[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1999, Book I)]
[April 24, 1999]
[Pages 627-628]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks at a Dinner Honoring the Leaders of the Euro-Atlantic 
Partnership Council
April 24, 1999

    Thank you very much. Please be seated. Mr. Secretary 
General, Mrs. Solana, allies, and friends: It's a great honor for 
Hillary and for me to welcome the largest group of world leaders ever to 
assemble in Washington here to the White House on this beautiful spring 
evening.
    Just a few years ago, a gathering of all the nations here in 
partnership would have been unthinkable. But we are all here tonight 
because we are thinking--we are thinking of a future brighter than the 
past; a future of shared values and shared visions; a future in which we 
define national greatness by its commitment to human rights and mutual 
respect, not to ethnic and religious bigotry; in which we measure the 
success of nations by how well we lift people up, not by how much we 
tear them down.

[[Page 628]]

    In a world full of both promise and peril, where for good or ill our 
destinies are more and more linked, we have chosen to be allies, 
partners, and friends. In an age most observers define by the rise of 
modern technology, modern scientific breakthroughs, a modern global 
economy, it is ironic and painful that all over the world and, of 
course, especially in Kosovo, the peace is threatened by the oldest 
demon of society: the fear and hatred of the other, those who are of a 
different race or ethnic background or religion.

    Just a few days ago, a voice from the age we honor at this 50th 
anniversary summit spoke to us from his home in Poland. Marek 
Edelman, a hero of the Warsaw ghetto uprising, 
published a letter here in an American newspaper urging all of us to 
persevere in Kosovo. ``I know,'' he wrote, ``like all of my generation, 
that freedom has and must have its price.''

    Tonight we remember that the burden of defending freedom and peace 
is lighter when it is shouldered by so many. And we remember that the 
cause of freedom and peace is stronger when it is embraced by a group of 
nations as great and diverse as those who are joined together in this 
Council.

    And so I ask all of you to join me now in a toast to the leaders and 
the people of the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council. And thank you very 
much.

Note: The President spoke at 9:27 p.m. in the pavilion on the South Lawn 
at the White House. In his remarks, he referred to Secretary General 
Javier Solana of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and his wife, 
Concepcion. The transcript released by the Office of the Press Secretary 
also included the remarks of Secretary General Solana.