Remarks Following Discussions With Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey,
June 8, 2005

President Bush. Mr. Prime Minister, welcome to the Oval Office. We’ve had an extensive visit about a lot of issues, and the reason why is because Turkey and the United States has an important strategic relationship. I told the Prime Minister how grateful I was that he was a—is a strong supporter of the broader Middle Eastern initiative. Turkey’s democracy is an important example for the people in the broader Middle East, and I want to thank you for your leadership.

Along these lines, I thanked the Prime Minister for Turkey’s leadership role in Afghanistan. I was most impressed by his report from his trip to Afghanistan and his deep concern for the conditions of the people there and his desire to work with the United States and NATO countries to help improve the lives of the children, for example, in Afghanistan.

We discussed a lot of foreign policy and shared interests between our countries. And one of the most important foreign policy initiatives of my administration—and I know the Prime Minister shares the same desire—is to work with the Palestinians so they can have their own state, their own democracy, living side by side in peace with Israel.

And finally, we discussed the domestic issues. We discussed our economies, and the Prime Minister reminded me that the—in his judgment, Turkey is a good place for U.S.investment. I listened very carefully to what he had to say, but we spent—all in all, it was a very rich and important discussion.

Mr. Prime Minister, thank you for coming.

Prime Minister Erdogan. Thank you, Mr. President. In our meeting with the President, we discussed and evaluated the political partnership that we have with the United States, and we looked into the future with regard to our relations. I can summarize the main titles of our discussion as freedom, democracy, rule of law, fight against terrorism, security, and human rights.

We also had an opportunity to talk about the broader Middle East initiative, with regard to regional developments. We also discussed the Cyprus issue. And we were able to discuss with some depth the issues with regard to Israel, Palestine, the situation in Iraq, Afghanistan.

We discussed and I’m confident that we will continue to have the same kind of solidarity we’ve had in Turkish-U.S. relations in the past, in the future as well.

I also mentioned to the President that Turkey is open to any new investment as a country now of stability and security. And we were very happy to see that the President agreed that he had a positive view on investments.

And we’re happy that we were able to confirm that our strategic relationship will move and will take place in the future, as it has been done in the past.

Thank you.

President Bush. Thank you, sir. Thank you.

Note: The President spoke at 11:25 a.m. in the Oval Office at the White House. Prime Minister Erdogan spoke in Turkish, and his remarks were translated by an interpreter.