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CNN Saturday Morning News

Bush Prepares for Trip to Europe

Aired June 09, 2001 - 09:25   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.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: President Bush is at his Texas ranch this weekend, boning up for his upcoming trip to Europe. It is his first extended international trip since becoming president.

CNN White House correspondent Kelly Wallace joining us live from Crawford, Texas, with more.

And Kelly, this is not going to be an easy trip for the president, is it?

KELLY WALLACE, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Not at all, Miles; definitely expected to be a very challenging trip for this president, his first presidential appearance on the European stage. Challenging, because many European allies are very angry with the administration's position on a wide range of issues, such as global warming.

Mr. Bush outraged, really, European allies when he decided not to support an international global warming treaty. In light of that criticism, the president will be making a statement Monday promising that his administration takes the issue seriously. Ultimately the White House is expected to unveil some alternatives to that treaty, known as the Kyoto protocol, but no specifics expected from the president during his trip to Europe.

And then there are many other contentious issues, including U.S. plans to push through a missile defense system. Now, the president touched on this issue yesterday during a brief visit to Iowa, where he was touting his tax cut victory. The president saying that such a system is needed to protect the United States and European allies from the new threats around the world.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: That stay our (ph) United States and our allies ought to develop the capacity to address the true threats of the 21st century. The true threats are biological and informational warfare; the true threats are the fact that some rogue nations who can't stand America or our allies or our freedoms or our successes will try to point a missile at us. And we must have the capacity to shoot that missile down.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALLACE: Now, the president will wrap up his trip with a visit to Slovenia, and there he will hold his first face-to-face meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, the Russians have been also very critical of the U.S. plans to pursue this missile defense system, and also critical of the administration's contention that the 1972 antiballistic missile treaty, the treaty between the U.S. and Russia, must be amended.

Now, aides say they don't expect any major agreements to come out of this first meeting or summit between the U.S. and Russia. They say it's more of a chance for the two leaders to get to know each other.

And Miles, one other contentious issue. Mr. Bush leaves Monday, as we've been reporting, the day Timothy McVeigh is expected to be executed. This to be the first federal execution in 38 years in the U.S. European nations are strongly, strongly against the death penalty. So that's another example of the president taking a different position from his European allies, and likely to possibly get an earful from some of his colleagues on this issue as well -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: All right, Kelly Wallace.

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