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Austria prepares for Bush visit
20/06/2006 14:52 - (SA)
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| President Bush waves as he departs the White House for a trip to Vienna, Austria, for a one-day annual US-European Union summit. (Ron Edmonds, AP) |
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Vienna - Police blew up suspicious-looking packages, took up positions on virtually every street corner and made sweeping passes with helicopters over downtown Vienna on Tuesday as Austria prepared for its first visit by a US president in 27 years.
George W Bush's one-day stop in Austria, which holds the EU's rotating presidency, was expected to be overshadowed by widespread European opposition to the war in Iraq and mounting calls for the shutdown of the US detention centre for terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where three prisoners committed suicide this month.
"We need to make it clear we are friends and partners of America. But because we're friends, we also need to make it clear to them that Guantanamo is not compatible with our values and must be closed," Hans-Gert Poettering, chairperson of the European People's Party - the strongest group in the European Parliament - said on Tuesday in Brussels, Belgium.
Bush was to arrive on Tuesday night as the first US president to visit the alpine republic since Jimmy Carter signed the SALT II nuclear arms pact in Vienna in 1979 with then-Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev.
Talks
In Vienna, Bush was expected to call on Europe to eliminate agricultural subsidies so talks on a global free-trade pact can go forward. He also was to press European governments to make good on pledges of help for Iraq's reconstruction, and shore up a united front on the international effort to get Iran to give up its nuclear ambitions.
Bush and EU officials also were to approve an accord on joint efforts to secure oil and gas supplies, set up a joint panel on climate change and discuss the Middle East, including an EU plan to channel critically needed cash to the Palestinians.
Anti-Bush sentiment
Bracing for a flurry of threatened anti-Bush demonstrations, Austria's Interior Ministry was deploying some 3 000 police officers, including about 1 000 to focus solely on protests.
Bush's visit dominated radio call-in shows on Tuesday, with many Austrians bristling at the tight security and annoyed at the pomp surrounding his arrival.
"He is weak and dishonest. Many people are, but they don't get elected," said Felecan Simmion, 50, a chemist. "Honestly, I have no desire to see him or hear anything about him".
Peter Kubicek, 62, a technician, said he hoped the protests would show Bush "there are people who take issue with what he's doing".
"America is a huge world power, and for that they need a strong personality," he said. "But many problems arose because of his politics."
- AP
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