PARIS — President Bush said Friday that just as the United States helped Europe rebuild after World War II, the powers must stand with newborn democracies such as Afghanistan and Iraq and reach out to people yearning for liberty, especially in the Middle East.
Bush delivered his speech, a progress report on transatlantic relations, in France, a nation that was crucial to America’s quest for independence. Arriving in Paris from Rome, where he met with Pope Benedict XVI, Bush took a motorcade ride to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and confidently pronounced U.S.-Europe relations the “broadest and most vibrant” ever.
Bush pushed European leaders not to work at cross purposes with the United States or their neighbors but to address global challenges of energy, security and trade.
Ultimately, he said, the only way for freedom and democracy to win out over terrorists is to defeat their ideology, especially in the broader Middle East.
“The rise of free and prosperous societies in the broader Middle East is essential to peace in the 21st century, just as the rise of a free and prosperous Europe was essential to peace in the 20th century,” he said. “So Europe and America must stand with reformers, democratic leaders, and millions of ordinary people across the Middle East who seek a future of hope and liberty and peace.”
Bush’s speech was replete with references to his so-called “freedom agenda” that has defined his foreign policy.
The president timed his speech to the 60th anniversary of the start of the Marshall Plan to show how far the West has come in building a peaceful and prosperous Europe that rose out of the ruins of World War II. And it came at the end of his farewell tour of Europe.
Bush began the day taking a rare stroll through the lush grounds of the Vatican Gardens, stopping at a grotto where the pontiff prays daily.
“Your eminence, you’re looking good,” Bush told Pope Benedict XVI at the beginning of their third visit.
Normally, VIPs are received in the pope’s library in the Apostolic Palace. But in a gesture of appreciation for the hearty welcome Bush gave him in Washington in April, Benedict welcomed the president and first lady Laura Bush near St. John’s Tower in the Vatican Gardens.
