[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1994, Book I)]
[March 1, 1994]
[Pages 348-351]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



The President's News Conference With Prime Minister John Major of the 
United Kingdom
March 1, 1994

    The President. We'd like to just make a couple of brief remarks, and 
then we'll answer some questions.
    First of all, I want to again say how pleased I was at this visit 
the Prime Minister made. We had a wonderful time yesterday in 
Pittsburgh, and it turned out to be a pretty good idea that just sort of 
grew out of a conversation we had last summer in Tokyo. And I'm glad 
that he came, and I'm glad that we had a chance to go there and to do 
what was done there.
    We've had an opportunity to discuss, as you might imagine, a lot of 
issues. I might just mention a few. First of all, with regard to Bosnia, 
we are committed to continuing to work for a resolution of the crisis. 
We're encouraged by both the ongoing negotiations between the 
Government, the Bosnian Government, and the Croats and the willingness 
of the Russians to work with us and others trying to bring the Serbs 
into a final peace agreement. And so we're quite hopeful about that.
    Secondly, I wanted to particularly emphasize the commitment that we 
share to strengthening and broadening NATO through the Partnership For 
Peace and to having tangible evidence of that Partnership coming forward 
this summer.
    Thirdly, with regard to Northern Ireland, I want to reaffirm the 
support of the United States for the joint declaration, for the process 
it envisions, and for an end to the violence. I wish the Prime Minister 
and Prime Minister Reynolds well as they seek to carry this out.
    And let me just mention a couple of other things. You knew 
yesterday, I think, that we sent a joint message to Mr. Mandela and 
Chief Buthelezi, and we are looking forward to their meeting today. We 
hope it will be successful. And we want to strongly encourage all the 
parties in South Africa to responsibly participate in the election.
    The last thing I'd like to say is we join the United Kingdom in 
their position with regard to Hong Kong, in supporting Governor Patten's 
efforts to have a genuine, long-term strategy for economic and political 
success in Hong Kong. And I have been very admiring of what he's done 
and what the Prime Minister has done there.
    Those are some of the things that we discussed. And I'll now turn it 
over to Prime Minister Major to make a few remarks, and we'll answer 
some questions.
    Q.  Are all your differences wiped out?
    The President. Well, let me give the Prime Minister a chance to make 
some remarks first.
    Prime Minister Major. Can I firstly say how enjoyable this visit has 
been and thank the President for his hospitality and also the people of 
Pittsburgh. It was a memorable day and a memorable evening yesterday, 
and I thoroughly enjoyed every moment of it.
    I don't want to add a great deal to what the President has had to 
say, perhaps a word or two about Bosnia, in general, and Sarajevo, in 
particular.
    One of the things we've agreed over the last couple of days is to 
send a joint civil planning mission to Sarajevo, the cease-fire there 
holding. That's been a very successful operation. I think it has been 
universally recognized as such. But the circumstances that exist within 
Sarajevo are still very serious. The utilities aren't working, the 
electricity, the water. So we've agreed to send a joint civil planning 
mission there to have a look at what needs to be done and then to see to 
what extent we can contribute and can encourage other people to 
contribute to deal with the civil difficulties that are actually faced 
there in Sarajevo.
    The President mentioned the message we sent yesterday to Nelson 
Mandela and Chief

[[Page 349]]

Buthelezi. They meet today at Ulundi, and clearly, that's an extremely 
important meeting. It's our wish that everyone participates in the South 
African elections. It's a remarkable event, the first multiracial 
elections across South Africa, and we wish to see everyone take part. We 
very much hope, as a result of the message and, more relevantly perhaps, 
the meeting between Mr. Mandela and Chief Buthelezi today, that that 
will certainly happen.
    We spent some time discussing trade matters as well as foreign 
affairs. I think there are two areas of that that I would just briefly 
touch upon. We agreed that it would be desirable to see if we could 
bring forward the start date for implementation of the GATT agreement to 
the first of January 1995. We'll need to consult with other people to 
see if that's practicable, but if it is practical, clearly an agreement 
has been reached and the sooner that agreement can be implemented, the 
better it will be.
    We spent some time also discussing open markets. We both share a 
wish to support the growing measure of opinion that exists in Japan, for 
example, for the further opening of Japanese markets. This is a matter 
of concern to the United States; it's a matter of concern throughout the 
European Union as well. And we spent some time discussing that 
particular issue.
    There were one or two rather more technical issues we discussed, a 
replacement of COCOM, that old relic of the cold war. That needs to be 
replaced. There are official discussions to do that, and we spent some 
time just looking at that.
    Beyond that, I think I'd simply wish to endorse the points that the 
President made, those about Bosnia and about Russia. I think there's no 
doubt that we see the problems of Bosnia very much in the same light. 
Our policy is heading exactly in the same direction, and I think we've 
had a very useful discussion on that particular issue. I don't think for 
the moment I wish to add any more.

United Kingdom-U.S. Relations

    Q. Can I ask you what in the new world order does the Anglo-American 
relationship mean to both of you?
    Prime Minister Major. Shall I start, or will you?
    I think it's a partnership of shared interests and shared instincts. 
If one looks at problems around the world, overwhelmingly, we are likely 
to take the same view of those. That has been the case in the past and 
is the case now. And I think it's those shared instincts and interests 
that actually underpin the long-term relationship between the United 
Kingdom and the United States.
    The President. I agree with that. I think it's a great mistake to 
overstate the occasional disagreement and understate the incredible 
depth and breadth of our shared interests and our shared values. It's 
still a profoundly important relationship, I think, to both countries 
and, I also believe, to the future of the world.

Balanced Budget Amendment

    Q. Could you tell us a little bit--in this country today, the Senate 
is beginning to take up the balanced budget amendment--what your view is 
on that, where you think it's going?
    The President. I don't know where it's going, but I hope that it 
won't be passed because if it is passed, it runs the risk of endangering 
our economic recovery by requiring excessive tax increases or very 
damaging cuts in defense or in investments in technology and job 
training or Medicare and Social Security. If it is disregarded--there's 
a provision in there to disregard it if 60 percent of both Houses want 
to do it--it amounts to turning the whole future of America over to 40 
percent plus one of each House of the Congress. In an intensely partisan 
atmosphere, that's a recipe for total paralysis. Also, unlike all these 
State and local balanced budget amendments, this one makes utterly no 
distinction between the long-term investment and annual consumption. So 
for those reasons, I hope it won't be adopted.
    Finally, we're proving you can bring the deficit down. The deficit 
is now going to be about half the percentage of our annual income that 
it was when I took office if this new budget is adopted. So we're going 
to keep bringing it down.
    I think the administration has credibility on cutting spending. We 
presented the first cuts in discretionary spending since 1969 in this 
budget. So I think we've got a record; I think we're on the right track. 
And I think this remedy, while it's a very serious problem--what's 
happened to the deficit--this remedy is the wrong one. I hope the 
Congress will reject it.

[[Page 350]]

Bosnia

    Q. Mr. President, on Bosnia, you've agreed to send some civilians. 
Does that--[inaudible]--that you might prefer to see other civilians 
help monitor the cease-fire, and are you still adamant you won't send 
troops in at all at the present?
    The President. Well, our position has always been that we would be 
prepared to help enforce an agreement if we could work out a peace 
agreement, that in the absence of the peace agreement we would confine 
our involvement to the support we're giving through NATO in our air 
power and to, essentially, the technical personnel who are there now and 
others that might be able to do that kind of work. That is still our 
position.
    But let me say that I think we have a terrific opportunity here to 
try to build on what happened in the situation involving Sarajevo, to 
try to keep the Russians involved in a very constructive leadership way, 
and to try to work on these talks now underway here in Washington 
between the Bosnian Government and the Croatians, to move to that kind 
of settlement. If we can get that, then I think all the responsible 
countries of the world have got to try to help make it work.
    A question for the Prime Minister?

Northern Ireland

    Q. Could I ask the Prime Minister, then, has the President given you 
a promise about future conditions for the readmission of Gerry Adams? 
Will he have to renounce violence to get another visa to get into the 
United States?
    Prime Minister Major. I think everyone has seen what has happened 
with regard to this. I think the important issue is to look forward and 
see how we produce a solution to the Northern Ireland problem. I'm not 
interested in looking back. And I think as one looks forward, one only 
has to look at the very remarkable expression of opinion that we've seen 
over the last few days of support for the joint declaration. Now that 
joint declaration is there. It is now a living fact. It is a series of 
principles upon which we hope to base a solution to the problems that 
have bedeviled Northern Ireland for too long. Now, that is the main 
issue that I want to address, and those are the issues we've been 
discussing.

Bosnia

    Q. Mr. President, to follow--you're talking about following on the 
progress that you've made in Bosnia. Did you talk about any steps to end 
the fighting in other places beyond Sarajevo, perhaps extending the 
ultimatum to Tuzla or Srebrenica or other areas?
    The President. Well, we feel pretty good about where things are in 
Srebrenica now. We think that the troop exchange will be able to occur 
between the Canadians and the Dutch, and we're working on Tuzla. We do 
believe that we should keep working to fulfill the commitment that NATO 
made at its last meeting in January to try to see what can be done to 
open the Tuzla airport. But there are ongoing negotiations there now.
    Again, we have sought the involvement of the Russians in this 
regard, and we think that there's a chance that we'll be able to have 
some success in Tuzla. We've discussed what our options are, and I think 
you'll see more about that in the days ahead.
    Q. Are you concerned about the recent NATO air strikes that resulted 
in increased bombing of the Tuzla area? I mean, your message is that 
you're not going to tolerate violation of the no-flight zone, but how do 
you reinforce that to prevent the increased activity?
    The President. Well, right now our authority beyond what's going on 
in Sarajevo is confined to enforcing the no-fly zone. And we did that. 
But I want to say again what I said yesterday: It was based on the 
authority vested through the United Nations last April. It was something 
done in the course of business to do what we are required to do. It 
should not be read in any way as a departure of strategy or tactics 
because of what's going on now generally. And I think it should only 
serve to make people want to resolve this more quickly, to go on with 
the negotiations now. That's what I'm hopeful of.
    Q. To follow up, if I may, sir, though--if there were indeed other 
bombing missions and the attacks step up on these other areas outside of 
Sarajevo, what can NATO do to prevent the spread of this violence?
    The President. Well, right now, I'll say again, the authority we had 
with regard to artillery, that is, on the ground attacks, is the 
authority to remove artillery from around the Sarajevo area to create 
the safe zone. All other authority

[[Page 351]]

is related to stopping the war from spreading into the air. And we're 
talking about what we can do in Tuzla now. That's what you'll see, I 
hope, unfolding in a very positive way over the next few days.
    Prime Minister Major. I have something to add. I think what people 
have to realize is that what is developing is developing on a twin 
track. There is the track of seeking a political settlement. And some 
progress has been made between the Muslims and the Croats here in 
Washington over the last couple of days. And then of course, there's the 
second track of what is actually happening on the ground. And I think 
one saw in Sarajevo a classic illustration of how an agreement can be 
reached on the ground that leads in due course to the corralling of 
weapons. So I think both those tracks will continue.
    But as far as the no-fly zone is concerned, the incident that 
occurred yesterday, where I think it was entirely justifiable to shoot 
down the planes that were intruding in the no-fly zone, could have 
happened at any stage in the last year. It certainly isn't a departure 
from accepted policy. At any time in the last 12 months that could have 
occurred.
    The President. Thank you very much.

Note: The President's 50th news conference began at 9:20 a.m. in the 
Diplomatic Entrance of the White House. In his remarks, he referred to 
Mangosuthu Buthelezi, leader of the South African Inkatha Freedom Party; 
Nelson Mandela, president of the African National Congress; and Governor 
Chris Patten of Hong Kong. A tape was not available for verification of 
the content of this news conference.