US-German friendship strengthens Atlantic partnership - Transcript

Introductory remarks at a White House news conference, Washington, DC, March 22, 1992

President Bush: Chancellor Kohl and I had a very productive discussion on a wide range of the issues that face us in the new era. Among them: the American role in Europe, support for the democratic revolutions in Russia and Eastern Europe, and world trade talks.

We agreed that NATO remains the bedrock of European peace and there is no substitute for our Atlantic link, anchored by a strong American military presence in Europe--which the Chancellor and I both agreed must be maintained.

In our review of the Uruguay Round [of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade--GATT] negotiations, the Chancellor and I reaffirmed our determination to reach an early agreement that expands the world trading system. This would be a victory for US-European partnership in promoting free trade, spurring economic growth, and creating jobs in the United States, Germany, and all developing countries.

We also discussed how we can best support democracy in the East. We agreed that as Russia and other new democracies adopt reform programs, we and the rest of the G-7 countries should take the lead in expanding financial support through the international financial institutions.

Our talks have shown that the Atlantic partnership is as vital and healthy as ever. I'm especially pleased to see the United States and Germany are working as closely now as we did during the period of German unification.

And finally on a very personal side, Barbara and I were just delighted to have this time together with Chancellor Kohl, with his wife, and it was also a great pleasure to have their son up there at Camp David. It was a good visit.

Mr. Chancellor, the floor is yours, sir.

Chancellor Kohl: Mr. President, Mrs. Bush, ladies and gentlemen. I would like to take up where you left off, Mr. President, and thank you and Mrs. Bush for the very warm hospitality with which you received my wife, my son, and the members of my delegation at Camp David. It was a very, very friendly meeting, a very personal meeting, a very nice [meeting]--for these discussions on problems of interest to both of us which will be of interest for the very near future.

One of these issues--which we consider to be a very important one--was the issue of GATT. Obviously, I did not come here as an official negotiator but as a member--or as a representative--of an EC [European Community] member country. I explained our position on this question once again. The negotiations obviously are being weighed by the EC Commission, and the EC Commission enjoys the full confidence of the EC member countries.

President Bush and I are in agreement that it is of paramount importance for [the] world economy to come to a successful conclusion of the GATT negotiations now, and we are in agreement that we have to prevent--at all costs--a fallback into a policy of protectionism.

We know that it is, particularly at this juncture, a very important thing that we maintain free world trade; that this is very important for a good development of the world economy. This is, indeed, one of the main reasons why we intend to strengthen GATT.

We are also, both of us, very well aware of the fact that the successful conclusion of the GATT round is also of paramount importance for the countries of the Third World. This is why we want to put all our efforts into these negotiations in the coming weeks, and why we want to come to a successful conclusion of the GATT round at the very latest by the end of April.

In our talks, we talked, obviously, also about the preparations leading up to the world economic summit meeting in Munich in July. The President supported me in the endeavor that these talks should focus more intensively on informal talks, and that we should give room to the discussions on global issues that are of interest to all of us.

Very important issues for the summit meeting in Munich will be, first of all, world economic developments. We want this summit to strengthen the trust and confidence in all countries in the world economy.

Another important subject for Munich will be the situation in the Commonwealth of Independent States [CIS] and in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe. We will talk in Munich particularly about an overall package of so-called "help for self-help" where we want to draw up a sort of framework for cooperation of the West with the CIS.

And a third very important subject which we talked about is the improvement of cooperation of Western industrialized countries with the countries of the Third World now after the end of the Cold War.

Another important subject we talked about--in view of the very dramatic changes is the success of republics of the former Soviet Union and the Commonwealth of Independent States--was the overall situation there but also the relief activities that our two countries have already initiated. We just initiated the second of these assistance activities, and it is the second of the kind. But, obviously, we cannot go on doing this kind of thing indefinitely.

What is important now is to give them sort of a solid program of help or self-help where we focus on individual areas; where we focus, for example, on agriculture, on improvement of infrastructure, on the improvement of transport and communication links, and where we also concentrate on improving, for example, the safety standards of nuclear power plants in the former Soviet Union.

These were just some of the subjects that we dealt with during our very long and intensive discussions during these past 2 days. But I would like to mention the most important subject at the end of my remarks here: That once again, during these 2 days it became apparent that the United States of America and reunified Germany are linked by very strong bonds of friendship and partnership. No matter what will happen in the world, this friendship, this partnership is of existential importance for us Germans.

In [the] future, too, [the] freedom and security of Europe and also, therefore, of Germany can be safeguarded by this transatlantic alliance, which is why I would like to underline here in Washington, in the White House, that for us, it is a matter of course that this includes also a substantial presence of American troops in Europe. But it is our joint desire that our relationship will be deepened and widened beyond the mere scope of security and military issues; that we come to even closer relations in the cultural field, in the scientific field, in research and development, which is why I'm very pleased to be able to announce--and we have agreed on this--that this year we will inaugurate a German-American Academy of Sciences.

This has never existed, to my knowledge, in the United States of America, and we have never had this sort of link with the United States before, or with any other country across the Atlantic, for that matter.

I think that an instrument such as this one is of utmost importance, particularly for the young generation, for fostering a mutual understanding of each other. I would now like to issue an invitation to all our American friends to participate as guests in the German cultural festival that will take place here soon and to understand this as a sign of sympathy and friendship with the American people.

Mr. President, allow me to thank you once again for these days where you once again demonstrated your friendship to us, which made it possible to meet in this very warm and hospitable atmosphere....

COPYRIGHT 1992 U.S. Government Printing Office
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