    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1994, Book II)]
    [November 14, 1994]
    [Pages 2079-2083]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    The President's News Conference in Jakarta, Indonesia
    November 14, 1994

        The President. Good afternoon. I'm very glad to be here in Indonesia
    for this APEC meeting. As I said before I left the United States, I am
    here because this opportunity for me to meet with leaders throughout
    this region can lead to more economic opportunities for Americans and a
    reduced threat of nuclear proliferation.
        Today I had the opportunity to meet with President Jiang Zemin of
    China, Prime Minister Murayama of Japan, Prime Minister Keating of
    Australia, and President Kim of South Korea. The most important topic of
    our conversations was the situation on the Korean Peninsula. All the
    leaders indicated their strong support for the agreement we reached with
    North Korea to freeze and then to dismantle its ability to build nuclear
    weapons. All agreed on the importance of resuming the dialog between
    North and South Korea. This agreement marks an historic step to freeze
    and, ultimately, to end the greatest security threat in this region.
        Prime Minister Murayama of Japan and South Korean President Kim
    agreed that we must maintain our close cooperation as we begin to
    implement the agreement. And the three of us plan to meet briefly again
    later this evening to follow up on our earlier conversations.
        In all my meetings today I made it clear that the fundamental
    interests of the United States in the Pacific remain unchanged. And each
    of the leaders welcomed the assurance that the United States will
    continue to exercise active leadership in the region.
        In each of the meetings today there was also strong agreement that
    the early ratification of GATT would be absolutely essential to
    maintaining a climate that promotes global economic growth and expanding
    trade. I told each of the leaders that I would do everything I could to

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    pass the GATT, that Congress would come back soon, and that I thought it
    would pass. It was clear to me that the rest of the world is looking to
    the United States for leadership on this issue. It's also clear to me, I
    will say again, that it is very much in our interest to pass GATT
    because it means more high-wage jobs for Americans.
        Finally, in each of the meetings we discussed the APEC leaders
    meeting which begins tonight. I expressed my strong support for the
    efforts of President Soeharto to build on the common vision of the
    Asian-Pacific community that we set forth at Seattle last year in the
    first of these leaders meetings.
        This week's discussions I believe will allow us to take a critical
    step forward toward free and open trade throughout the region. After
    all, this is very important to the United States. Already one-third of
    our exports go to the Asia-Pacific region; already 2 million American
    jobs are tied to this region. This is the fastest growing part of the
    world. So it is very important that we proceed first with GATT and
    second with APEC so that we can continue the economic recovery at home
    and continue to provide increasing opportunities for our people.
        All these meetings today reinforced my belief that the United States
    is strong in the Asian-Pacific region, that we are getting stronger in
    this region, and that in so doing we are strengthening Americans
    economically and in terms of our security. In short, we are moving in
    the right direction. This is a good investment. We need to make the most
    of it.
        Terry [Terence Hunt, United Press International].

    North Korea

        Q. Mr. President, APEC--as an economic organization--what kind of
    statement of support or commitment are you seeking from APEC about
    implementing the nuclear agreement with North Korea? Are you hoping that
    all the leaders have something to say on this?
        The President. I think that the leaders who are most concerned with
    it may have something to say. I don't know that the organization itself
    will.
        President Kim and I obviously have worked most heavily on it. And
    Prime Minister Murayama has been terribly interested in it. But we had a
    long discussion today between President Jiang Zemin and myself about it,
    and it will become a topic of conversation elsewhere, as well. Prime
    Minister Keating was very intent on being supportive of the agreement.
        I don't know that there will be an APEC statement, because it's an
    economic group. But I have not yet talked to anyone who does not believe
    it's an important first step forward and that it ought to be
    implemented.

    East Timor

        Q. Mr. President, as you know, some students have taken over or have
    occupied the parking lot in the U.S. Embassy here and are calling for
    the release of one of the leaders of the Timor human rights movement.
    They've asked to meet with you, sir. Has there been any contact between
    your entourage and these students? And how do you feel about their
    demands?
        The President. Well, first, the whole issue of East Timor has been
    of a concern to the United States at least since I've been President. I
    talked about it in the campaign of 1992, and we have raised it in our
    conversations with Indonesian leaders. We will continue to do so. The
    contacts they've had, insofar as I know them, have occurred in an
    appropriate way through our Embassy there. But this is an issue which is
    a part of our dialog with the Indonesians, and it should be.

    Cooperation With Republican Leaders

        Q. Mr. President, Congressman Gingrich is known to feel that he was
    never properly or publicly thanked for his help on NAFTA. He has,
    however, said that he's committed to helping to get the GATT legislation
    passed. First, have you discussed that issue, the GATT legislation, with
    him? And do you feel that you have anything else to say to him about his
    participation in NAFTA?
        The President. Well, I don't know about that. When NAFTA passed, I
    tried to be profuse in my thanks to the Republicans as well as the
    Democrats. Congressman Gingrich, Mr. Kolbe, Mr. Dreier, and others were
    critical in the success of NAFTA, and they are critical to the success
    of the GATT. I was encouraged by my conversations with both Congressman
    Gingrich and Senator Dole about GATT, and I look forward to working with
    them.
        Rita [Rita Braver, CBS News].
        Q. While you're here having the summit with the Asian-Pacific
    leaders, I wondered if you'd given any thought to when you return to
    Wash-

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    ington having sort of a summit with the incoming Republican leaders,
    some kind of series of face-to-face meetings where you'd work on a
    mutual agenda, and whether at this point you've fixed on any kind of
    strategy toward working with them?
        The President. Well, my strategy will be to have an open door and to
    have a lot of contact. And I certainly intend to meet with them. I said
    before I left in my conversations with Senator Dole and Congressman
    Gingrich that I looked forward to having a chance to meet with them when
    I come back. I left, frankly, as you know, shortly after the elections,
    so there wasn't a great deal of opportunity to think through all the
    details. And I asked them to work with Mr. Panetta about that, and I
    presume they are doing so.
        Yes, sir.

    North Korea

        Q. Mr. President, do you feel that--[inaudible]--what President
    Jiang Zemin said in reaction to the agreement on North Korea nuclear
    issue? And also, do you expect a firm commitment from Prime Minister
    Murayama and President Kim when you meet with them later this evening?
        The President. Well, they all said that they strongly supported the
    agreement and that they thought it was very important that we continue
    to work it through. They understood that the implementation of the
    agreement would not be without difficulty and it would require a lot of
    efforts on several fronts.
        They all also agreed that we ought to see a resumption of the North-
    South dialog, that these two countries have some things to resolve
    between themselves that the rest of us simply cannot do for them. A lot
    of these things they're going to have to talk through themselves. But I
    was very encouraged by what President Jiang said and what Prime Minister
    Murayama said and what President Kim said about the agreement. They were
    all very forthright and strong in their support of it.
        Wolf [Wolf Blitzer, Cable News Network].

    Human Rights

        Q. Mr. President, some of your critics back home are suggesting
    you're giving too much importance to trade and economic issues with
    China, with Indonesia, other members of APEC and not enough to human
    rights. Specifically, this morning in your meeting with the Chinese
    leader, you didn't forcefully address these human rights issues,
    presumably as forcefully as many human rights groups would like. And at
    this time that you're here in Indonesia, Amnesty International is
    suggesting that human rights abuses here in Indonesia are getting worse.
    How do you respond to these critics?
        The President. That the United States, perhaps more than any other
    country in the world, consistently and regularly raises human rights
    issues. There was a discussion of human rights issues in the meeting
    with President Jiang Zemin this morning in which a number of specific
    things were raised and in which we made it absolutely clear that in
    order for the United States' relationship with China to fully flower,
    there had to be progress on all fronts.
        So I think it was quite clear. And as I said, I have met with
    President Soeharto before; I have met with these other leaders before.
    Wherever there is a clear human rights problem, I have tried to address
    it and will continue to do so and use whatever influence we can in a
    positive way.

    United Nations and Foreign Aid

        Q. Senator Helms is talking about cuts in foreign aid and cuts for
    U.N. funding, saying that a lot of our money in years past has gone down
    what he called ``foreign ratholes.'' Does this bode well for your
    relationship with him, and does it undercut your position at meetings
    like this one?
        The President. Well, let me say, first of all, I think that all
    Americans would agree that not every dollar that was spent by the United
    Nations in the past was spent as efficiently as possible. We have been
    very active since Ambassador Albright has been at the United Nations in
    pushing for U.N. reforms to increase the efficiency of the organization
    and to increase the impact of the dollars and other currencies that are
    spent there. And we have made some progress in improving the efficiency
    of the United Nations. I am proud of the work that Madeleine Albright
    and others have done in supporting that.
        Now, having said that, it still seems to me that we are far better
    off working where we can with other nations of the world and trying to
    make our fair contribution as long as we know our dollars are going to
    be well spent.

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        If I might just point out, one of the things that we're looking
    forward to as we go through the various phases of our mission in Haiti
    is turning over our mission to a United Nations operation to complete
    the overall mission in Haiti of training the police force, the armed
    forces, and being there until the next elections are conducted. That's
    an area in our own backyard where the presence of the United Nations and
    the willingness of other nations to participate and to contribute is of
    economic benefit to us.
        So I think we have to be--I agree with anyone, including Senator
    Helms, who wants the United Nations to be efficiently run and to say we
    have to continue to work at it. But I do not agree that it is a mistake
    for us to support peacekeeping. I think it is a good thing, a good
    allocation of our resources if properly done. And I would hope to be
    able to persuade a majority of both parties in the Congress, and in the
    Senate especially where there's so much foreign affairs interest, that
    that is the right course.

    Human Rights Demonstrations

        Q. Mr. President, the protesters at the Embassy are demonstrating in
    the best nonviolent American tradition. And we're all going to move on,
    but they're going to still be here and have to face the justice system.
    Are you going to send any signal to the Indonesian Government this week
    that we're worried about how they'll be treated after we're all gone?
        The President. We've already done that. We've already said that we
    had no problem with these young people coming and expressing their views
    in our Embassy grounds, that we talked with them, we worked with them.
    And we have been assured that there will be no retribution against them
    for exercising their political expression and bringing their concerns to
    us. We have been assured of that, and I feel comfortable that the
    commitment we received will be honored.

    APEC Summit

        Q. Mr. President, in terms of the goals of this economic summit, I
    understand that you're hoping that a timetable of action aimed at
    liberalizing trade comes out of this meeting. That may not seem like a
    giant political payoff for people back home, and I'm wondering, how do
    you explain what the benefits of this meeting are to Americans who are
    wondering why you came to Jakarta?
        The President. Well, first of all, let's wait and see what happens.
    But I would like to make two comments about it. I told the American
    people when I sought this office that it was necessary for the President
    to look to the long-term economic interests of the country as well as to
    the short-term economic interests of the country, that we were moving
    into a global economy in which we had to make long-term commitments and
    expect others to make them if we wanted Americans to have good jobs and
    stable incomes and brighter futures.
        We don't yet know--I don't want to jump the gun on what the
    agreement will be, but I think most Americans would like it very much to
    know that at some date certain that every market in this part of the
    world, the fastest growing part of the world with already some of the
    most powerful economies in the world, would be as open to our products
    as our markets are to theirs. I think Americans would like that.
        And I would ask that the Americans who want immediate results to
    remember that after 2 years of hard work, we have the economy going in
    the right direction. We need to provide more stability and higher wages
    in it and more security, ability to afford health care and things of
    that kind. And we have seen some significant advances in foreign policy
    in the Middle East, in Northern Ireland, in Haiti, with the missile
    agreement with China, with the nuclear agreement with North Korea. These
    things take time, but you do get the payoff if you invest the time.
        This is a remarkable thing, the fact that these 15 leaders are
    meeting for the second time in 2 years and talking about ripping down
    the barriers that divide us so that all of our people can be more
    prosperous in the future.
        I did not want, when I became President, I did not want to see this
    world polarized by trading blocs which would take the place of the
    nuclear blocs of the cold war. I wanted to see regions cooperate within
    themselves but also reach out beyond their borders. That's what I have
    worked for in Europe, in Latin America, in Africa, and certainly in
    Asia. It is the fastest growing part of the world. The American people
    cannot be as prosperous as they need to be unless we succeed here in
    Asia.
        Thank you.

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    Bosnia

        Q. Mr. President, we haven't heard you on Bosnia. Do you care to say
    something about that?
        The President. Well, I can say that I've obviously been very
    concerned about the events of the last few days in Bihac. We have tabled
    a--we have put forth a proposal to our allies there and to the members
    of the Contact Group. And we are hoping to see the situation stabilize.
        Q. What about the embargo, the criticism that you----
        The President. We have been criticized by some of our allies, but I
    think they need to understand the situation. The United States Congress
    had a heavy majority in favor of unilateral lifting of the arms embargo.
    Instead of that, we got a bill through the Congress which said that we
    should pursue a multilateral lift of the arms embargo through the United
    Nations if the Contact Group proposal was not adopted but that we would
    stop spending American tax dollars to enforce the embargo directly.
        Now we know that the Bosnian Government itself, which enjoys such
    wide support in the Congress in both parties, has asked us not to lift
    the arms embargo for a period of 6 months while they continue to work to
    try to sell the Contact Group proposal.
        We have worked very hard in the last few days--I want to compliment
    the Secretary of State and the Secretary of Defense and others in our
    administration, including the United Nations Ambassador and the National
    Security Adviser--we've all worked hard to try to explain to our allies
    exactly what we have done and what we have not done. We are not
    violating the arms embargo. We are observing the international arms
    embargo. We will continue to do it. But the arrangement which we have
    adopted on enforcement is the product of intense negotiations in the
    United States Congress, which Senator Nunn and others helped us to work
    out to avoid what I believe would have been a very serious mistake,
    which would have been a unilateral vote by the Congress to lift the arms
    embargo.
        Thank you.
        Q. Mr. President, can you take one question from Indonesian press?
        The President. Yes, I think I owe you one. I was looking for someone
    to raise their hand. Go ahead, I'll give you one.

    Military Sales and the APEC Summit

        Q. Mr. President, does the relationship between the civilian and the
    military in a developing country affect U.S. military sales to the
    country?
        The President. Well, there are many things that affect United States
    military sales to a country. And so I guess the answer to that would be,
    it depends on the facts; it would depend on the specifics of a case. But
    we have been quite careful in what we do with our military equipment and
    sales, and we will continue to do that.
        You didn't ask this question, but I do think I should say again--I
    want to hammer this home for the Indonesian press, if not for the
    American press--this is a remarkable thing that is being done here in
    Indonesia and quite remarkable that President Soeharto is trying to
    spearhead a clear and specific commitment on the part of all these
    nations in the fastest growing part of the world to tear down their
    trade barriers. It is a very significant thing.
        So far as I know, there is no precedent for it. I had hoped such a
    thing would occur when I convened the leaders in Seattle last year, but
    I knew that this was something that would have to bubble up from the
    grass-roots, from the people in the fast-growing economies of Asia. And
    this is a remarkable meeting that, in history, will be looked back on as
    a very important part of what the world looks like well into the 21st
    century.
        Thank you.
        Q. Any jet lag?
        The President. Just a tad. I think I'm still somewhere between
    Jordan and Jerusalem. [Laughter]

    Note: The President's 80th news conference began at 4:37 p.m. at the
    U.S. Ambassador's residence. In his remarks, he referred to Prime
    Minister Tomiichi Murayama of Japan; Prime Minister Paul Keating of
    Australia; President Kim Yong-sam of South Korea; and President Soeharto
    of Indonesia.