[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.