[Marinir] President Welcomes President Yudhoyono to the White House

[Yap Hong Gie]

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2005/05/20050525-5.html

The White House
President George W. Bush

For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
May 25, 2005

President Welcomes President Yudhoyono to the White House
The Oval Office

3:36 P.M. EDT

PRESIDENT BUSH: Mr. President, welcome to the Oval Office. 
It's an honor to meet with you again. Last time I was with you, I
congratulated you on winning a hard-fought presidential campaign.
Now I had a chance to congratulate you on fulfilling your campaign
promises. I want to thank you for your impressive record.

I also want to thank you for the strength and the leadership you
showed during what must have been an incredibly difficult period for
the government and the people of Indonesia during the catastrophe
after the tsunami. You showed good -- great courage. And it's been
our honor to work with you to help save lives and to bring people --
order out of the chaos that ensued after the terrible disaster.

We had a very good conversation today. We talked about a variety of
subjects, all aimed about making our countries more peaceful and
more prosperous, and the world more peaceful. Indonesia will play a
large role, and a significant role, in helping us understand that
great religions should co-exist in a peaceful way.

Mr. President, thank you for coming and welcome to the Oval Office.

PRESIDENT YUDHOYONO: Mr. President, I'm also pleased to have the
opportunity to meet you again after we met in Chile during the APEC
meeting.

As I have said during this meeting, that I do hope that our
cooperation can be strengthened from time to time. And as we
discussed on many subjects -- the education, the economic
cooperations, the counter-terrorism, regional situation and others --
I extremely hope that Indonesia can continue its reforms,
democratizations and economic reconstruction. And I do hope that you
could maintain your contribution and support to us in continuing our
reforms and democratizations.

PRESIDENT BUSH: Thank you, sir. We'll answer two questions a side.
We'll start with the American person, Jennifer.

Q Thank you, sir. With 400,000 frozen embryos in this country
unlikely to all get adopted, why do you think that either storing
them or even discarding them is better than using them for research?

PRESIDENT BUSH: She's asking about a very delicate subject called
embryonic stem cell research. I have made my position very clear on
that issue. I believe that the use of federal monies that end up
destroying life is not -- is not positive, is not good. And so,
therefore, I'm against the extension of the research of using more
federal dollars on new embryonic stem cell lines.

As you know, I made the decision that existing lines should receive
federal dollars. And we've had about 600 different experiments,
maybe 3,000 more to go. And so you asked about frozen embryos --
that would entail the destruction of life, and the use of federal
dollars to destroy life is something I simply do not support.

Q How about goodwill for relation of our military?

PRESIDENT YUDHOYONO: Yes, we discussed with President Bush on 
the effort in normalizing our military-to-military relations. Of course,
Indonesia has to be thankful for the resumptions of IMET program.
And we have to do more along with the reforms of the military that
is conducted in Indonesia. I do hope that in the future we -- we are
moving ahead for fully normalizations of the military-to-military
relations.

Actually, the atmosphere is positive that of course in part of
Indonesia we have to continue our reform to many things -- toward
the normalization of our military-to-military relations.

PRESIDENT BUSH: The President did mention that we're revitalizing
the military education training program. It makes sense that we have
mil-to-mil exchanges, military-to-military exchanges. We want young
officers from Indonesia coming to the United States. We want there
to be exchanges between our military corps -- that will help lead to
better understandings. And so I -- the President told me he's in the
process of reforming the military, and I believe him. So this is a
first step toward what will be fuller mil-to-mil cooperation.

Cameron.

Q Again on stem cells, Mr. President. If I understood you correctly,
the embryos put together for in vitro fertilization do contain life.
And if that's the case, do you believe that those people who create
those embryos for in vitro fertilization have an obligation to
ensure that they are brought to term if they are, in fact, not
needed by the original --

PRESIDENT BUSH: No, the issue that involves the federal government
is whether or not we use taxpayers' money that would end up
destroying that life. That's the issue at hand. And as you know, I'm
the first President to say we could use federal dollars on embryonic
stem cells, but those stem cells had already -- had been created, so
that -- it's from the moment I made the declaration forward that we
would not use federal taxpayers' money to destroy life. That's the
issue. And the Congress has made its position clear, and I've made
my position clear. And I will be vetoing the bill they send to me if
it were to pass the United States Senate.

Now, there is research going on in the private sector, there's a lot
of research on adult stem cells that appears to be very promising.
And my government strongly supports stem cells. There must be a
balance -- strongly supports adult stem cell research. But there
must be a balance between science and ethics. And I've made my
decision as to how best achieve that balance.

Q We understand that United States has pledged a commitment -- a lot
have pledged a commitment to the tsunami relief reconstruction and
effort. I would like to ask, how is it going to be realized, the
commitment?

PRESIDENT BUSH: Well, the commitment was first realized when we
moved an aircraft carrier with a lot of equipment in the
neighborhood. And many of our Navy officers and Marine officers and
Marine enlisted, Navy enlisted personnel were the first people on
the ground to start helping, in coordination with the Indonesian
government.

That commitment is further being met by expenditures out of the
United States Congress. Plus, I put together kind of an interesting
group of private citizens to help raise money for the tsunami
relief -- that would be my father and President Clinton, number 41
and 42. And they have worked hard to convince our fellow citizens to
contribute -- these are private-sector citizens -- to contribute to
help provide relief, as well. I'm proud of my government's -- more
importantly, my country's commitment to help the people who suffer.
And the President and I talked a lot about the ongoing relief
efforts. We thanked the government for their hard work, and I told
him the American people will stand with these folks.

Thank you all very much.

END 3:45 P.M. EDT