President Bush and President Putin

President Bush Meets with President Putin of Russia The Sheraton HanoiHanoi, Vietnam, 4:16 P.M. (Local), APEC 2006

PRESIDENT BUSH: Today, Vladimir and I are pleased to report that after a long set of negotiations, Representative Gref and Ambassador Schwab have signed agreements that will be good for the United States and good for Russia

-- and that is we support Russia's accession into the WTO. I congratulate you all for your hard work and thank you very much for your hard work.

I repeat, this is a good agreement for the United States. And it's an equally important agreement for Russia. And it's a good agreement for the international trading community. And I thank you very much, Vladimir, for working hard on this agreement.

As usual, we've had a very important dialogue. And we talked about common interests and how we can work together to solve some of the world's problems, including North Korea and Iran. And I want to thank you for your time and friendship.

PRESIDENT PUTIN: (As translated.) On my part, I would like to add that we've been in the process of difficult and lengthy work, five years of intense effort which has been culminated today with the signing of a protocol on Russia's accession to the World Trade Organization, which has been a successful outcome of this effort.

And I would like to underscore that this would not have been possible to achieve without expert and professional involvement both on the side of the U.S. and Russia, and without good will expressed in this -- should I say, in the right term would be to use here -- very businesslike approach in their dealing.

On top of that, it would not have been possible without a political will, which has been here expressed by the President of the United States of America. And I agree with you, George, that this lays out very favorable conditions to us to jointly tackle the very pertinent and acute problems of international relations together.

It also lays out favorable conditions to further develop the scope and volume of commerce and economic interaction between the business partners between our two countries involved with other countries.

END 4:22 P.M. (Local), For Immediate Release, Office of the Press Secretary, November 19, 2006

Technorati Tags: President Bush and White House or Russia and President Vladimir Putin or North Korea and Asia or Doha and Asian Pacific Economic Cooperation

President Bush and President Hu Jintao

President Bush Meets with President Hu Jintao of the People's Republic of China Hanoi Daewoo HotelHanoi, Vietnam, 8:34 A.M. (Local), APEC 2006

PRESIDENT HU: (As translated.) It's a great pleasure to see you again, Mr. President. I remember, in the course of this year we have already met each other three times, we had four telephone conversations,

and we also maintained frequent exchange of letters. So it is fair to say that we are keeping very close touch and this has vigorously promoted China-U.S. relations.

I'm pleased to see new progress in China-U.S. relations since our meeting in St. Petersburg in July this year. Our two countries have maintained a frequent exchange of visits at the top level and at different levels. And actually, our trade has also been expanding very rapidly, and I do have a piece of good news to share with you. According to U.S. statistics, in the first seven months of this year, U.S. exports to China jumped 35 percent.

Nationally, our mechanism for having strategic economic dialogue has also been launched, and the first inaugural dialogue will be held in Beijing around the middle of next month. And Chinese naval ships have again paid a visit to the continental America for the first time in six years. And even as we speak our naval ships of the two countries are conducting joint search and rescue maneuvers in Chinese waters.

So, all in all, we feel very happy about the healthy and stable expansion of China-U.S. relations. I think we would not have achieved such a state of our bilateral relations had it not been for your outstanding leadership.

PRESIDENT BUSH: Well, thank you.

PRESIDENT HU: So, with this, I would like to turn it over to you.

PRESIDENT BUSH: Thank you, Mr. President. You're right, you and I have had a lot of meetings. And the reason why is because we recognize that working together we can accomplish a lot for the security of the world and for the prosperity of our people. China is a very important nation, and the United States believes strongly that by working together, we can help solve problems, such as North Korea and Iran.

Our bilateral relations are very good, and we -- you and I are committed to keeping them that way. Obviously, with as much commerce between our countries as there is, there's going to be trade difficulties, but nevertheless, we both adopt a spirit of mutual respect and the desire to work through our problems for the common good of our peoples.

I strongly support your vision, Mr. President, of encouraging your country to become a nation of consumers and not savers, which will inure to the benefit of our manufacturers, both large and small, and our farmers, as well.

I always enjoy our frank and friendly discussions, and I'm looking forward to this one, as well. And I thank you for your hospitality.

Thank you, sir.

END 8:39 A.M. (Local), For Immediate Release, Office of the Press Secretary, November 19, 2006

Technorati Tags: President Bush and White House or China and President Hu Jintao or North Korea and Asia or Doha and Asian Pacific Economic Cooperation