‘We’re in a new age, a democratic age when there are a lot of players besides the government.’
— RICHARD BOUCHER

U2’s lead singer Bono on Friday brought his campaign for debt relief for developing countries to the U.S. State Department, where he had a meeting with Secretary of State Colin Powell.
Bono and Powell also talked about Africa and AIDS, two other humanitarian concerns of the Irish singer, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said.
“We’re in a new age, a democratic age when there are a lot of players besides the government,” Boucher said.
Powell told Bono he was glad the singer was using his fame “to work on something good,” a State Department official added. “Bono replied, ‘Our audience is smart and aware.’”
Powell, who was about to go to the White House for an Irish event, learned from Bono the correct pronunciation of “taoiseach’ (tee-shuck), the Irish title for prime minister.
Last year, Bono played a part in persuading the United States to provide $435 million in debt relief to some of the world’s most indebted poor countries.

Condensed from US Department of State:

 (Distributed by the Office of International Information Programs, U.S.
Department of State.)

Transcript: State Department Noon Briefing, March 16, 2001

(Statements, Spain, Macedonia, Kosovo, The Hague, Turkey, Department,
United Nations, Middle East Peace Negotiations, Russia) (4130)

State Department Spokesman Richard Boucher briefed.

Following is the State Department transcript:

(begin transcript)

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
Daily Press Briefing

Friday, March 16, 2001

DEPARTMENT
-- Readout of Secretary Powell's Meeting with Bono



U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
DAILY PRESS BRIEFING

(ON THE RECORD UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED)

Q: Can you give any kind of rundown on the meeting with Bono?

MR. BOUCHER: I think I can do it. Let me try to do it without my notes
and refer if I need them. The discussion this morning with Bono was
about a number of issues. As you know, he has been active on issues
involving Africa, issues involving debt, issues involving AIDS, and
that we were pleased to have the opportunity to discuss some of these
things with him.

He, I think, recognized that the United States is meeting its full
commitments on the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries initiative, that we
had money in the budget last year, we have money in the budget again
this year to meet those commitment. He recognized and expressed, you
know, welcomed Secretary Powell's statements about Africa, about
HIV-AIDS and the seriousness with which the Administration was going
to take the issues.

And they discussed how the various threads that were working together
could be made to work better. The Secretary emphasized that there were
success stories in Africa that we wanted to support and work with, but
there were also very serious issues, and that we wanted to be able to
work on issues of development, of war, of HIV-AIDS, working with our
pharmaceutical companies where we could, working on debt relief where
we could, and making these issues work together successfully. And that
was pretty much the tenor of the meeting, things that they discussed.

Q: In what capacity did he come in? Is he the head of some
organization?

MR. BOUCHER: I'm not exactly sure what the organization might be. He
has certainly been a person who has been very active on these issues
over the last several years. He has had meeting, I think, with a
variety of heads of state and important international players on this.
He worked very hard, I think, on the Hill when it came last year to
getting the authority and the funding for the debt initiative, and in
that regard, I think has performed an able service in making this all
possible.

Q: Did he request the meeting, Richard?

MR. BOUCHER: Yes.

Q: Can you say what the purpose of the meeting was?

MR. BOUCHER: To discuss the issues that he is concerned about.

Q: Did they talk about music at all? (Laughter.)

MR. BOUCHER: Only on the side.

Q: Is the Secretary a fan of U2?

MR. BOUCHER: He didn't express any one way or the other.

Q: No?

Q: Did he bring any albums? (Laughter.)

Q: Okay, well if you can't -- so there was no levity at all in this
meeting?

MR. BOUCHER: Was there levity at the meeting? There was a very
friendly and levitative environment, I would say. (Laughter.)

Q: Okay, well, is the Secretary willing to meet with other celebrities
who have had projects in the international sphere?

MR. BOUCHER: Matt, I'm not here to issue an open invitation for
everybody to run up to the Secretary's office and talk about what they
care about.

Q: Well, I think you may have done that.

MR. BOUCHER: I think we do recognize that a lot of individuals in the
private sector coming from a lot of different backgrounds have been
very important to some of these issues in the world, and we listen to
these people. Obviously we listen to people like the families of the
Lockerbie victims. Or we listen to people like Queen Noor, who the
Secretary saw not long ago on the issue of de-mining. And we listen to
people in the private sector who have been active on issues like the
debt relief program for poor countries, and the AIDS issue, all of
which are important to us. And if people are out there working hard on
these issues with people in the private sector, as well as people in
Government, I think it behooves us to talk to them.

We are in a new age; we are in a democratic age, when there are a lot
of players besides the Government, and we are going to work with
everybody that can help us achieve our goals.