[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 30, Number 39 (Monday, October 3, 1994)]
[Pages 1881-1888]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
The President's News Conference With President Yeltsin of Russia

September 28, 1994

    President Clinton. We will begin the press conference now with 
opening statements, after which we will have, obviously, questions from 
the press. And we will do our best to alternate between the Russian and 
American press corps.
    Hillary and I and our entire delegation have very much enjoyed 
having President and Mrs. Yeltsin with us, along with all the Russians 
who came with them. When President Yeltsin arrived yesterday, I spoke of 
the new partnership between our two nations. After our talks, one thing 
is clear: Relations between our nations are moving forward at full 
speed.
    Both our countries, as President Yeltsin said yesterday, are 
sometimes not so easy to deal with, but we're succeeding in tackling 
some hard challenges. Over the past 2 days we've made good progress on 
security, economic, and diplomatic issues.
    I'm pleased to announce today that President Yeltsin and I have 
agreed that as soon as the START I treaty takes effect and the START II 
treaty is ratified by both of our countries, we will immediately begin 
removing the nuclear warheads that are due to be scrapped under START 
II, instead of taking the 9 years allowed. There will be no adverse 
impact on the United States, the Soviet Union. Indeed, by shaving 
several years off the timetable, we will make the world safer for all of 
us.
    We also plan to work together to encourage Ukraine to join the 
Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty this year. As the world's two largest 
nuclear powers, we recognize our special responsibilities to ensure the 
security of nuclear weapons and materials, even as we keep dismantling 
them. This is one of the most urgent security challenges all the nations 
of the globe face as we enter the next century.
    President Yeltsin and I spent a lot of time on this issue. We 
understand we won't solve the problem overnight, but the steps we've 
taken in areas such as inspecting each other's storage facilities and 
information sharing are an important start. We are personally committed 
to seeing this issue through.
    Today President Yeltsin and I have signed an agreement that will 
gradually normalize our economic relations by removing major barriers to 
trade and investment. American support for Russian economic reform has 
been constant, and over the last 2 days American and Russian businesses 
have signed deals worth nearly $1 billion, ranging from agriculture to 
telecommunications. We met several American and Russian business leaders 
this morning, and we're determined to advance America's investment in 
and trade with Russia.
    We will transfer $100 million in aid funds to directly support trade 
and investment through OPIC and the Commerce Department. And we will 
also devote $30 million to help in the fight against crime in Russia 
through cooperation between the FBI and the Justice Department and 
appropriate Russian authorities.
    On the diplomatic front, we've made progress on the difficult issue 
of Russian arms sales to Iran. We agreed to continue to work on this 
problem in the near future. We also agreed to work more closely together 
to help resolve the tragic conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh.
    On Bosnia we repeated our commitment to work within the Contact 
Group to compel the parties to accept the settlement that has been 
worked out. Once again, I congratulated President Yeltsin on his 
historic decision to withdraw Russian troops from the Baltic nations.

[[Page 1882]]

    No area better captures the potential for our emerging partnership 
than Russian-American cooperation in space. President Yeltsin and I 
first discussed this idea in Vancouver last year and decided we needed 
to go forward. Today I have signed into law a bill that will help to 
fund the international space station. This bill is the result in no 
small measure of the extraordinary cooperation between Vice President 
Gore and Prime Minister Chernomyrdin, as well as the strong bipartisan 
support we received in the United States Congress. Like so much that 
we've accomplished in the past 2 days, this space station symbolizes the 
potential for progress when we work together.
    This is the fifth time President Yeltsin and I have met since I came 
into office. I think I've spent more time with him than with any other 
world leader. We've made real progress over the last few days, in no 
small measure because we've worked together, we've learned to be open 
and candid with each other about our differences, we've built an 
atmosphere of mutual trust. And I'm confident that our partnership is 
working and will continue to work, not only between our two governments 
but increasingly between the people of Russia and the United States.
    Mr. President.
    President Yeltsin. Thank you.
    Ladies and gentlemen. First of all, I would like to express the 
feeling of great thanks and appreciation to President Bill Clinton, to 
his wife, Hillary, and also to the American people and you, the 
journalists, for a very warm welcome and for very fine conditions which 
were created to make our very tough and difficult visit, to make it very 
productive.
    We always start these meetings by saying that we've really done a 
tremendous amount of work. We always say this at these press 
conferences. But we can't say that this meeting, as well, doesn't 
deserve this kind of characterization. In fact, we have accomplished a 
lot of work. And if we planned at one time that we were going to have 
one 30-minute one-on-one session, it turns out it lasted for 3 hours. So 
you can judge for yourselves how many issues we touched upon and 
discussed and what a wide scope we really worked on.
    Although I have a trip to Seattle coming up where I want to 
familiarize myself with the West--I had never been out West, out on the 
West Coast of the United States. I want to familiarize myself and get to 
know the Boeing Company, the city of Seattle, and just to see what kind 
of Americans live out there on the West Coast and how they work and how 
they are.
    We, of course, with Bill now, it's--we are interlocutors who know 
each other and partners in our discussions and negotiations. We know 
each other very well, and more than that, we this time don't have to 
come and start warming up. We've had phone conversations; we talked 
ahead of time. So we started from the word go, right from the very 
beginning. We say that our partnership has to be pragmatic and not 
declaratory. And right away from the very beginning, we agreed to that.
    I'm sure that neither Russia nor the United States needs all kinds 
of sharp deviations from having good, normal communications and ties. We 
don't need a situation where the whole world is in trepidation. We don't 
need to waste a lot of words and chew a lot of fat, but we have to get 
down to basics and start working in a very pragmatic style.
    Of course, I say these words--now I think Bill has confirmed that 
the United States is a very complex partner, and Russia also is, too. 
But look, what family doesn't have some kind of squabbles occasionally 
which, eventually, they kind of work out. It's not always that simple, 
right? I mean, here are two great humongous, almost half billion member 
family who, too, has sometimes its own little approaches, if you will. 
But the most important thing is the ability to listen, to have patience, 
to have humanity, respect to each other. And then, absolutely, we will 
be able to find solutions.
    I just want to tell you, to be short about it, these little 
introductory words--I just want to give you literally that list that 
those issues that we discussed. Here we go, and then later on, you'll be 
able to ask questions. It will be a lot easier to ask questions. 
[Laughter]
    The most important talks and subjects of these talks are the 
strategic partnerships between Russia and the United States; 
international issues; external political coordination of our efforts so 
that we two great powers,

[[Page 1883]]

two countries constantly coordinated everything that we do so that 
nothing happens in the world that might ruin peace on our planet.
    We have to support peace; the Big-8; peacekeeping; CIS; the role of 
Russia in the CIS; NATO and Russia; coordination in the United Nations 
Security Council; reforming United Nations; cooperating in the United 
Nations and the CIS; the situation all around the world; Bosnia; Middle 
East; Caribbean Basin; North Korea; Rwanda; Islamic extremism; Iran; 
Libya; Iraq; Trans-Dniestria; Nagorno-Karabakh; Abkhazia; Tajikistan; 
the Baltics; military issues; START III; START I, START II, now START 
III now--we're talking about three--[laughter]--nonproliferation; 
harmonizing our--you're not catching up? You can't think fast enough? 
[Laughter] Well, okay, then I'll go a little slower. All right? 
[Laughter] Apparently we're not on the same wavelength here, you and I, 
in terms of the pace here, okay.
    Nonproliferation of weapons--[laughter]--harmonizing military 
doctrines--harmonizing, since today doctrine in the United States--the 
military doctrine is one; Russia has a different one. How are we going 
to be able to have a partnership, friendly partnership, and work 
together if we have such a disparate military doctrine?
    New initiatives of the great five powers on strategic stability; ABM 
systems, strategic and technical ABM systems; biological weapons; 
chemical weapons; destruction and elimination of nuclear weapons, the 
safe elimination of nuclear weapons; exchange of information on nuclear 
arms and fissile materials for the first time; banning nuclear testing; 
participation of Russia in the regime of rocket technology--and we 
attach ourselves to this. We are joining where the United States is the 
initiator. Banning the export of mines--antipersonnel mines--I fully 
support the proposal of the United States of America in the U.N. when he 
spoke about getting rid of these antipersonnel mines.
    Incidents with submarines, economic issues, investments, getting rid 
of discriminatory limitations on Russia and opening up the American 
market to Russian goods; the status for Russia of an economy in 
transition. Post-COCOM economic and trade projects; free trade status; 
GATT.
    Finally, we got together and agreed on the so-called Jackson-Vanik 
amendment. I've already said that every single kid in Russia knows who 
these people are, Jackson and this guy Vanik. [Laughter] The President, 
by my decree--I mean, by his decree--well, maybe it's temporary, but he 
has stopped it, all right, the actions of this amendment. And I am 
grateful; that this was a huge window, a bright window that appeared 
here between us. I'm very grateful.
    Questions of crime; cooperating in the field of education, culture, 
ecology, environment, national minorities, the North; cooperation on 
tariffs, duties. And the President has already said that, of course, for 
all mankind, this is very important, so that in place of the year 2003, 
after the ratification of START II by Russia and the United States, we 
simultaneously remove all those weapons from alert status that were 
mentioned in the status--immediately. In other words, we save at least 
7, maybe more, years by doing it right away. And we give mankind hope 
that our generation will be for sure living in peace.
    At the center of our negotiation was the strategy of partnership 
between Russia and the United States. And I've already said that we've 
agreed on the fact that it should be more pragmatic. Discussions of 
partnership for economic progress as well--we agreed here, also.
    In the United States now we have a large group of Russian 
businessmen. In New York I met with the captains of industry, big 
industry in the United States and with Russia. And today, as a matter of 
fact, with President Bill Clinton, we met also with representatives of 
big business here. And we came to terms and decided, well, what, after 
all, is standing in the way of investments and attracting investments 
and capital to Russia on the part of private capital. And I have to say 
that we, in general, came to terms with this.
    Looking into the future, we, at the same time, tried not to sort of 
float above this sinful Earth. Specifically, we agreed on fighting 
crime. And there are other specific things, protecting the environment 
in the north of Russia, protecting the environment; communication 
system, developing communication.

[[Page 1884]]

After all, I mean, I just have to say that even though many people 
predicted that this is going to be not just tough negotiations, but 
they're going to fall through in the ultimate analysis, I have to really 
be very sorry and express my condolences to these people. We agreed to 
almost practically every single one of these issues. Sometimes the 
United States stepped forward and compromised a little; sometimes Russia 
compromised, but the most important thing is for peace, for humanity, 
for mankind, for our whole planet, we have agreed.
    Thank you. Now, please questions. He is the host, so he calls the 
shots. [Laughter]
    President Clinton. Helen [Helen Thomas, United Press International] 
let me say, one of the things I would do--I've always wanted to be on 
the other side of this microphone, and if I were on the other side of 
the microphone today, my question would be, ``And what were your 
agreements on issues 15, 27, and 43?'' [Laughter]
    Go ahead, Helen.
    Q. Well, I have a question for each of the Presidents and I've 
narrowed it a bit. You cover the waterfront, and I'm sure you have all 
the answers. I would like to answer President Clinton, are you going to 
call a special session on GATT?
    President Yeltsin, I think the American people are very happy to 
find out that Russia will never attack the United States, as you said 
today, that you would never fight. But we are a little bit concerned----
    President Clinton. Excuse me, Helen. Apparently the Russian 
interpreter is not coming through the microphone. No, no, no--he can 
hear you. It's the Russian--we need the Russian. We need someone to say 
this in Russian.
    Q. Oh, okay, I'm sure the United States is very happy to hear you 
say that Russia will never attack the U.S. You said that today, and 
that's very good. But there is some concern that Russia may still have 
some feeling that it has a sphere of influence over former Soviet 
republics, and that when you intervene, you don't feel it necessary to 
go through international institutions. Is that true?

General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade

    President Clinton. So we have two separate questions. I'll answer 
mine first.
    I think it is the responsibility of the United States and the United 
States Congress to pass the GATT this year. And I hope that the Congress 
will do it before they leave. Our information is that there are more 
than enough votes to pass it in the House and that we have a majority in 
the Senate if we can get the bill to the floor. That's so often the 
question in the Senate. So we'll keep trying to pass it. If for some 
reason the Senate does not pass it, then I will urge that they stay in 
session and simply go on recess for the election break and then come 
back after the recess and pass GATT.
    This is the biggest trade agreement in history. It's the biggest 
worldwide tax cut in history by reductions of tariffs, $36 billion in 
this country alone. It will give us 300,000 to 500,000 new high-wage 
jobs in the next few years alone. I think it is important to pass it.
    Our country has established, even in what has been a reasonably or 
very partisan atmosphere in the last couple of years, a real commitment 
during our administration to work in a bipartisan way toward expanded 
trade. So I urge the Congress to pass the GATT before they go home. If 
it passes the House and doesn't pass the Senate I will urge that the 
Senate stay in session, take a recess for the election, come back 
afterward, and pass this. It's very important.
    We have the APEC meeting coming up; we have the Summit of the 
Americas coming up. We're trying to break down our barriers with Russia 
and many other countries. The United States has to lead on this, and I 
intend to do everything I can to see that we do lead.
    President Yeltsin.

Russian Foreign Policy

    President Yeltsin. Well, of course, we're not planning to avoid and 
go walk around the decisions of the United Nations. Moreover, as you 
know, I'm appearing at the General Assembly session and I came out and 
talked for strengthening it, for widening this organization, so this 
organization would be strengthened in the future. Maybe they need

[[Page 1885]]

it now more than ever, more than 20 years ago.
    So, now, as far as the CIS countries, how do you feel? I mean, are 
you close to the neighbor that you live next to, or not? Of course--are 
you? [Laughter]
    Well, these are our neighbors. Yesterday, we all were in the same; 
we lived in the same house in the Soviet Union. There is no Soviet 
Union, but these republic states, they're our blood, right? Come on, 
let's be honest. We've helped them financially just as you help other 
countries, you financially help other countries, Latin America, Africa, 
et cetera, et cetera. It's only natural that we would have contacts and 
ties. They should be good. As a matter of fact, now we're planning some 
kind of centrifugal forces pulling them inward, those tendencies. 
Everybody wants to be close to Russia, and we will be friendly with 
them, and we will support them. But in no way not to contravene any 
international norms of behavior which are established or which shall be 
established. No.
    President Clinton. I'll call on a Russian, Mr. President.

COCOM

    Q. Now, COCOM and antidumping campaign, are there any specific 
decisions, any specific time lines and schedules and solutions?
    President Yeltsin. Well, probably, it's the first time now that we 
have--for a long time we marched along this path. It took us a long time 
to get here. There were many problems along the way, but we've come to 
terms. The conditions--I think Bill will probably agree with me--I can 
tell you very frankly that for us the one condition that was set was 
that--we supply weapons to Iran, and so we were not allowed to this so-
called kitchen in the creation of the post-COCOM regime where they were 
cooking up whatever this regime was going to look like.
    Now, how have we come to an agreement? Now, there was a contract 
signed by the former Soviet Union with Iran. We are solid citizens, 
great power; we cannot but satisfy the terms of that contract. So the 
old contract, which had been signed years ago, back in '88 will be 
honored. But no other new contracts, no other new supplies, no other new 
shipments of weapons and weapons goods will be shipped. Those are the 
grounds upon which Bill Clinton agreed that we are going to participate 
in the post-COCOM era.
    President Clinton. You asked another question. Let me say that is 
generally accurate where there are some--we reached a conceptual 
agreement in principle about how we would proceed,and then we agreed to 
let our experts on this matter work through it. And so we are working 
through it now and, we hope to resolve it soon. But we cannot say that 
it is resolved because this matter, as you might understand, for both of 
us the details are quite important. So that while we reached a 
conceptual agreement, we have to work through the details.
    With regard to the antidumping. I think what you're referring to is 
my attempts to get the Congress to pass legislation which would declare 
Russia an economy in transition, which would facilitate more two-way 
trade. I have proposed such legislation to the Congress; it has not yet 
passed. We are working on a package of initiatives which would include 
the reduction of trade barriers in Russia and some more initiatives on 
our part so that we could get that kind of economy in transition status, 
which I think responds to the question that you asked.

General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade

    Q. Mr. President, as you know, it's within your authority to call 
Congress back into session should it leave without passing GATT. Are you 
prepared to take that step if necessary, sir?
    President Clinton. Well, I thought I made that clear. Yes, my 
preference would be, and what I believe we can do, based on our 
soundings today, is, if Congress leaves without passing GATT I will ask 
that the Senate not adjourn but simply to go into recess and then return 
afterward. I will do whatever I can within the law to do everything I 
can to pass the GATT this year. I think it is important that it pass. 
It's important that it pass this year. It's important for the United 
States and our leadership, our efforts to get others to drop their trade 
barriers, to open their markets, to move forward. We have to set an 
example here.

[[Page 1886]]

    I might say that a lot of the people who were opposed to NAFTA--let 
me just point out, our trade with Mexico has increased by about 19 
percent in the last year. Our sales of autos and trucks have increased 
by 600 percent. And that's one of the reasons that a lot of those folks 
are working overtime for the first time in a decade. So this is plainly 
in our interest. It will create hundreds of thousands of jobs. And I'm 
going to do whatever I can, Brit [Brit Hume, ABC News], within the law 
to get this done this year.

Security and Stability Initiative

    Q. Appearing at the United Nations, you proposed to immediately work 
out a treaty on stability and security. Apparently, you discussed this, 
too, with the President. How much do you feel that the approaches of 
Russia and the United States are similar in terms of coming up with a 
treaty? How would they coincide?
    President Yeltsin. Well, in principle, the President of the United 
States agreed with the formulation that I made. Although he did say that 
the President of Russia has put forth too many initiatives there at the 
Assembly, and we're going to have to have some time to study all of 
these new initiatives that I've put forward.

Bosnia

    Q. President Yeltsin, sir, you said again today that you oppose 
lifting the arms embargo on Bosnia. Would Russia veto a resolution to 
lift that arms embargo if the Serbs don't agree to a settlement within a 
certain amount of months?
    And to President Clinton, what's your understanding of--is there any 
agreement between the two of you on this contentious issue?
    President Yeltsin. Well, first of all, it's made easier for us by 
the decision and in solving this issue the fact that the Bosnians 
themselves have asked delay for, say, 4 to 6 months, altogether; even to 
take it off of the agenda for discussion. But in 6 months we'll take a 
look and see.
    President Clinton. What we did agree to do was to take some new 
initiatives to try to get the thing worked out as quickly as possible. 
And we still have a potential difference over that issue. There's no 
question about it. But we have--let me say, the remarkable thing here is 
how closely we have worked together on Bosnia for many months now. And I 
think a lot of the good things that have happened in that whole sad case 
have come about because we have worked together with Russia and with our 
NATO allies as well as with the United Nations.

Trade and Investment

    Q. What are you planning to do in improving the investment climate 
for American companies after your discussions here that you had all day? 
And an additional question to President Bill Clinton regarding the 
antidumping legislation. Does it mean giving Russians the transition 
economy status, the Section 4.06 on trade?
    President Yeltsin. I answer by saying that in meeting with 
businessmen and every one of them when he speaks said one and the same 
thing, ``taxes, taxes.'' We, ourselves, understand that in '91 a reborn 
Russia rather quickly prepared a legislation on taxation, and it was 
full of mistakes, both for our own businessmen and for outside 
businessmen.
    And so now, what we're preparing--and among this is also very kindly 
Bill proposed the use of our American 200-year history and experience in 
tax legislation--that we send a group of tax specialists here to take a 
look at how all these things are formed in the United States. But we're 
preparing a tax code which will, I feel, be adopted in the first 6 
months, the first half of 1995. And it, of course, is substantially 
going to be different from the situation today and, of course, will make 
life a lot more easy for the foreign investors as well.
    President Clinton. Let me respond very briefly to the question you 
asked. If Russia were granted under Federal law an economy in transition 
status, then the rules for judging whether products are being dumped or 
not would be somewhat different. The United States has made a great 
effort to trade more with Russia. Since I've been President, we've 
tripled our trade in 1993 over 1992; we doubled our purchases in 1994 
over 1993. So we are working ahead. But we also have to have some tariff 
relief on things that we can sell in Russia in certain critical areas, 
includ- 

[[Page 1887]]

ing aerospace, automobiles, confectionery; a lot of other things we've 
talked about. So we're going to try to work through that and get a 
resolution.
    Go ahead, Andrea [Andrea Mitchell, NBC News].

Russian Foreign Policy

    Q. I'd like to ask both President Yeltsin and President Clinton: The 
United States has been concerned about what Russia will do in the former 
CIS countries, particularly Nagorno-Karabakh. You've spoken to that, but 
can I ask you, how is that any different from the sphere of influence 
that the United States claims to have over Haiti? And I'd like your 
comment as well.
    President Clinton. Fair question.
    President Yeltsin. Well, you know, in general, the President of the 
United States and we personally never really got into the details of 
this issue and only now we dedicated a lot of time at this session. As a 
matter of fact, we haven't even finished in one day; we carried it over 
until today. Today we discussed it again, on the Nagorno-Karabakh. And 
finally, in principle, the principle approach, we sort of brought them 
together. But in order to implement these, we're going to need some time 
to prepare documents, to look at the U.N. documentation. In short, the 
most important thing is that we have come to an understanding on this.
    Q. President Yeltsin, I'm interested in whether you feel that the 
U.S. objections to Russian intervention with your neighbors is any 
different than what the United States has done in intervening in Haiti, 
which we claim is part of our sphere of influence? Do you think there is 
some hypocrisy here on the part of the United States?
    President Yeltsin. No, I cannot say that, because Russia voted for 
the Resolution 940 in the United Nations and thereby we supported the 
actions of the United States of America.
    Now, as Nagorno-Karabakh, this is our neighbor. They asked us that 
we help them, that we participate in the resolution of this conflict, 
just like we resolved it in Moldova, just like we set up peacekeeping 
forces between Abkhazia and Georgia, and there bloodshed stopped. Now, 
we have to get the refugees back, et cetera. We're helping our 
neighbors.
    President Clinton. Let me answer that question. First of all, the 
United States does not object to Russia taking an active role in the 
resolution of the problem in Nagorno-Karabakh. What we have discussed 
with the Russians, and what Boris and I finally had a chance to discuss 
personally together at some considerable length, is how that could be 
made more like Haiti. That is, how whatever Russia does should be done 
in a manner that is consistent with and within the framework of the 
United Nations resolution.
    I think that Russia plainly does have an interest, a significant 
interest, in what happens on its borders and what happens in countries 
on its borders. In all of our discussions, President Yeltsin has 
acknowledged that he respected the sovereignty, the independence, and 
the territorial integrity of all those countries, but that what happened 
there reflected what happened within his country, and that there were 
things that he might be able to do there in pursuit of stability without 
being inconsistent with sovereignty and territorial integrity and 
independence that were appropriate.
    What we did in Haiti, as you know, was not to act on our own 
although the United States has, in the 20th century, acted on its own 
many times in this hemisphere. We went to the United Nations. We amassed 
an international coalition that has 28 nations for the first phase of 
this operation and then even more for the second phase. And I think 
that's the way we ought to proceed.
    It may be necessary for other nations with military or other 
capacity to handle other problems or to at least take the lead on other 
problems in their areas. But when it is done, it should be done within 
the framework of the United Nations wherever possible and with respect 
for territorial integrity. And I think we are moving forward in that 
direction.
    Press Secretary Myers. Last question.

ABM Treaty

    Q. Based on the reports of the U.S. press sources, the United States 
aimed at making additions to the ABM treaty which substantially changes 
its content. Was this discussed

[[Page 1888]]

at the negotiations and talks? And what is your impression?
    President Yeltsin. Well, apparently you didn't catch--I was reading 
so fast this list of mine, you didn't--I mentioned there the ABM. In 
other words, we did discuss the ABM issue, but there, taking into the 
account the professional difficulties, we handed that over to a joint 
commission which is now working so that it can make its recommendations. 
Right?
    President Clinton. Thank you.

Note: The President's 71st news conference began at 3:45 p.m. in the 
East Room at the White House. President Yeltsin spoke in Russian, and 
his remarks were translated by an interpreter. In his remarks, the 
President referred to Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin of Russia. A 
tape was not available for verification of the content of this news 
conference.