(Communicated by the Prime Minister's Media Adviser)
Following are transcripts of statements by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and PrimeMinister David Cameron at the start of their meeting today(Wednesday, 12 March 2014), in the former's Jerusalem office:
Prime Minister Netanyahu: Prime Minister Cameron, David, it's good to welcome you in Jerusalem. I appreciate the fact that you rescheduled this visit after the horrible floods that devastated Britain and you came here so quickly after that. We have a lot to talk about.
We have two robust democracies, technological societies, that I believe can seize the future by cooperating together. We have political and security challenges that we want to achieve in cooperation with one another. The first is to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons capability. The second is to advance a secure and enduring peace between Israel and the Palestinians, to which I am committed. And the third is to expand all the other fields of cooperation that we've been – under your leadership – engaging in more and more, including matters that I think are very important, not only to our technological economic capability, but also to the national security of our respective countries.
So we have a lot to talk about. I look forward to our discussions and I welcome you to Jerusalem. Welcome.
Prime Minister Cameron: Prime Minister Netanyahu, Bibi, thank you very much for the warm welcome. It's great to be here and I'm here as a good friend and a strong supporter of Israel. Under my prime ministership, I think we've seen the British-Israeli relationship go from strength to strength and I'm committed to strengthening that relationship still further. You spoke about our ties in terms of economic ties, technical ties, scientific, university ties: there's more that we can do.
I'm also here as a strong supporter of the two-state solution. I think this is the right answer for your country and for the Palestinians, and I commend the efforts that you're making to that end. And I'm also here as someone who shares an analysis with you about the dangers and threats to our world: the danger and threat of a nuclear-armed Iran, which must be avoided; and the danger and threat from Islamist extremism, which must be combatted.
So we have a lot to talk about. We're doing it on the basis of a strong and enduring partnership and I'm very much looking forward to my visit.