[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 29, Number 12 (Monday, March 29, 1993)]
[Pages 493-500]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
The President's News Conference With Chancellor Helmut Kohl of Germany

 March 26, 1993

U.S.S. Theodore Roosevelt

    The President. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Before we begin 
the press conference, I have a sad announcement to make. I have just 
been informed that five United States servicemen on a routine training 
flight with the United States ship Theodore Roosevelt have crashed at 
sea within a mile of the carrier. I want to express my deep concern over 
the accident. Just 2 weeks ago,

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I visited the U.S.S. Theodore Roosevelt and met the fine sailors and 
marines serving their Nation at sea there. I was profoundly impressed by 
their commitment, their dedication, and their professionalism. They made 
America proud. And I want to say that my thoughts and prayers are with 
the relatives and the shipmates of those five servicemen who are missing 
at sea.

Chancellor Kohl's Visit

    I want to begin by extending a warm welcome to Chancellor Kohl. We 
have had a wonderful visit. The personal chemistry between us, I think, 
was quite good. Helmut Kohl, over more than a decade of service in his 
present position, has proved himself time and again to be a true friend 
and staunch ally of the United States. Our peoples are closely linked 
with longstanding ties and common values. Our common bonds ensure that 
our two federal systems can learn much from each other. And indeed, I 
told the Chancellor that notwithstanding the persistent problems of cost 
in the German health care system, my wife had found a lot to learn from 
Germany.
    We are working, our two countries, on the establishment of a project 
conceived by Chancellor Kohl and very close to his heart, the German 
American Academic Council, which will promote exchanges of people in the 
areas of science and technology and about which he might want to speak 
more in a moment.
    During the cold war our two nations stood shoulder to shoulder in 
the common effort to contain communism in Europe. Today we must be 
leaders in the great crusade of the post-cold-war era to foster liberty, 
democracy, human rights, and free market economics throughout the world. 
If the world is to progress and prosper, the United States and Germany 
must work closely together. Our bilateral relationship is invaluable. 
Our relations are at the same time important in the context of the North 
Atlantic Alliance, the European Community, and the Conference on 
Security and Cooperation in Europe. In these three institutions, Germany 
serves as both an anchor of stability and a source of fresh initiatives 
to meet the challenges of our changing world.
    A paramount challenge for the West in our generation is helping to 
ensure the survival of democracy and economic reform in Russia and the 
other republics of the former Soviet Union. Germany, as the largest 
single donor of assistance to Russia, has demonstrated its firm 
commitment to this historic cause. The United States and Germany must 
now strengthen our partnership on this effort and work both bilaterally 
and multilaterally to support Russian reform. The Chancellor and I 
discussed this issue at great length today.
    I discussed with him the approach that I plan to take in the meeting 
with President Yeltsin at Vancouver. And I believe we are in agreement 
on the general approach. I know that we are committed to doing 
everything we possibly can to keep alive democracy and reform in Russia, 
and we believe it is in the immediate interests and the long-term 
interest of all of our people.
    We also believe that the rest of the G-7 countries must cooperate 
with us and with each other to vigorously produce a program of support 
for Russia. We discussed in depth the troubling situations in Bosnia and 
elsewhere, and we conferred on trade and economics. We agreed that we 
must work hard to conclude the Uruguay GATT round this year, and we 
committed to work closely together in this endeavor.
    As two of the world's leading exporting nations, the United States 
and Germany have a powerful interest in expanding global trade. I 
assured the Chancellor that the United States intends to remain 
politically and strategically engaged in Europe and to maintain a 
significant military presence on the Continent. The budget that I am 
fighting for in the Congress now would permit us to maintain a troop 
contingent on the order of 100,000 troops in Europe. We believe that 
American and European securities remain indivisible, and that the common 
threads of the post-cold-war era require common action. At the same 
time, we also recognize that each of us are reducing our defense budgets 
and must be increasingly responsible for our own defense needs.
    Thirty years ago during his famous trip to Germany, President 
Kennedy toasted another great leader of the Christian Democratic Union 
and the German people, Konrad

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Adenauer, saying, ``These are critical days.'' The President's 
pronouncement reflected his concern then for the survival of freedom and 
even humankind at the height of the cold war.
    Today, thankfully the nuclear shadow is receeding from both our 
lands. And the wall that divided the German people is gone. But I would 
say again, these are critical days, for the actions we take together now 
will help to determine the fate of democracy, the prosperity of our 
people, and the peace of the world. In that work I could not ask for a 
better partner than Chancellor Kohl or the German people. And I want to 
say to him, I am delighted with this first visit, and I look forward to 
working with you in the days ahead.
    Chancellor Kohl. Mr. President, ladies and gentlemen. First, Mr. 
President, allow me to express my heartfelt sympathy on the loss and the 
fear, because we don't have any detailed information about the loss of 
life of five American officers. I hope very much that these soldiers may 
be able to return to their families safe and sound, because they serve 
the freedom and the security of their country, the United States of 
America. And without that service, there would be no freedom and peace 
and no reunification for Germany. And this is why I am very sad about 
the things that you have just had to present to us. And I should like to 
ask you to convey to the families of the people concerned my feelings of 
sympathy.
    Ladies and gentlemen, today I had my first meeting with the 
President of the United States of America. It was a friendly exchange of 
views. It is something that can be easily said in English; the chemistry 
is right. You said so, and I am pleased to take it up, indeed, the 
chemistry is right. We touched upon many issues, issues, many of which 
are very close to our hearts, at an important point in time of 
international politics, of European politics. And I was also able to 
present many things that are important to German politics.
    American-German relations, to put it in a nutshell, are for us, 
Germans and for me personally, today equally important if not more 
important than 30 years ago. More than 30 years ago, when I was for the 
first time elected to the German Parliament, the alliance between the 
Americans and Germans, the European-American alliance, was much more 
matter of fact, because we lived under the threat and in the fear of the 
war. Remember the Berlin blockade, the Berlin Wall, many challenges that 
we had to master together, down to the things that happened under John 
F. Kennedy in Cuba.
    Today, many of these people have been released. They're free again. 
But in Europe and in Germany, too, there are quite a few who believe 
that there were no dangers existent anymore now that the times are 
changed. For these reasons, American-German relations have become ever 
more important. The psychological environment has changed.
    I said to you, Mr. President, and I should like to repeat this here 
and now, in this house of Europe that we are in the process of building 
right now--and I should like to go into greater detail on that later 
on--it is of existential importance for me, a German, that the Americans 
have a flat in this house; that the American soldiers and troops, the 
presence in Europe and in Germany, documents that they're not there for 
decorative purposes but to defend freedom and security of people. The 
fact that we can further develop the relations in the economic field, 
and that includes that despite the problems that we have, we bring about 
a speedy and successful conclusion of the GATT round. This is something 
that we touched upon, too. We agreed on that we want to work on this.
    You were so kind, Mr. President, to mention that in the cultural and 
scientific field, we have the intention to intensify relations between 
both our countries. You mentioned the German American Academic Council 
which is to be founded this year. I am very happy that you have agreed 
that once the necessary decisions have been taken in the next few weeks, 
we will found this economic council. This is important for the public in 
both our countries. It is for me very important that young Americans, 
that young Germans visit the other country, vice versa, that they get to 
know the people and their culture. To put it differently, Mr. President, 
that we plant many young trees so that we have a forest later on of 
things that we share, that we have in common.
    I should also like to add for those who might have heard different 
reports on this

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here in the United States, there is no alternative for the Germans to a 
policy that makes progress with European unification--and we are the 
engine of this development--and at the same time, places great care and 
value on American-German relations. This is never an either-or; it has 
to be a this-as-well-as-the-other. Both include each other and do not 
exclude one another.
    And I should like to say this. Because we are now confronted with a 
common challenge and major task, that is: We have to see to it that the 
spirit of reform, the willingness to establish democratic structures and 
a pleuralist society, market economic structures in Russia and the CIS, 
is continuing.
    I'm very grateful to you personally, Mr. President, for the 
determination and the courage that you have documented in the last few 
weeks in standing by Boris Yeltsin. I underline and subscribe to every 
single word that you said on this one, that reforms are successful in 
Russia. And both of us are aware of the fact that any type of setback 
will in the end turn out to be much more expensive than any type of 
assistance we have the intention of granting right now.
    We have discussed many issues and items on our plate. The members of 
our staff will continue prior to the meeting with President Yeltsin and 
the American President to continue to discuss these matters. Then we 
have the G-7 finance and foreign minister's meeting in Tokyo, the 14th 
and 15th of April. We want to send a message to the people of Russia 
that the West, under the leadership of the Americans and the American 
President, will do everything in its power to see to it that Russia and 
other successor states to the Soviet Union stand a chance to walk on 
their own path towards freedom.
    We, the Germans, and I outlined this earlier on to you Mr. 
President, as far as this question is concerned, are very committed, not 
only because we are neighbors of the former Soviet Union and the threat, 
if there was a relapse to form a dictator structures, would effect us 
first and foremost, but we do so because we have made our own 
experiences.
    We were standing in the Oval Office looking at the sculpture of 
Harry S. Truman, and I was reminded of the importance that the 
activities of George Marshall and Harry S. Truman had for Germany when 
the zero hour when we were outlawed in the world. These two stood up, 
stood by us, and assisted us. These were the fathers of the Marshall 
Plan, of a moral gesture of coexistence and cooperation. And this, to my 
mind, is fair to say: A flourishing industry and country has developed, 
the former Federal Republic of Germany.
    And if the Americans at that point in time had stood back and said, 
``Well what do we care? The Germans shall see what will become of it. 
And if something good comes out of it, we'll be proud to say we 
assisted, and if not, we will say, we've always told you so didn't we, 
and therefore we stood back.''
    This kind of policy, a policy pursued by Harry S. Truman and George 
Marshall rules a successful recipe for the whole of Europe, West Europe. 
And this is why I should like to tell my American listeners here that 
you can learn lessons from history. And with a view to what is happening 
right now in Moscow, I think the message is what counts. The message 
indicating in what way the big countries of the western democracies and 
market economic systems feel committed to assist.
    Allow me also to say that we discussed in extenso, Mr. President, 
the developments in the former Yugoslavia. The Bosnian President 
happened to be here this morning, and we met briefly in the White House. 
We would wish to see that use is being made of all opportunities to see 
to it that a cease-fire occurs, that then peace can be reached. What is 
happening to the people there, day-in, day-out, belongs in numbers 
amongst the most terrible experiences of this very century. And here 
again, I'm happy and grateful, Mr. President, that you and your 
administration have taken a clear position on this.
    Once again, thank you very much for this friendly reception, for the 
friendly and open talks that we had.
    May I perhaps just briefly announce, Mr. President, that I repeat my 
invitation to you and to your wife to come and to visit in Germany, and 
that you were so kind, Mr. President, to follow that invitation.

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Russia

    Q. Do you think that President Yeltsin emerges from the 
constitutional crisis that seems to be easing there, weakened or 
strengthened? And how would that affect the aid that you would propose 
to send to him?
    The President.  First of all, I think it's important that we not 
place too much importance on the momentary event, the day-to-day events, 
not because they're not heartening today, they are, but because it's 
difficult to know what's going to happen from day to day now. I have 
said always that I am proceeding to the summit with President Yeltsin 
with the firm intention of working with him and trying to propose some 
things that the United States can join with Germany and the other G-7 
countries. And doing that will be helpful in the short run and in the 
long run in promoting democracy and market economics and an improvement 
in the difficult economic situation they face. So I feel pretty good 
about where we are with it now.

Bosnian Peace Agreement

    Q. Mr. President, how long would you give the Serbs to respond to 
the peace overtures, to the peace pact that's been signed by the two 
other parties? Would you favor imposing a deadline prior to lifting an 
arms embargo? And given the carnage in this place and the amount of arms 
that are there already, why would you even consider that to be a good 
alternative?
    The President. First, let me say that you heard the Chancellor say 
President Izetbegovic was here with us today. He met with the Vice 
President; then I went back to visit with him briefly. The Chancellor 
wanted to see him, too, so we just had an impromptu brief meeting.
    This signing by the Bosnians has just occurred. We're going to do 
everything we can now to put on a full-court press, first 
diplomatically, to secure the agreement of the Serbs. We will do what we 
can if there is any delay whatever in trying to strengthen the embargo. 
The embargo has already been quite effective in causing some economic 
difficulty. We expect the United Nations to take up the enforcement of 
the no-fly zone within the next few days. We will discuss a number of 
other measures, including the arms embargo, with our allies. As you 
know, it's not simply a decision for the United States. But I think that 
the main thing is that we now have two of the three blocs having agreed 
that we ought to have this. The Croats have signed; the Bosnian 
Government has now signed. We need to keep the pressure on, and we will 
do what we can. I don't want to rule in or rule out a specific timetable 
or a specific action, because the developments are recent and the 
decision has not been made on the specific timetable.
    Q. Mr. President, do you have any more reason to believe today than 
you might have earlier that our allies, particularly those who have 
troops on the ground there, would be more willing than they've been to 
see the arms embargo lifted?
    The President. I'll say this. Our allies are now more eager to see 
the no-fly zone enforced. And I think that the international impatience 
is going to grow rather rapidly with the Serbs if they want to continue 
the carnage in Bosnia, when not very long ago they acted as if they 
thought this was a pretty good deal.

Aid to Russia

    Q. Mr. Chancellor, you've seen or you've heard--the President 
presented his--or gave you a good idea what's going to be included in 
his Russian aid package. Do you see it as being adequate, sir, or do you 
think it will make a difference over there?
    Chancellor Kohl. I think that indeed we have a possibility to 
cooperate. You may know that the Federal Republic of Germany has 
provided, by far, more than 50 percent of financial assistance to the 
states of the former Soviet Union. And I am very happy that the 
President has again taken a new initiative in the framework of the G-7, 
but going beyond that to wrap up a package of assistance to Boris 
Yeltsin and the reformist forces in the country.
    And I believe that this package should contain three to four 
elements to put it in a general matter: bilateral assistance, 
multilateral assistance, then questions to provide relief goods to the 
country, but also specific types of assistance by way of providing help 
towards self-help. Let us think of the safety of civilian nuclear power 
plants in the former

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Soviet Union. In Munich, at the G-7 summit, we discussed that issue, 
too. And I'm very happy that the American President is taking up that 
idea to the question of the safety, you know, based on the experiences 
of Chernobyl, has turned out to be a central question touching each and 
every one of us; not a question that is restricted to Russia and the 
Ukraine but is addressed to all of us.
    And if we take all these issues together and wrap them up in a 
package, I think we stand a good chance to be successful. And I would 
like to express my support to the President on this.

[At this point, a question was asked in German, and an interpretation 
was not provided.]

    Chancellor Kohl. Well, the only thing that we did was that we 
exchanged the information on that--the Federal Government in case a 
decision of the Security Council will be taking--what the Federal 
Government will do.

German Constitutional Conflicts

    Q. ----satisfied with that report to solve the German constitutional 
conflicts that way?
    The President. I think he's been remarkably deft in his dealing with 
the issue so far.

Aid to Russia

    Q. Thank you, Mr. President. Will you go further than President Bush 
did in your aid package to Russia, such as including long-term 
concessional financing or government guarantees? And can we expect the 
size of the package to be larger or less than the $24 billion that was 
attempted last year but not completed?
    The President. Well, of course, the package was not quite a $24 
billion package. It was in theory that, over a long period of years. But 
if you go back and look at what was actually released, the Congress 
specifically appropriated $650 million in aid and an $800 million 
appropriation under the Nunn-Lugar bill to help to denuclearize Russia 
and the other nuclear Republics. Most of that money has not been spent 
yet. And I say that not as a criticism.
    Let me back up and say one of the places where we started this 
discussion, in-house here, is to ask ourselves, what happened to the 
policy that was announced last year? What money has been appropriated 
and spent? What has been approved, but not spent? What are the problems? 
Are there any problems where the United States has not followed through? 
Are there problems where there are bottlenecks or failures in Russia? 
Are there problems because we said in theory we would support a few 
billion dollars in aid through international institutions, but Russia 
can't comply right now with the eligibility requirements for the IMF, 
for example? We analyzed all that.
    And so, when we finally put together this package, which has not 
been done yet--I'm in the middle of congressional consultations and 
talking with people outside as well as inside the Government--we will 
have made an honest effort to assess what happened to the last proposal, 
what the problems were, how to get around them. And I can't yet tell 
you--we've not yet made a final decision on the dollar value, but I 
expect it will be broadbased and comprehensive.

Sanctions Against Serbia

    Q. The sanctions so far have just about wrecked the Serbian economy, 
yet there doesn't seem to be any deterrent effect on the military 
aggression. With the developments in Srebrenica and related communities, 
what makes the administration think that further sanctions will have any 
impact on Serbian behavior?
    The President. I think the real issue is whether the cumulative 
impact of the events of the last few days will bring the Serbs to the 
signing table. That is, whether or not they really want so desperately 
to cleanse the Bosnian Muslims out of all their living space that they 
will defy now what is now for the first time, for the first time, the 
virtually unanimous opinion of all the governments that they will be in 
the wrong if they do not sign this agreement, which they had previously 
complimented. I don't know what's going to happen, Andrea [Andrea 
Mitchell, NBC News]. If I did, I would tell you.
    But let me say I think we have a chance to get a good-faith signing. 
I think we have to try. We have to give that a few days before we up the 
ante again.

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    Q. Mr. President, well, what if the Serbs do sign this agreement? 
Are we still committed to sending U.S. ground forces in to enforce the 
agreement within 72 hours? And what happens if there are some Serbs who 
don't honor the agreement and U.S. troops and other troops, peacekeeping 
forces, get in the way? That sounds like it's a prescription for some 
potentially bloody fighting to continue.
    The President. Well, all those decisions obviously would have to be 
made. We have not made those decisions yet. All I have said is that the 
United States would be prepared to participate in a multinational effort 
to help keep the peace. We believe that we'll be able to tell whether 
there is or is not a good-faith signing and whether there is or is not a 
peace. Of course, the whole reason you have peacekeeping forces is that 
from time to time the peace may be broken, but you hope it will be a 
general commitment to the peace. I still feel that that is an 
appropriate approach.

The GATT Agreement

    Q. Mr. President, both you gentlemen mentioned the GATT agreement 
and voiced optimism that a solution could be reached fairly shortly. As 
I recall, a little over a year ago, Chancellor Kohl was here and had 
been optimistic that perhaps it would be resolved before the Munich 
economic summit. Obviously that didn't happen. Currently there seems to 
be more tension between the U.S. and its trading partners than there was 
a year ago. What is it that makes you both optimistic that a 
breakthrough can be reached?
    Chancellor Kohl. Well, for me, there's no doubt about the fact that 
it was a mistake not to conclude it prior to Munich. And then we had 
many reasons after the summit had taken place. But I said to the 
President today that there is a convincing argument when we meet in 
Tokyo and read to the public the final document of the G-7 meeting, and 
Prime Minister Miyazawa stands up in front of 1,800 journalists and 
reads to them that the G-7 participants' countries are convinced that 
the successful conclusion of the GATT Uruguay round is an important 
precondition for fighting the recession, there would be an uproar of 
laughter greeting him. And some of you will take up the document from 
London and the document from Munich and hold it up in the air and wave 
it at the gentlemen. And in describing this to you, I think, and I said 
luckily so, luckily you know in what position we find ourselves in.
    But as I said, I have a serious argument in favor of a successful 
conclusion which people tend not to mention in the discussion. We all 
believe in a free international trade, and we need it if we want to get 
out of the recession. The Americans luckily are, as is clearly visible, 
on a good path out of it. But hardly ever do we talk about the third 
world countries. The economic situation in the third world countries is 
miserable. It is devastating, and the present recession affects the 
third world country far more than it affects the industrialized 
countries.
    And in the talks that I had with the President and Vice President 
Gore, we talked about the work that has to follow the conference of Rio, 
the UNCED. One cannot expect from us that in the question of the damage 
done to the tropical rain forest that we make progress on these issues 
if countries who undergo recessionist development are not being assisted 
by opening up the GATT Uruguay round and bringing it to a successful 
conclusion.
    I, however, do not believe that things have improved in the course 
of the last 2 years, and they will be even worsened if we wait another 
year for a conclusion. Therefore, I think that the Tokyo meeting and the 
threat of having about 2,000 journalists standing there laughing at us 
is quite a positive thing.
    The President. Let me make one other point. It is true that there 
have been a couple of points of contention since I became President. 
Both of them arose out of cases which developed well before I took 
office. But I also think you have to look at the upside in terms of the 
last 10 years. Just take our relationship with Europe: We have an 
agreement now on agriculture, if it can be held. We have an agreement on 
airline manufacturing and to what extent subsidies can be permitted and 
what is it not, if it can be held. We have experience now of the last 2 
years of what happened without a GATT agreement when we've had very low 
economic growth in Europe and a very persistent and lagging recession in 
the United States. And now with the

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United States making an effort to come out of this recession but the 
projected growth rates in Europe low, I think that there is an 
understanding that it is very difficult for one country to grow without 
more general growth throughout the world; and that Europe, the United 
States, and Japan, all in different ways, have a big stake in getting a 
GATT agreement that will set a framework that will permit us to promote 
global growth. That's why I think we've got a good chance to make it, 
and I hope we do.
    Thank you very much.

Note: The President's eighth news conference began at 2:31 p.m. in the 
East Room at the White House. Chancellor Kohl spoke in German, and his 
remarks were translated by an interpreter.