22 July 2001

Press Briefing By Ari Fleischer

President Bush told the G-8 leaders at their summit in Genoa that the United States takes global warming seriously and is committed to the reduction of greenhouse gases, White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer told reporters at a briefing July 22. But contrary to comments from other participants, Bush but did not tell them that the U.S. would have an action plan ready by the time of the next international meeting on the subject in Marrakech in October, Fleischer said.

The briefing followed the conclusion of the three-day G-8 summit of the leaders of the world's seven leading industrial countries and Russia.

Some of the summit leaders were reported to have said that Bush told them that the U.S. would have an action plan ready by the start of the Marrakech meeting.

"I asked him this morning if any of those reports were accurate, and he said no," Fleischer said.

The Press Secretary pointed out that "a Cabinet-level working group is still in the midst of its review of alternative(s) to the Kyoto Protocol, as the President has committed to doing.

The next occasion to talk about global warming on the international level will be in Marrakech this fall. And there is no indication about whether or not they will have their work complete before then or not." The work, he said, "will be driven by the substance of the effort. It's a very serious effort, a very complicated effort, and there are no artificial deadlines for when they will report."

The Communique released by the G-8 leaders at the end of the summit contains language, Fleischer pointed out, that says while the leaders currently disagree on the Kyoto Protocol and its ratification, "they do agree on the need to reduce global warming, and that's a position that is well known."

Asked, in light of the violent protests that have taken place in Genoa and at other such conferences, whether this has caused the president to reevaluate the purpose of these meetings, whether they're still worthwhile, Fleischer responded: "The president always thinks it's worthwhile to gather with heads of state and have good sessions to, one, get to know each other better, and two, discuss in detail and substance the issues that various nations face. So the president believes there's always a benefit to these meetings, and they will go on."

Fleischer said "it's very important for democracies around the world to continue to meet, and to not let violence in the streets stop them from getting together as democracies. Democracies express their will through freedom of speech at the leader level, at the governmental level, on behalf of the people they represent. And while the violence in the streets is deplorable, they cannot and should not stop the cause of democracy and speech."

The Press Secretary said "it's important to differentiate" between the messages of the protesters. For those who are concerned about relieving the third world of debt, he said, "they have a friend in the United States. The proposals that the President has made and the G8 has agreed to focus on" such as relieving debt burdens in third world nations by creating a new system of grants, and by expanding free trade are "very helpful to the developing nations of the world, and the cause of free trade."

Asked about the G-8 leaders discussions on the Middle East, Fleischer said that "there was a sense of concern about the violence in the region, and the need to do all that was possible to bring about as peaceful a resolution as possible to the conflict, to getting the cease-fire on track and lasting. There is a respect for the Mitchell agreement throughout the European nations, and a hope that a lasting cease-fire can begin so that the rest of the Mitchell recommendations can be put into place."

Following is the transcript of the Fleischer briefing:

Mr. Fleischer: Good morning. I just wanted to come over and say hello and see if there were a couple of quick questions I could help people with. Gary Edson will be here at 12:00 noon to give a more detailed readout on the meetings that he's been in this morning, and the final action of the G8. Of course, the President will have a news conference a little later this afternoon. And then Condoleezza Rice is going to be available to the pool, and she will do an on-the-record briefing to the pool following the Putin meeting.

She, unfortunately, is not going to be able to get here to do it for the entire press corps, due to the logistics of getting to Rome. But she will be available for the pool. And then we're going to endeavor to get that pool report to you as quickly as possible, so you will have that as you file your stories from the afternoon, following the news conference.

Q: So --

Mr. Fleischer: Yes. John was asking me about Marrakech and the status of the administration's actions pertaining to global warming. And the answer I was giving is, the Cabinet-level working group is still in the midst of its review of alternative to the Kyoto Protocol, as the President has committed to doing. The next occasion to talk about global warming on the international level will be in Marrakech this fall. And there is no indication about whether or not they will have their work complete before then or not.

Q: -- try to get that --

Mr. Fleischer: The work will be driven by the substance of the effort. It's a very serious effort, a very complicated effort, and there are no artificial deadlines for when they will report.

Q: Ari, at least three of the delegations said their Prime Ministers told them that our President said in the meeting that he would have a plan by October. Are they wrong?

Mr. Fleischer: No, the President never gave such an indication. I talked to the President about that this morning.

Q: What was the question?

Q: Did they make it up?

Mr. Fleischer: The question was Ron said that several leaders had said that President Bush had committed to having a proposal by Marrakech, and I indicated any such understanding is not correct.

Q: Or did he say something that maybe they could have misunderstood? Did he say, for example, that he hoped to get it done by October?

Mr. Fleischer: No, I just described to you the President's position about the timing of it.

Q: What did he say the leaders about the timing of it?

Mr. Fleischer: I was not in the meeting with the leaders, so I can't give you a verbatim, but he said in essence what I just told you, that the United States takes global warming very seriously, we're committed to the reduction of greenhouse gases, and the Cabinet-level working group is in the middle of their effort, and the next occasion to talk about it will be Marrakech.

Q: Could you find out, please, what he said to the leaders, so we can figure out --

Mr. Fleischer: I asked him this morning if any of those reports were accurate, and he said no.

Q: What we'd like to know, though, is what he did say, what language did he use when he described the timing.

Mr. Fleischer: I'm sorry, I'll try to get a verbatim from him. I'll try to get a verbatim.

Q: Ari, you folks have said before coming here that he looked forward to taking up the subject of missile defense, he looked forward to talking about global warming. He had two bilats yesterday with two of the most serious critics of missile defense. It didn't come up, according to the readout we got. And reading the communique, there seems to have been very little progress on global warming. Most of the people who were opposed to the U.S. position still hold that position. Given the expectations, the assurances about what you wanted to talk about, there doesn't seem to have been any progress. Do you guys think that this was a success for you, or not?

Mr. Fleischer: Absolutely. I think it's important to remember what the G8 is all about. But the purpose of this visit and the topic of the G8 is poverty alleviation. That is what's brought everybody together. Missile defense was not a topic. It wasn't on the agenda.

Q: But he, himself, said he looked forward to discussing these issues.

Mr. Fleischer: Sure, and he discussed them throughout the day. Global warming was a topic that came up during the G8 discussions yesterday. But in response to a question from a reporter about climate change, the President indicated what his position was on climate change. It's something that he's talked with Chancellor Schroeder about many times before. It's something that he's talked about with all of the foreign leaders about many times before.

I think it's actually reflective of the priorities of Germany and France that when they had their time with the President during the bilateral meetings, they wanted to talk about the situation in the Middle East in great detail. It's interesting that these are the topics that they wanted to discuss. Neither of those leaders brought up missile defense or brought up global warming. They had adequate other opportunities to do so. So, during those bilateral meetings, the President and the President of France and the Chancellor of Germany had an opportunity to discuss other issues in great depth.

Q: Does he feel like he made progress on either of those points, and what tangible progress can you point to?

Mr. Fleischer: I think as you will see reflected in the communique -- and we're in the process of giving that to you now -- do you have the communique yet? The final communique should be arriving any second now. And if you take a look at the language in there, it says why we currently disagree on Kyoto, they do agree on the need to reduce global warming, and that's a position that is well known.

Q: The President has spoken to the violence and the characteristics of the demonstrations, but I wonder whether you could tell why --

Mr. Fleischer: Is that a bottle of wine in front of you? (Laughter.)

Q: Would you like it?

Mr. Fleischer: I'm just not sure who I'm supposed to pay attention to. (Laughter.)

Q: It's bad red.

Q: Where were we? The President's spoken to the nation on these demonstrations. I'm wondering if you could shed a little light for us on how he followed those. Did he watch any of this on television? Was there any sort of official briefing provided for the leaders, and what you could tell us about how the President reacted personally to what he saw.

Mr. Fleischer: The President was informed about the death of the protestor by the Secret Service two nights ago. They told him about it. I was not in his vehicle, so I don't know his exact reaction. But, of course, he shared his reaction yesterday when he expressed his thoughts that any death is tragic, that he deplored the violence and he regretted the fact that so many police officers have also been injured.

Q: But did he watch any of the television news footage of this at all, do you know?

Mr. Fleischer: I don't know.

Q: Has this kind of violence that's accompanied many of these summits, has it caused the President to reevaluate the purpose of these kind of meetings, whether they're still worthwhile if they engender this kind of --

Mr. Fleischer: The President always thinks it's worthwhile to gather with heads of state and have good sessions to, one, get to know each other better, and two, discuss in detail and substance the issues that various nations face. So the President believes there's always a benefit to these meetings, and they will go on.

Q: So how do you respond to the demands of these protesters or how do you avert this kind of thing in the future if you're going to have summits?

Mr. Fleischer: I think it's important to differentiate between the message of some of the protesters, for example, those who are concerned about relieving the third world of debt -- on that measure, they have a friend in the United States. The proposals that the President has made and the G8 has agreed to focus on stopping the debt in third world nations. The President made an important speech to the World Bank prior to his arrival to the G8 about the need to stop the debt by creating a new system of grants. That's very helpful to the developing nations of the world, and the cause of free trade.

And let me give you some specific things the President said in the G8 meeting -- Gary can give you a little bit more on this, but here are some things the President has said specifically about the power of trade to help poor nations.

In his private meetings yesterday he cited statistics showing that the United States imports half a trillion dollars a year of goods, agricultural and manufacturing, from developing nations. That's an awful lot of commerce for poor nations to help lift them up and create jobs for the people in the developing nations. Half a trillion dollars a year, by the way, the U.S. imports of half a trillion dollars a year alone represent nine to ten times the amount of foreign aid that is provided by all the G8 countries combined. And that's the power of trade.

The President also specifically cited in his conversations with G8 leaders the fact that 40 percent of the developing countries' trade is with other developing countries. So, clearly, the message from the President to people who want to help nations in poverty is trade is the way. Trade helps the developing nations and the United States purchases an awful lot of goods from those developing nations that does them a world of good.

The President also cited specifically helping to train teachers. He talked in the private meetings about teacher training centers with Internet portals. It was an issue the President himself brought up as a way to make sure that education reaches people throughout the third world.

So for the group of protesters who are peaceful and are concerned about helping the developing nations, they couldn't have a better friend than George W. Bush and the United States. For the anarchists and those who are committed to violence, I don't think anything will appease them.

Q: I'd like your reaction to an Italian newspaper report that said that the President indicated to his G8 counterparts that the strength of the dollar is creating problems for U.S. manufacturers, and therefore, the possibility of a rapid recovery in the U.S. economy. The report also said that Bush expressed dissatisfaction with European Central Bank monetary policy. Did the President make either of these remarks in conversations with his counterparts here?

Mr. Fleischer: I'll have to ask him. I can't tell you right now. I'll ask him and I'll report to the pool and get it back to you.

Q: Well, does the President think that the strength of the dollar is harming the U.S. economy?

Mr. Fleischer: You've heard the extent of what the President has said on that topic, and anything that he said in private I'll just have to put the question to him.

Q: Ari, going back to the protesters, I think one of the questions really is whether the President was surprised by the scope of the reaction to the shooting, and whether that betokens perhaps a deeper set of problems that the G8 is facing in its present form.

Mr. Fleischer: Well, of course, unfortunately, protests and violence have become a fact of modern-day summitry. And in Gothenburg, of course, after the President departed, the protests grew worse, to the point where there was also violence in Gothenburg and three people were shot and wounded. And so this has become a very unfortunate part of modern-day summitry, and the President deplores the violence.

Q: I'm not asking about the violence. I'm asking about the reaction and the extent to which it seems to have focused a feeling kind of around the world about what's happening in the streets, what the issues are, and whether this -- really suggests that there is a deeper problem here than just simply some kids who are bent on mischief.

Mr. Fleischer: I think the President expressed himself fully on that question in the statement he made yesterday in the meeting with President Chirac.

Q: Is he traumatized?

Mr. Fleischer: Was the President traumatized?

Q: Was President Bush traumatized?

Mr. Fleischer: The President expressed himself fully in his statement.

Q: Given the tone of recent gatherings, is there any concern that this is doing more harm than good?

Mr. Fleischer: No. It's very important for democracies around the world to continue to meet, and to not let violence in the streets stop them from getting together as democracies. Democracies express their will through freedom of speech at the leader level, at the governmental level, on behalf of the people they represent. And while the violence in the streets is deplorable, they cannot and should not stop the cause of democracy and speech.

Q: -- at the level of destruction, particularly in an historic city like Genoa, do you have to think about the future format of summits? And do you agree with Jean Chretien that the size of the delegations should be scaled down, that the whole scope of the event should be scaled down? And these things, since 1989, have become these huge, prestigious -- it's kind of almost like an Olympics type of things for cities. And now, it just turns into really a lot of destruction.

Mr. Fleischer: You know, it's standard after each of the summits for the leaders to talk about the shape and the form of the next summit. And that will go on, of course; it happens all the time. So if there are any other developments that will take place. The next meeting of the G8 is in Canada, and if there's anything to report, we will. But it's also important not to let the few violent protestors drown out the message of the peaceful protestors or drown out the message of the duly-elected leaders of the democracies that gather here.

Q: What city in their right mind wants to host a summit after what happened this weekend?

Mr. Fleischer: Well, again, the question was, should summits be cancelled, and the President does not think they should.

Q: I'm not saying cancel them, I'm just saying scale them down, change them, whatever.

Q: Chretien says the next summit will be limited to 400 people in the delegation. What is the size of the U.S. delegation here?

Mr. Fleischer: You know, I'll have to find out, Ron.

Q: Can you tell the pool later on, please?

Mr. Fleischer: Yes.

Q: The city of Genoa, which was host to this summit was hoping to make money, which has now been stuck with an enormous bill, both for businesses, which had to shut down because of the security and the threat of violence, and then the cost of all the destruction and cleanup. Is the President interested in helping the city defray that cost at all?

Mr. Fleischer: I'll have to look into that. I don't have any information on that topic.

Q: What's the main purpose of the President's visit tomorrow to Italy? Will he address the missile defense question with President Berlusconi?

Mr. Fleischer: I can't -- I'm sorry.

Q: Will he talk about missile defense with Berlusconi?

Mr. Fleischer: Oh, Berlusconi? I think the topics with Berlusconi are going to include strong bilateral ties between the United States and Italy. There is agreement on missile defense that may come up. I think trade will be another item that comes up. Macedonia can be another item that comes up. I think all of those are possible items.

Q: Ari, there's been a lot of details that have come out in recent weeks, testimony before the Hill and so forth, about the President's missile defense plan. I'm wondering if the President had shared substantively that information with President Putin during their last meeting, or whether President Putin has been absorbing this, as the rest of the world has, in recent weeks?

Mr. Fleischer: I can't speak to what President Putin has been absorbing in the last couple of weeks; I mean, that's a question only he can answer. But the President talked with President Putin in Lubljana about the strategic framework, about a new way of thinking when it comes to missile defense.

I've heard the President say very often how they're younger leaders, that they need to think differently now that the Cold War is over. They represent a new generation of leaders who should be in the position to think anew and not be tied into the old way of thinking in which you had two polar powers, each of which was capable of blowing each other up, and that was the basis for all discussions about defense. That's been the tenor of the President's conversations. Obviously, after today's meeting, you will have the benefit of Condoleezza Rice's report.

Q: I guess Putin has said, and certainly Ivanov said last week that Russia is waiting for more information on missile defense. Did the delegation, did the President and Condoleezza Rice come with more information?

Mr. Fleischer: Again, I think that will be addressed by Condoleezza Rice after the meeting, and there will be some things that they may get into afterwards.

Q: Could you talk a little bit about whether the President or the senior administration officials are communicating with the representatives in Bonn about global warming? In other words, are they giving them any guidance? How does it work to have this summit going on when that is also going on at the same time?

Mr. Fleischer: Sure. I mean, it's safe to say that our State Department is always in touch with their delegations around the world. It's not unusual to have more than one conference going on.

Q: How high up is it going? Does the President get involved? Does Powell get involved? Who is talking and giving guidance to them?

Mr. Fleischer: It's a State Department delegation that is there, and I would have to leave it to the State Department who they're briefing within their building. The President is kept informed, and that's the latest I have on it.

I've got to take about one more question, and then I've got to get to the Putin meeting.

Q: Could you just give us a little feeling about the discussion on the Middle East among the leaders? Because there was a G8 statement on the Middle East. I'd like a little more detail on the discussion.

Mr. Fleischer: Yes, there was a sense of concern about the violence in the region, and the need to do all that as possible to bring about as peaceful a resolution as possible to the conflict, to getting the cease-fire on track and lasting. There is a respect for the Mitchell agreement throughout the European nations, and a hope that a lasting cease-fire can begin so that the rest of the Mitchell recommendations can be put into place.

Q: Any discussion of the monitor proposal or having a monitoring group?

Mr. Fleischer: Gary Edson was there for any discussions within the G8; I was not. So you're aware of the statement that has come out on it.

Okay, last question.

Q: Some of the other leaders seem to have drawn some conclusions from the violence and the summit and everything that's happened here. Chirac says, we have to look at why tens of thousands of people would come. Some of the others have said, perhaps we need to institutionalize some sort of contact with various groups, non-violent groups. Has the U.S. drawn any particular, even tentative, conclusions about this process and what it means for the future?

Mr. Fleischer: The President has, and you heard him express this when he's talked about the rights of groups to protest peacefully and respecting those groups. And, of course, this G8 includes elected leaders and leaders of developing nations from around the world, which is a real sign that the industrial nations of the world take seriously their responsibility, their mutual, shared responsibilities to help other nations to help themselves. And that's why they are here as guests of the G8. And the President was very pleased to have those discussions with them.

The best message for the peaceful protestors is the policies that have come out of this meeting, because those policies are aimed, as the President said, at helping the developing nations so they can become developed nations. And the President believes the way to do that is through the power of trade. I cited the statistics the President, himself, brought up in the private meetings with his fellow G8 leaders.

And through a program of stopping the debt, so third world nations will have more resources to develop, as well as a focus -- and you'll see this in the final communique -- on the MDBs, the multilateral development banks, so that they focus more on education and they focus more on areas of increasing productivity within the developing nations.

So if the message of the protesters is, we have to help developing nations to develop, the policies of the United States and the policies of Europe are the best ways to help get that job accomplished.

Thank you, everybody.

Q: Can you give us something about the agenda for the meeting with the Pope tomorrow?

Mr. Fleischer: Well, the President is very much looking forward to meeting with the Pope tomorrow. The President views the Pope as a man of great conscience, a man of great principle. The President, as he noted in his speech in Warsaw last month, believes the Pope played a very important role in helping to bring freedom to tens of millions of East Europeans in helping to change communism and replace it with a system of liberty and democracy. And the President believes the Pope, in his role as a spiritual leader of hundreds of millions of Catholics around the world, sets an example of the power of faith and principle.

Q: Do you expect stem cell -- the stem cell issue to be raised?

Mr. Fleischer: I have no idea about any of the specifics they'll get into. After the meeting we'll do our best to share all the information.

Thank you, everybody.