opening statement to make, and after that, they'll be very glad to take your questions.

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Good afternoon. On Friday, November 19th, the President and First Lady will travel to Santiago, Chile, to attend the 12th Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, or APEC, leaders meeting. APEC is a unique forum that bridges the Pacific and links the world's most dynamic and fastest-growing economies.

[ ...Intervening Text... ]

I will outline the President's schedule, and then we'll be happy to take your questions.

On Friday, November 19th, the President and Mrs. Bush will depart Fort Hood, Texas, for Santiago, Chile. On Saturday, the President and Mrs. Bush will participate in a series of bilateral meetings with the leaders of Canada, China, Japan, Republic of Korea, Indonesia and Russia. Later, the President will attend an APEC working meeting. That evening, the President and Mrs. Bush will attend the APEC leaders' official dinner and cultural presentation.

[ ...Intervening Text... ]

QUESTION: Nadia Tsao with the Liberty Times. I have a question for [Senior Administration Official]. President Bush is going to meet President Hu Jintao. Just wondering, will they talk about Taiwan issue, and also, the North Korean issue? Could you give us some talking points they might talk about?

And also, one question regarding to the Leaders' Declaration, in the past few years, you know, anti-terrorism is a major theme of the Leaders' Declaration. I wonder, this year, will that be the same thing?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: In the bilateral meetings between President Bush and President Hu Jintao, I'm certain that North Korea and Taiwan will come up; they always do. That's an important part of the agenda that the U.S. and China have to discuss. On North Korea, we'll work with the Chinese, the President will talk to President Hu about how to get the North Koreans to agree to completely give up in a transparent way their full nuclear programs, both highly-enriched uranium and plutonium, and any other related programs.

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: In general terms, all the parties except North Korea have accepted this goal and accepted there needs to be multilateral solution and a multilateral agreement. In June, we put forward a proposal. We worked with our allies, discussed with China and Russia. It's on the table and we're ready to get to work, and so one of the key issues we'll be talking to President Hu about how to get the North Koreans seriously focused on this issue.

And on Taiwan, you know, the President's been very clear and very consistent on this. We have a One China policy. We take seriously our obligations under the Taiwan Relations Act. We oppose any unilateral changes to the status quo, and we see small elements that are new from Taipei, the 10-10 and 11-10 speeches of Chen Shui-bian. We sometimes hear things from Beijing. The President thinks that some discussion and dialogue is a useful thing for the parties and for the entire region, but there won't be any departures in terms of U.S. policy on this issue. We've been very clear and very consistent, but it is always something that comes up.

I don't know if you want to talk about the broader agenda or --

[ ...Intervening Text... ]

QUESTION: Nobuyoshi Sakajiri, Asahi Shimbun.

My question is also on North Korea. According to the remarks made by North Koreans recently, they lost interest not only in the six-party talks but also in the bilateral talk with the U.S. In these circumstances, are you going to take any action at the Santiago APEC? But don't you think it's very dangerous (inaudible) North Korea to reprocess of spent fuel rods and producing plutonium freely?

Thank you very much.

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: (Inaudible), all 21 members of APEC put forward a very strong statement calling on North Korea to completely dismantle its nuclear weapons program. And that's the record for APEC. That's the view of all 21 members, ranging across the Pacific Ocean.

This time the President will have an opportunity to meet with the five leaders separately, of course, but with the five leaders whose countries are in the six-party talks -- Russia, Japan, the ROK, China -- and to work together to find ways to speak clearly to North Korea with one voice, that any further move towards provocation would only lead to further isolation, but that there's an opportunity for North Korea, and that all five parties are willing to work together to improve opportunities for the North Korean people if the North Korean side comes to the table and makes some serious strategic decisions end its nuclear weapons program.

But there are slightly different takes, of course, in each of the five parties. That's inevitable when you have a multilateral process. But what's very new and very important is that all the parties now accept that this is a regional and global challenge that North Korea has to give up its program completely, and that all of us should be part of the solution. That consensus came through in APEC meetings in the past, it came through in the six-party talks, and now there's an opportunity with all the players to start looking at how we get North Korea to realize that its future is going to be better if it comes back and takes advantage of the six-party process. And we think, frankly, that they will. The things we hear out of Pyongyang are often posturing, and I think all of us -- Japan, the United States -- all of us who deal with North Korea have gotten used to a lot of this rhetoric.

MR. DENIG: Go to Taiwan, in the first row here, please.

QUESTION: Charlie Snyder of the Taipei Times. This question is for [Senior Administration Official].

In the President's talks with President Hu on Taiwan, do you expect the President to make any initiatives to try and enhance the possibility of Cross-Strait dialogue? And if the Chinese raise the question of arms sales to Taiwan, what sort of response will the President have and will there be any discussion of the Chinese missile buildup across from Taiwan?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: On the arms sales and that issue, the President has been consistent and very clear on this, that we take serious our obligations under the Taiwan Relations Act to help Taiwan defend itself, but at the same time, we think there should be opportunities for dialogue. If they're out there, we hope that both sides will look at them. We're very cognizant of the so-called "six assurances."

We're not in the business, nor is the President, of trying to mediate or broker, but certainly, it's in the interest of the entire region and of both parties, which is why not only President Bush, but other leaders in the region encouraged not only the maintenance of the status quo but opportunities for discussion. As I said, we've seen things like Chen Shui-bian's 10-10 and 10-11 statement and we've seen things from Beijing that suggest there are some possibilities gradually to do that.

[ ...Intervening Text... ]

QUESTION: My name is Toru Yoshida with Nikkei newspaper.

I have a question to [Senior Administration Official]. What is the main economic issue on the bilateral meeting with Mr. Hu? And how seriously Mr. President ask to Mr. Hu to reform -- to accelerate the reform of Chinese currency system?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: We can tell you what we think the issues will be, and we have these in a lot of our bilateral discussions. We, with the U.S.-China relationship, established the so-called JCCT, Joint Committee on Commerce and Trade, and I think all of the issues that are in there, and all of the commitments and discussions there, are the kind of agenda that I think both sides will draw on for their discussion and implementation of some of those things. [Senior Administration Official] probably would be able to speak authoritatively on some of this.

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Yeah, I think what Briefer #1 said is correct. It's hard to say what the leaders will actually talk about. You know, they will go in the room and decide how much time they'll devote to each topic, given the limited time they have available to them. But there's a range of economic issues, many of which are framed and discussed through the JCCT mechanism that was discussed, that may come up. There are also issues that come up in the Joint Economic Commission work that our Treasury Department leads, with their counterparts, that deal with the issues of currency.

So it's likely that issues that deal with either sort of any of those range of financial and economic issues will come up, the specifics, though, we'll have to see.

QUESTION: Thank you. I'm from Nikkei newspaper, Japan.

Now, ASEAN country and Japan and Korea and China are discussing about formulating a free trade zone, and also starting to attempt to foment some economic cooperation framework. And is the U.S. willing to raise or mention this issue within the framework of APEC? And also, what is the U.S. position on this?

And also, secondly, I would like to ask, what does (inaudible) for U.S.-Japan by the administration?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: I'll let my colleagues talk about the second part.

On the first part, if the question is, what is our position with regard to countries undertaking free trade agreements, it's obviously not for us, you know, it's not really for us to say, but the overall goals which were agreed to among the APEC countries called for trade liberalization and free trade among the member economies. And so, countries and economies undertaking free trade agreements are fully consistent with the broader goals that leaders have agreed to in the APEC process.

We ourselves are engaged in trade liberalization with the region, both through the multilateral mechanism of the WTO, as well as through bilateral agreements that we either are negotiating or have actually implemented with countries like Singapore and Chile and others. So we have an agenda that's consistent with the overall goals and other measures that countries take in that same respect are for them to do.

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: In terms of the U.S.-Japan bilateral, this is a meeting between two very good friends, President Bush and Prime Minister Koizumi. And there are so many issues that the United States and Japan are working on together now that there's a very broad menu to draw from. Certainly, the two leaders have an interest in the North Korea issue. They are both following, I think, the very good progress we're making in discussions on U.S. force posture and U.S.-Japan security relationship.

Both are committed to the process of reconstruction and bringing Iraq to successful elections. Japan is playing a variety of roles. Regional issues and bilateral economic issues, there's a very, very rich menu for them to draw from, and this will be the third meeting in just a few months, of course, because the was Sea Island and then UNGA and now this meeting, so I think they'll continue the strands of those discussions. We're not looking for any new joint statements or initiatives. They're going to continue this very robust discussion they've had on bilateral, regional and global cooperation over the past few summits.

MR. DENIG: Okay, let's go to Hong Kong.

QUESTION: Phoenix TV of Hong Kong, Wei Jing.

The six assurance, on the question of Taiwan sovereignty is, I remember is that it was, in fact, a previous statement. The first statement was in the three communiqués, which is that Taiwan is part of China, but it didn't define China. Can you just explain clearer what is the question of our sovereignty on Taiwan?

And also, last thing, does the President share the concern of President Hu Jintao that the Chinese say invisible movement towards independence. Is that conductive to the stability in the region?

(Off the record.)

SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: The United States has a one China policy, and it's been a very successful one because we've not tried to fill it with footnotes and details and definitions. So, good try. (Laughter.)

And in terms of the second part of your question, we've been very clear that we think it's in the best interest of everyone not to have any unilateral effort to change the status quo, and we would oppose any effort by any party to unilaterally change the status quo. And we think there's, as I said, some possibilities for constructive discussions. We wouldn't dictate what they are, but we do see signs and elements coming out of both Taipei and Beijing that are of interest.

MR. DENIG: Let's go to the second row, blue shirt.

QUESTION: Michael Lavallee from Tokyo Broadcasting System.

Again, one more on North Korea. In answer to a previous question, you said we think frankly that North Korea will come back to the table. I'm just wondering what the basis for your optimism is on that other than they have no other choice. They really haven't had a choice for the last three years and they've just continued to process nuclear weapons, process fuel and continued to build nuclear weapons. So I'm just wondering what really is the basis for the optimism now in that they will come back and accept a deal.

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Part of it is that that's what the North Koreans are telling the other parties in the talks, and there's no timeline, no timetable, but that's what they're telling our Chinese friends and our other friends in the region who are involved. But part of it you answered yourself. They have no other way to do this. And they've got all of their most powerful neighbors telling them that they need to resolve this peacefully through the six-party talks, and that's pretty powerful pressure on them.

MR. DENIG: Let's go to Kyodo News in the white shirt.

QUESTION: Thank you so much. My name is Ota with Japanese Kyodo News.

I have a question about the Iranian nuclear deal. I mean recently about the EU and the Iranian there be a kind of a agreement on the suspension of enrichment program. This Iranian nuclear issue will come up during any entire meeting on the otherwise or some bilateral meeting like China or Russian of who have some influence on the Iranian regime; and also, APEC readouts going to issue a new statement on Iranian case just for promoting the implementation of this agreement?

Thank you.

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: The good thing about APEC is that you have a gathering of leaders who represent over 60 percent of the world's GDP. You have leaders from important U.S. allies, the powers in this hemisphere and east Asia, southeast Asia. And there's an agenda that the leaders work on together that's very significant. And as my colleague said, moves forward trade liberalization and facilitation also strengthen cooperation on terrorist or proliferation threats to all of our peoples and our economies in this region.

But it's also an opportunity for leaders to talk about issues of the day. So in the past 10 years of APEC summits, any issue of the day is fair game because you have these very important leaders who know each other, gathering to talk about prosperity and peace. So the answer to your question is anything that's of importance to these leaders is fair game. And that's one of the values of having them gather once a year.

[ ...Intervening Text... ]

QUESTION: Norman Fu of the China Times of Taiwan. I'd like to direct my question to [Senior Administration Official].

You just mentioned the President, during the APEC summit, I mean, informal conference, will have a bilateral with President Hu of China. Of course, Taiwan will be represented by Dr. Li, (inaudible) at the meeting. I wonder, although no bilateral is scheduled with him, whether the President will take the opportunity to ask him to convey any message to President Chen Shui-bian. You know, recently, Congressman Leach, who went to Taiwan in May to attend the inauguration of President Chen, disclosed that he did convey a message from the President, that is, the President doesn't want to see Taiwan becoming independent. So I wonder if the President will take the opportunity through Dr. Li to stress the same message again or some additional messages.

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Well, as you know, Dr. Li (inaudible) is a very respected figure, not only on Taiwan, but in the Asia Pacific more broadly and internationally he's a very able representative for the people of Taiwan. It's important to us, it's important to many members of APEC that the people of Taiwan have active participation in this process, both from the perspective of their economic contribution and other contributions to the region.

We don't have any bilateral planned, but there's no limitation on discussions among any leaders in the APEC setting and I'm sure that Dr. Li will have opportunities for discussion with a number of the other participants and that he will represent Taiwan very well.

[ ...Intervening Text... ]

(end transcript)