During his 14 years as Prime Minister, Davíð became acquainted with, or a friend of, many Western leaders, including Bill Clinton and George W. Bush of the United States, Václav Klaus of Czechoslovakia and Silvio Berlusconi of Italy. He has occasionally attended the meetings of the Bilderberg Group, and has read a paper to the Mont Pelerin Society. But he served as Minister of Foreign Affairs for only one year. In autumn 2005, Davíð announced that he would leave politics, saying that he felt the time had come for a new generation to take over. His close ally over many years, Geir H. Haarde, replaced him, as both leader of the Independence Party and Minister of Foreign Affairs. A probable contribution to this decision was a short, but dramatic, bout of cancer, soon after the crisis over the failure of the media bill. He is in remission.