For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
June 28, 2001
Background Briefing by
A Senior Administration Official on President's Meeting with African Leaders the James S. Brady Briefing Room
5:25 P.M. EDT
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION
OFFICIAL: Thank you. Good
afternoon. The President, as all of you know, met with
President Konare of Mali, President Wade of Senegal, and President
Kufuor of Ghana this afternoon. They covered a range of
issues, focusing on the promotion and consolidation of democracy, peace
and stability in the sub-region, and economic development and poverty
alleviation. President Bush opened the
meeting by congratulating the leaders on their democratic record, and
he stated that his administration is committed to economic prosperity
and to fight the scourge of disease. And he also said that
the three leaders set an example for others to follow in terms of their
democratic record, as well as their commitment of their troops for
peace in the sub-region. The three heads of
state emphasized the linkage between poverty and the need to alleviate
poverty in order to consolidate democracy. They spoke about
Africa's infrastructure development needs, talked about the lack of
connecting roads between their capitals, the need for better
communication infrastructure, the need for Internet connectivity in
order to promote economic development.
President Bush, as well, recognized this linkage and spoke of the fact
that with democracy there's a rise in expectations, and if those
expectations aren't met on the economic side, it could, in fact, lead
to a backlash. So there was a meeting of the minds between
the Presidents on the linkage between democracy promotion and economic
development and poverty alleviation. The
three Presidents also emphasized the need for private sector
development and for an infusion of foreign direct
capital. President Wage, in particular, noted the fact that
African countries are extremely competitive, so that they are seeking
private capital and private development. And
finally, President Bush spoke about the G-8 and the fact that he wants
to discuss Africa trade, prosperity, infrastructure and health at the
G-8, and he intends to do so. He sees the health pandemic as
a terrible moment in history, and said that they all need to work
together on a strategy of education, prevention and treatment, and to
lead rather than to lecture others. And so he
ended the meeting by discussing the fact that he's looking forward in
his upcoming trip to the G-8 to raising the issues of poverty, and the
broader issues of peace and stability and the interconnection of them.
That is the discussion essentially that he had with the Presidents of
Senegal, of Ghana and of Mali.
Q Outside, Ghana's President mentioned something
about aid for the flood-ravaged capital, Accra, but he was non-specific
about it. Was there any specific amount of money or anything
talked about in terms of direct assistance from these United States to
these poor folks who are suffering flood damage in that country?
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION
OFFICIAL: Yes. President Bush was aware of the
problem and, in fact, suggested that they contact our embassy in Ghana,
and we would be prepared to help them through our ambassador on the
ground. And so we are prepared to be of assistance to the
Ghanians. It's a matter of them making a formal request to
us through those channels.
Q And so the U.S. will make an assessment on the
ground of the needs? Is that what it is?
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Yes. Their
government has to make their assessment and then come to our ambassador
with the specific request, and then we would be responsive to that
request. Q On the
broad issue of poverty alleviation and economic development, did the
President discuss any specific things that the United States could do,
say, by increasing aid or making available multilateral financing or
encouraging private investment by U.S. corporations through the
Commerce Department that would actually help on those two
issues? Did they talk money, or was it more a general
statement of -- SENIOR ADMINISTRATION
OFFICIAL: It was not as general as just a general statement,
but also not as specific as amounts of money. What President
Bush said and did in this meeting is listen to the African leaders and
how they described the problems that they were facing, to have a better
understanding and to begin a dialogue, so that we're not just throwing
money at problems that we perceive, but rather to hear from them what
they perceive as their challenges. And so that was a beginning to the
dialogue. In the course of the discussion,
they identified specific areas where the United States could be of
assistance. One was, President Bush asked them, in terms of
infrastructure development, how the World Bank was
doing. They mentioned that there needed to be more financing
for agriculture. There needed to be more financing for
infrastructure. And President Bush said that he would raise
the issue with President Wolfensohn of the World Bank.
In a second area that they specifically
identified was -- or President Bush raised was the relationship between
health and education. And he said that the United States saw
the $200 million on top of what is collectively about $1 billion in
global aid. And what he really wanted to do with that $200
million is encourage other countries to come forward. And
when they do so, then the United States would be prepared to kick in
more money. There was one, third, more
concrete area. When I -- I'll think of it in the course of
-- Q That debt
cancellation, that's part of the MAP program, is debt cancellation --
not just relief, cancellation for most African countries. President
Mbeki, when he was here, said that the President endorsed that. I was
very confused about that. Does that mean that President Bush
endorses debt cancellation for Africa? SENIOR
ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: In the meeting with these three
leaders, the issue of debt never came up. Their focus, the
three leaders focused very strongly on the importance of private sector
-- that was the third area, thank you -- it was exactly on private
sector and they're saying they're looking for the United States to help
them in attracting private capital. And
President Bush specifically said he could talk to the American business
sector, tell them he had met with these three leaders, discussed their
democratic record and their track record on economic reform and
encourage that investment. But, of course, it was left to
the companies, the private sector, to make decisions about whether they
would invest or not, but that he would certainly raise these three
countries as examples for a stable environment where the rule of law is
being fortified and perhaps a place where the private sector would want
to invest. Q Did the
subject of Sierra Leone come up in the meeting?
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: It
did, it did come up. President Bush, as I said, noted their
commitment to providing their own troops to the crises in their
sub-region. He specifically said that he's interested in how
the United States could be of assistance in terms of providing
training, providing -- providing more training and -- let's see here,
well, essentially to providing training and asked them how did they
think that we could be most helpful. He also
asked the Presidents to give him an assessment of what was happening in
Sierra Leone, and they spoke about the rebel incursions across
borders. They spoke about the fact that their troops were
over-extended and that the United States is currently training their
troops. They welcomed that and said that they would like a
continuation of that training.
Q On this one, if I may, I have a
follow-up. I was of the impression that the training of the
West African troops was going to stop. So, are you saying
that the administration is actually open to continuing training?
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION
OFFICIAL: President Bush specifically said that we need to
create the conditions to allow Africans to engage in peacekeeping and
that we would be prepared to train them. They didn't talk
about specific programs, whether that's Operation Focus Relief -- which
indeed is scheduled to end at the end of the year, I believe -- or with
the final battalions that are trained. Nor did they speak
specifically about the Africa Crisis Response
Initiative. They spoke about training troops in general.
Q Did they talk about
AGOA, the African Growth and Opportunities Act? Some of these
countries, I think, are in line to be approved and some are not. Did
they talk about that? SENIOR ADMINISTRATION
OFFICIAL: I believe it was President Konare welcomed the
Africa Growth and Opportunity Forum and President Bush's invitation to
their ministers to come to discuss it in greater depth. They
talked about the need for access, market access to the United States,
and President Bush confirmed -- or affirmed the fact that we are free
traders. He said to make no mistake about it, we're free
traders and we're committed to lowering the barriers.
Q When President Bush
said he was interested in helping with training and how the U.S. could
be more helpful, did any of the three African heads of state then say,
okay, well, this is how you could be more helpful?
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: As
I said, President Kufuor said, our troops are over-extended and we
welcome your training, and we need more. But, frankly, the issue of
peacekeeping was not addressed as extensively as the issue of poverty,
of economic development, the need for private sector. That
was where the three Presidents focused their remarks. And
particularly, in terms of the consolidation of democracy.
Q How long did the
meeting actually last? SENIOR ADMINISTRATION
OFFICIAL: The meeting lasted about an hour. At
least an hour, and perhaps about an hour and 10 minutes. But
about an hour. THE PRESS: Thank
you.
END
5:33 P.M. EDT
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