Deutsch

Thank you. Thank you very much, Chancellor. And I want to thank you very much for welcoming me here in my first trip to Germany as Secretary of State. This is going to be a bit of whirlwind tour that I am on through Europe and to Israel. I very much enjoyed the opportunity to stop here and to share ideas and to discuss and have a dialogue about how we might move forward on the historic opportunities before us.

I would also like to thank Foreign Minister Fischer for traveling to Washington recently, and look forward to seeing you, Chancellor, and the foreign minister when we return with the President in a few weeks.

The United States and Germany, of course, share deep values and a deep commitment to one, another built on the testing of history and built on the fact that we were able, through the strength of our alliance and the strength of our values, to contribute greatly to the tremendous changes that we have seen that led to the building of a Europe, whole, free and at peace.

Now is the time for our diplomacy to put our alliance to work in the service of great goals and great opportunities that stand before us. We talked about the opportunity to support the people of Iraq who on Sunday demonstrated that they are prepared to sacrifice. They are prepared to face down terrorists. They are prepared to set aside fear and their past to try and build a new and free society. And those of us who are fortunate enough to be on the right side of history's divide, in terms of freedom, have an obligation to help them. And I thank you, Chancellor, for the things that Germany is already doing in the police training in the UAE and on your offer to deepen and continue to help the Iraqi people in this way.

Thank you, too, for all of the work in Afghanistan, which, again, is a country in which the people are demonstrating that they are prepared to try and leave their past behind and move to a better future.

I was pleased to have an opportunity to share with the Chancellor our thinking about the opportunities in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict to try and bring some easing of that conflict and eventually its resolution. I will go soon to Israel and to the Palestinian territories, and I look forward, Chancellor, to continuing our dialogue on that very important issue.

And we did have an extensive discussion also of Iran, and the unity of purpose and message that we need to Iran, so that Iran does not use the access that countries in good standing in the Non-proliferation Treaty are afforded to civilian nuclear power, to use that cover to build a nuclear weapon.

The Iranians need to be in compliance with their international obligations, and we have very good cooperation and discussion with our EU-3 colleagues on a solid message to the Iranians that that is a necessity.

Finally, Chancellor, let me say that the President looks forward to coming here, to meeting you in Mainz, and to continuing to deepen our cooperation, to opening a new chapter in U.S.-German relations as we move to take advantage of the historic opportunities before us.