President George W. Bush on Tuesday hosted South African President Thabo Mbeki in a meeting aimed at boosting bilateral ties and winning US support for a regional rescue plan conceived by Mbeki to end war and poverty in Africa.
"A moment has come for us, as Africans, really to turn the corner, to deal with all of these problems of violence and conflict and poverty, disease and so on," Mbeki told Bush in the White House Oval Office.
The Millennium Africa Recovery Programme (MAP) -- a regional rescue plan conceived by Mbeki and the presidents of Algeria and Nigeria -- would oblige Africa to fight AIDS, end its wars, lower investment risks, root out corruption and diversify production.
"You know the challenges we face in South Africa, Mr. President, and the challenges we face on the African continent and, quite clearly, we need your support and involvement in order to solve those problems," Mbeki said.
"I'm happy we are able to meet today so we can look into ... the matter of the bilateral relations as well as what we might do on the wider scale."
In a joint statement released after the half-hour meeting, the two leaders said they would set up a joint secretariat to coordinate regular consultations between their governments. Bush added he looked forward to the opportunity to visit South Africa as part of the effort to foster the growth of "our bilateral relationship and promoting our shared agenda."
Asked before the meeting if they would be discussing the AIDS pandemic being addressed by the United Nations this week, Mbeki answered: "We certainly will discuss it. We have to do something because, in many instances, these are diseases which are not only caused by poverty, some of them, but also cause poverty.
"So if you're talking about an African recovery, you cannot but discuss AIDS and really confront it. Malaria, tuberculosis, all sorts of communicable diseases are a critical matter of what has to happen. We have to address that."
Mbeki quickly rebuffed criticism that he had not done enough to deal with the crisis. "People must look at what we're doing in South Africa, not their perception of what they think we are doing," he said.
Bush, who noted the United States was helping fund a strategy to defeat the problem of AIDS, agreed that the disease was "an incredibly important part of our dialogue."
Mbeki's visit here, which follows a June 12-14 state visit to Britain and precedes a trip to Germany Wednesday, is part of a plan to consult leaders of developed countries for input before a final draft of MAP is put to an Organisation of African Unity (OAU) summit in Lusaka in July.
Also expected to be high on the agenda in the meeting with Bush is the US African Growth and Opportunities Act (AGOA), which gives 35 sub-Saharan countries preferential access to US markets in exchange for good governance and a market-based economy.
He also took the opportunity to take a quick jab at the European Community: "I discussed it in Europe. I talked to the Europeans. I said, "We've made a downpayment into the international trust to battle AIDS." "They should contribute," I said. And I hope they do."
The United States is South Africa's largest single trading partner, with total trade increasing from 1.8 billion dollars in 1994 to 4.6 billion dollars last year, according to government statistics. Last year, South African exports to the United States totalled 2 billion dollars with imports from the United States totalling 2.7 billion dollars. |
