United Press International - Tuesday, 26 June 2001
Kathy Gambrell, UPI Washington Reporter

"I've been looking forward to this because for us, Mr. President, our relations with the United States are very important," Mbeki said. "You know the challenges we face in South Africa, Mr. President, and the challenges we face on the African continent. And quite clearly, we need your support and involvement in order to solve those problems."

The two leaders met at the White House amid criticisms of Mbeki that he should have attended the U.N. AIDS summit in New York at a time when escalating death rates from the disease are plaguing his country. He has also been taken to task for his comments questioning the link between HIV and AIDS. He has backed off from that position, however. Also, an activist group is threatening to take Mbeki to court over his refusal to provide drug treatment for HIV-infected pregnant women.

On Tuesday, both leaders said AIDS could not be ignored, however.

"The AIDS pandemic in Africa is terrible, and our nation intends to do something about it," Bush said. " As a matter of fact, our nation is doing something about it. We provide more money than any nation in the world to fund a strategy to defeat AIDS, and we will continue to work with nations that can afford to put money into the trust to do so."

The United States provided $200 million in seed money for a global AIDS fund to help the 36 million living with HIV/AIDS. Bush has proposed $480 million for AIDS programs in his 2002 federal budget proposal, twice the amount allotted in fiscal year 2000. He is also seeking an additional $3.4 billion for AIDS research.

"It clearly is an important matter," Mbeki said. "That's why I mentioned the matter of diseases on the African continent. AIDS indeed is one of those. We have to respond in a comprehensive way."

Mbeki said it was necessary to combat diseases such as AIDS because of their social and economic impact.

"We have to do something because in many instances, these are diseases which are not only caused by poverty, some of them, but also cause poverty," he said. "So if we are talking about an African recovery, you cannot but discuss AIDS and really confront it -- malaria, tuberculosis -- all sorts of communicable diseases are a critical matter of what has to happen, we have to address them."

Mbeki dismissed criticism that he was not doing enough to combat AIDS.

"Well, all we have said -- all I would say to that really is that people must look at what we're doing in South Africa, not their perception of what they think we are doing, but what we are doing actually in the country," he said. "And I don't think on the basis of facts an accusation like that can be sustained."

During the ongoing U.N. summit, Secretary of State Colin Powell compared AIDS to the black plague of the Middle Ages and called for prevention, education and affordable drugs to make inroads in the world community's fight against the disease.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan called for donations for the fund, open to governments and private donors. Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates donated $1 million. Annan personally donated $100,000 and the United Kingdom contributed $100 million. France has pledged $127 million.

Mbeki also said he and Bush discussed the Millennium Africa Recovery Project, a coalition of African leaders seeking to address conflict resolution, foreign investment and bridging the digital divide on the continent. Mbeki has advocated the project as a way for the African leadership to help the continent break out of conditions of poverty and underdevelopment.

In a joint statement released by Bush and Mbeki stated that the two nations plan to meet regularly to consult on issues of "shared importance."

A senior administration official said later that Bush told Mbeki he supported the goals and initiatives of the Millennium Africa Recovery Project to alleviate poverty. The two leaders also discussed the U.N. World Conference on Racism that will be held in August. Some question had existed as to whether the United States would snub the racism conference after it lost its seat on the U.N. Human Rights Commission two months ago, but it appears that may not be the case.

Mbeki and Bush also talked about establishing 10 working groups that would emulate the work of the binational commissions from the Clinton era, with a secretariat from each country coordinating efforts to tackle issues such as trade and disease.

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