George W. Bush photo

Remarks Following a Meeting With United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon

January 16, 2007

President Bush. Mr. Secretary-General, welcome. The last time I visited with you in this Oval Office, you were the Foreign Minister of an important country. Now you come representing the United Nations, and I welcome you. Thank you for your willingness to serve. Thank you for this very important discussion we just had. I appreciated so very much how you opened up the discussion with a strong commitment to democracy and freedom. And the United States is willing—wants to work with the United Nations to achieve a peace through the spread of freedom.

And I want to thank you very much for the wise advice that you have given on a variety of issues. We talked about the Middle East, of course, and the importance of the Quartet. We talked about Darfur. Mr. Secretary-General, I want to thank you for your commitment to help the suffering people in Darfur, and I wish you all the best as you work hard to convince the President of the Sudan that it's in his interest, and in the world's interest, that he allow enhanced African Union peacekeepers in to provide peace and security for people who are suffering.

I want to thank you very much, as well, for our discussions about Iran and North Korea. I wish you all the best in this important job. I admired the way you handled your previous job, and I'm confident you'll do a fine job now.

Secretary-General Ban. Thank you very much, Mr. President. It's a great honor and privilege for me to visit the White House and meet with you, Mr. President, in my new capacity as Secretary-General of the United Nations. I feel it a great honor for me to serve this organization, our global body, United Nations. At the same time, I'm very much humbled by all the challenges which I have to deal with and we are facing in the 21st century.

I would need strong participation and support of the United States in all activities of the United Nations. In fact, I believe that the United Nations and United States have shared objectives: peace and security, freedom, democracy. All these important goals and ideas are what the United States is also trying to achieve.

I hope to work very closely with the U.S. Government, including Mr. President, in realizing and achieving this shared goal. As I start my new administration as Secretary-General, I'd like to have strong commitment and support from U.S. Government, and I'm committed to devote all my time and energy to the address—to address all these important issues—Middle East and Darfur, Lebanon and Somalia, North Korea, Millennium Development Goals, and the climate changes. All are global issues which require global, collective wisdom and effort.

Thank you very much for this opportunity.

President Bush. You're welcome, sir. Thank you.

NOTE: The President spoke at 2 p.m. in the Oval Office at the White House. In his remarks, he referred to President Umar Hassan Ahmad al-Bashir of Sudan.

George W. Bush, Remarks Following a Meeting With United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/269413

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