[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1994, Book I)]
[July 1, 1994]
[Pages 1187-1189]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Interview With Tomasz Lis of Polish Television
July 1, 1994

Poland-U.S. Relations

    Mr. Lis. Mr. President, what is the most important message you would 
like to bring to Poland?
    The President. That the United States and Poland are bound together, 
our futures are bound together; we're bound together by affection, by 
family ties, by our comradeship in World War II, and by our devotion to 
the constitutional idea of government, but that we have a very important 
future, and we need to build that future together.

Partnership For Peace and NATO

    Mr. Lis. In January in Prague, you said that there was no question 
if NATO should be expanded, the only question was when and how. Could 
you make that step forward and say when and how?
    The President. Well, first of all, I have to make sure there is an 
agreement among the NATO members about what exactly the standards should 
be and the timetable. And they haven't all agreed. But I do want to make 
it clear that, in my view, NATO will be expanded, that it should be 
expanded, and that it should be expanded as a way of strengthening 
security and not conditioned on events in any other country or some new 
threat arising to NATO.
    The Partnership For Peace is actually exceeding my hopes for its 
success. We now have 21 countries signed up, 19 who were in the former 
Communist bloc and Sweden and Finland. And we are going to hold our 
first exercises, as you know, in Poland, which I hope will send a 
message about how important I think Poland is to the future security of 
Europe and our future alliance.
    Mr. Lis. But will you give Poland and other Eastern European 
countries a clear timetable for becoming full members of NATO? Because 
maybe that's the only way to----
    The President. I think that a timetable should be developed, but I 
can't do that alone. NATO is an alliance. There are many partners in it, 
and we have to discuss that among ourselves and to reach agreement on 
exactly how this staging should be done.
    Last year--or earlier this year when I met with the NATO members, 
they felt very strongly that we should first have these exercises, these 
Partnership For Peace exercises, and we should gauge the nature of our 
security cooperation with all of the people in the Partnership and then 
see which people in the Partnership really wanted to become members and 
who was ready and then come back and meet and determine what the 
standards should be. So I think that probably won't be done until 
sometime next year, because of the feeling of all the NATO members about 
it.

Russia

    Mr. Lis. What can the United States do to promote friendly links 
with Russia and, on the other hand, to enhance Poland's and Central 
Europe's security?
    The President. I think we're doing both those things now. I think we 
can promote our friendship with Russia by working to develop Russia, by 
helping to diffuse our tensions. Our nuclear

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weapons are no longer pointed at each other, for the first time since 
the end of World War II. We are working together to try to solve the 
conflict in Bosnia. So I think in all those ways we can work together. 
We have a commission between the Prime Minister of Russia and our Vice 
President working on matters of defense conversion and environmental 
technology and energy and things of that kind. So we have a good, broad-
based relationship with Russia.
    But we have to pursue independently our relationships with Poland, 
with Central and Eastern Europe. And I think that the security issue is 
one; that's why we pushed so hard for the Partnership For Peace. Also 
our economic issue is another where we have--the United States provides, 
I think, about 44 percent of total outside investment in Poland. And we 
know we need to do more in Central and Eastern Europe than we have done, 
and we will do more. There are limits to what we can do, but we will do 
more. I think we have to pursue that totally independently of our 
growing relationship with Russia.
    Mr. Lis. But Mr. President, you have a vision of an undivided, 
integrated Europe.
    The President. I do.
    Mr. Lis. And don't you think that your vision is against what we 
often hear from Russian politicians about so-called--doubts, influence--
about the Russian opposition to expansion of NATO to Central Europe?
    The President. You hear some of that. But we also have to look at 
what is happening. I mean, Russian troops have withdrawn from Lithuania. 
Russian troops are, I think, about to withdraw from Latvia. We've worked 
out most of the issues on that. There are some minority rights issues to 
be worked out in Estonia, but I think that will occur. I think you'll 
have all the Baltics free, independent, and without foreign troops on 
their soil pretty soon, and the Russians have been pretty consistent in 
supporting that.
    I also believe that--keep in mind, conditions of membership in 
things like Partnership For Peace, which Russia has also joined, involve 
respecting one another's territorial boundaries. And in terms of 
Russia's exercise of influence outside its borders, at least in Bosnia I 
would have to say so far it's been a positive thing for the cause of 
peace, not a negative thing.
    So we have to judge people not only by the words they use and the 
way they use them but also by what they do. And so far, I would say 
there will be tensions and disagreements from time to time, but I 
believe we can have a united Europe with a responsible, strong Russia, 
and we are going to work for that.
    Mr. Lis. What do you think about an idea of expanding NATO and, at 
the same time, signing a special treaty between such an expanding NATO 
and Russia, a treaty that would confirm Russia's status as a major power 
and a friendly one?
    The President. I don't know, I haven't thought of it in exactly 
those terms. I think that that's where Russia is right now. Right now, 
it's a major power and a friendly one. And I think that what we want to 
do is to try to work through our differences and find new ways we can 
cooperate. And that's an interesting suggestion you made, but I haven't 
had time to think it through, so I can't comment on it.

Poland-U.S. Trade

    Mr. Lis. And Mr. President, what about economic partnership? Your 
administration stresses very often that such a partnership should be 
based more on trade than aid. But what can the United States do now to 
ease Polish exports to your country?
    The President. That's one of the things I want to talk with 
President Walesa about when I'm in Poland and when I have the chance to 
meet with other leaders of Poland, what we can do to accelerate economic 
development and what we can do to help cushion the pain of all these 
changes.
    Your country last year had the highest growth rate in all of Europe, 
4 percent. And I believe that the potential is very great there. So I 
want to think about that because even if we lower our barriers to Polish 
products and services, because of the distances between our two 
countries and because of the pattern of commercial relationships that 
developed during the cold war period, that may not be enough. So I want 
to see what else we can do to accelerate trade and investment as well as 
certain specific aid programs. And I will be bringing some specific 
suggestions and offers to Poland that I hope will bear some fruit.
    Mr. Lis. I would like to ask you about it, because we hear about a 
new, very interesting program of U.S.-Polish cooperation concerning 
social issues, a program that you're going to

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present in Warsaw. Could you reveal at least some details of that 
program?
    The President. I think it's only appropriate that I speak, really, 
to your representatives of your people and your government first. But I 
just think the United States should do what it can to help countries 
that have been brave and courageous as the Polish people have always 
been but very brave in going through this period of reform, not only to 
continue to grow economically but to deal with the social tensions that 
come from this sort of dramatic transformation. And we will be talking 
about that in Poland. But I don't--I think I had better wait until I go 
there and talk to your leaders about it first.
    Mr. Lis. It was said for the first time in February by U.S. 
officials that Poland is one of 10 big emerging markets in the world. 
What does it mean? What does that statement, that opinion mean in 
practice?
    The President. We identified, as you know, Mexico, Brazil, India, 
China, Hong Kong, Taiwan--that cluster--Poland, Argentina, a number of 
other countries, Turkey, Indonesia--that's not quite all, but that's 
close--countries that we see as having a very bright future, having a 
substantial population, a diversified, strong economy, and the ability 
to grow into major trading powers. And what that means is that over the 
next several years the United States, focusing on our Department of 
Commerce and our other agencies involved in trade and development, will 
make extraordinary efforts to promote American investment, to promote 
American trade, the selling of our products abroad, and to promote more 
purchases by Americans of products coming out of those countries.
    And what we're trying to do is to say not what does the world look 
like this year and next year but what might the world look like in 10 
years or 15 years or 20 years. And the 10 nations on that list we 
believe will be major, major factors in the global economy. And the 
United States, for its own interests as well as for the interests of the 
world, must be heavily involved with them. And Poland is a very 
important part of that strategy.

World Cup Soccer

    Mr. Lis. Mr. President, the last question. I have to go back to the 
question which was asked by my friend from Germany: What is your 
prediction about the score of the game between the United States and 
Brazil on the Fourth of July?
    The President. Well, obviously Brazil will be heavily favored. But I 
think we have a chance to win. I mean, after all it's our Independence 
Day and we--it's the first time we've ever been in the second round, and 
our people have played very well. In two of their three games they have 
exceeded expectations dramatically. So I wouldn't count the United 
States out.
    Mr. Lis. Thank you very much, Mr. President.

Note: The interview began at 12:34 p.m. in the Oval Office at the White 
House. It was embargoed for release by the Office of the Press Secretary 
until July 5.