SYDNEY — U.S. President George W. Bush on Friday urged Asia-Pacific nations to keep up the anti-terror fight, deploying both military might and democratic ideals to turn the tide against extremists.
“Pressure keeps the terrorists on the run, and when on the run, we're safer,” he said. “We must be focused and we must not let up.”
In the speech to business leaders, Mr. Bush prodded Russia and China to honour democratic principles and allow more freedoms. He appealed for international pressure against the military government in Myanmar to stop its crackdown on pro-democracy activists in the Southeast Asian nation.
The President added that North Koreans should share the same liberties that citizens of their democratic neighbours enjoy.
U.S. President George W. Bush and Chinese President Hu Jintao button up their jackets at the end of their bilateral meeting in Sydney on Thursday. (Jason Reed/Reuters)
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Mr. Bush spoke optimistically about the war in Iraq and urged other nations not to turn away.
“We're going to succeed in Iraq,” he said.
Mr. Bush said nations across Asia should understand the importance of fighting terrorism, since they have so often been its victims.
Mr. Bush was about 15 minutes late starting his speech, as aides hustled audience members down from the balcony to fill the many empty seats below. He started his remarks with a gaffe. In Sydney to attend the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation forum, a 21-nation group of Pacific Rim countries whose economies account for nearly half of all global trade, Mr. Bush first referred to the group as OPEC, the cartel of major oil producers. The audience remained quiet through his speech.
Earlier Thursday, the President met with China's President Hu Jintao; on Friday he was meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Mr. Bush and Hu, leaders of two of the world's worst polluting nations, both called on Thursday for greater international co-operation in tackling climate change without stifling economic growth. Mr. Bush repeated that theme in his speech Friday, calling on Pacific Rim nations to lead the way toward a worldwide trade agreement.
“Our challenge is to strengthen the forces of freedom and prosperity in this region,” Mr. Bush said.
He said the best way to open markets was to achieve a breakthrough in global trade negotiations known in the economic world as the Doha round.
“The United States is committed to seizing this opportunity — and we need partners in this region to help lead the effort,” the President said. “No single country can make Doha a success, but it is possible for a handful of countries that are unwilling to make the necessary contributions to bring Doha to a halt.”
Mr. Bush also asked the Asia-Pacific leaders for their co-operation on climate change. He acknowledged the fears of some that the United States was trying to construct a successor to the Kyoto Protocol outside of international efforts already under way.
“We agree these issues must be addressed in an integrated way,” he said. “We take climate change seriously in America.”
The U.S has called for a Sept. 27-28 conference in Washington of the 15 biggest polluters. And UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called for a broader conference in New York on Sept. 24.
The high-level discussions at APEC could shape talks at a UN conference in December in Bali, Indonesia, that will start to chart a successor to the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012. The United States never ratified Kyoto, which requires 35 nations to cut emissions 5 per cent below 1990 levels by 2012.
Mr. Bush has been criticized by environmentalists and others for his opposition to the 1997 Kyoto pact, and China has long been slammed for the huge amounts of greenhouse gases its power plants and industries pump into the atmosphere. The fact that neither China nor India, another major global polluter, were covered by Kyoto was one reason Mr. Bush has opposed it.
But both leaders seemed to be generally in agreement on the subject.
“We believe that the issue of climate change bears on the welfare of the whole humanity and sustainable development of the whole world,” Hu told reporters after his meeting with Mr. Bush. “And this issue should be appropriately tackled through stronger international co-operation.”
Climate control has been designated a top agenda item for this year's APEC meeting.
“We talked about climate change and our desire to work together on climate change,” Mr. Bush said.
Mr. Bush has proposed eliminating tariffs on environmental and clean-energy technologies. In his talks with Hu, Mr. Bush invited the Chinese leader to consider doing the same, said Dan Price, a presidential economic adviser on the National Security Council.
Hu had suggested the United Nations should be the one to spearhead climate control efforts. Mr. Price said that wasn't necessarily contradictory with the Bush approach.
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