okay well thank you very much this is a
truly historic day a very very
important day especially in a beautiful
part of the world i'm pleased to
announce
a truly historic commitment
serbia and kosovo have each committed to
economic
normalization very exp very important
term
they've been working on this for many
many
years decades actually after a violent
and tragic history and years of failed
negotiations
my administration proposed a new way of
bridging the divide
by focusing on job creation and economic
growth the two countries were able to
reach a
major breakthrough something that nobody
thought was going to be possible and i
think it's going to work out very well
and we're going to be working with them
on economic cooperation across a broad
range of
issues issues and i can say that serbia
and kosovo have tremendous numbers of
people
in the united states they love your
country they love your country so much
they love your country
so much and it's really good that we
were able to get this done i've had a
lot of people
uh here that that would like to see
and would be very proud to see this
happening
there's been tremendous death over a
long period of time and that all stops
we've also made additional progress on
reaching peace
in the middle east i will say that
kosovo and israel have agreed to
normalization of ties and the
establishment of
diplomatic relations the agreement we
made with uae has been
incredible the what it's represented
what it's meant
and we have other countries in the
middle east coming very much
uh to us and saying like when do we go
when can we sign i think we're gonna
have great peace
in the middle east and nobody's been
able to say that for a
long time serbia is committed to
opening a commercial office in jerusalem
this month
and to move its embassy to jerusalem in
july that's fantastic that's a big thing
that's a very big statement
and we appreciate that very much it's
taken tremendous bravery by
the president of serbia and the
president of kosovo who are with me
today
two highly respected people to embark on
these talks and to come to
washington to finalize these commitments
by doing so they've made their countries
the balkans
really an incredible area of some of the
most beautiful land in the world
they've made the world safer i look
forward to seeing
serbia and kosovo prosper as we work
together on economic cooperation in the
region
going forward i look forward to going to
both countries
someday in the not too distant future we
have a thing called the campaign going
on right now so i figured
i think we better devote a little time
to that but we look forward to it but
we're very proud of
these two great leaders and for getting
this done and their people are very
proud of them
maybe more importantly and truly it is
historic so i want to thank you both
and if you'd like to sign you could
start
and we'll start the process
okay i'll tell you what i'll do i'm
going to give you this one
this is for you
this is for you
thank you very much
would anybody have any questions for
these two great leaders they are great
leaders too
yes when gentlemen it would be possible
to expect
uh normalizing ties politically between
their two countries
sure would you like to respond or i
could have somebody else robert would
you like to talk about that
so so i think that the focus here and i
don't want to step on president food
church or prime minister hoti but
i think today is about normalization of
economic ties
and it's really a fantastic step that
the two peoples have taken
both kosovo and serbia and it's taken a
lot of effort
i think that's a first step but i think
down the road as those economic ties
grow
i think there could be there will be
political solutions uh to outstanding
issues but today we want to focus on
the normalization of economic relations
between the companies the opening of
border crossings investment by the
united states and in both
kosovo and serbia deals between
kosovo and serbia on recognizing each
other's diplomas
and licenses so that a dentist who's
trained in kosovo can
can perform his practice or her practice
in in serbia and vice versa so i think
there's just a lot of amazing steps that
were that were taken here
and so i think the focus today isn't the
economic normalization
and and our feeling is that that's going
to lead to uh to break through from the
political front
in the future it's going to really bring
them together rick grinnell
uh i think everybody knows that we've
been stuck
politically in this issue for decades
and many times fighting about symbolic
things
and what president trump did from the
very beginning
is say let's flip it let's figure out
how to do economics first
you can't pay your rent and you can't
buy food with symbolism
but you can when you have a job and from
the very beginning what president trump
said is
let's give them a little taste of the
trump economy let's show them how to
develop economics how to take
industries and grow them and let's see
if the concentration on economics and
job creation can unstick
the political stuff that remains to be
seen but
i think one of the great parts of this
agreement is over the next
year we have a freeze on the recognition
and de-recognition campaigns
that means over this this next year we
can see job growth
and job creation really take
hold in the region and then a year from
now
judge us on where the political process
goes
thank you rick and speaking of job
growth i think it's important to say
that
our unemployment rate dropped all the
way down to 8.4
it was just announced an hour ago and
that is many many months ahead of
schedule they said you won't break 10
uh at least until next year sometime
and we just hit 8.4 and we're going down
rapidly plus
a lot of jobs were produced but uh
very important we just broke the 10 mark
and that wasn't going to happen
until january february march maybe
and so we're 8.4 and that starts to
sound much more normal we're recovering
from
the china plague and they are too by the
way they had
they got hit very hard every country did
almost 188 countries got hit
but uh 8.4 is an incredible number
way ahead of schedule way ahead of
schedule
so again any other questions for the two
gentlemen
what was your role mr president in
bringing about this economic agreement
and why did it take
decades to get to the point that we are
up today
well i can tell you that it took decades
because you didn't have anybody
trying to get it done we've been working
on this for almost from the beginning of
the administration
and you had some deep-seated feelings
and
long-term feelings and there was a lot
of fighting and now there's a lot of
love and that's the way it's going to be
i think they're going to have a
tremendous
relationship and the economic is going
to bring them together it's going to
unify the two countries
and it was just something that was so
obvious to me right from the beginning
and rick grinnell
i think in particular he just he would
talk about it all the time he didn't
understand why this had to be
and and he was right and he brought them
together with robert and with
jared and abby so many people were
involved
but it just seemed to be such a natural
fit
and i think you're going to see a
tremendous some really tremendous things
are going to happen
in addition it's going to be great
economically for both countries
plus it also opens up the united states
much more easily to both countries we
don't have to
worry about these two sort of warring
nations fighting nations and
i think they're going to have a
fantastic relationship economics can
bring
people together and that's what's
happening right here but my people did a
fantastic job
they really did a fantastic job any
other questions for the
yes please i'd like you to say this if
you love me
i'm really honored and privileged to be
here and representing
serbia here in oval office and thank you
mr president for
doing a great job when i say a great job
i
really mean it because your people and
you
wanted to engage yourself into a matter
that
as a matter of fact very few people
wanted to do
and also your commitment to stabilize
the region
and to bring peace and stability into
region is something that we
appreciate a lot it's something of
enough significance for us
but speaking about economy of course
speaking about politics we haven't
resolved
all our problems there are still a lot
of differences between us but this is
a huge step forward and i'm once again
profoundly grateful
to you and to your people that you
successfully
got us here and we didn't speak about
many items that we signed today but for
us it's very important
that we are going to have a unified
economic zone
and an entire western balkans which will
bring us
to the real economic results for the
benefit and for the sake of
all our people once again mr president
we appreciate and we
respect your role and if i may uh
use or misuse this opportunity to extend
an invitation to you to visit serbia the
last u.s president that visited serbia
was
jimmy carter because of potito's come to
serbia
and you'll see the most hospitable
reception and you'll see
how people of serbia would react to that
once again many thanks to you many
thanks to greek to
jared to mr pence to robert o'brien to
all the people that dedicated their time
and uh
bringing us here too congratulations
thank you very much
please yes so thank you very much
for your exceptional role and for your
great team
that we came to this point i think
absolutely this is a
great moment for kosovo and for the
region i think we made a
huge step forward toward full
normalization of
relations that should lead eventually to
mutual recognition between the two
countries we are fully committed to work
together to improve people's life to
create new
jobs in the in the region and we fully
believe
in your administration we share the same
values of
freedom democracy and open market
economy so
we are looking forward to start
implementing this agreement as soon as
possible can it be very successful we
have no doubt absolutely
we have that's too bad this couldn't
have happened many years ago but you
needed somebody to
work it and bring it together so
congratulations to bill
mike pence please well mr president i
just i just want to extend
all of our congratulations to the
president of serbia
and the prime minister of kosovo
mr president you demonstrated again a
commitment
to peace today's agreement on economic
cooperation
we believe as the president prime
minister do
as you do that this is an important step
toward
piecing the balkans in the long term but
let me also say
how much we appreciate and welcome the
important steps that both of these
countries are making mr president
in the direction of recognizing israel
and moving embassies to jerusalem as you
have done
the good book says blessed are the
peacemakers
and mr president i think for the
american people people of serbia people
of kosovo that are looking on know that
there are three peacemakers here and
we've we've made an important step with
this economic agreement
toward lasting peace in the balkans i
want to congratulate them and i want to
congratulate you mr president on your
leadership that brought us to this
historic day
thank you mike very much i'd like to
have a really great senator
ron johnson wisconsin and you have a lot
of people from serbia and kosovo
living in your state and you were a big
part of it so thank you ron very much we
would like to say
well first of all this is a really big
deal
i could not be happier for everybody you
know particularly the people
of kosovo in serbia this was a brilliant
strategy
i've been involved i've made multiple
trips to both kosovo and serbia and by
the way if you go
you will find what fantastic hosts the
folks from kosovo and serbia are but
this has taken real political courage
um this is not easy as much as we can
say well
what's the big deal it's this is a
really big deal
but it really was a the leadership
shown by president buchich prime
minister of kosovo
the beauty of focusing on economics is
that
their people will see the benefit and
they will be able to overcome
and take the next step this is a big big
day for i think
stability in the balkans as well so
again i i'm just glad to be here
to see the culmination of this and i
just want to congratulate
everybody involved but in particular i
want to congratulate the people of
kosovo
and serbia america is your friend
and we want nothing but the best for the
people of kosovo and serbia
and you have a very good tennis player
playing right now in the usl
right the best in the world
number one yes
yes yes very good players
as a matter of fact they're all as tall
as you are even a little bit taller
maybe yes
well we want to thank you both and this
has been uh really terrific uh would you
have any other questions
for the prime minister or the president
do you want to ask about the economy if
we can a little bit yeah sure today
obviously
there was 1.4 million jobs right they
were added at this pace though it will
still take a full
year before all the jobs lost before the
pandemic were regained is that good
enough
i think what's happening is you're going
to see tremendous growth
in the very near future we're rounding
the curve we're coming up with vaccines
i think the vaccines are going to be
announced very soon
and i think you're going to see great
companies announcing these vaccines i
spoke with pfizer today
i speak with the different companies
johnson and johnson as you know doing
really well uh moderna
we have tremendous uh tremendous talent
tremendous scientists and they're really
right there
and i think you're going to hear some
very good news and also
to me maybe even better i think when it
comes to therapeutics you're going to
have some peter some
incredible news coming out very soon
i say therapeutics because that's you
walk into the hospital
and whether it's a transfusion or a shot
people get better that's something that
i think right now
is really incredible the numbers are way
down as you know
florida is doing very well arizona's
been
actually a little bit of a miracle how
quickly it went down because it went up
and it went down very quickly
two really great governors texas great
governor same thing
california the numbers are way down so
we're really starting to see those areas
that popped up are really going down
the mortality rates you look at the
percentages what's happening and that's
because of the
uh convalescent plasma it's because of
the
redesvere it's for a lot of different
reasons but we all
you know we do have uh we do have
therapeutics that are really having an
impact and you
you're looking at what's going on i've
seen numbers from 50 to 85
better so that's really something so uh
we're very proud of the job we're doing
i think in particular not only the great
companies but the companies every one of
them
has said to me if this was a
more typical kind of presidency it'll be
nice
if this was a more typical kind of
president
getting these approvals would take two
or three years
and they'll have them i mean as far as
we're concerned
they're very close to announcing some
very big news
so uh we're honored by that
and i've had a team whether it's vice
president
mike pence head of the task force and
all of the people on the task force and
they've really done a great job
i don't think they've been recognized
for the great job they've done
and last night i read out in
pennsylvania
latrobe the home of the great arnold
farmer but i read out some
statistics on how we're doing compared
to other parts of the world
and we're doing phenomenally well and if
you took new york because new york was
just really they made a lot of mistakes
in new york
uh but if you took that out uh the
you know tremendous number of deaths in
new york if you took that out
our numbers are just about as good as
anybody in the world and even without
that without taking it out you see the
kind of numbers we have so
so we've done a good job we've done a
great job in helping governors
i think every governor is very happy
not everybody expresses it to the media
but they do at the task force meetings
we've had task force meetings where
they're
laying praise on us and then they'll go
out and talk to the press
and they won't be quite as generous but
that's okay but for the most part
uh i think we've helped in every case
we've helped every governor and we've
helped them a lot
and some of them we've made look very
good and some have done a really great
job and others haven't
but as a country we have really done
a terrific job and i want to thank vice
president pence and
but i won't thank too too much right now
because we'd like to get the job
finished first
and the vaccines are going to come out
soon and the therapeutics are continuing
and that's why we're having the kind of
numbers we have and i'll be doing a news
conference today at five o'clock so i'll
see you there
okay sir do you need to apologize to
service members and veterans
no it was a fake story written by a
magazine that was uh probably not going
to be around much longer
but it was a totally fake story and that
was confirmed by many people who were
actually there
uh it was a terrible thing that somebody
could say the kind of things and
especially to me because i've done more
for the military
than almost anybody else you look at how
the va is doing it's doing
incredibly well uh we got
all sorts of things done from
accountability to veterans choice to
everything and it's got right now has
got right now
the highest approval rating that it's
ever had 91
approval rating it's never been anywhere
close to that
nobody's done what i've done and that
includes salary increases
but it really includes the rebuilding of
our military because as you know when i
came here our military was totally
depleted
and we spent almost 2.5 trillion dollars
but much more than you spent on your
military i can tell you that right
slightly more 2.5 trillion dollars all
made in the usa
f-35s brand new jets and rockets and
missiles and hope
to god that we never have to use it but
our nuclear is now
in extraordinary shape
including new weapons i just hope we
never have to use that because that's a
level of power that you don't even want
to talk about you don't even want to
hear about it
so uh it's a fake story and it's a
disgrace that they're allowed to do and
very interestingly i hate to bring up
his book
but john bolton no friend of mine i
thought he was
you know didn't know too much about what
he was doing he was
he was uh didn't do a good job but he
wrote a book and
he talks about this incident and he
doesn't mention it
and frankly a lot of reporters
even some pretty bad ones they read that
and that was the end of the story
now there's nobody that considers the
military and especially
uh people that have given their lives in
the military to me they're heroes
to me they're heroes it's it's even hard
to believe how they could do it and i
say that
it's so the level of bravery uh and to
me they are absolute heroes
thank you very much everybody
