President Meets with President Fox and Prime Minister Martin
:
PRESIDENT BUSH:...I appreciate the meetings
we just had. Our relationships are important today. We intend to keep our
relationships strong. ...
And so we had a good discussion about prosperity and security.... It's important
for us to work to make sure our countries are safe and secure, in order that our
people can live in peace, as well as our economies can grow. We've got a lot of
trade with each other and we intend to keep it that way. We've got a lot of
crossings of the border, I intend to make our borders more secure and facilitate
legal traffic.
...We'll be spending time talking about the neighborhood, the countries in our
region, and how best we can work together to make sure that democracy is firmly
a part of the future of this neighborhood of ours. ...
PRESIDENT FOX: ... Today, we have met to hold a very important encounter that
has to do with the future of our nations. In the last decade, trade between our
countries, the flows of investment of the creation of jobs have held a good
pace. And these efforts have been successful thanks to NAFTA, this bilateral
cooperation, this trilateral cooperation has now become strengthened and it has
expanded....
This Partnership for Security, this Partnership
for Prosperity, for the quality of life can have no other objective, beyond
improving the quality of life, itself, and the development of our peoples and of
our societies.
... all of us feel proud to present this joint statement to you. It reflects a
shared vision for North America that will be a framework for cooperation, for
partnership between our governments and nations. ...
PRIME MINISTER MARTIN: Good afternoon. It's a real pleasure to be here in Texas
and to stand with President Bush and President Fox as representatives of a
strong North America. We represent three sovereign nations that have
formed one of the most successful partnerships in the world.
....In a world in constant change, we need a renewed partnership, more strong,
dynamic. And we must have a road map that will bring us there. The road map
is the North American Partnership for Security and Prosperity, which we are
starting today. ... The partnership that we are starting today acknowledges the
fact that in a modern world the objective of prosperity, security and a better
quality of life have never been as inter-dependent.
....In terms of security, we understand that protecting our borders is a crucial
checkpoint on the road to our collective prosperity. Our safe borders secure our
people not only against terrorism, but they make possible a speedy flow of
goods, services and people and information among our three nations. ...
PRESIDENT BUSH: I am pleased that there are democracies in our hemisphere. As a
matter of fact, every country is a democracy except one, Cuba. And that's
incredible progress. And I look forward to working with whomever the people of
Mexico choose. The choices as to who will lead Mexico, or any other country, is
not the choice of the United States President, the United States government, or
the United States people. It is the choice of the Mexican people. ....
PRESIDENT BUSH: The future of our three countries will best be served by
establishing trade relations with the rest of the hemisphere. It's kind of
the most logical extension of a vision that recognizes that common trading areas
are going to be needed in order to maintain lifestyle, particularly as the Far
East begins to emerge as strong competitors for capital and goods and services
and markets. ....
...we have entered into an agreement with the Central American nations, called
CAFTA. I think -- I know it's an important part of the prosperity agenda
throughout the hemisphere, and I asked Congress to make sure that they approve
CAFTA this year.
Thank you. Caren.
Q (As translated.) Mr. Presidents and Mr. Prime Minister, I wanted to ask you
what concrete actions do your governments want to lay out in order to make
this partnership a reality as far as energy markets, which is a very
critical issue for all of our countries -- energy markets? I also want to ask
you in this security and prosperity partnership, when will you include the
migratory, or immigration policy in this partnership?
And, President Bush, I wanted to ask you about your opinion about those
people who are hunting migrant people along the border.
PRESIDENT BUSH: I'm against vigilantes in the United States of America.
I'm for enforcing law in a rational way. That's why you got a Border Patrol, and
they ought to be in charge of enforcing the border.
PRESIDENT FOX: (As translated.) As far as concrete actions, the first concrete
actions are those that have to do with all of the topics addressed by this
Partnership for Security and Prosperity and quality of life....