Dateline: 06/13/01

On his first official trip to Europe, President Bush has been busy defending his positions on the death penalty, the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty and the Kyoto Protocol on global warming. 

Greeted by signs referring to him as "Toxic Texan" and "Mr. Death Penalty," President Bush addressed his critics yesterday at a press conference outside the U.S. embassy in Madrid Spain.

On the Death Penalty: Just one day after the execution of Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh, Bush acknowledged that the death penalty, while banned by all countries of the European Union, remains legal in the United States. "I understand others don't agree with this position," he stated. "The democracies in Europe reflect the will of the people of Europe. That doesn't mean we can't be friends. That doesn't mean we can't work in common areas of importance to our people. And that's the spirit in which I come to Europe." 

On the Kyoto Global Warming Treaty: In March, President Bush angered several European leaders by rejecting the the Kyoto treaty, a 1997 agreement requiring signatory nations to reduce their emissions of "greenhouse" gases, blamed by many scientists as the cause of global warming.

President Bush repeated his March criticism of the Kyoto treaty for not including developing nations such as China and India. "As I said earlier, I believe the Kyoto treaty is a flawed treaty. I think that it set unscientific goals. It didn't include developing countries,'' stated the president.

Bush called the mandatory emissions limits of the Kyoto treaty "unrealistic" and argued they would hurt the American economy. He stated that the U.S. would continue to work diligently toward a solution to global warming under the terms of a 1992 United Nations global warming agreement that included all nations.

Missile Defense System & ABM Treaty: Since its ratification in 1972, most European countries have trusted the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) treaty as the only thing standing between them and annihilation in a nuclear crossfire between the U.S. and Russia. Trouble is, rules of the ABM treaty prevent the U.S. from building the National Missile Defense system favored by President Bush.

At yesterday's press conference in Madrid, President Bush said the ABM had outlived its usefulness referring to it as "a relic of the past." Bush argued that the U.S. needed the missile defense system for protection against new "rouge" nations like North Korea and Libya.

Bush then reiterated his desire to see the ABM treaty set aside saying, "It prevents freedom-loving people from exploring the future and that's why we've got to lay it aside, and that's why we've got to have the discussions necessary to explain to our friends and allies as well as Russia that our intent is to make the world more peaceful, not more dangerous."

Later during his six-day trip through Europe, President Bush will deliver his anti-ABM message to NATO members in Brussels, a U.S.-European Union summit in Gothenburg, Sweden, and Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Slovenian capital Ljubljana. It will be the first meeting between Presidents Bush and Putin.