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12 June 2001
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MADRID (AFP) Jun 12, 2001 US President George W. Bush
kicked off his first official European tour Tuesday overshadowed by deep rifts
over his plans for a missile defence, environmental policies and use of the
death penalty.
Bush flew into Madrid for talks with Spanish leaders that were expected to sidestep these issues, however, and focus instead on Madrid's opposition to the US embargo on Cuba and on bilateral cooperation in Latin America. Bush, accompanied by US Secretary of State Colin Powell spent the morning with King Juan Carlos and Queen Sophia, before travelling to an estate south of the capital for a luncheon with Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar. The two leaders will concentrate on finding common ways to strengthen democracy in Latin America, part of a new US foreign policy drive in the region, a source close to the Spanish government said. The US embargo on Cuba -- to which Madrid is opposed despite its objections to the regime of Fidel Castro -- and competition between US and Spanish businesses in South America, are expected to be key topics. Spain is the largest foreign investor in Latin America and thus viewed by the US as a key partner in the fostering of closer ties and trade in the continent. Bush and Aznar are scheduled to return to Madrid for a joint press conference at 5:30 p.m. (1530 GMT) at the seat of the Spanish government attended by 500 journalists, 150 of whom are from the United States. But while Spanish leaders may have avoided criticisms of Washington's environmental and human rights record, protesters on the streets of Madrid have not. Thousands of demonstrators took to the streets here this weekend, chanting "No to Bush" and "Stop Bush, Save the Climate" to protest Bush's decision to walk out on the Kyoto protocol aimed at tackling global warming. Further protests were expected to greet Bush throughout his journey, notably when he visits Brussels Wednesday for a NATO summit and to Gothenburg, Sweden, for meetings with EU leaders, before moving on to Warsaw and finally the Slovenian capital Ljubljana to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin. The five-day trip would allow Bush to meet most of Europe's political heavy-hitters, a tough test during a period of what may be the widest rift in trans-Atlantic relations since the early 1980s. "I got elected based upon issues that I thought were important for the US," he said during an interview with Europe-based newspapers. "That doesn't mean I'm not willing to discuss issues with our European friends and we'll do so." Popular protests will only provide more frustrations for the US leader, and threaten to overshadow the entire trip. The Council of Europe set the tone for demonstrations against Bush's human rights record, condemning as "sad, pathetic and wrong" the execution on Monday of Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh and calling on the United States to outlaw the death penalty. In a move that has angered Europeans, Bush insisted the execution was "not vengeance, but justice." Human rights group Amnesty International took the opposite view, describing it as a triumph of vengeance over justice. Possibly the most important item on the Bush agenda was a first face-to-face meeting with Putin, where he hoped to shore up a fragile relationship aggravated by Moscow's fierce opposition to Washington's missile defence plan. "Russia is not the enemy of the US," he told the Europe-based newspapers in Washington on the eve of his trip. Bush on Monday vowed to push ahead with missile defence, describing the Cold War mentality of mutual assured destruction as "obsolete." "The failure to develop an effective defence system will prevent a forward-thinking strategy," he said.
The First Lady, Laura Bush, will remain in Madrid Tuesday to spend the afternoon
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