[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1996, Book I)]
[June 27, 1996]
[Pages 986-987]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks With President Jacques Chirac of France on the G-7 Response to 
Terrorism and an Exchange With Reporters in Lyons
June 27, 1996

    President Chirac. Ladies and gentlemen, this press point is, in 
fact, to explain to you that we changed our agenda at the G-7. We all 
together were united in condemning the dreadful bombing that has taken 
place and the fact that the United States and Saudi Arabia have fallen 
victim to this appalling event. We expressed our deepest sympathy to the 
President of the United States and the people of the United States as 
well. And we decided to place terrorism on our agenda as the very first 
point for discussion and to prepare a communique in order to fight this 
scourge. This is a communique which you will be receiving at the close 
of this pre-press conference, so that you can see the top priority that 
we assign to fighting terrorism.
    We've also agreed to convene a ministerial conference in about 3 
weeks time which will be attended by the ministers of foreign affairs 
and ministers responsible for security at the level of the eight 
countries meeting here. And this is all designed to identify the steps 
which will bolster our fight against terrorism.
    President Clinton. I want to thank President Chirac and my other G-7 
colleagues for their very powerful statements and their expression of 
sympathy to the victims and their families.
    We have once again stood united against terrorism. We understand 
that an attack on one of us is an attack on all of us and that none of 
us is invulnerable. Attacks of terror can occur anywhere, whether in a 
Paris metro station or in Manchester or the subway in Tokyo or the World 
Trade Center or the Oklahoma City Federal Building. This latest act of 
outrage reminds us of one of the great burdens of the modern world.
    As we become more open, as our borders become freer to cross, as we 
can move information and money and people and material across national 
boundaries more quickly, we all become more vulnerable to terrorists, to 
the organized forces of destruction, to those who live to kill for 
ethnic or racial or religious reasons, especially. And I want to 
emphasize that I am convinced that the G-7 leaders are every bit as 
determined as I am to take stronger action.
    In the next day or two we will be discussing, as I said earlier, 40 
specific actions we can take to try to protect our borders, to try to 
stop the illegal weapons trade, to try to stop the money laundering and 
illegal currency transactions, to try to protect the witnesses and 
others who support our efforts to crack terrorists and their operations. 
And then President Chirac, in suggesting this ministerial, has given us 
the chance to try to come up with even more specific steps that will 
involve, we hope, even more people rallying to our cause.

[[Page 987]]

    This is a very sad day for the United States. I have been very moved 
by the deep and genuine expressions of condolence by the President of 
France and the other leaders here. But I have been even more moved by 
the determination that they have shared with me in common to take 
stronger stands against terrorism, to prevail and not to give in. That 
is the message we want to go out to the world tonight.
    Thank you.

Terrorist Attack in Saudi Arabia

    Q. Mr. President, is there anything tonight that you discussed that 
might have an effect on the type of bombing that took place in Saudi 
Arabia, any difference in approach that that bombing----
    President Clinton. Well, among the things we are looking at, for our 
next statement on this and for the ministerial meeting, is the question 
of whether we can do more to help each other protect our people against 
larger and more powerful explosives, and perhaps even more important, 
whether we can do more to detect them.
    If you will recall, when we had the terrible bomb explosions in 
Israel several weeks before the election, one of the things that I did 
was to send to the people of Israel the latest detection equipment that 
we had to try to aid them in finding people who had explosives on their 
persons or in their cars. And we believe that made a contribution to 
their endeavors.
    So one of the things that we are going to do is to try to figure out 
how much more we can do in the area of prevention and how much more we 
can do in the area of detection of explosives, which are becoming the 
weapon of choice for terrorists all around the world.

Extraterritorial Impact of Sanctions

    Q. President Clinton and President Chirac, in your discussions this 
evening did Helms-Burton and the pending legislation involving Libya and 
Iran come up, and if so, did you detect any change of views on the 
subjects?
    President Clinton. We did not discuss that at all. Thank you.

Note: The President spoke at approximately 10:50 p.m. at the Prefecture. 
President Chirac spoke in French, and his remarks were translated by an 
interpreter. A portion of this exchange could not be verified because 
the tape was incomplete.