    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1996, Book II)]
    [September 24, 1996]
    [Pages 1647-1651]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks to the 51st Session of the United Nations General Assembly in
    New York City
    September 24, 1996

        Mr. President, Mr. Secretary-General, heads of government, foreign
    ministers, ambassadors, your excellencies, distinguished guests: Three
    years ago, I had the honor of being the first American President born
    after the founding of the United Nations to address you. In its 51st
    year, the United Nations has not yet realized all its founders'
    aspirations, but the ideals of the U.N. Charter, peace, freedom,
    tolerance, prosperity, these now touch more people in more nations than
    ever before.
        Now we find ourselves at a turning point in history, when the blocs
    and barriers that long defined the world are giving way to an age of
    remarkable possibility, a time when more of our children and more
    nations will be able to live out their dreams than ever before. But this
    is also an age of new threats: threats from terrorists, from rogue
    states that support them; threats from ethnic, religious, racial, and
    tribal hatreds; threats from international criminals and drug
    traffickers, all of whom will be more dangerous if they gain access to
    weapons of mass destruction.
        The challenge before us plainly is twofold: to seize the
    opportunities for more people to enjoy peace and freedom, security and
    prosperity, and to move strongly and swiftly against the dangers that
    change has produced. This week in this place, we take a giant step
    forward.

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    By overwhelming global consensus, we will make a solemn commitment to
    end all nuclear tests for all time.
        Before entering this hall I had the great honor to be the first
    leader to sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. I did so with some
    pride with this pen, for this pen is the very one that President Kennedy
    used to help bring the Limited Test Ban Treaty to life 33 years ago.
        This Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty will help to prevent the nuclear
    powers from developing more advanced and more dangerous weapons. It will
    limit the ability of other states to acquire such devices themselves. It
    points us toward a century in which the roles and risks of nuclear
    weapons can be further reduced and ultimately eliminated.
        I want to thank all of those who helped to bring us to this day,
    especially the chairman of the Comprehensive Test Ban Negotiating
    Committee, Netherlands' Ambassador Ramaker, and the Government of
    Australia, which took the lead at the U.N. I thank the Secretary-General
    for the remarks he made this morning in establishing the criteria and
    standards and support of the United Nations as a depository of the
    treaty.
        The signature of the world's declared nuclear powers, the United
    States, China, France, Russia, and the United Kingdom, along with those
    of the vast majority of its nations, will immediately create an
    international norm against nuclear testing, even before the treaty
    formally enters into force.
        The CTBT is the shared work of hard negotiation. Some have
    complained that it does not mandate total nuclear disarmament by a date
    certain. I would say to them, do not forsake the benefits of this
    achievement by ignoring the tremendous progress we have already made
    toward that goal.
        Today there are no Russian missiles pointed at America and no
    American missiles pointed at Russia. Through the START treaties we are
    cutting our nuclear arsenals by two-thirds. Ukraine, Belarus, and
    Kazakstan are giving up the nuclear weapons left on their land after the
    Soviet Union dissolved. We are working with the New Independent States
    to improve security at nuclear facilities and to convert nuclear weapons
    to peaceful uses.
        The United States and other nuclear weapons states have embraced the
    South Pacific and African nuclear free zones. Now half the world's land
    area is nuclear free by international agreement. And the world community
    extended indefinitely the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
        Yet some of the very changes that have made this progress possible
    have also created new risks. The breakup of the Soviet Union left
    nuclear materials dispersed throughout the New Independent States. As
    barriers have come down around the world, the danger of nuclear
    smuggling has gone up. So even as we reduce the global stockpiles of
    weapons of mass destruction, we must also reduce the danger that lethal
    materials could wind up in the wrong hands, while developing effective
    defenses for our people if that should happen.
        The United States has six priority goals to further lift the threat
    of nuclear weapons destruction and the threat of weapons of mass
    destruction and to limit their dangerous spread:
        First, we must protect our people from chemical attack and make it
    harder for rogue states and terrorists to brandish poison gas by
    bringing the Chemical Weapons Convention into force as soon as possible.
    I thank the nations here that have ratified the Chemical Weapons
    Convention. I deeply regret that the United States Senate has not yet
    voted on the convention, but I want to assure you and people throughout
    the world that I will not let this treaty die and we will join the ranks
    of nations determined to prevent the spread of chemical weapons.
        Second, we must reduce the risk that an outlaw state or organization
    could build a nuclear device by negotiating a treaty to freeze the
    production of fissile materials for use in nuclear weapons. The
    Conference on Disarmament should take up this challenge immediately. The
    United States, Russia, France, and the United Kingdom already have
    halted production of fissile materials for weapons. I urge other nations
    to end the unsafeguarded production of these materials pending
    completion of the treaty.
        Third, we must continue to reduce our nuclear arsenals. When Russia
    ratifies START II, President Yeltsin and I are all ready to discuss the
    possibilities of further cuts as well as limiting and monitoring nuclear
    warheads and materials. This will help make deep reductions
    irreversible.
        Fourth, we must reinforce our efforts against the spread of nuclear
    weapons by strengthening the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. We should
    give the International Atomic Energy Agency a stronger role and sharper
    tools for

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    conducting worldwide inspections. Our law enforcement and customs
    officials should cooperate more in the fight against nuclear smuggling.
    And I urge all nations that have not signed the NPT to do so without
    delay.
        Fifth, we must better protect our people from those who would use
    disease as a weapon of war, by giving the Biological Weapons Convention
    the means to strengthen compliance, including on-site investigations
    when we believe such weapons may have been used or when suspicious
    outbreaks of disease occur. We should aim to complete this task by 1998.
        Finally, we must end the carnage caused by antipersonnel landmines,
    the hidden killers that murder and maim more than 25,000 people a year.
    In May I announced a series of actions the United States would take
    toward this goal. Today I renew my appeal for the swift negotiation of a
    worldwide ban on the use, stockpiling, production, and transfer of
    antipersonnel landmines. Our children deserve to walk the Earth in
    safety.
        Thirty-three years ago, at the height of the cold war, President
    Kennedy spoke at American University in Washington. Peace was the topic
    of his address, but not an abstract ideal of peace. Instead, he urged us
    to focus on, quote, ``a more practical, attainable peace, based not on a
    sudden revolution in human nature but on a gradual evolution in human
    institutions, on a series of concrete actions and affirmative, effective
    agreements which are in the interests of all concerned.''
        It was in that same speech that he announced that talks would
    shortly begin in Moscow on a comprehensive test ban treaty. President
    Kennedy's vision exceeded the possibilities of his time, but his words
    speak to us still. As we sign our names to the Comprehensive Test Ban
    Treaty, the longest sought, hardest fought prize in arms control
    history, let us summon the confidence of earlier pioneers and set our
    sights on the challenges of the new century.
        Over the past 3 years, we have moved in the right direction in
    meeting those challenges. In Bosnia, where the war is over and just 10
    days ago its people went to the polls in peace, we have moved in the
    right direction. Now we must help Bosnia build a unified, democratic,
    and peaceful future. In Haiti, where the dictators are gone, democracy
    is back, and the exodus of refugees has ended, we have moved in the
    right direction. Now we must help the Haitian people seize the full
    benefits of freedom and forge a more prosperous future.
        In the Middle East and in Northern Ireland, there is progress toward
    lasting peace, and we are moving in the right direction. Now we must
    support continued progress between Israel and Palestinians, and we must
    broaden the circle of peace to include more of Israel's neighbors. We
    must help to give the children of Belfast a chance to live out normal
    lives.
        In the fact that democracy, open markets, and peace are taking hold
    around the world, we are moving in the right direction. Here in the
    Americas, every nation but one has raised freedom's flag. In Central
    Europe, in Russia, Ukraine, the other New Independent States, the forces
    of reform have earned all our respect and will continue to have the
    support of the United States. Now we must begin to welcome Europe's new
    democracies into NATO, strengthen NATO's partnership with Russia, and
    build a secure and undivided Europe.
        In Asia, South Korea, Japan, China, and America, working together,
    persuaded North Korea to freeze its nuclear program under international
    monitoring. Now, in the wake of provocative actions by North Korea, we
    must pursue a permanent peace for all the Korean people.
        Our planet is safer because of our common efforts to close
    Chernobyl, to address the challenges of climate change, to protect the
    world's forests and oceans. Now we must uphold our duty as custodians of
    our environment so that our children will inherit an even healthier
    planet.
        All of us must continue our historic efforts to build a better, more
    global trading system for the 21st century. We have made remarkable
    progress, but there is more to do in opening markets, in creating
    millions of new jobs for all our people.
        In this time of challenge and change, the United Nations is more
    important than ever before because our world is more interdependent than
    ever before. Most Americans know this. Unfortunately, some Americans, in
    their longing to be free of the world's problems and perhaps to focus
    more on our own problems, ignore what the United Nations has done,
    ignore the benefits of cooperation, ignore our own interdependence with
    all of you in charting a better future. They ignore all the United
    Nations is doing to lift the lives of millions by preserving

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    the peace, vaccinating children, caring for refugees, sharing the
    blessings of progress around the world. They have made it difficult for
    the United States to meet its obligations to the United Nations. But let
    me reassure all of you, the vast majority of Americans support the
    United Nations, not only because it reflects our own ideals but because
    it reinforces our interests. We must continue to work to manifest the
    support that our people feel.
        For the 51st year in a row, the United States will be the largest
    financial contributor to the U.N. We are paying our dues, and I am
    committed to paying off our accumulated obligations. However, we also
    support the process of reform, which has done great work in reforming
    and streamlining the bureaucracy and reining in the budget, and it
    should continue.
        We also believe that all of us, the nations of the world working
    together, must do more to fight terrorism. Last year I asked the nations
    assembled here to commit to a goal of zero tolerance for aggression,
    terrorism, and lawless behavior. Frankly, we have not done that yet.
    Real zero tolerance means giving no aid and no quarter to terrorists who
    slaughter the innocent and drug traffickers who poison our children and
    to do everything we can to prevent weapons of mass destruction from
    falling into the wrong hands.
        Real zero tolerance requires us to isolate states that refuse to
    play by the rules we have all accepted for civilized behavior. As long
    as Iraq threatens its neighbors and people, as long as Iran supports and
    protects terrorists, as long as Libya refuses to give up the people who
    blew up Pan Am 103, they should not become full members of the family of
    nations.
        The United States is pursuing a three-part strategy against
    terrorists: abroad, by working more closely than ever with like-minded
    nations; at home, by giving our law enforcement the toughest
    counterterrorist tools available; and by doing all we can to make our
    airports and the airplanes that link us all together even safer.
        I have requested more than $1 billion from our Congress to meet
    these commitments, and we are implementing the Vice President's aviation
    security plan to make those traveling to, from, and within the United
    States more secure.
        There are other steps we must take together. Last year, I urged that
    together we crack down on money laundering and front companies; shut
    down gray markets for guns, explosives, and false documents; open more
    law enforcement centers around the world; strengthen safeguards on
    lethal materials. In each of these areas, we have made progress, through
    the U.N., at the Summit of Peacemakers in Sharm al-Sheikh, at the Paris
    terrorism conference, and individually.
        Now we should adopt the declaration on crime and public security I
    proposed last year. It includes a no-sanctuary pledge, so that we can
    say with one voice to the terrorists, criminals, and drug traffickers:
    You have no place to run, no place to hide.
        I call on every member to ratify 11 international conventions that
    would help prevent and punish terrorism and to criminalize the use of
    explosives in terrorist attacks. To every nation whose children fall
    prey to drugs and every nation that makes those drugs, we must do more
    to reduce demand and to take illegal drugs off the market and off the
    streets.
        The United States will do its part. Next week I will target more
    than $100 million worth of defense equipment, services, and training to
    Mexico, Colombia, and other South American and Caribbean countries.
    These resources will help our friends stop the flow of drugs at the
    source. Now I ask every nation that exports the chemicals needed to make
    illicit drugs to create an informal group whose members will work to
    deny these chemicals to drug producers. We must not let more drugs
    darken the dawn of the next century.
        Our duty to fight all these forces of destruction is directly linked
    to our efforts to reduce the threat of weapons of mass destruction. We
    all know we are not immune from this. We saw it when our friends in
    Japan were subject to the murderous power of a small vial of sarin gas
    unleashed in a Tokyo subway. We know a small lump of plutonium is enough
    to build a nuclear bomb. We know that more dangerous people have access
    to materials of mass destruction because of the rapid movement and open
    borders of this age. The quest to eliminate these problems from the
    world's arsenals and to stop them from spreading has taken on a new and
    powerful urgency for all of us.
        So let us strengthen our determination to fight the rogue states,
    the terrorists, the criminals who menace our safety, our way of life,
    and the potential of our children in the 21st century. Let us recommit
    ourselves to prevent them from acquiring weapons of mass destruction.
    Let us work harder than ever to lift the

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    nuclear backdrop that has darkened the world's stage for too long now.
    Let us make these solemn tasks our common obligation, our common
    commitment. If we do, then together we will enter the 21st century
    marching toward a better, safer world, the very better, safer world the
    United Nations has sought to build for 51 years.
        Thank you very much.

    Note: The President spoke at 10:03 a.m. in the General Assembly Hall. In
    his remarks, he referred to United Nations General Assembly President
    Razali bin Ismail and Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali; and Jaap
    Ramaker, Netherlands Ambassador to the Conference on Disarmament.