Pelosi Remarks Before Meeting With German Chancellor Angela Merkel

Pelosi Remarks Before Meeting With German Chancellor Angela Merkel

Friday, June 26, 2009

Contact: Brendan Daly/Nadeam Elshami/Drew Hammill, 202-226-7616

Washington, D.C. - Speaker Nancy Pelosi held a brief press availability this morning with German Chancellor Angela Merkel before their meeting in the Capitol. Below are their remarks:

Speaker Pelosi. Good morning. I'm delighted to be welcoming a great stateswoman to the Capitol of the United States - I should say welcoming back. Chancellor Merkel, by dent of her personal story, her political strength, and her great leadership as Chancellor of Germany, and as former head of the EU, has made women throughout the world very, very proud - not only women, all who love democracy.

Today, we look forward to a discussion about the importance of the U.S.-Germany partnership, which is very important to us here in the Congress and in the United States. We can continue to work together to bring security, development, and good governance to Afghanistan as we fight together in the war on terrorism. We can work together to resolve the financial crisis, and Germany being one of the leading exporting countries in the world, the Chancellor's insights on globalization will be very important to us, and have been.

And it is appropriate that the Chancellor is visiting us on the day when the House will take up important climate change legislation. Both as Chancellor of Germany, as well as when she was President of the EU, this was a topic on which she took the lead and we are following her lead. And today, hopefully, we will have a celebration of American leadership taking its rightful place, with German leadership on this important issue, which is an issue of security, and economic security as well, and preserving God's beautiful gift, this planet, in a responsible way for future generations.

So we thank the Chancellor for her leadership, we welcome her to the Capitol, look forward to our conversation, and hope to welcome her back at her convenience so that she can address a joint session of the Congress of the United States. Madam Chancellor.

Chancellor Merkel. Madam Speaker, dear Nancy, thank you very much for this gracious reception and for the very warm welcome accorded to me and the members of my delegation.

Let me say that I am very glad to be an honored guest here at the Capitol on this very important day - a day where very important decisions, indeed, groundbreaking decisions will be taken on climate change and in the interest of combating climate change. We have always had talks that were characterized by a spirit of being constructive of each other and also a spirit of promoting German-American friendship. So I am all the more glad to be here today. Climate change is indeed a very important issue and as I see it, there has been a sea change here in the United States on that. There has indeed been a change of trend and it's very gratifying to note this and it will further enhance the friendship between our two countries.

And let me thank you yet again for the very warm, very gracious hospitality.

Speaker Pelosi. Thank you Chancellor Merkel. Thank you all.