    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1999, Book I)]
    [March 15, 1999]
    [Pages 372-373]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks Prior to Discussions With NATO Secretary General Javier
    Solana and an Exchange With Reporters
    March 15, 1999

        President Clinton. Let me just say that I'm delighted to have
    Secretary General Solana here. I think he has done a superb job in
    leading NATO. We are very much looking forward, in just a little over a
    month, to celebrating the 50th anniversary of NATO by admitting new
    members. The documents were issued over the weekend. The Secretary of
    State went to Missouri with the
    representatives of Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic, and we're
    very pleased. I'm looking forward to the meeting and looking forward to
    NATO's missions in the 21st century.
        Let me say I'm also very, very pleased by the news we received this
    morning that the Kosovar Albanians have agreed to sign the peace
    agreement. And I want to thank Mr. Solana and Secretary
    Albright and all the others who have
    worked on this so hard. And again, I would encourage Mr.
    Milosevic to agree to the terms, as well,
    so that we can avoid further conflict and bloodshed.

    [[Page 373]]

    Kosovo

        Q. Do you think they will--the Serbs will go along with it?
        President Clinton. I don't know. I hope they will. And I think it is
    clearly the right thing to do. From his point of view, I think it's the
    best chance to preserve the integrity of Serbia and avoid economic and
    other adversity. So I would hope that he
    would do that.
        Q. Mr. President, is it a certainty that NATO will strike if he
    doesn't sign? Is that for sure?
        Q. Well, do you have anything to talk him into it?
        President Clinton. One at a time. Wait. Wait.
        Q. Is it a certainty that NATO will strike the Serbs if Milosevic
    does not sign?
        President Clinton. Well, all I can tell you is I think we have a
    clear statement out there about what our policy is. And if he shows intransigence and aggression, I think from our
    point of view we would have little option. You might want to ask Mr.
    Solana what he thinks about that.
        Q. Do you agree with that, Mr. Secretary General?
        Secretary General Solana. I agree. Yes, yes. As just said, the
    President--I do agree, yes.
        Q. Mr. President, how long are you prepared to let these talks in
    France go on?
        President Clinton. Well, I think they ought to be able to talk this
    through a little bit. I don't know that anyone was absolutely sure the
    Kosovar Albanians would sign this morning. And peace is better than war.
    But obviously, they can't go on indefinitely. We need to give everybody
    time to assess the current situation and where they're going to go from
    here.
        But again, I think the most important thing now is that Mr.
    Milosevic and the Serbs agree to sign.
    And it's clearly the right thing to do.
        Q. Mr. President, in the past, NATO has only been willing to act in
    the wake of extreme atrocities. Why is it credible to threaten the use
    of military force in this situation if that doesn't take place?
        President Clinton. What would your answer be?
        Secretary General Solana. My answer is that if an agreement is not
    reached--if President Milosevic doesn't sign, the risk of a catastrophe
    will be very likely. And we have to prevent that from happening. And
    NATO will prevent that from happening.
        President Clinton. Let me say, in sort of support of the other NATO
    allies as well, the reason we--you're absolutely right, there's not a
    lot of precedent for what we're trying to do here. But the reason that
    we worked so hard--that Secretary Albright, Secretary Cohen, the rest of
    us--the reason we worked so hard to get NATO to take this position is to
    avoid the level of atrocity and death that we saw in Bosnia. We didn't
    want to go down that road again. We wanted to try to dramatically
    shorten the timetable from aggression and the loss of innocent life and
    upheaval to action.
        And so far I would say that it seems to have been a successful
    policy, in the sense that we at least have one side now signing on to
    this peace agreement. We just have to stay with it. We have to be firm
    about this.
        Press Secretary Joe Lockhart. Thank you, pool.
        Q. Thank you.
        President Clinton. Thank you.
        Q. Going to hold a news conference soon, right?
        President Clinton. Good morning. That's what--I think so. I just
    miss you so terribly and not having any questions.

    Note: The President spoke at 10:08 a.m. in the Oval Office at the White
    House. In his remarks, he referred to President Slobodan Milosevic of
    the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro). A tape was
    not available for verification of the content of this exchange.