Sydney, Australia – President Bush conferred today with an Australian opposition candidate who is anti-war and could soon be in a position to challenge Bush’s Iraq policies.
Bush met with Labor Party candidate Kevin Rudd, who has vowed to bring Australian troops home from Iraq if elected. That’s in sharp contrast to the strong support for the war and Bush’s recent military buildup from Prime Minister John Howard.
Rudd leads Howard by a wide margin in polls for elections expected to be held within the next three months. The White House kept the session with Rudd, held in Bush’s hotel, as low-key as possible.
The president also prepared to deliver a mixed message of encouragement and concern to Chinese President Hu Jintao, leader of one of the world’s fastest-growing economies and one of its most formidable military powers.
Bush and his aides say he’s eager to talk to Hu today about increasing trade and about climate control and to express satisfaction with Beijing’s role in pressing North Korea to agree to disavow nuclear weapons. But he may discuss product-safety issues following a rash of recalls in the United States and register his worries about China’s exchange-rate policies.
