[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 30, Number 2 (Monday, January 17, 1994)]
[Pages 18-19]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks to the American Diplomatic Community in Brussels

January 9, 1994

    The President. Thank you very much. Thank you for coming. Thank you 
for playing. And thank you for waiting a little as I had the chance to 
stop downtown and talk to some citizens after I gave my speech.
    I want to tell you how very much I appreciate the work that all of 
you are doing for your country a long way from home, but at the center 
of the future we have to make together. I think in a way you're all 
fortunate to be serving in Brussels at such a pivotal point in the 
history of Europe and the history of the world. This is a remarkable 
city, the headquarters of the Commission on European Unity and Union and 
NATO. And I want to thank all of our three Ambassadors behind us for the 
work that they have done. The importance of our bilateral relationship 
with Belgium can hardly be overstated.
    Alan Blinken, I think, will represent us very well, particularly if 
all of you at the embassy do what everybody tries to do at the White 
House every day and make sure I'm not my own worst enemy. [Laughter] I 
want to thank Bob Hunter for the work he's doing at NATO and say that 
this Partnership For Peace, contrary to what some have suggested, is not 
a weak limitation on the future of European security, it is a strong 
first step that opens the possibility of the best possible future for 
Europe in which everyone will have an opportunity to be a democracy and 
to be part of our shared security. And I want to say a special word of 
thanks to my longtime friend Stu Eizenstat for coming here to serve. 
We've worked hard to get this GATT agreement. The European Union is now 
a reality. We have to see it through; there's still a lot to do.
    I stopped at a little coffee shop and restaurant on the way out here 
tonight, just talked to some citizens, and I met this incredible Belgian 
lady who said, ``You're right, we've got to compete. We can't run away 
from the world.'' And she said, ``I know how hard it is economically, 
but 2 years ago I didn't have a job, and now I have my own business and 
I'm doing very well, and I'm excited about the European Union. I'm going 
to do business in other countries now.'' We've got to somehow 
communicate that spirit, that belief that we can bring this economy 
back, this whole global economy back to people here so they can believe 
in themselves. I can tell you that, back home, that is beginning to 
happen. We do have more control over our economic destiny. The deficit 
is coming down after going up for 12 years. Jobs are being created, and 
movement is there in the economy. And there is a sense that we're 
beginning to confront problems that we have ignored for way, way too 
long.

    So I think we're coming here at a very important time and an 
appropriate time. And I guess I ought to end by apologizing to those of 
you who have had to do so much extra work because of this trip and the 
headaches I may have caused you. But believe me, it is in a worthy 
cause, and we are going to make a new future for the people of Europe 
and the people of the world so that we don't repeat the mistakes of the 
20th century in the 21st and so that we give all these children a better 
future than any generation has ever known.

    Thank you very much.

    Mayor of Dinant. In the name of the city of Dinant, I have the honor 
to give to the President of USA an instrument of sax--the saxophone, 
yes. [Laughter]

    The President. In case you didn't understand it, Dinant, Belgium, is 
the home of Adolphe Sax, the man who invented the saxophone. And this 
says, ``Adolphe Sax, 1814 to 1894. To Bill Clinton, President of the 
United States.'' And it says something else, but my glasses are not 
here. [Laughter] Dinant, Belgium, and----
    Mayor of Dinant. ``International Year of the Saxophone.''

[[Page 19]]

    The President. Yes, the international year of Adolphe Sax. And it 
points out that this wonderful horn was made in Paris by Selmer.
    Thank you very much.

Note: The President spoke at 8:03 p.m. at the Conrad Hotel. In his 
remarks, he referred to Alan Blinken, U.S. Ambassador to Belgium; Robert 
Hunter, U.S. Ambassador to NATO; and Stuart Eizenstat, U.S. Ambassador 
to the European Union. A tape was not available for verification of the 
content of these remarks.