    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1998, Book I)]
    [May 17, 1998]
    [Pages 780-783]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks and an Exchange With Reporters in Birmingham,
    United Kingdom
    May 17, 1998

    Group of Eight Summit

        The President. Let me just say a couple of things, and then I know
    you have some questions, and I'll try to answer a few of them.
        First of all, I want to commend Prime Minister Blair and all of his team for putting on what I thought was
    one of our best G-8 meetings. This shows the benefit of these meetings
    not just for dealing with the issues that are

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    in the news now--Indonesia, India, Pakistan, and other issues that are
    presently in the news--but also dealing with the long-term challenges we
    face. We did some serious work here on employment issues, on
    environmental issues, on crime issues, on dealing with conversion of
    computers in all of our countries at the turn of the century and what
    kind of challenges will be presented by that, and how we can work
    together on them. It was a very stimulating, interesting meeting that
    will actually have an impact on the lives of the people that we all
    represent. So I thought it was quite good, and I felt good about that.
        Secondly, I just had a very, very good meeting with President
    Yeltsin in which, once again, he assured me
    that he was doing his best to ratify the START II Treaty in the Duma.
    And we agreed that we wanted to immediately begin work on START III as
    soon as the ratification is secured there. I think all of us, because of
    the India nuclear tests, feel an even greater sense of urgency to change
    the debate again over nuclear issues toward less, not more; to change
    the whole direction here. And I think if we can get early Duma
    ratification, we know pretty well where we are on a lot of these big
    START III issues, and we'd like to really get after it and turn this,
    the nuclear tide, back in the right direction, away from more weapons
    toward fewer ones. So I was quite encouraged by that.
        We still have some areas where we're working with them hard to get
    greater results and cooperation, especially in the whole area of
    technology transfer to Iran, and all of you know about that. And we went
    over that in some significant detail and, I think, reached some
    understandings which will bear fruit in the days ahead; so I'm hopeful
    of that.
        Anyway, it was a good meeting. He was in very, very good form,
    excited about his new government, proud of them, and seemed to be in as
    good a health and good a spirits as I've seen him in quite a long time.
        So, questions?

    Nuclear Proliferation in South Asia

        Q. Mr. President, Pakistan's Foreign Minister told Reuters that he
    was very close to certain his country would conduct a nuclear test. He
    told the Associated Press it's not a matter of if but when. Sir, what
    does this do to regional stability? And could this have been avoided
    had, for example, Russia and France joined the U.S. in sanctions against
    India?
        The President. Well, first of all, based on our best information, it
    hasn't happened yet. I also saw the Foreign Minister on television last night making substantially the same
    statement, but I understand it's still being debated in the Cabinet.
        I understand also that they're under a lot of pressure. You can only
    imagine what the pressures might be. But I will say this: I still have
    hopes that the Prime Minister and the Pakistani
    Government will not go through with a nuclear test. And I believe that
    we can--the rest of us who would support that can work with them in a
    way that meets their security interests without the test.
        Furthermore, I think that over the long run, and indeed before then,
    the political, the economic, and the security interests of Pakistan and
    in Pakistan's standing in the world would be dramatically increased if
    they walked away from a test. The whole rest of the world would think
    they were stronger and would be profoundly impressed, and I think it
    would help us to resolve these issues more if they did not. So I hope
    they will not. And if they do, we'll cross that bridge when we come to
    it.
        Now, do I think that the result would be different if everyone had
    as hard a line on this as we do? I can't really say that. I think if you
    go back and look at the statement we've put out here, this is a--
    everybody condemned the Indian action, including countries that were
    very close to India. And every country said their relations would be
    affected by it. And when I came here, that's the most I thought we could
    get, because there are lots of countries in the world that basically are
    opposed to sanctions under almost all circumstances except under rare
    cases when the UN votes for them. So we just have a different view on
    that.
        I'm glad that we've done what we've done, even though I have
    enormous admiration for India's democracy and for its progress in the
    last several years. But all I can tell you is I'm going to do what I can
    to get this back on track. I hope that Pakistan won't test. I think it
    will help us to get it back on track, and I think it will help Pakistan
    immeasurably in the world community, and it will have, I believe,
    specific political, economic, and security benefits to the country if it
    does not test.
        So I'll keep working on it.

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        Q. Mr. President, if sanctions aren't possible, are there any other
    specific actions you want these other countries to take when they go
    home?
        The President. Well, for one thing, I think a lot of countries are
    taking economic action: Japan is; Canada is; a number of European
    countries are. The European Union is going to have to debate this. I
    think that's one of the reasons that Prime Minister Blair, who otherwise took quite a hard line here with us--he
    was quite good on the language of the resolution--but I think that he
    thinks, as head of the EU, he has to give all these other countries the
    chance to be heard. I think a number of European countries will take
    economic actions here.
        And I think that we just have to--we're going to have to work this
    situation to turn it back around, because what you don't want is the--
    insofar as possible, the best of all worlds would be that this is an
    isolated event. And then India signs the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty;
    then Pakistan says it will sign if India does, so they sign. That would
    be the best conceivable result.
        The worst conceivable result would be for everybody that's ever
    worked on this to think they ought to conduct some sort of test and that
    this is now--it's sort of the new measure of either national security or
    national greatness. That's a terrible signal for the rest of us to send
    the world, especially when the Russians and we are doing our very best
    to put everything in the opposite direction and to reduce the number of
    nuclear weapons in the world.
        So we just have to--I'm going to spend a lot of time thinking
    through this and coming up with an affirmative strategy to try to deal
    with all the elements of it and all the aspects of the problem. And in
    the meantime, I hope that Pakistan will find the strength necessary to
    walk away from a test.

    1996 Campaign Financing

        Q. Mr. President, there's new evidence that the Chinese Government
    funneled money into the American election campaign. Did you or anybody
    in your administration make decisions based on the influence of Chinese
    money?
        The President. No.
        Q. And what do you feel about that evidence?
        The President. For one thing, first of all, I understand there's a
    new allegation about that. I have two things to say about it. First of
    all, all of the foreign policy decisions we made were based on what we
    believed--I and the rest of my administration--were in the interests of
    the American people. Now, if someone tried to influence them, that's a
    different issue, and there ought to be an investigation into whether
    that happened. And I would support that. I have always supported that.
    But I can tell you that the decisions we made, we made because we
    thought they were in the interests of the American people.
        Q. [Inaudible]--the Chinese in your visit?
        The President. Well, I want to see--when I get back home, I want to
    see, number one, what is the substance of this; how serious is it; what
    are the facts; what evidence is there? Is this just somebody saying, or
    is there some reason to believe there is objective evidence to support
    this? But in any case, I think the investigation ought to proceed, and
    then whatever the facts are, we'll take appropriate action at the time.

    Russian Ratification of START II Treaty

        Q. You mentioned President Yeltsin giving you assurances on START II
    ratification. He's done that, in the past, several times.
        The President. He has, but one of the
    things he pointed out this time is he said this thing is now in the
    Duma; it's actively being considered; there are a lot of committees
    working on it; and that he will, obviously, not only push for its
    ratification but argue that it ought to be considered in an even more
    timely fashion now because of the Indian test.
        Q. Will you go to Moscow only if it is ratified, or do you have
    assurances now----
        The President. Well, I think it ought to be ratified because then we
    can get more business done. We can't really do anything on START III
    until START II is ratified. And I'm hoping that it will. And I'd like to
    leave it there. I'd like to leave it there.
        Q. How long would it take to ratify START III?
        The President. I don't know. But I think--but actually, I think
    START III could be done in fairly short order because we have been,
    Boris Yeltsin and I have been, talking about these issues for years now,
    and I think we know what the parameters of our two positions are, what
    our national security considerations are. And so I would expect that it
    could be done fairly quickly once we get START II out of the way.

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        Thank you.

    Note: The President spoke at 1:21 p.m. outside the Hyatt Hotel. In his
    remarks, he referred to Prime Minister Tony Blair of the United Kingdom;
    President Boris Yeltsin of Russia; and Minister of Foreign Affairs Gohar
    Ayub Khan and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif of Pakistan.