U.S. Newswire (press release), DC
April 28 2006
Remarks by President Bush and President Aliyev of Azerbaijan in a
Photo Opportunity
4/28/2006 12:34:00 PM
To: National Desk
Contact: White House Press Office, 202-456-2580
WASHINGTON, April 28 /U.S. Newswire/ — Following is a transcript of
remarks by President Bush and President Aliyev of Azerbaijan in a
photo opportunity today:
The Oval Office
10:49 a.m. EDT
PRESIDENT BUSH: Mr. President, welcome.
We’ve just had a really interesting visit. And we talked about the
need to — for the world to see a modern Muslim country that is able
to provide for its citizens, that understands that democracy is the
wave of the future. And I appreciate your leadership, Mr. President.
We, obviously, talked about Iran. I assured the President of my
desire to solve this problem diplomatically and peacefully. I
appreciate so very much the government’s contribution of support in
troops to the new democracy in Iraq. I spent time describing to the
President a meeting I had today via video conference with our
Ambassador and General Casey — very important for me to bring our
ally up to date on the progress that’s being made on the ground
there. I shared with him my hope that the national unity government
will help achieve the objective we all want, which is peace and
democracy.
And we, of course, talked about energy. And I appreciate the vision
of the government and the vision of the President in helping this
world achieve what we all want, which is energy security. Azerbaijan
has got a very important role to play. And we discussed internal
politics and we discussed politics of the neighborhood, as well,
particularly relations with Armenia.
I appreciate very much the candid discussion. I thank you for sharing
your thoughts with me, and thank you for our alliance. And welcome.
PRESIDENT ALIYEV: Thank you very much, Mr. President. I am very
grateful for the invitation. I’m very glad to be in Washington and
have an opportunity to discuss with you the issues of bilateral
relations. I’m sure that our relations of strategic partnership will
strengthen in the future.
We covered all the aspects of our bilateral relations. We are very
grateful for the leadership of the United States in promotion of the
energy security issues in the region, in assisting us to create a
solid transportation infrastructure which will allow to develop
full-scale Caspian oil and gas reserves and to deliver them to the
international markets.
We are allies in the war on terror. We’ve been from the very first
day shoulder-to-shoulder with the United States in the peacekeeping
operations in various parts of the world, and will continue to
contribute to the creation of peace and stability in the region.
Of course, the issues of resolution of Armenia and Azerbaijan,
Nagorno-Karabakh also in the center of our discussions and we — I
informed Mr. President with the latest status of the negotiations and
expressed my hope that a peaceful settlement of the conflict will
happen and will serve to the peace and stability in the whole region.
In general, I’d like to say that I’m very satisfied with my visit and
I consider this as instrumental in the future development of
Azerbaijan as a modern, secular, democratic country. We share the
same values. We are grateful for the United States assistance in
promotion of political process, process of democratization of our
society, and very committed to continue this cooperation in the
future.
Thank you very much, Mr. President.
PRESIDENT BUSH: One final word. I forgot to mention, I do want to
congratulate the President and the First Lady on the marriage of
their daughter this weekend. It’s a major sacrifice for the President
to be here during the planning phases of the wedding. And we wish you
and the First Lady all the best, and more importantly, we wish your
daughter all the best.
PRESIDENT ALIYEV: Thank you, Mr. President.
PRESIDENT BUSH: Thank you.
END
10:54 a.m. EDT