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For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
October 18, 2007
President Bush Meets with President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia
Oval Office
10:34 A.M. EDT
PRESIDENT BUSH: It is such an honor to welcome back to the Oval Office the
President of our friend and ally, Liberia. Madam President, thanks for
coming, and thanks for your very strong spirit and your deep desire to
enhance democracy and improve the lives of your people in Liberia.
We had a good discussion. I want to emphasize a couple of points that we
discussed. First of all, we are committed to helping you relieve your
debt. This weekend, IMF will be meeting in Washington, D.C., and it's very
important for our friends in the IMF to recognize that debt relief is --
for Liberia is a part of our agenda, and I would hope that they would help
you -- help you with debt relief. I think it's important. And so
Secretary Paulson will be taking that message to the IMF.
Secondly, I want to thank you very much for your dedication and focus on
helping the children of Liberia get a good education. You've worked
extremely hard to encourage parents to send their children to school, and
we want to help you, to the extent that you ask for help. The United
States believes it's important that young boys and girls get a good
education not only here in America, but around the world. And the
President is committed to universal education in Liberia, and have made
great strides since the days of your civil strife.
I also am very dedicated to helping you on malaria. Laura and I care
deeply about the fact that young babies die on the continent of Africa and
elsewhere needlessly. They die simply because of a mosquito bite. And so
the President and I talked about our desire to put in place a malaria
initiative that will save lives in Liberia. We're going to -- we'll be
sending a person on the ground there pretty soon to help implement the
malaria initiative, and that initiative will mean spreading nets and
insecticides throughout the country so that we can see a reduction in death
of young children that -- a death that we can cure.
And finally, the Peace Corps has been gone from Liberia, and we talk about
the fact that now we'll be able -- we're going to move the Peace Corps back
in. And the Peace Corps has been in touch with our State Department and
the Liberia folks and it looks like we're going to start moving some teams
pretty quickly back into Liberia. And the reason why we feel comfortable
doing that is because of the leadership of this strong person right here.
And so, Madam President, proud to call you friend and proud to welcome you
back to the Oval Office.
PRESIDENT JOHNSON SIRLEAF: Mr. President, thank you. We're so pleased to
be back here.
Liberia continues to make progress, despite the many challenges we face.
And this progress we owe a lot to you and to Mrs. Bush for the support
we've received. The State Department, National Security Council, Treasury
have all just been there for us. Whether we're -- working on debt relief,
or whether we're trying to improve our educational system, or get our
infrastructure fixed, we've always had a willing hand. The Ambassador has
been supportive and been a real partner on the ground with us.
We were very pleased, Mr. President, that you granted the delayed enforced
departure for some of our citizens who couldn't go back home because we
weren't prepared to receive them with the jobs and the homes and the basic
services they needed. So the 18-month reprieve you've given them gives
them time to prepare themselves, and enable us to prepare to receive them
at some point.
Liberia was included among three other African countries in the special
education initiative, and we're very pleased about that. And we've just
discussed today that you'll be behind us as we try to fight malaria.
Malaria is one of the greatest killers in our country, particular among our
young children. And so we'll be working to make sure that we get a program
where we can have some measurable actions so we can reduce this scourge
that afflicts our children.
Over all, we're just so pleased with the relationship. Liberians are very
proud that you were one of the first ones that set us on this road to
peace, and a road that's enabled us to get the progress we have today. We
are committed to make Liberia a post-conflict success story. We want it to
be part of your legacy. We want you to be able to look back and say, when
I was there I helped Liberia to be a success, to come out of the ashes of
war and to be a successful economy responding to the needs of its people.
Thank you for being there for us.
PRESIDENT BUSH: Madam President, thank you.
END 10:40 A.M. EDT
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