    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1996, Book I)]
    [May 9, 1996]
    [Pages 718-722]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    [[Page 718]]

    The President's News Conference With President
    Konstandinos Stephanopoulos of Greece
    May 9, 1996

        President Clinton. Good afternoon. Let me say once again what a
    pleasure it is to welcome President Stephanopoulos to the White House.
    The alliance, the friendship between our two nations is anchored by our
    common commitment to freedom and democracy. Much of our discussion today
    focused on the work we are doing together to build a peaceful,
    democratic, and undivided Europe. I was glad to have a chance to thank
    President Stephanopoulos for the leadership the Hellenic Republic has
    shown in resolving the problems in the Balkans, from Albania to the
    Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.
        I also want to thank Greece, and especially its soldiers, for
    helping to safeguard the peace in Bosnia. Our Armed Forces are proud to
    stand with you, Mr. President, in this important mission of peace. The
    progress we are making there reminds us all that it is possible to
    choose the promise of the future over the conflicts of the past. This
    can be the case in the Aegean as well. The United States will continue
    to help in any way we can to make the region one of peace and
    opportunity for all its people.
        As I emphasized to President Stephanopoulos, the United States
    strongly supports the principle of respect for international agreements
    and the territorial integrity of all nations in the Aegean region. We
    are deeply concerned about the continuing dispute over the islet of
    Imia. I was personally involved in our efforts to convince our two NATO
    allies to pull back from their confrontation. And now we are trying to
    reduce tensions further and to settle the ownership question through an
    international tribunal. I believe the problems in the Aegean can and
    must be resolved through peaceful means, without force or the threat of
    force.
        We also discussed the issue of Cyprus, something that has been of
    special interest to me since I became President. We hope to be able to
    take an initiative on Cyprus this year. A breakthrough in Cyprus could
    pave the way to further progress and be a model to other nations that
    are seeking peace.
        Finally, I underscored to the President our commitment to fight
    terrorism. Greeks and Americans alike have been the victims of terrorist
    brutality at home and abroad. We know the pain and destruction it can
    bring, and we have a responsibility to do all we can to defeat it. We
    look to Greece to be a strong partner in this effort.
        As an ally in NATO and a key player in the European Union, Greece is
    helping to shape the future of Europe and the next half century of our
    transatlantic partnership. The world's oldest democracy is reaching out
    to Europe's newest democracies to build an undivided, integrated
    continent at peace. The United States looks forward to continuing our
    partnership and to benefiting the peoples of both of our countries and
    the entire world.
        Again, Mr. President, welcome to Washington. The microphone is
    yours.
        President Stephanopoulos. Thank you very much, Mr. President.
        I would like to thank once more in the warmest and most sincere way
    President Clinton for his kind invitation, invitation which I accepted
    with great pleasure. We held interesting talks in which we established
    once more the identical views on many important issues. The efforts of
    the United States of America for stability and peace in the Balkans find
    us in the same camp. Greece, as you know, contributes to the extent they
    can do to achieve the same objectives.
        We discussed what we can do in order to establish peace for good in
    this turbulent area of the world, which was founded in bloodshed for
    years and years. It is high time that this region of the world lives in
    peace and conciliation between its peoples. I assured President Clinton
    that Greece, vis-a-vis these countries but also vis-a-vis Albania, for
    which there is common interests of the two countries, is showing the
    same political willingness in order to develop better political
    relations with one, of course, precondition, which I will reiterate: The
    perfect respect of the rights of the Greek minority and, more
    specifically, their right to practice their religion and to be educated
    in their own language, the Greek language, which they have spoken for
    centuries and centuries, as well as all the other Greeks.

    [[Page 719]]

        We discussed for long the crisis in the Aegean, and I expressed once
    more the views of the Greek side in my own words and as I see it, of
    course. And I have been very satisfied hearing Mr. Clinton reaffirming
    the principles of American policy, namely respect of international
    principles, international treaties, territorial integrity of all states
    in the area. And I do believe that these principles, common principles,
    will finally and ultimately be implemented in the areas, so that this
    turbulent area of the world will live in peace and cooperation. There
    are other joint projects with the United States related to technology
    transfer, common educational programs, assimilation of democratic
    institutions in which Greece and the United States of America can play
    an extremely important role.
        Our wish is to be useful to the international community. I believe
    that Greece, as a member of the European Union, not only serves this
    European ideal of peace and cooperation but also we continue to believe
    that the most important ally of Europe is and will continue to be the
    United States of America. With the cooperation between these two
    entities, the European Union and the United States, many things can be
    achieved. Greece will be present and participating in all these efforts.
        Thank you, Mr. President.

    Budget Negotiations

        Q. Mr. President, on a domestic issue, yesterday you said that the
    White House and the Congress were closer together on a balanced budget
    plan than was ever reported in the press. And then the Republicans
    produced a plan that cuts back on their tax cuts and scales back on
    savings and domestic programs. Does that sound like a formula that you
    could go along with?
        President Clinton. Well, I'm encouraged that they moved. I think
    that's encouraging. They abandoned the proposal to abolish the
    Department of Education, for example. That's a good thing, but I want to
    study the details of the program. But it appears to me that we still
    have significant differences and that they propose big cuts in education
    and in the environment and to abolish the guarantee of coverage under
    Medicaid for poor children and the elderly in nursing homes and for
    families with family members with disabilities. And I think the Medicare
    number appears to be still too high. But I think it's a movement in the
    right direction.
        There are other specific things that I have concerns about. Again,
    they seek to abolish the direct college loan program, which has led to
    lower costs, better terms, better repayments for large numbers of
    college students. They seek to abolish the national service program.
    There are a lot of things in there I don't agree with, but it is a
    movement in the right direction. And this is the point I am trying to
    make now, that what we ought to do is to resume our negotiations and
    reach an agreement and do what we did on this year's budget instead of
    having a replay of a unilateral take-it-or-leave-it deal, which is what
    was done in 1995.
        And so I hope that this is the beginning of a process that will end
    in a negotiated 7-year balanced budget. We plainly have the savings in
    common to achieve it. And we are having a better year this year than we
    thought we were going to have on deficit reduction. And so we can get
    this done if we'll do it together.
        Mr. President, do you want to call on a Greek journalist?
        President Stephanopoulos. Yes.

    Greece-Turkey Relations

        Q. Mr. President, the average Greek is very concerned about the fact
    that the U.S. is supporting Turkey as a regional superpower, arming
    Turkey and so on. You also talked about Europe's position to the use of
    force in the Aegean. The average Greek would like to know from you, sir,
    what will you do if Turkey is again going to use force in the area? What
    is the U.S. going to do? If I could just ask President Stephanopoulos,
    the senior Stephanopoulos in the room--[laughter]--what exactly did you
    ask the U.S. in terms of Greek-Turkish relations in this meeting?
        President Clinton. First, let me say, I made my position abundantly
    clear and very clear to the Turks, including to President Demirel on his
    recent trip here. We do not favor--we not only don't favor the use of
    force in the region; we don't favor any threats of the use of force. And
    we have two countries that are our allies in NATO with which we have
    good relations. And we want to try to facilitate a peaceful resolution
    of the disputes in the Aegean, of the issue of Cyprus. If Turkey and
    Greece could resolve their differences, the potential that they have of
    working together to stabilize the situation in the Balkans, to promote a
    Europe at peace and not torn asunder by ethnic and reli-

    [[Page 720]]

    gious conflicts, to build a better future for all of us, is staggering.
        So I'm going to do everything I can to keep down not only force but
    the threat of force, so that we can have a peaceful resolution of all
    these agreements, respecting territorial integrity, based on
    international agreements and without any force. That is clear. And I
    think the--I do not expect there to be a situation in which force comes
    into play, because I think that the wisdom will prevail over passion,
    and we'll avoid that.
        President Stephanopoulos. I didn't come to the United States to ask
    for anything. That was not the purpose of my visit. Greece does not feel
    the need to ask anyone anything beyond the mere implementation of
    international treaties and rules of international law. This is the only
    demand of Greece.
        I hope that the region will prevail more reasonable, more peaceful
    points of view. I think you do know, you and Mr. Papoulias, that there
    are threats of war against Greece. I hope, also, that these threats will
    be withdrawn sometime in the future. But if they're not withdrawn,
    especially if these threats materialize, Greece has the possibility to
    defend itself very, very effectively. I do not wish to raise the tone of
    the discussion, but I really do hope that we will not have this
    opportunity to defend ourselves. I do hope that we will be able to apply
    international law, and I also hope that our neighbor will realize the
    need that these differences, some differences which have some legal
    foundation--and I mean, in this case, the Continental Shelf and Imia.
        So I hope that Turkey realizes that the only solution is the resort
    to the International Court of Justice at The Hague. And in this
    instance, President Clinton's views and my views do coincide perfectly.

    Middle East Peace Process

        Q. Since you came into office, you have promoted the Middle East
    peace process. But a Washington Post reporter writes from Cairo that
    Arab leaders and man on the street believe that because of your all-out
    support of Israel, including the attacks on the U.N. refugee camp,
    leaving 50 people killed, that you have lost your credentials as an
    even-handed, honest broker. What do you say to that?
        President Clinton. Well, first of all I'd say, if you look at the
    fact that the United States has continued its aid to Egypt; if you look
    at what we have done to try to help Jordan to support its political,
    economic, and military objectives as it has made peace with Israel; if
    you look at the efforts that we have made as a government, working with
    other governments and working with our citizens to try to support Mr.
    Arafat and what he is doing and to try to ensure that the Palestinian
    Authority will be successful; if you look at the terms of the agreement
    that the Secretary of State brokered to restore the cease-fire and to
    make it enforceable along the border of Israel and Lebanon; if you look
    at all those things, it seems to me that we have quite good credentials
    to be fair and balanced and to pursue the interests of all the people in
    the region.
        But I would like to remind--it's easy for the people in the region
    to forget because the shelling shocked everyone and the fighting, and
    the Israelis made no secret of the fact that they were dismayed by the
    deaths in the refugee center and that they did not intend to do it. But
    I would remind you that----
        Q. [Inaudible]--think they didn't know where it was?
        President Clinton. I would remind you--people make mistakes in war
    time. There are no such things as perfect weapons. Just because we're
    living in a high-technology age, if you think we can have sort of
    surgical battles in which there are never any unintended consequences,
    that just doesn't happen. It just doesn't happen.
        But I would remind you that the Israelis were shelled. And their
    citizens were subject to shelling on the day--starting the day I arrived
    in Israel after the Sharm al-Sheikh conference, by people who didn't
    like the fact that we got together at Sharm al-Sheikh and who didn't
    want the peace to succeed. And so all--you know, what we always said is
    that the Israelis had a right to defend themselves.
        We also support the United Nations resolution. We look forward to
    the day when Lebanon will be free of all foreign soldiers, when its
    sovereignty will be intact, and when its people will live in peace. I
    just talked yesterday to the Prime Minister of Lebanon on the telephone
    assuring him that I would do what I could to support the reconstruction
    of Lebanon as well as the fair implementation of this agreement.
        So I think if you--as we move away from the understandable passions
    that were inflamed

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    by the violence along the border, is that as time passes and the
    agreement is implemented, the people in the Arab world will look at what
    we have done with the Palestinians, with the Jordanians, with the
    Egyptians, with the brokering of this agreement and what its terms are.
    And I think they will see that the United States has been fair and
    honest. We never made any secret of the fact that we did not ever intend
    to support anybody who wanted to attack and destroy Israel. We never
    have and never will.

    Balkan and Aegean Development and Security

        Q. Mr. President, as far as I know, your Government worked on some
    plans for economic development for security, stability, and peace in the
    Aegean Sea and Balkans. Would you like to say anything about that?
        President Clinton. Is that a question for----
        Q. A question to you.
        President Clinton. To me? [Laughter] I'm hard of hearing, and
    unfortunately I was trying to put these on and I didn't need them. So
    would you ask the question again?
        Q. Of course. As far as I know, your Government works on some plans
    for economic development for security, peace, and stability in the
    Aegean Sea and the Balkans. Would you like to explain to us what
    exactly----
        President Clinton. Well, right now, obviously, in the Balkans our
    main focus is on trying to make sure that the Dayton agreement and the
    Paris peace agreement in Bosnia takes hold and works. We have also--and
    we are working very hard on that. We have also had discussions with the
    President today about our hopes for the further progress and a final
    resolution of the difficulties between Greece and the Former Yugoslav
    Republic of Macedonia. I am encouraged by what has been done. But I
    think that is a very important part of stability and growth in the area.
        And the President shared with me some of the things which are now
    being done between Greece and Albania. And we discussed, among other
    things, what could be done in terms of our partnership in spreading
    technology in the region in ways that would generate significant
    economic activity. So we discussed all these things. But most of our
    immediate money, right now, is going into trying to make sure that we
    succeed in Bosnia, and then we want to build out from there.
        Rita [Rita Braver, CBS News].
        Q. Mr. President----
        President Clinton. Oh, I'm sorry. I apologize. I'm sorry.
        President Stephanopoulos. I would like to answer that. Greece has
    many possibilities of its own to assist development and cooperation in
    the Balkans. And this is what we have been doing for a long time now.
    You very well know that Greek businessmen operate very effectively in
    our neighboring countries and there are many projects stemming from
    northern Greece, from which we expect a lot of results. I do also know
    that the American contribution will be very important and very useful.
    There are many possibilities for U.S. businessmen to cooperate with
    Greek businessmen. Greek businessmen know better than anyone else the
    local conditions. So U.S. and Greek businessmen should work together in
    order to enhance economic and industrial cooperation in the area.
        As far as the Aegean is concerned, local differences should be
    resolved first before envisaging further cooperation, without this
    meaning that we exclude cooperation at this point in time. We have
    established all forms of cooperation with all countries, and we aspire
    to this cooperation also with the Turkish side. I hope that the time
    will come when this trade and economic cooperation will be our sole
    concern.

    McDougal-Tucker Trial

        Q. The testimony that you gave a few weeks ago for the McDougal-
    Tucker case is going on in Little Rock right now and is expected to be
    played this afternoon. I wonder if you could tell us what you want
    Americans to understand from what you said in your testimony, what you
    want the jury to understand, and also, if you still object to the
    release of the videotape publicly?
        President Clinton. Well, my testimony will speak for itself. It will
    be fairly straightforward. All I want the American people to understand
    is that I was asked to testify because they thought I might have some
    evidence that was helpful, and I was glad to testify. And then what I
    said will be a matter of public record when it's run. If it's run this
    afternoon, it will be.
        I believe the press should have access to my testimony. I just think
    that it ought to be treated like everybody else's testimony in Federal
    court, and it shouldn't be subject to abuse or misconstruction. I think
    it's a very straightforward--

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    it was a very straightforward set of questions, at least most of it, and
    I gave the best, direct, straightforward answers I could. I don't think
    it's a very big deal, but I did my best to answer the questions that
    were asked of me.
        Thank you.
        Q. You were basically being asked to refute testimony--[inaudible]--
    participate in a fraudulent deal----
        President Clinton. I didn't say anything different in the trial that
    I haven't said in public on that.

    Aegean Peace Process

        Q. Mr. President, are you planning a Camp David summit for Greece
    and Turkey over the Aegean issue?
        President Clinton. I guess the short answer right now is no, but
    what I am planning to do is to stay in close touch with this issue. I am
    encouraged that the representatives of Greece and Turkey have already
    met once and intend to meet again in Berlin in the next few weeks and
    seem to be moving toward a resolution along the lines of the standards
    that the President and I have both endorsed today, along the lines of
    respect for international agreements, respect for territorial integrity,
    no force, no threat of force. We believe that is very important.
        If it becomes obvious at some point in the future that the United
    States could constructively play a larger role and that both parties are
    willing to have that done, I wouldn't rule that out. But I think the
    important thing is that the parties themselves have to resolve this
    difference, and they have to agree about the way it's going to be
    resolved. And I believe that the principles I just laid out had to be
    embraced by both sides in order for any success to occur.
        But I will say again--let me just say again--I believe if the
    differences in the Aegean and the differences over Cyprus could be
    resolved so that Greece and Turkey, that are allies in NATO, could
    become in a general sense better partners, the impact on the whole
    future of Europe, the whole future of the linchpin area of the Balkans,
    the connection of that area of Europe down to the Middle East--and
    therefore the impact on all of us--the positive impact would be
    breathtaking.
        So the rest of the world has a lot riding on whether Greeks and
    Turks can resolve their differences. So quite apart from the enormous
    interest that we have in the United States because of our large number
    of Greek-Americans, we know that the whole world has a lot riding on
    this. And so if there is anything we can do, we'll do it. But right now,
    the parties are trying to work it out for themselves, and I think they
    deserve a lot of support for that, and encouragement.
        Thank you.
        Yes, please, Mr. President.
        President Stephanopoulos. Allow me to add that you're advancing
    things with your question. Greece has clarified what we can accept in
    terms of dialog with Turkey. We have clarified that no dialog is
    possible right now, because it is condemned to failure. If Turkey
    doesn't accept to send the Imia question to the International Court of
    Justice at The Hague, then the second precondition is the resolution of
    the Continental Shelf question through the same way.
        So we do not deny dialog. But we want dialog, provided dialog is
    realistic and that it doesn't affect the sovereign rights of Greece and
    that it will be carried out according to international treaties and
    international law. So we should not talk about something which need not
    be realized now.
        President Clinton. Thank you all very much. See you this evening.

    Note: The President's 122d news conference began at 12:50 p.m. in Room
    450 of the Old Executive Office Building. Participants referred to
    President Suleyman Demirel of Turkey; Karolos Papoulias, former Foreign
    Minister of Greece; Chairman Yasser Arafat of the Palestinian Authority;
    and Prime Minister Rafiq al-Hariri of Lebanon. President Stephanopoulos
    spoke in Greek, and his remarks were translated by an interpreter.