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CNN Live Saturday

President Bush Arrives In Thailand For APEC Summit

Aired October 18, 2003 - 14:21   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


ANDREA KOPPEL, CNN ANCHOR: President Bush is now on the third leg of his eight-day trip to Asia and Australia. The focus of Mr. Bush's whirlwind trip, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit, which gets under way Monday in Thailand's capital.
Mr. Bush began his six-nation tour yesterday in Japan. From there, he flew to Manila, the capital of the Philippines. Just a short time ago, the president arrived in Bangkok, the Thai capital, where the APEC Summit will be held. After wrapping up his visit there, Mr. Bush heads to Singapore, then he travels to nearby Bali, Indonesia and finally to Australia.

Much of the focus of Mr. Bush's stop in Bangkok will be on economic matters, but he's also expected to use the APEC Summit to try to shore up support for the war on terrorism. As we said before, his arrival in the Thai capital, Mr. Bush made a quick visit to the capital of the Philippines, where he addressed the country's congress. He is the first U.S. president to do so since Dwight Eisenhower. In his speech, the president focused on the battle against terror.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Nations that choose to support terror are complicit in a war against civilization. Nations that try to ignore terror and hope it will only strike others are deluding themselves, undermining our common defense, and inviting a future of catastrophic violence.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KOPPEL: To talk more about the President Bush's mission abroad is Tony Karon, who is a senior editor with time.com. He joins us from New York.

Tony, we know what's at the top of the Asian-Pacific Economic Conference's agenda. They're going to talk about the economies and trying to bring their economies back from the dead, in some instances. But what's at the top of Mr. Bush's to-do list?

TONY KARON, SENIOR EDITOR, TIME.COM: Well, I think as you correctly said, a lot of what the president wants to do in Asia is shore up support for the war on terrorism. But unfortunately, he's dealing with a situation where support for the U.S. leadership in Asia depends on the U.S. being able to articulate a vision in which its own interests are the interests of the region as a whole. And when it's sort of perceived as old heroism all the time, that's very hard to do because, for these countries, terrorism is certainly a problem, but not the major problem.

KOPPEL: Right. Well, what are some of the economic concerns that are -- that exist in various countries in the Asia-Pacific region?

KARON: Well, as you said, they're concerned to revive the economies and still getting -- in many senses, getting over the aftershocks of the currency crisis of the late 1990s. There's also a major concern about the state of the world economy and U.S. demand and so on.

Unfortunately, there's very little grants for agreement between the various parties on the question of currency rates, which is a big U.S. concern, the idea that the dollar is actually too strong and is discouraging countries from importing goods from the U.S. and is making imports from them too cheap. But I think also, in the wider sense, for some of these countries there's a concern that the war on terrorism is actually making it more difficult for them. And ironically to combat al Qaeda -- for example, Indonesia's present (UNINTELLIGIBLE) during the U.N. General Assembly, that in her view, the Iraq invasion has actually caused more problems than its actually solved. And I think there's something of a give and take that's likely there.

KOPPEL: Well, another topic that I know is not just on the U.S. agenda, but also the region's countries, and that is North Korea's nuclear program. Can we expect any kind of consensus to come out of this meeting as to how to move forward?

KARON: I think that's very difficult, because I think, at the moment, part of the problem is that there's not a clear consensus emerging from within the Bush administration itself on that question. Obviously, these countries, there will be a consensus that North Korea should be stopped from going nuclear. The question is how to do that and the relative importance of negotiation and incentives versus actually trying to isolate and put pressure on them. And I think on that, the Bush administration has yet to indicate a very clear position.

KOPPEL: That's right. That very common now in this administration, tug of war between the hawks and the doves, the Pentagon and the State Department continues, I'm afraid. Tony Karon joining us from New York. Thanks for coming in.

KARON: You're welcome.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired October 18, 2003 - 14:21   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANDREA KOPPEL, CNN ANCHOR: President Bush is now on the third leg of his eight-day trip to Asia and Australia. The focus of Mr. Bush's whirlwind trip, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit, which gets under way Monday in Thailand's capital.
Mr. Bush began his six-nation tour yesterday in Japan. From there, he flew to Manila, the capital of the Philippines. Just a short time ago, the president arrived in Bangkok, the Thai capital, where the APEC Summit will be held. After wrapping up his visit there, Mr. Bush heads to Singapore, then he travels to nearby Bali, Indonesia and finally to Australia.

Much of the focus of Mr. Bush's stop in Bangkok will be on economic matters, but he's also expected to use the APEC Summit to try to shore up support for the war on terrorism. As we said before, his arrival in the Thai capital, Mr. Bush made a quick visit to the capital of the Philippines, where he addressed the country's congress. He is the first U.S. president to do so since Dwight Eisenhower. In his speech, the president focused on the battle against terror.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Nations that choose to support terror are complicit in a war against civilization. Nations that try to ignore terror and hope it will only strike others are deluding themselves, undermining our common defense, and inviting a future of catastrophic violence.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KOPPEL: To talk more about the President Bush's mission abroad is Tony Karon, who is a senior editor with time.com. He joins us from New York.

Tony, we know what's at the top of the Asian-Pacific Economic Conference's agenda. They're going to talk about the economies and trying to bring their economies back from the dead, in some instances. But what's at the top of Mr. Bush's to-do list?

TONY KARON, SENIOR EDITOR, TIME.COM: Well, I think as you correctly said, a lot of what the president wants to do in Asia is shore up support for the war on terrorism. But unfortunately, he's dealing with a situation where support for the U.S. leadership in Asia depends on the U.S. being able to articulate a vision in which its own interests are the interests of the region as a whole. And when it's sort of perceived as old heroism all the time, that's very hard to do because, for these countries, terrorism is certainly a problem, but not the major problem.

KOPPEL: Right. Well, what are some of the economic concerns that are -- that exist in various countries in the Asia-Pacific region?

KARON: Well, as you said, they're concerned to revive the economies and still getting -- in many senses, getting over the aftershocks of the currency crisis of the late 1990s. There's also a major concern about the state of the world economy and U.S. demand and so on.

Unfortunately, there's very little grants for agreement between the various parties on the question of currency rates, which is a big U.S. concern, the idea that the dollar is actually too strong and is discouraging countries from importing goods from the U.S. and is making imports from them too cheap. But I think also, in the wider sense, for some of these countries there's a concern that the war on terrorism is actually making it more difficult for them. And ironically to combat al Qaeda -- for example, Indonesia's present (UNINTELLIGIBLE) during the U.N. General Assembly, that in her view, the Iraq invasion has actually caused more problems than its actually solved. And I think there's something of a give and take that's likely there.

KOPPEL: Well, another topic that I know is not just on the U.S. agenda, but also the region's countries, and that is North Korea's nuclear program. Can we expect any kind of consensus to come out of this meeting as to how to move forward?

KARON: I think that's very difficult, because I think, at the moment, part of the problem is that there's not a clear consensus emerging from within the Bush administration itself on that question. Obviously, these countries, there will be a consensus that North Korea should be stopped from going nuclear. The question is how to do that and the relative importance of negotiation and incentives versus actually trying to isolate and put pressure on them. And I think on that, the Bush administration has yet to indicate a very clear position.

KOPPEL: That's right. That very common now in this administration, tug of war between the hawks and the doves, the Pentagon and the State Department continues, I'm afraid. Tony Karon joining us from New York. Thanks for coming in.

KARON: You're welcome.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com