Press Gaggle by Dana Perino and Dennis Wilder, NSC Senior Director for Asian Affairs

Business Wire, August 4, 2008

WASHINGTON -- Aboard Air Force One

En route Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska

4:08 P.M. EDT

MS. PERINO: I'll give you a little bit about the President's day today, and then I'm going to turn it over to Dennis Wilder to give you a preview of tomorrow's meetings with the South Koreans.

The President started his day with his regular briefings, and then he had a meeting with the ruler of Dubai. They had a good meeting. They have developed a good, personal relationship over the course of their meetings. They spent a majority of their time talking about education efforts, especially the ones that the ruler of Dubai is focused on, improving education around the Arab world. So they spent a lot of time talking about that; trade opportunities.

And the President also expressed his appreciation to them for -- to him for the efforts that the UAE has made in improving diplomatic relations in the region, especially when it comes to Iraq, as they have announced an ambassador, named an ambassador; and they've also forgiven the debts that the Iraqis had to their country.

So they had a good meeting and then the President flew here. Upon boarding Air Force One the President signed into law S.3370, the Libyan Claims Resolution Act. This has been released back home, just as we were taxiing, so you don't have to put out an urgent act -- urgent announcement.

Just a quick word. The passage of this legislation, what it means is that it facilitates the conclusion of a U.S.-Libyan claim settlement agreement which would resolve all outstanding terrorism-related claims by Americans against Libya, including those related to Pan Am 103 and the bombing of the La Belle discotheque in Berlin. It's a critical element of the United States' efforts to provide the best opportunity for American claimants to receive fair compensation in an expedited way, and to foster continued improvement in the United States' relationship with Libya.

And the President wanted to thank the Congress for their efforts in getting this bill to him. It passed with unanimous -- it passed unanimously, came to his desk I think this past -- today. Is today Monday? Sorry, all the days have gone together; sorry about that.

So what I'd like to do now is turn it over to Dennis, who will give you a preview of tomorrow and then he'll take questions in regard to anything for tomorrow's meeting, on the Asia trip. And then I can finish up if there's other things.

Q Hi, Dennis.

MR. WILDER: Hey, how are you? Okay. The President's day in Korea will begin with an embassy greeting to the American staff. He'll then proceed to the Blue House at approximately 9:30 a.m., where he'll have an official arrival ceremony and review an Honor Guard.

He will then participate in a meeting with the President of South Korea and his senior staff. As we've said, that meeting will cover a variety of issues, certainly the U.S.-Korean relationship. They want to continue to work on the 21st century strategic alliance between Korea and the United States. They'll talk about global issues, particularly those areas of the world where we are cooperating closely -- like Iraq and Afghanistan. They'll talk about bilateral issues; certainly review the military realignment policy and review how we're doing on base transformation in Korea.

They will certainly discuss the free trade agreement and their strategies for getting it through their respective legislatures. And of course they'll discuss the visa waiver program that the South Koreans are very interested in having with the United States.

Obviously another subject of great interest will be North Korea: the progress in the six-party talks, the human rights situation in North Korea, the tragic shooting and death of a South Korean tourist in North Korea on July the 11th.

They will move from the meeting to a joint press availability. And then they will move on at approximately 11:35 a.m. to a social lunch, which is preceded by a tea between the President and Mrs. Bush and President Lee Myung-bak and his wife. The lunch will be in an interesting setting. The Koreans have offered lunch in the rustic Spring House, which will be their way of doing something akin to the Camp David visit.

After lunch the President and Mrs. Bush will proceed to Yongsan Garrison, the headquarters of American Forces Korea. There he'll have a troop event not only with American forces, but with also Korean forces, some of whom have served in Iraq and he will talk about our alliance, talk about the important mission of American and Korean forces.

At approximately 2:30 p.m. we will fly on to Thailand for our meetings there.

I'll stop and take questions.

Q Dennis, I don't think you mentioned the issue of beef imports in that list. Can you tell me from the U.S. perspective has that issue dissipated? And if not, what's to discuss between the two leaders?

MR. WILDER: Certainly, I think that beef as an agenda item has receded. As you know, we have a voluntary agreement between our beef exporters and Korean beef importers. That agreement seems to be working extremely well. American beef is going back into the Korean marketplace, it's popular. The imports of American beef are going well, as far as we can tell.