Remarks by US President Bush and Chancellor Schröder in Mainz on Feb. 23, 2005

Press Availability
Electoral Palace Mainz, Germany

Press Conference: President Bush and Chancellor Schröder shook hands after the press conference.

Chancellor Schröder: (As translated.) Thank you very much, indeed, ladies and gentlemen. I'm very pleased, indeed, about this opportunity of welcoming President Bush and his wife, Laura, here in Germany. I think Mainz is an excellent venue for this meeting.

We had a very, very intense discussion and we basically covered each and every subject that is a high-ranking one on the international political agenda today.

Now, before I go into any kind of detail, let me being by sharing with you that we find it very important, sir, that you take note of one aspect that is important for both of us. We also talked about climate problems that we have worldwide, and this is an area where we also need a solution. You know we have different, or used to have different opinions about how to go about these things. The Kyoto Protocol was not appreciated by everybody, and that is something that has continued to exist. But I would like to emphasize that, despite that, we would like to see practical cooperation with the reduction of problems in this area. And we think that there could be room for maneuver, particularly in the field of technology, where the United States of America and Germany both have tremendous know-how, and we would like to deepen cooperation in this field, irrespective of the question of whether Kyoto is the right tool to be going about things, or not. And that is something that we have first said, and this is a ...

Now, over and above that, we obviously talked about all of the international problems on the agenda. Some of those problems have already been addressed yesterday in Brussels. I have to say this is good and this is right, and I think it is important for the development of peace in the world that President Bush's administration and he, himself, personally, have committed themselves to the situation of the Middle East peace process.

I think there is hope today -- and even more than hope, possibly -- that we will come to a solution here, and a solution can only ever be mentioned and conceived if there is a strong involvement of the United States of America.

Now, obviously, the other members of the Quartet can be helpful, they want to be helpful; there can be no doubt, the same goes for us, too. But I am very pleased that there is now this very strong commitment of the U.S. Americans to this specific problem.

Now, we obviously talked about Iraq, as well, and here, especially, we talked about what the perspective can be for the future. Now, nobody wants to conceal that we had different opinions about these things in the past, but that is the past, as I just said. And now our joint interest is that we come to a stable, democratic Iraq. Germany was certainly involved when it was about waiving debt for Iraq. You know that at the time we addressed this subject in New York. We have committed ourselves, and it was a success. We would like to see a situation where Iraq can use its financial scope for reconstruction and doesn't have to use the money on debt servicing. And what the Paris Club achieved was, I think, a great achievement.

Now, secondly, we are ready, and when people like us say we're ready, we are ready and we do do something. We're actually doing already; we are training policemen and military security staff for Iraq in the United Arab Emirates, and there I think we can modestly say it is a rather successful project, indeed. And all of that is, obviously, trying to arrange for more homegrown Iraqi security. And we are very much interested in not just continuing with these things, but to also expand on those activities.

Now, what we do not want to do in Iraq has been accepted and we then said we'd be very happy to make expertise available when it is about the rebuilding of democratic institutions, be it questions of drafting a constitution, but also the establishment of ministries, for example. Germany has a host of experience with these things, and if the new Iraqi government wishes us to do so, we'd be most pleased to oblige.