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CNN Live Event/Special

Target: Terrorism: Bush Holds News Conference with Mexican President

Aired October 04, 2001 - 11:46   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.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: President Bush with Mexico's President Vincent Fox, his second visit to the White House. We saw him there last month. And again, they will make a statement at this time.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It is my honor to welcome my friend back to the White House. It wasn't all the long ago that we were standing out here for the opening ceremony of the first and only state dinner I've had since I've been the president. He came as a friend then and he's come back as a loyal friend to the United States.

September 11th really changed America. President Fox understood that right off the bat. One of the first calls I got was from Vicente Fox. He called expressing his deep condolences to the American people. He was very kind to me; he wished me well.

President Fox understands that an attack on America affects Mexico in a significant way. After all, there are millions of Mexican-Americans and Mexican nationals living in America, men and women who saw a land they love attacked, men and women who have united around the great cause of defending freedom. In this country, we don't ask the question, what is your religion or where are you from? We ask the question, are you united to defend freedom?

BUSH: And there are millions of Mexican-Americans who understand that call. So when the president said, "We stand with you," he's not only saying we stand with the United States government, he's saying we stand with millions of people living in our country, as well.

President Fox and I had a great discussion about ways we can continue to cooperate -- cooperate on security matters along our border, which we are. We need to continue working on other agenda items that we have been working on, and we will.

Obviously, our nation is now focused on the incidents of September 11. But I assured him our relationship will go forward, that we'll work on the issues that we had discussed the last time we were here.

I talked to my friend about our economy. It has been affected significantly by the actions of September the 11th. But I assured him that we will take an aggressive role at the federal level to try to spur economic growth, which is very important since we've got significant amount of trade between our nations.

In sum, I'm so glad he came back. It's comforting to know that our friend to the south is going to be a friend in good times and in tough times.

So, Mr. President, welcome back. Thank you for coming today.

VINCENTE FOX, PRESIDENT OF MEXICO: Thank you.

And thank you, President, the opportunity to be back here again. The opportunity to express very clearly, loudly, our sorrow, our solidarity with your government, with the American people, with the victims and all those who suffered under these attacks.

FOX: Also, the opportunity to reaffirm our commitment. We are a friend, we are neighbors, we are partners, and we want to make very clear that this means commitment all the way, and that we will keep our commitment, and we are working on an every-day basis either in the border, either in Customs, either in migration, either on each of the subjects that have to do with security. We will be side-by-side in your efforts to defeat terrorism in the world and wherever it is.

We will be coordinating, participating, collaborating on our side with our resource that we have at hand. And we know your efforts not only to meet this challenge, we know the efforts also to keep America moving. And that's something that we very proudly see that this nation does not know about defeat, on the contrary, that it is working to come back, to be the leader, to be that strong spirit and economy that is an example for all of us.

And we're working on the same direction. We know that in the economy, in economic terms, things are interactive as well as we buy or our products, services from the United States, we sell a lot of products to the United States, being one of the largest trading two economies in the world. as we buy a lot of products, services, from the United States, we sell a lot of products to the United States, being one of the largest trading two economies in the world.

FOX: And through working on that direction we can also contribute to overcoming this situation.

So thanks again for giving us this opportunity. And we go back knowing that we have a lot of work to do, that we've been doing, and that we will keep on doing.

So thank you, President.

BUSH: Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you very much.

HEMMER: Not taking questions at this time, but clearly a statement of commitment and unity. You heard the president of Mexico saying, we reaffirm our commitment, our commitment all the way. And President Bush saying Vicente has come back -- quote -- "as a loyal friend to the United States." Clearly, this relationship between these two leaders from the U.S. and Mexico growing and growing in a very public manner. TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com