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THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
( Canberra, Australia)
For Immediate Release November 20,-19-96
REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT,
PRIME MXIISTIR JOHN HOWARD
AND OPPOSITION LEADER KIM BSAZLEY
IN TOAST REMARKS
The Great Hall
The Parliament House
Canberra, Australia
1: 25 P. M. ( L PRIME MINISTER HOWARD: Mr. President; Mrs. Clinton;
Your Excellencies; the Leader of the opposition, Mr. Beasley, my
parliamentary colleagues; state premiers; ladies and gentlemen:
This Is, by any measure, a special occasion, we welcome the
President of the United States, a person recently reelected to
lead the most powerful nation in the world. we also welcome him
as the leader of a nation with which we have so much in common.
our relationship is a very deep and rich one. it's
a relationship that is forged on the basis of many common values,
many common elements of our history, our common service on the
battlefields of the world in defense of liberty and in defense of
freedom. We welcome him as a friend. He comes hero as the
leader of a nation with which we have shared so much in the past,
but with which we share so much in the future. one of the, I
think, great elements of the relationship between the United
states and Australia is that we are in the process of
transforming a relationship that was forged in early and more
difficult circumstances Into a new partnership in the Asia
Pacific region. We welcome both of you, Mr. President, as friends of
this country. We hope that you will enjoy your stay here. The
President of the United states is always welcome in Australia.
( Applause.) But as Dr. Johnson reminded us, we should always
keep our relationships in good repair and we should never take
close relationships for granted. We should always work on them,
nurture them and water them. And that is what today's visit and
today's events are all about.
We hope you have a delightful time. we hope you
have some time off, as well as some time for work. You are very,
very welcome, Mr. President and Mrs. Clinton. ( Applause.)
I would now invite the leader of the opposition, Mr.
Kim Beazley to support my remarks. ( Applause.)
MR. EEAZLEY: Thank you very much, Mr. Prime
Minister. Hr. President, Mrs. Clinton, Excellencies,
parliamentary colleagues, ladies and gentlemen: This is a
delightful occasion for all us here in this hall. I don't think
I've set it decked out better. And I think you'll find the
entertainment very much to your taste and I think you'll find
your time here in Australia about as enjoyable as you can fit
into four days, which is lunaticly short. ( Laughter.) I've got
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to tell you that. But we'll do the very best for you we can
while you're here, all of us.
I am delighted, too, to see Mrs. Clinton hero, as
wall, after the enormous dedication and energy that she's shown
in assisting your administration and in the course of the last
election. ( Applause.) And I want to congratulate you on that election
victory. I always like to see a fellow win an election. It's a
it's a delight for those of us in opposition to think that
these things can occur from time to time. ( Laughter.) It was a
historic one, indeed.
Looking back, you are the only southern Democrat
since Appomattox to win a second term. Woodrow Wilson doesn't
count he won it from New Jersey. So you're the only southern
Democrat since Appomattox to win a second term as a President of
the United States. And I don't mention Appomattox in a
gratuitous fashion here at all. it was a defining moment for the
modern American nation the event which underwrote America's
role in the 20th century. That you reunited after that, that you
emerged with your morality intact meant that America could
exercise leadership of the democratic nations this century.
And America has been the bastion of democracy this
century, as you visited at the end of it. If you'd been visiting
us here in the middle, of course, you'd have been a bastion
looking around you seeing democracy in retreat everywhere. The
stand that the United States took for the entirety of this
century means that you visit here now and you look at democracy
as the norm as the system governing the nations around the
globe. And in those fights and struggles that you've had over
the years this century to preserve that, to keep decency alive in
international politics, it's been a matter of some pride for us
here in this nation that we have been there with you as well.
There's another reason why I want to mention
Appomattox and note and your status as the most successful
southern Democratic candidate for President since that period of
time. The way in which you reached out to all Americans of all
ethnic, racial, cultural and religious backgrounds, and included
them in your vision of the United States is an inspiration to all
of us. ( Applause.) In the days when I was Defense Minister, it was
fashionable to say that the United States was in decline, What
an extraordinary change over the course of the last decade. The
way in which the global economy works from this point on, the
needs and security of the nations of the economy mean, if
anything, America's role has got larger over the last decade and
the opportunity greater.
AS the new international economy emerges, based on,
essentially, information technology and telecommunications, once
again there's United States companies, United states initiatives
leading the way. And I don't think there's been any President of
the United States who comprehends that better than you.
So I'm looking forward to learning a great deal from
you during the course of this visit. I think that you've got
quite a story to tell in this country. But don't tell it for tkoo
long. Get out on the beaches. Get out on the golf courses. Get
out snorkeling and have a terrific time here. ( Applause.)
PRIME MINISTER HOWARD: Thank you, Mr. 8eazley. I
now invite the President to respond. ( Applause.)
THE PRBSIPSNT: Thank you very much. Prime minister
and Mrs. Howard, Hr. speaker and Mrs. Halverson, Madame
President, nr. Reid, Mr. Beazley, Mts. Annus, Ambassador McCarthy:
Let me say that Hillary and I and all of us in our delegation
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have very much looked forward to coming here. so far, our
experiences have even exceeded our bopes. WA have loved every
minute of it. I love the crowds welcoming us in last night. I
think I like Mr. Beazley reminding me that I'm the first southern
Democrat since Appomattox to be elected twice. But I'll have to
wait until I get home to see how that plays at home. ( Laughter.)
We're grateful to be here in Canberra, where there
is clearly a touch of America in the planning of Walter Burley
Griffin, who came from Hillary's home state of Illinois. we feel
very much that we are at home and among friends.
This morning I had a good meeting with the Prime
Minister. I was honored to meet your Cabinet. I was honored to
reaffirm our remarkable security relationship, to review our
common efforts to reduce the danger of weapons of mass
destruction, an effort in which Australian leadership has been so
vital. We're working to provide peace and stability in the
Asia Pacific region together. And together we're going to make a
big difference in building the prosperity of tomorrow, increasing
the ties of trade and investment not only between our two
nations, but throughout the area.
The scope and depth of our cooperation for a long
time now is truly extraordinary, but not surprising. it is the
hallmark of a relationship between two democracies that has grown
through struggles of five wars and a whole century's hard labors
of peace. Half a world of oceans separates us, but the currents
of friendship and commerce and culture flow constantly between
our shores and they are more binding than the land bridges that
connected the continents eons ago.
we have always looked to Australia with groat hope,
with great trust, with great admiration. we see those
expectations from what may be the very first official United
States act dealing with Australia. In 1179, Benjamin Franklin
issued an unusual passport for Captain Cook who was then
returning from one of his explorations here in the South Pacific.
That was, of course,-during our war of independence. And
Franklin sent special orders to the commanders of all American
ships not to attack the ships of the British captain, but to
treat him and his crew with all civility and kindness. He wrote
that Cook's explorations would facilitate communication between
distant nations to the benefit of mankind in general.
Franklin was a prophet. From our common struggle in
five wars, to the trade we have created, to our shared efforts to
reduce the nuclear threat, the bonds between our distant nations
have indeed been an immense benefit not only to ourselves, but to
mankind in general. The United States is profoundly grateful for
thin relationship, for the affection and the warmth that has
grown between our citizens.
For many reasons our ties have grown. One of the
most important is that we see in each other qualities that we
prize and hops for in ourselves. We admire in each other the
pioneering spirit that our forbears brought to the tasks of
pushing back the frontiers and building nations.
AS We Move into a new century, we face new and very
different frontiers. we are called upon not to homestead In the
wilderness, but to build for the security and the prosperity of a
new era, to deal with the challenges of this new explosion in the
global economy and information technology in the diversity within
all of our own societies. But we still need that frontier
spirit, we still need to believe that with courage and vision
and daring and a firm adherence to our shared and unshakable
values, we can make the future better than the present and leave
a world worthy of our children and our heritage.
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I want all of you to know how very much we Americans
like and admire and value Australia and her people. We want the
21st century to be a large partnership between ourselves for the
betterment of all of humankind. I believe that we are entering
the era of greatest possibility in human history. I believe
there will be more people able to live out their dreams than any
time in all of human existence if the values, the record, the
partnership we have established can chart the way to the future
we long to build. And I promise you that we, in the United States,
will do our best to be worthy of our friendship and that kind of
future. Thank you very much. ( Laughter.)
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