Political Quotes

“I had a chance to welcome Chancellor Kohl, the Chancellor of a united Germany. And I was delighted to do that and welcome him and his Foreign Minister, Hans-Dietrich Genscher, and others in his party. We've had a good meeting. We discussed the European security and the importance of NATO in terms of future security for Europe. We both agreed that we have a lot at stake in the successful conclusion of the Uruguay round. We had detailed discussions about the Soviet Union, and Chancellor Kohl shared with me his thoughts on that important question. And I had a chance to thank Chancellor Kohl for Germany's support during the war and to congratulate him for the leadership role that Germany took in trying to bring aid to the Kurds over there in Iraq. The Chancellor. Thank you very much, Mr. President. Mr. President, ladies and gentlemen, I would like to take this opportunity to thank you and all of our American friends for the unrelenting support which we have been given on our way to complete German unification. For over 40 years our American friends have guaranteed peace and freedom of the free part of our fatherland of what was then the Federal Republic of Germany. Millions of American soldiers have served their military service in our country, far away from their home country. We will never forget that because that was a precondition for the 3d of October, for the Day of German Unity. Today again we talked about the process of political unity for Europe, as we have done numerous times during our telephone conversations. This is really what we have always wanted: to get the support of our American friends and partners. And I'm very pleased to be able to be part of that process, a process which Winston Churchill talked about already in 1946 in his famous speech in Zurich, a process leading up to what he called then ``the united states of Europe.'' And this process, heading towards political unity, economic unity within Europe, obviously also includes cooperation with the United States of America. German-American friendship and friendship between Europe and the United States is of existential importance for a future for all of us. And this also goes for NATO, which is why it is also important in the future that the United States maintains a substantial troop presence in Germany, but also in Europe as a whole. Mr. President, we talked about GATT, about the Uruguay round. The two of us know that it would deal a fatal blow to world trade if we would let protectionism come in and take the upper hand. That does not only hold true for us Germans, we, as one of the leading exporting nations in the world. A failure of GATT would also be a catastrophe for the developing countries. This is why we have to work very hard in order to bring about a success for the Uruguay round, for GATT. And although it is a very difficult subject, I think that we have cause to be carefully optimistic and to see--to state that things are actually moving. As far as the conflict--the war in the Gulf is concerned, I would like to mention here once again what I already told the President. We in Germany and we as Europeans, in Europe as a whole, we want to see his initiatives to be successful. We are very grateful for what Jim Baker did, and I hope that he will continue his missions and that this war, which has been won, will lead also to a peace which is won. The last thing I wanted to mention here has already been, I think, touched upon by the President, and let me say this in one brief sentence. We have a joint interest, and we as Germans have a particular interest, in seeing the reform movements in Central Europe and southeastern Europe and also in the Soviet Union to be successful.”