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At GMF-sponsored event, Bush delivers message of cooperation in addressing challenges

Contact:
Kuros Ghaffari Tel. +1 202 745 3882/577 9585 kghaffari@gmfus.org	Will Bohlen                             Tel. +32 (0) 472 69 3752 wbohlen@gmfus.org

BRUSSELS, BELGIUM (February 21, 2005) — In his first public remarks abroad since the start of his second term, U.S. President George W. Bush told an audience of European dignitaries and policy experts that Europe and the United States are inseparable. “Our relationship is founded on more than nostalgia,” President Bush said in a speech sponsored by The German Marshall Fund of the United States’ Transatlantic Center in Brussels. “No power on earth will ever divide us.”

Before an assembled crowd of more than 300 European, NATO, and Belgian dignitaries, President Bush said the transatlantic alliance’s top priority is bringing a resolution to the Israel-Palestine conflict, and he made a particular call for a contiguous Palestinian West Bank. “A state of scattered territories will not work,” he said.

Using the lens of democracy to address other hotspots around the world, President Bush asked Europe to show the Iraqi people that “the world is with them,” like Europe had done for Afghanistan. “When Europe and America stand together, no problem can stand against us,” President Bush said. “Let us begin a new era of transatlantic unity.”

By choosing Europe as the first foreign visit of his second term, President Bush’s trip to the heart of the European Union and NATO indicates that repairing relations with Europe is a top foreign policy priority in the next four years. The non-partisan German Marshall Fund (GMF) is the only American policy institute in Brussels with the sole mission of improving transatlantic cooperation and understanding and made for a natural choice by the White House to help host the president’s speech.

President Bush was introduced by the Belgian Prime Minister, Guy Verhofstadt, who pointed out poverty and tyranny as the key transatlantic challenges going forward. “I think the time has come to draw a line on the tensions of the recent past,” Verhofstadt said.

A web cast of the event has been posted to http://useu.clients.telemak.com/index.html and will be linked from www.gmfus.org. The event was organized with the help of the U.S. Mission to the European Union, the U.S. Mission to NATO, and the U.S. Embassy to Belgium, in conjunction with the White House and the Belgian government.

After meetings at NATO and the European Union on Tuesday, President Bush’s European tour moves on Wednesday to Mainz, Germany, followed by Bratislava, Slovakia. Tying into the President’s planned meetings in Bratislava with Slovak leaders, including president Ivan Gašparoviè, and a summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin, GMF’s Bratislava office is co-hosting a conference of international regional leaders on democracy and the transatlantic relationship. The conference, entitled “A New Quest for Democracy: Shaping an Agenda for the Euro-Atlantic Community,” will take place on Wednesday, February 23. GMF’s partners in the event are the Slovakia-based Institute for Public Affairs and the Slovak Foreign Policy Association. (For more info on this event, see www.gmfus.org.)

GMF’s Transatlantic Center in Brussels has become a key Brussels forum for policymakers and scholars working on transatlantic relations. By bringing high-level speakers, round-table discussions, and scholars to Brussels to speak, study, and write about transatlantic relations, the Center provides space for addressing the issues affecting both sides of the Atlantic. The office, led by executive director Dr. Ronald D. Asmus, also hosts many GMF seminars, study tours, and exchange programs.

The German Marshall Fund of the United States is a non-partisan American public policy and grantmaking institution dedicated to promoting greater cooperation and understanding between the United States and Europe. Founded in 1972 through a gift from Germany as a permanent memorial to Marshall Plan assistance, GMF maintains a strong presence on both sides of the Atlantic. In addition to its headquarters in Washington, DC, GMF has five offices in Europe: Belgrade, Berlin, Bratislava, Brussels, and Paris.