[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1999, Book I)]
[June 21, 1999]
[Pages 987-988]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Exchange With Reporters Following Discussions With Prime Minister Janez 
Drnovsek of Slovenia in Ljubljana
June 21, 1999

    Q. Mr. Prime Minister, I wonder if you could tell us what President 
Clinton's visit means to your country, what you hope to get out of the 
visit?

[[Page 988]]

    Prime Minister Drnovsek. [Inaudible]--to visit, the first time we 
have the President of the United States in Slovenia, and I think it is 
confirmation of excellent relations that we established during the last 
year. And we cooperated in southeast situation; the Kosovo crisis was 
another crisis.
    So I think this is a confirmation for Slovenia, for our partnership, 
because of our role in this part of the world.

President Boris Yeltsin of Russia

    Q. Mr. President, yesterday you had a chance to sit down across the 
table from Boris Yeltsin. We saw him get off at the airport. He looked 
very frail; at times his speech sounded slurred. You sat across the 
table, eyeball-to-eyeball. How would you assess Boris Yeltsin today?
    President Clinton. Yesterday, I can say, his movements were halting, 
but his mind was quite clear. He was very precise, very strong, and very 
eager for us to resolve our past differences and go on into the future. 
I actually was reassured by the meeting. I thought he was quite strong 
and quite clear yesterday.

Note: The exchange began at 4:55 p.m. in the Presidential Palace. A tape 
was not available for verification of the content of this exchange.