[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1993, Book I)]
[July 6, 1993]
[Pages 1018-1019]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks at a Reception for Japanese Leaders in Tokyo
July 6, 1993

    Thank you very much. On behalf of Hillary and myself, I want to say 
how glad we are to be in Japan and how much we appreciate Ambassador and 
Mrs. Armacost inviting all of you to come here and to meet us.
    I want to keep my remarks brief because I hope we can have more time 
for personal visiting. I do want you to know that I just had a very good 
meeting with Prime Minister Miyazawa, and we discussed a whole range of 
issues. I would say, the most important are that I was able to reaffirm 
the commitment of the United States to the security relationship that 
exists between our two nations and the continuing involvement of the 
United States in a security relationship in Japan and Korea and across a 
whole broad range of issues that face us as a people.
    Secondly, we had a good discussion about our efforts at the upcoming 
G-7 summit to promote

[[Page 1019]]

a higher rate of economic growth throughout the globe, to open more 
markets to trade through the Uruguay round, and finally, to try to 
secure a democracy and market reforms in Russia, something that Japan 
has been very helpful to the United States on and for which we are very 
grateful.
    And lastly, we discussed negotiations which are still ongoing in our 
attempt to establish a framework of basic principles for a new agreement 
about our trading relationships. Perhaps we can have more to say about 
that in our personal conversations.
    The United States thinks it is absolutely critical for the 
imbalances to be reduced. We think it is in the interest of both 
countries for that to happen. We have worked very hard in our Nation on 
increasing our productivity and our ability to compete in the last 
several years. And now, as you know, we are taking very, very strong 
steps to do what our Japanese friends have asked us for years to do, 
which is to bring down our Government's deficit.
    So we come here with an outstretched hand and the hope that all of 
the ferment and change and political debate going on in Japan will be a 
very positive thing for your people and for our relationship. Many of 
the issues you're debating from political reform to economic issues are 
also being debated in our country and, frankly, in most other advanced 
democracies. I think this period of change should be viewed by all of us 
with hope, with the view that we're going to make something very good 
come out of it, not only in the election process but in the aftermath.
    And there is no more important relationship to the United States 
than our relationship with Japan. And I intend to keep it on a firm 
footing, and I hope that our relationship with all of you will 
contribute to that and, most importantly, to the welfare of the people 
of Japan and the people of the United States.
    Thank you very much.

Note: The President spoke at 6:42 p.m. at the residence of U.S. 
Ambassador Michael H. Armacost.