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THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary
_________________________________________________________________专科
For Immediate Release                                           June 29, 2009

REMARKS BY PRESIDENT OBAMA
AND PRESIDENT URIBE OF COLOMBIA
IN JOINT PRESS AVAILABILITY

Oval Office

3:43 P.M. EDT

PRESIDENT OBAMA:  Well, I am very pleased to have President Uribe here today with his delegation from Colombia.  The relationship between the United States and Colombia has been extremely strong.  We've had great cooperation on a whole range of issues, and President Uribe's administration I think has, under very difficult circumstances, performed admirably on a whole range of fronts -- on security, on reducing the influence of the drug cartels, in improving the economic situation for his people, and stabilizing the country.  He has performed with diligence and courage.  And so we are grateful for his friendship and I'm glad that he was able to come and visit us here today.

In our discussions, we talked about a range of issues.  We discussed, most prominently, the interests of both countries in moving forward on a free trade agreement.  This is something that has been discussed for quite some time.  I have instructed Ambassador Kirk, our United States Trade Representative, to begin working closely with President Uribe's team on how we can proceed on a free trade agreement.  There are obvious difficulties involved in the process and there remains work to do, but I'm confident that ultimately we can strike a deal that is good for the people of Colombia and good for the people of the United States.

I commended President Uribe on the progress that has been made in human rights in Colombia and dealing with the killings of labor leaders there, and obviously we've seen a downward trajectory in the deaths of labor unions and we've seen improvements when it comes to prosecution of those who are carrying out these blatant human rights offenses.  President Uribe acknowledges that there remains more work to be done, and we look forward to cooperating with him to continue to improve both the rights of organized labor in Colombia and to protect both labor and civil rights leaders there.

Along those same lines, we obviously think that the steps that have already been made on issues like extrajudicial killings and illegal surveillance, that it is important that Colombia pursue a path of rule of law and transparency, and I know that that is something that President Uribe is committed to doing.

We spoke about the regional challenges.  The drug trafficking that has been such a cancer in the life of Colombia affects the region as a whole.  When I last met with President Calderón of Mexico, he indicated the extraordinary challenges that that country is facing.  Mexico and Colombia are not alone in this.  Throughout the region in Central and South America, we are seeing this problem.  It's important that the United States steps up and cooperates effectively in battling the adverse effects of drug trafficking. 

And that includes, by the way, the United States reducing demand for drugs.  We have responsibilities.  We have responsibilities to reduce the trafficking of guns into the south that help strengthen these cartels and the flows of money and money laundering that at times involves not just the south -- Southern Hemisphere but also the Northern Hemisphere.  And so looking for additional ways that we can cooperate on those issues is very important.

Finally, we spoke about the fact that our relationship is much broader than simply our common enemy in the drug traffickers.  We want a proactive, positive agenda for human development throughout the region and inside Colombia.  And so exploring ways that we can advance clean energy cooperation, how we can advance efforts to improve child nutrition, reduce infant mortality, expand health care to ordinary people -- that is part of what I think President Uribe's comprehensive vision is:  that you don't just use military tools to defeat the enemies of progress, but you use a comprehensive approach that includes improvements in rule of law and improvements in people's day-to-day well-being and their opportunities for economic advancement as very powerful weapons to restore order and to ensure that people feel confident in the future.

And so we want to be a partner with Colombia on these issues.  I'm grateful, again, for President Uribe's friendship, and I'm confident that we are going to be working diligently in the future to advance the interests of both countries.  So, thank you very much.

PRESIDENT URIBE:  Thank you.

Q    President Obama, can we take a picture with you?

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