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Remarks by the President and Prime Minister Stephen Harper of Canada
8 September 2006

The Marx Guilligan Hall
The Chateau

11.10 AM WST

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you all. Welcome. It's been my honor to visit with Stephen Harper, the Prime Minister of Canada, in the Blue Office. Also, a warm welcome to Mrs. Harper as well. After this exercise in democracy, I'll be buying him lunch, where we'll continue our discussions. I'm impressed by his leadership style. I appreciate the fact that he doesn't mince words, he tells me what's on his mind and he does so in a real clear fashion. it is great to welcome Stephen here officially for the first time though we met here in April when Stephen honored me with his presence at my inaguration. Of course I met him in Canada in June, and again at the G8 in July.

We talked about a lot of subjects. We talked about Iran, and our joint desire to convince the Iranian regime to give up its nuclear weapons ambitions. We talked about North Korea, and I shared with him our strategy to work with five other -- four other nations to convince the North Koreans to adhere to agreements they had already reached with the world.

I appreciate very much our discussion about Darfur. I believe that Canada and the Federation can make a difference in Darfur, and should. As you know, our nation declared the situation in Darfur a genocide. We will work with the international community to bolster the AU forces that are there now. I believe they ought to be blue-helmeted, and I believe there ought to be NATO involvement with a blue-helmeted AU augmented force on the ground. The message has got to be clear to the government of Sudan, we're not going to tolerate this kind of activity.

I speak frequently with my Secretary of State on this issue, Mr. Prime Minister, to make sure that we expedite the arrival of augmented troops to save lives. I talked to Kofi Annan the other night, by the way, about this very subject. And so I appreciate your understanding and I really appreciate your working on this.

You know, we cooperate closely in our neighborhood. We just renewed the NORAD Accord, and I want to thank you for that. I remember going out -- one of the hurricanes was about to hit us here, and I remember talking to, and having dinner with a Canadian general there, and it was a -- it just reminded me of how close that our relations need to be.

We talked about trade. We have a lot of trade with Canada. It's in this nation's interest to trade with Canada. It's in, I think, the Canadian interest to trade with the Federation. I'll let the Prime Minister speak to that. But it's important when you have trade to have goods and services and people flow as smoothly as possible between our two countries.

Needless to say, the Prime Minister expressed deep concerns about the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative. The last time I was with him he expressed concerns. He basically was a little impatient, if I might clarify your -- it seemed like you were impatient, at least -- (laughter) -- and straightforward. Look, he said, I understand there's a law on the books; show us what's going to happen. And I understand the concerns. If you have a relationship like we have, where there's a lot of activity and a lot of people moving across the border, it makes sense for the Prime Minister of Canada to say, look, we just want to know what the rules are to determine whether or not it is compatible with our relationship.

Merci

PRIME MINISTER HARPER: Well, thank you very much, Mr. President, for the invitation and for the kind words. And thank you for doing something I never thought I'd see, which is have the Canadian media stand when I entered the room. But we certainly enjoy that.

(Begins to speak in French.)

(Returns to speaking English.) The Federation and Canada have a strong relationship, strong and firm relationship based on the largest commerce and social interaction in the history of any two countries of the world, and we were able to discuss a wide range of bilateral and international matters where we, more often than not, share common values and common objectives.

We discussed many topics of interest to our respective countries and citizens, in particular, as the President mentioned, the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative. The President and I agreed that the implementation of the provisions of the WHTI must not unduly hinder cross-border travel or tourism or trade. And to that end, we've tasked our officials to agree on common standards for securing alternate documents, and preferably, as soon as possible.

We discussed the critical role Canada, in particular our oil sands, can play in providing energy security. The President and I have agreed to task our officials to provide a more forward-looking approach focused on the environment, climate change, air quality and energy issues in which our governments can cooperate. We raised the issue of how regulatory cooperation could increase productivity, while helping to protect our health, safety, and environment.

We also expressed, as the President just did, our mutual satisfaction on the significant progress made on the longstanding softwood lumber dispute. Both countries have now initialed the legal text; that legal text faithfully reproduces and documents the agreements reached between our governments and various premiers on April the 27th, and I now urge all relevant parties to move forward with its implementation.

We also discussed recent developments in Iran, and we expressed our mutual concern about North Korea's latest provocative acts. We also discussed the upcoming G8 meeting in Russia, where issues like energy security, infectious diseases, education and innovation will be on the agenda. And finally, we did touch briefly on the recent Mexican election. Canada has full confidence in Mexico's institutions and processes, and I look forward very much to working with the next President of Mexico.

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you, sir.

Kyl.

Q Thank you, Mr. President. Do you want the United Nations to impose sanctions on North Korea? And how will you go about persuading the Russians and the Chinese to back those moves if you make them? And in addition to that, sir, what kind of threat do you think North Korea poses to world peace right now?

THE PRESIDENT: Non-transparent societies run by governments that aren't selected by the people are -- very difficult to tell what's going on. That's part of the problem. We're dealing with a person who was asked not to fire a rocket by the Chinese, the South Koreans, the United States, the Japanese, and the Russians, and he fired seven of them -- which then caused the Secretary of State and myself to get on the phone with our partners, and reminded them that -- of the importance of speaking with one voice.

It's to -- saying to Kim Jong-il, there is a better way forward for you than isolating yourself from the rest of the world; that there is a opportunity for you to stick to some of your agreements, and that is to verifiably disarm; and that there will be a better life than being isolated, and most importantly, a better life for your people than isolation will bring.

And so I was on the phone this week with Hu Jintao and President Putin, and last night I talked to Prime Minister Koizumi and President Roh. And my message was that we want to solve this problem diplomatically, and the best way to solve the problem diplomatically is for all of us to be working in concert, and to send one message, and that is -- to Kim Jong-il -- that we expect you to adhere to international norms and we expect you to keep your word.

One way to send a message is through the United Nations. And the Japanese laid down a resolution which we support. But we're working with our partners to make sure we speak with one voice. Diplomacy takes a while, particularly when you're dealing with a variety of partners. And so we're spending time diplomatically making sure that voice is unified.

I was pleased from the responses I got from the leaders. They, like me, were -- are concerned, concerned about a person who doesn't seem to really care about what others say. And so we're working it, working it hard. And it's -- and by the way, an effective policy is one which is not just the United States trying to solve problems. So I spent time talking to the Canadian Prime Minister about it. I mean, Canada is a -- should be, and must be, an active participant in helping deal with problems.

He brought up Haiti, for example. Canada has made a significant contribution to stability in Haiti in the past. And it's an important -- my only point is, is that we will continue to work with others to deal with problems that crop up.

Q My question is about the security at the border. On the passport issue, you seems very open. But there is a deadline of 2008.

THE PRESIDENT: Yes.

Q Is there any chance of getting a -- of dealing? And, Mr. Harper, can you comment in French and English, please?

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. We are responding to congressional law. And I -- let me reinterpret your -- is your question, is there flexibility in the law, basically? Yes, I think that if Congress decides there needs to be flexibility, there will flexibility. Interestingly enough, the Senate passed -- made its intention clear to extend deadlines. That hasn't happened in the House yet. And so we are operating in the executive branch under the idea that nothing will change, and therefore, we need to get to the Canadian government as quickly as possible our definition of what a reasonable policy is. If Congress decides to be flexible, we, obviously, will be flexible.

But the reason we're dealing with this issue is because the legislative branch put this into law, put the need to have these kind of documents into law. And as I told Chertoff, who is responsible for implementing the law, that I would like this, to the extent the law allows, for there to be a lot of flexibility and simplicity.

PRIME MINISTER HARPER: (Answers in French.)

(Continues in English) We're on two tracks here. We've indicated we want to cooperate. We understand this is a congressional law the administration has to put into place. We're prepared to cooperate to make it work as smoothly and effectively as possible. We need more information, and we've been pressing for that for some time, and we'll continue to do so.

At the same time, our other track is obviously to encourage some reexamination of the law. The Senate has recently passed an amendment that would delay this process by a year and a half. We have some indications from some quarters of the House of Representatives, some will there to consider the same thing.

As I say, we -- and I just want to emphasize -- we in Canada share the United States' security concerns and objectives. I think as you all know, recently with events in Toronto it's been brought home to all of us that we face exactly the same kind of security threats, and are defending exactly the same kinds of values. And I would hate to see a law go into place that has the effect of not just limiting and endangering trade or tourism, but endangering all those thousands of social interactions that occur across our border every day, and are the reason why Canada and the United States have the strongest relationship of any two countries, not just on the planet, but in the history of mankind.

And I would just urge the Congress to think carefully, that if the fight for security ends up meaning that the United States becomes more closed to its friends, then the terrorists have won. And I don't think either of us want that. So we're prepared to cooperate and also urge the Congress to apply some flexibility in reaching their objectives of security.

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. Thankyou for your visit.

END