William H. Frist: “this morning, President Bush, accompanied by the Presidents of five African States--Botswana, Ghana, Niger, Mozambique…”

“this morning, President Bush, accompanied by the Presidents of five African States--Botswana, Ghana, Niger, Mozambique, and Namibia--announced the African Growth and Opportunity Act forum that will be held in July of this year in Senegal. At that joint meeting and announcement of the Senegal meeting, I had the opportunity to sit down and talk with each of these African leaders, the Presidents of their respective countries, about the particular challenges their countries face and how the United States of America, working in partnership with them, can help. We discussed our continuing efforts to help the nations of Africa fight disease and hunger and to develop sound, healthy, and accountable governance. In our conversations, I underscored the need for continued political reform, for economic development, for investment in human capital, especially as we combat an issue the President talked a lot about earlier in the press announcement, and that is the tyranny of HIV/AIDS. We also discussed the President's plan to offer additional emergency aid to Africa at the upcoming G8 summit in July. This money is in addition to the $674 million the President announced last week during Prime Minister Tony Blair's visit to Washington. Needless to say, the African Presidents were overwhelmed by these initiatives. They were impressed by the leadership of Prime Minister Blair and President Bush and by the generosity of the American people.…”