    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1994, Book II)]
    [November 22, 1994]
    [Pages 2113-2117]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    The President's News Conference With President Kuchma of Ukraine
    November 22, 1994

        President Clinton. Good afternoon. President Kuchma and I had an
    excellent set of meetings today, and I have very much enjoyed getting to
    know him. The work we have done follows on the successful meetings in
    Kiev between President Kuchma and Vice President Gore. It has
    strengthened the friendship between our two nations that was already on
    a very firm basis.
        Since his election just 5 months ago, President Kuchma has bravely
    and squarely confronted the two greatest challenges facing Ukraine,
    economic reform and the nuclear question. He has taken hard, practical
    steps required to secure a more peaceful and prosperous future for his
    people. I applaud his leadership and the leadership of the Ukrainian
    Parliament in acceding last week to the Non-Proliferation Treaty.
        Ukraine's move is a major step toward ensuring that nuclear missiles
    never again will be targeted at the children of our nations. I told
    President Kuchma that the United States will continue to work with
    Ukraine to dismantle completely its nuclear arsenal. Three hundred and
    fifty million dollars of our total $900 million, 2-year aid package is
    targeted toward that goal, and there could be no better use of the
    funds.
        In addition, Ukraine's decision will permit the United States,
    Russia, and the United Kingdom to extend formal security assurances to
    Ukraine. It will allow the START I Treaty to be brought into force,
    enabling the process of nuclear weap-

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    ons reductions to move forward. It will permit us to strengthen our
    military relations with Ukraine. It will open up Ukraine to a new range
    of business and technological opportunities. In addition, we pledge to
    help defray some of the costs for participation by Ukraine in the
    Partnership For Peace.
        On economic issues, the President and I discussed the far-reaching
    reforms he has initiated. These reforms put Ukraine on the right path
    toward a future of increasing prosperity and economic integration with
    the Western market economies.
        At this moment in our history, we have an extraordinary opportunity
    to improve the lives of all of our people by working more closely
    together and trading together more. Ukraine's reform program can speed
    this development, and I have pledged to support it to the fullest of our
    ability to do so. In 1994 and '95, our economic assistance of $550
    million, including balance-of-payment support, will be speedily
    delivered to help to stabilize the economy. Our new U.S.-Ukraine
    enterprise fund will soon start making loans to new small businesses.
    We'll continue our work together in aerospace and high tech.
        As Ukraine's economy continues to improve, the opportunities for
    both our countries will multiply. The IMF and the World Bank are also
    working hard to make sure these reforms bear fruit, and Russia and
    Turkmenistan have given badly needed help. I'll continue to press our G-
    7 partners, especially the European Union and Japan, to do more to
    contribute to this effort.
        President Kuchma and I discussed other issues, including the nuclear
    power complex at Chernobyl. The G-7 nations and Ukraine have a common
    interest in agreeing on a plan to improve the safety and the efficiency
    in the Ukrainian energy sector and in closing down the Chernobyl plants.
        We've worked hard today. And the agreements we've reached promise to
    help deliver concrete results: increased security, increased prosperity
    for Ukrainians and Americans. Our relations continue to grow stronger as
    they have since Ukrainian independence just 3 years ago. Our friendship
    will grow because our futures are intertwined.
        I'd now like to turn the microphone over to President Kuchma for his
    remarks, and then we'll answer your questions, beginning with an
    American journalist, alternating with Ukrainian journalists.
        Mr. President.
        President Kuchma. Thank you very much, Mr. President, ladies and
    gentlemen. President Clinton and I have just signed very important
    documents, the Charter of Ukrainian-American Partnership, Friendship,
    and Cooperation and also the Agreement on Cooperation on Space Research
    for Peaceful Purposes. We also signed several bilateral accords on the
    ministerial level.
        Thus, by joint effort, both countries have made another concrete
    step toward solidifying the legal basis of relations between the United
    States and Ukraine and enriching the relationship of democratic
    partnership with practical content.
        The signing of these documents has become possible due to a
    constructive and purposeful effort of politicians, diplomats and experts
    in both countries. It is noteworthy that the charter signed today
    removed the last barriers which to an extent held back the development
    of Ukrainian-American relations in a very first and extremely important
    stage of their formation. We can now say that we have not simply signed
    several bilateral documents but opened the way to a full-fledged
    cooperation in the political economic, humanitarian, and other areas in
    the interests of both nations. That was the main purpose of my state
    visit to the United States.
        The current Ukrainian-American summit, the talks we had today, which
    can be characterized with a spirit of a constructive, businesslike, and
    mutual interest in reaching practical results. And I'm very thankful to
    the President of the United States, Bill Clinton, and Vice President Al
    Gore. Thus, we are the participants and witnesses of a process where our
    relations are being formed step by step and cooperation is being
    enriched, such a perspective, to our extent, in the development of
    relations and in the interest of both nations.
        Ahead of us lies practical work to realize the reached, signed
    accords. Without such implementation, we will not be able to move ahead
    to a stronger bilateral cooperation. I would like to assure you, Mr.
    President, that Ukraine will fulfill its pledges and is ready for a
    further active cooperation.

    Senator Jesse Helms

        Q. Mr. President, I'd like to ask you about some recent comments by
    Senator Jesse Helms.

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    Last week he said that you weren't fit to be Commander in Chief, and
    then yesterday he said that you better have a bodyguard if you ever come
    to North Carolina. But I wonder what's your reaction to his remarks and
    if you feel comfortable with him being chairman of the Foreign Relations
    Committee that's going to oversee your foreign policy?
        President Clinton. I think the remarks were unwise and
    inappropriate. The President oversees the foreign policy of the United
    States. And the Republicans will decide in whom they will repose their
    trust and confidence; that's a decision for them to make, not for me.

    NATO Membership

        Q. President Clinton, first of all, for you a question. Will
    American policy change in Budapest in December towards expansion of NATO
    to the Eastern Europe? And would you mention Ukraine as a NATO member
    without Russia? And President Kuchma, would you imagine Ukraine being a
    member of NATO, not now but in a couple of years?
        President Clinton. First, let me say that I believe we will have
    discussions in Budapest about how we might go about expanding NATO but
    not about when and which particular countries would be let in; I think
    that is premature. Secondly, as I have said all along, I am working hard
    for the prospect of an integrated Europe. I have encouraged it
    economically; I have encouraged it politically; I have encouraged it in
    terms of security. Therefore, I would not say or do anything that would
    exclude the possibility of Ukrainian membership. That would be up to
    Ukraine, and it will be up to all of us, working together, to try to
    determine what is the best way to promote the security of what I hope
    and believe can be a united Europe, something that has never before
    occurred, I might add, in the whole history of nation states on the
    European Continent. We have an historic opportunity, and we ought to do
    everything we can to seize it.
        President Kuchma. I would like to make my comment. I would like to
    say that I do agree with President Clinton. The security on the European
    Continent is a very important issue, and it shouldn't be solved by the
    revolutionary way but rather by the evolutionary method. It is not
    important who enters where, but it is very important that we do not have
    a new Berlin Wall in Europe.

    Republican Leaders

        Q. Mr. President, since the election returns, the Republicans have
    played hardball, and they have threatened legislative reprisals against
    your agenda and also have tried to force tradeoffs on GATT. What are you
    going to do about it?
        President Clinton. Well, first, let me answer the GATT question. I
    am encouraged by the progress that we have made in working with Senator
    Dole on the substantive issues surrounding GATT. And I appreciate the
    very constructive attitude that has prevailed there. I disagree that
    there should be some deal cut regarding capital gains; I don't think
    that's the right thing to do. This is an important agreement on its own
    merits. Everyone concedes it will lead to hundreds of thousands of jobs.
        In the wake of the election, let me say that one of the things that
    has been discovered again is something that I began talking about
    several years ago, long before I ever thought of running for President,
    and that is the declining wages of many of our working people. It's not
    surprising that a lot of people aren't a lot happier, even when we add
    millions of jobs, if all of the people who were working in the first
    place think they're never going to get a raise and don't think their
    jobs are more secure.
        Many Americans think that trade causes that. That was one of the
    fights over NAFTA, if you'll remember. My argument is that we have an
    open trading system here, so we already get whatever downside there is
    to trade. We know when we create jobs related to trade, they pay on
    average 13 percent higher than average jobs. So my argument for the GATT
    is that it will raise incomes of American workers. And I think that is
    our most urgent economic job, not just to create jobs and to keep low
    inflation and high investment but also to pursue whatever strategies are
    available to us to raise incomes. So I think we should pursue the GATT
    vigorously. I think it's in the interest of the American working people.
    I hope it will prevail.
        As to these other issues, again I will say there are a lot of areas
    where we can work together with the Republicans. We can finish the
    battle that this administration began with the last Congress to change
    what I would call yesterday's Government. We have begun the downsizing
    of the Government; we have begun the deregula-

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    tion that we need to do. We know there is much more that can be done.
        We still have an enormous amount to do in the area of political
    reform that surely we can agree on: the line-item veto, campaign finance
    reform, lobby reform, applying the laws to Congress that they apply to
    the private sector, the Kempthorne-Glenn bill on mandates, which I
    strongly endorsed and worked on, which was caught up in all the delays
    in the last session, to reduce mandates on State governments, giving the
    States and localities more flexibility in many areas, a lot of the
    things we can work on.
        I do not believe the American people want the next Congress to
    repeal the things which benefited ordinary Americans. I don't think they
    want to repeal family leave or the Brady bill or the assault weapons ban
    or any of those substantive achievements, and I will resist that.
        Q. Are you surprised at the vengeful attitude?
        President Clinton. Well, let me say, you characterize it in that
    way. I can only tell you that my job is to stand up for the interests of
    ordinary Americans; that's what I will do. I will do my very best to
    work with them, where we can work together. There are opportunities in
    the area of governmental reform where their contract and their agenda
    overlaps with mine. I will do my best to resist exploding the Government
    deficit, sinking the economic recovery, or repealing the gains that
    working people made in the last session of Congress.

    Ukraine-U.S. Relations

        Q. Mr. President, you said that you have made another step in the
    development of relations. What would be the realization of that step?
    How do you visualize it? And is there long-term perspective in the
    nuclear disarmament, that the United States can help Ukraine?
        President Kuchma. I'm very glad that you are asking about the
    future, but I would like the current agreements between Ukraine and the
    United States be realized, first of all. Then we will think about the
    future in long perspective. Currently, we have agreed on some things
    which provide very longstanding perspective for--[inaudible].
        President Clinton. If I could just answer that question briefly, it
    is a measure of the importance that we attach to Ukraine and to its
    impact on the entire future of Europe well into the next century that in
    this 2-year period, a very difficult budget situation in America where
    we are trying to bring our deficit down and where we are cutting overall
    spending, Ukraine is the fourth largest recipient of American foreign
    assistance in the entire world because we think it is so important to
    complete the work of denuclearization, but also because we think your
    long-term economic development, your commitment to democracy and to an
    open economy is so important that we want to be there over the long run.
        So, I agree with the President. We have to do what we are already
    agreeing to do. But there will be much more in the years ahead. As your
    country continues to grow and flourish, there will be much more.

    Federal Budget and Prayer in Schools

        Q. Mr. President, there seems to be still some confusion over your
    position on the constitutional amendment involving prayer in public
    schools. And today there's some confusion resulting from Secretary
    Reich's comments, a proposal that he floated that $111 billion could be
    cut in subsidies for big corporations, as part of your new budget, over
    5 years. Your Commerce Secretary says he doesn't know anything about
    that. What exactly is your position on that proposal and on prayer in
    public schools?
        President Clinton. Let me answer the second question first, because
    I think we can dispose of it rather quickly. I have not reviewed the
    specifics of Secretary Reich's proposal. As I understand it, he was
    speaking to the Democratic Leadership Council group today, and they have
    what they call a cut and invest theory which calls for a complex of
    further budget cuts, phasing out various tax subsidies and then using
    that money to finance the middle class tax cut as well as further
    investments in education. Conceptually, it's an attractive idea. I have
    to have time to review the details in the context of our budget. I have
    made absolutely no decision about any of the specifics in Secretary
    Reich's proposal.
        Now, with regard to the school prayer amendment, let me make a few
    general comments, first of all. I want to make it absolutely clear that
    this is not a political issue with me; it never has been, and it never
    will be. Secondly, I have a very long record on this issue. I have been
    coming to grips with it for at least a decade.

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        The comments I made in Indonesia, I'm afraid--and those of you who
    were there with me know we had been on a rather rigorous trip schedule
    for the last few weeks--may have been overread. I made a generalized
    commitment after the election in the press conference that I had, and
    also to all of our people, that we would read and review or listen to
    any proposals the Republicans might have before condemning them. We
    ought to at least listen, and we ought to look for ways to work
    together.
        My position on the prayer issue is, I have always supported a moment
    of silence. When I was a Governor, I supported the moment of silence
    legislation. I do not believe that we should have a constitutional
    amendment to carve out and legalize teacher- or student-led prayer in
    the classroom. I think that that is inherently coercive in a nation with
    the amount of religious diversity we have in this country. I think that
    would be an error.
        As I understand it, that is what is being proposed by the Republican
    Congressman from Oklahoma, and I would be opposed to that. I don't
    believe that--I think the very nature of the circumstances mean that,
    for large numbers of our children, it could not be truly voluntary, and
    I would oppose it.

    Note: The President's 82d news conference began at 4:56 p.m. in Room 450
    of the Old Executive Office Building. President Kuchma spoke in
    Ukrainian, and his remarks were translated by an interpreter.