    [Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 30, Number 3 (Monday, January 24, 1994)]
    [Page 56]
    [Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

    <R04>
    Remarks and an Exchange With Reporters in Brussels

    January 10, 1994

        The President. As you know, we had a good, long dinner tonight. And
    we talked about only two subjects; we talked about Russia and Bosnia. We
    spent the first half, perhaps more than half the dinner, on Russia. And
    I basically gave a report about what I would be doing in Russia, and
    they gave me their advice about what we could do to strengthen the
    process of reform, create a system of support for people who had been
    dislocated economically, how we could build a better partnership with
    Russia and have the kind of future we want, with Russia being a great
    nation but a nonaggressive one. And it was very, very helpful. I mean,
    they had very keen insights, and a lot of them had just been there, so
    it was helpful.
        Then we talked about Bosnia at some length. And I urged that we stay
    with the present communique, the present policy, which gives us the
    right to ask the U.N. for permission to use air strikes if Sarajevo
    continues to be shelled. We discussed some other options and agreed that
    we would have another discussion tomorrow about it.
        So I can't say that there was any conclusion reached except that I
    do believe we'll stay with our present policy. I think the language in
    the communique will stay in, and we'll have some other discussions about
    it tomorrow morning.

    Bosnia

        Q. Was there an agreement to ask the U.N. permission to use air
    strikes?
        The President. No, because under the procedure, what would happen is
    one of the member states would have to ask the North Atlantic Council,
    our military group, to review it to say it was appropriate and then to
    go to the U.N. So I think, plainly, we know that if the language stays
    in there and if the shelling continues, there will have to be some
    action taken.
        So I think you can tell by what happens tomorrow. If we keep the
    language, which I hope and believe we will, then it's basically up to
    the behavior of those who are shelling Sarajevo, principally the Serbs.
    We'll just have to see what happens.

    Aid to Russia

        Q. With regard to Russia, is there a larger economic plan
    envisioned?
        The President. Well, what they talked about today was--first of all,
    we have quite a large plan. We've got to dislodge some of the money that
    we've committed that was tied up in the international institutions. They
    all believe that we needed a combination of two things: We need to try
    to speed up the privatization, because in the end that was the real
    guarantor of reform--and Russia has done a phenomenal job of privatizing
    industries, thousands just in the last year--and secondly, that we
    needed some sort of social support network, an unemployment system, a
    retraining system, a system to train people to manage and operate
    businesses and banks that will enable people to deal with the
    dislocations that are coming. And that's basically what we talked about.

    Note: The President spoke at approximately 11 p.m. in the Grand Place. A
    tape was not available for verification of the content of these remarks.
    This item was not received in time for publication in the appropriate
    issue.