[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 10 (Thursday, January 25, 1996)]
[House]
[Pages H878-H879]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        FRENCH NUCLEAR TESTINGS

  (Mr. FALEOMAVAEGA asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks and include 
extraneous material.)
  Mr. FALEOMAVAEGA. Mr. Speaker, now that it's almost certain that 
President Chirac of France will be making a state visit to our Nation's 
Capitol next week to meet with President Clinton and the leadership of 
the Congress, this will be a sad occasion for me, Mr. Speaker, and the 
millions of peoples throughout the world and through representation of 
leaders of some 168 countries throughout the world who have earnestly 
pleaded with President Chirac not to break the moratorium on nuclear 
testing. And yet despite all 

[[Page H879]]
this, President Chirac of France in defiance of global consensus on 
raising tensions and suspicion, and even to promote again the extension 
and proliferation of nuclear weapons testing and development, France 
has already now exploded five nuclear bombs to improve its nuclear 
delivery capabilities with its long-distance missiles.
  It might interest my colleagues that French Government officials--and 
they're masters of these ploys--a few leaks here and some leaks there--
some critical points that President Chirac is going to shove right at 
our noses at the joint session of Congress next Thursday.
  First, a warning to Republican leaders and the President that closing 
our Government down will have serious economic consequences not only to 
France but to Europe and other regions of the world.
  Second, that the United States contributes too little in foreign aid 
to Third World countries.
  Third, that the United States should live up to its global 
responsibilities, whatever that means.
  Fourth, that United States contributions to the crisis in Bosnia is 
not enough, but at the same time, France expects to play very 
prominent, if not, the leading role as far as Europe is concerned 
relative to Bosnia.
  And fifth, France does not want any nation of the world to criticize 
its current nuclear testing program, because France does not trust the 
United States involvement with Europe's security needs for the past 50 
years.
  Mr. Speaker, I suggest to my colleagues that what we're going to get 
from President Chirac next week is not the eloquence of Marquis de 
Lafayette, but the ghost of Charles de Gaulle II.
  Mr. Speaker, I include the following article from the January 24 New 
York Times for the Record:

                [From the New York Times, Jan. 24, 1996]

    Possibility of Default Starts to Worry Europe, Especially France

                         (By Craig R. Whitney)

       Paris, January 23.--The possibility that the deficit-
     cutting impasse between Congress and the Clinton 
     Administration could start causing the United States 
     Government to default on its debt next month has begun to 
     sink in on European leaders, and the French are anxious to 
     avoid the turmoil that could result.
       President Jacques Chirac, who will visit Washington next 
     week, is prepared to warn in a speech to a joint session of 
     Congress that default would upset economies around the world 
     and deeply undermine the American global position, French 
     officials said today.
       Congressional Republicans have threatened to refuse to 
     raise the national debt limit unless the Clinton 
     Administration agrees to their agenda for cutting the Federal 
     deficit. If the Administration refuses to give in and fails 
     to find other ways of coming up with money, the Government 
     could start running out of money to pay obligations due on 
     March 1.
       At this point, some European leaders are said to be 
     beginning to feel like onlookers at a political game whose 
     players appear little concerned about the chaos a default 
     would cause in international currency and bond markets.
       Some see a situation comparable to that in 1975, when 
     Chancellor Helmut Schmidt of West Germany felt compelled to 
     warn President Gerald R. Ford that letting New York City go 
     bankrupt could send economic shock waves around the world, 
     which was still fragile from the effects of a sudden rise in 
     oil prices.
       Mr. Chirac told the Senate majority leader, Bob Dole, and 
     Speaker Newt Gingrich during his last visit to Washington in 
     the summer that the United States gave too little foreign 
     aid to developing countries, and French officials say that 
     he plans to deliver the same message to Congress in an 
     address planned for Feb. 1.
       ``We hope that Congress will be disposed to let the United 
     States live up to its global responsibilities,'' one official 
     here said.
       Mr. Chirac will tell Congress, French officials say, that 
     Europe, with about the same size economy as the United 
     States, gives three times as much to developing countries--
     $31 billion, compared with less than $9 billion last year 
     from the United States.
       ``Where is America and its traditional generosity, where is 
     its desire to help reshape the world?'' asked one French 
     policy maker.
       Mr. Chirac is also likely to use his visit to tell both 
     Congress and the Administration that France will insist on 
     reshaping the NATO alliance to reflect changes since the end 
     of the cold war, according to officials in Brussels and 
     Paris.
       Mr. Chirac has reintegrated France into some NATO military 
     structures that it left in 1966, but officials say he did so 
     to push for the creation of a stronger European defense arm 
     within the alliance. ``We need to be able to deal with crises 
     like Bosnia even if the United States doesn't want to become 
     involved,'' an official said.
       Mr. Chirac may also tell Washington that American plans to 
     contribute $600 million to the reconstruction of Bosnia over 
     the next three years are inadequate. European estimates of 
     the total cost run to $3.7 billion. ``Don't think that the 
     Europeans will be the only ones paying for Bosnian 
     reconstruction,'' Mr. Chirac said in a recent interview, 
     adding that the Europeans expected the United States to pay 
     about the same as they will--about one third.
       American officials have responded that the United States 
     committed 20,000 soldiers to the NATO peacekeeping force that 
     began moving into Bosnia last month, a larger contingent than 
     any of its allies.

                          ____________________