[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1993, Book I)]
[July 9, 1993]
[Pages 1043-1045]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Exchange With Reporters in Tokyo
July 9, 1993

Aid to Russia

    Q. Mr. President, we wanted to ask you about Russian aid. Is there 
any sense of disappointment that there isn't more cash, less credit, 
that this isn't helpful enough to Yeltsin? What is your take on it?
    The President. No. As a matter of fact, I think, based on where we 
were 5 or 6 weeks ago, this is a real success. I'm very pleased.

[[Page 1044]]

I came here with the hope of getting $500 million in a privatization 
fund to help convert these government-owned industries to private sector 
industries. And the Europeans have really come forward. I talked to a 
lot of them in the last week, and it appears to me that we'll have at 
least $500 million in that fund and an aid package that will probably be 
somewhere in the neighborhood of $3 billion. So that is very good. It's 
also very good for America. I mean, there's a lot of business to be done 
in Russia by Americans to create American jobs, business and energy and 
natural resources, in environmental technologies, in all kinds of 
consumer operations. This is a huge new market for American goods and 
services.
    It's also good news because it will end--a lot of this money will 
enable us to continue to denuclearize Russia, that is, to dismantle 
their nuclear weapons and to help to deal with the aftermath of that. 
And that is very, very important in terms of making our country and our 
world more safe and helping us to continue to manage these defense 
reductions. So I'm very happy about that.
    Q. What did President Yeltsin tell you tonight? What was his 
reaction, do you know?
    The President. Well, he's in a good humor tonight, but we just had 
dinner together. It was a formal dinner, so we didn't have much time to 
talk business. I'm going to see him tomorrow, and I'm looking forward to 
visiting with him again. But he is in very good shape now, since the 
election. The process of political reform is continuing in Russia, and I 
feel good about it. And also, one thing I really appreciate about 
President Yeltsin is that he encouraged us to set up an operation in 
Moscow to make sure that our money was not wasted, which I was very 
impressed with. And so I've been working for months now to try to get 
agreement among all these countries about exactly what mechanism we'll 
have to monitor the expenditure of this money. And we've achieved 
agreement on that. So I'm very encouraged about that.

Trade Negotiations

    Q. Mr. President, do you expect any more breakthroughs at this 
summit, I mean, in terms of Japanese trade rules and so forth? Or are we 
just flailing?
    The President. No, we're not just flailing. But I don't know. I 
mean, if that were to happen it would be a good thing, as long as it's a 
good agreement for America. But I don't want to raise any false hopes. 
We were able to get this huge breakthrough on the trade in manufactured 
goods with these other nations, which could lead to a huge number of new 
jobs for America. The same thing could happen if we could get a 
breakthrough in our trade relations with Japan. But our job is to 
negotiate firmly in the interests of the United States, and we're doing 
that. And we'll just have to see what happens.

Russian Role in Economic Summit

    Q. Mr. President, why is the G-7 not disposed to make themselves the 
G-8 and include Russia?
    The President. Well, I think you will see more and more involvement 
by Russia over the next couple of years. President Yeltsin's coming 
here; I expect he'll be with us next year. And I don't think that this 
group is wedded to any particular membership. But I'm not sure it's the 
right time to discuss a formal expansion. But he's going to have a major 
role in this meeting tomorrow, and I expect him to be here next year.
    Q. Isn't the statement on Bosnia somewhat disappointing?

Japan-U.S. Relations

    Q. Will you have dinner tonight with Mr. Miyazawa? And what do you 
read into the fact that he wants to see you again for a trade agreement 
or----
    The President. I think they are interested in moving our 
relationships forward. To me, it was encouraging that he invited me to 
dinner because we've already been together once. And I think it 
indicates that the Japanese do understand there has to be some change in 
the relationship between the United States and Japan, in both our 
interests.
    Whether we can agree on exactly what the shape of that should be at 
this time, I don't know. And I'm doing the best I can to represent the 
interests of our country. But as I said in my speech yesterday to the 
university students, I also believe that the position I've taken is in 
the best interests of Japan. I know it's in the best interests of 
Japanese consumers, but it's going to help to stabilize this economy, 
too, if they can open their markets more and not be driven by the desire 
to maintain these massive trade surpluses. So we'll work at it. But I 
was gratified that he invited me to dinner,

[[Page 1045]]

and I'm going to go.
    Q. Wasn't there something good to tell you?
    Q. Wasn't the statement on Bosnia----

Economic Summit

    Q. You had expressed some frustration with the sort of formal, 
stilted nature of these things, sir. Did you feel you're making any 
progress towards getting them----
    The President. A lot. A lot.
    Q. How is that working out?
    The President. Well, we finished an hour early today, partly because 
of the extra informality. The reason we finished an hour early today is 
because we discussed a lot of what was on the agenda today, yesterday, 
when we had a more unstructured 3-hour meeting and last night during our 
dinner. And we agreed this afternoon to make next year's session even 
more informal so that we could focus on a few big things, cut out a lot 
of the bureaucracy and all the other stuff that goes with these summits, 
and really try to get a few big things done in a very informal way. So I 
feel good about it.
    Q. Aren't you disappointed on Bosnia, Mr. President? Isn't it sort 
of a weak statement on Bosnia?

Japanese Crown Prince and Princess

    Q. How did you like the Crown Prince?
    Q. No, let me just ask--let me ask----
    Press Secretary Myers. He's done.
    Q. How did you like her?
    The President. A lot. I had dinner with her. I liked her a lot. I 
liked him a lot.
    Q. What did you talk about?
    Press Secretary Myers. Okay, thanks, you guys. Everybody out. Come 
on.
    Q. Give us some color.

Midwest Flooding

    Q. What did they tell you about the flood----
    The President. I think they've crested at the upper level. But there 
will be rolling floods all the way down the Mississippi. We'll just have 
to see what happens.

Note: The exchange began at 11:30 p.m. in the President's suite at the 
Okura Hotel.