[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 30, Number 46 (Monday, November 21, 1994)]
[Pages 2382-2386]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
The President's News Conference in Jakarta, Indonesia

November 14, 1994

    The President. I'm very glad to be here in Indonesia for this APEC 
meeting. As I said before I left the United States, I am here because 
this opportunity for me to meet with leaders throughout this region can 
lead to more economic opportunities for Americans and a reduced threat 
of nuclear proliferation.
    Today I had the opportunity to meet with President Jiang Zemin of 
China, Prime Minister Murayama of Japan, Prime Minister Keating of 
Australia, and President Kim of South Korea. The most important topic of 
our conversations was the situation on the Korean Peninsula. All the 
leaders indicated their strong support for the agreement we reached with 
North Korea to freeze and then to dismantle its ability to build nuclear 
weapons. All agreed on the importance of resuming the dialog between 
North and South Korea. This agreement marks an historic step to freeze 
and, ultimately, to end the greatest security threat in this region.
    Prime Minister Murayama of Japan and South Korean President Kim 
agreed that we must maintain our close cooperation as we begin to 
implement the agreement. And the three of us plan to meet briefly again 
later this evening to follow up on our earlier conversations.
    In all my meetings today I made it clear that the fundamental 
interests of the United States in the Pacific remain unchanged. And each 
of the leaders welcomed the assurance that the United States will 
continue to exercise active leadership in the region.
    In each of the meetings today there was also strong agreement that 
the early ratification of GATT would be absolutely essential to 
maintaining the climate that promotes global economic growth and 
expanding trade. I told each of the leaders that I would do everything 
that I could to pass the GATT, that Congress would come back soon, and 
that I thought it would pass. It was clear to me that the rest of the 
world is looking to the United States for leadership on this issue. It's 
also clear to me, I will say again, that it is very much in our interest 
to pass GATT because it means more high-wage jobs for Americans.
    Finally, in each of the meetings we discussed the APEC leaders 
meeting which begins tonight. I expressed my strong support for the 
efforts of President Soeharto to build on the common vision of the 
Asian-Pacific community that we set forth at Seattle last year in the 
first of these leaders meetings.
    This week's discussions I believe will allow us to take a critical 
step forward toward free and open trade throughout the region. After 
all, this is very important to the United States. Already one-third of 
our exports go to the Asia-Pacific region; already 2 million American 
jobs are tied to this region. This is the fastest growing part of the 
world. So it is very important that we proceed first with GATT and 
second with APEC so that we can continue the economic recovery at home 
and continue to provide increasing opportunities for our people.
    All these meetings today reinforced my beliefs that the United 
States is strong in the Asian-Pacific region, that we are getting 
stronger in this region, and that in so doing we are strengthening 
Americans economically and in terms of our security. In short, we are 
moving in the right direction. This is a good investment. We need to 
make the most of it.

North Korea

    Q. Mr. President, APEC--as an economic organization--what kind of 
statement of support or commitment are you seeking from APEC about 
implementing the nuclear agreement with North Korea? Are you hoping that 
all the leaders have something to say on this?
    The President. I think that the leaders who are most concerned with 
it may have something to say. I don't know that the organization itself 
will.
    President Kim and I obviously have worked most heavily on it. And 
Prime Minister Murayama has been terribly interested

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in it. But we had a long discussion today between President Jiang Zemin 
and myself about it, and it will become a topic of conversation 
elsewhere, as well. Prime Minister Keating was very intent on being 
supportive of the agreement.
    I don't know that there will be an APEC statement, because it's an 
economic group. But I have not yet talked to anyone who does not believe 
it's an important first step forward and that it ought to be 
implemented.

East Timor

    Q. Mr. President, as you know, some students have taken over or have 
occupied the parking lot in the U.S. Embassy here and are calling for 
the release of one of the leaders of the Timor human rights movement. 
They've asked to meet with you, sir. Has there been any contact between 
your entourage and these students? And how do you feel about their 
demands?
    The President. Well, first, the whole issue of East Timor has been 
of a concern to the United States at least since I've been President. I 
talked about it in the campaign of 1992, and we have raised it in our 
conversations with Indonesian leaders. We will continue to do so. The 
contacts they've had, insofar as I know them, have occurred in an 
appropriate way through our Embassy there. But this is an issue which is 
a part of our dialog with the Indonesians, and it should be.

Republican Leadership

    Q. Mr. President, Congressman Gingrich is known to feel that he was 
never properly or publicly thanked for his help on NAFTA. He has, 
however, said that he's committed to helping to get the GATT legislation 
passed. First, have you discussed that issue, the GATT legislation, with 
him, and do you feel that you have anything else to say to him about his 
participation in NAFTA?
    The President. Well, I don't know about that. When NAFTA passed, I 
tried to be profuse in my thanks to the Republicans, as well as the 
Democrats. Congressman Gingrich, Mr. Colby, Mr. Dreier, and others were 
critical in the success of NAFTA, and they are critical to the success 
of the GATT. I was encouraged by my conversations with both Congressman 
Gingrich and Senator Dole about GATT, and I look forward to working with 
them.
    Rita [Rita Braver, CBS News].
    Q. While you're here having the summit with the Asian-Pacific 
leaders, I wondered if you'd given any thought to when you return to 
Washington having sort of a summit with the incoming Republican leaders, 
some kind of series of face-to-face meetings where you'd work on an 
initial agenda, and whether, at this point, you're fixed on any kind of 
strategy toward working with them?
    The President. Well, my strategy will be to have an open door and to 
have a lot of contact. And I certainly intend to meet with them. I said 
before I left in my conversations with Senator Dole and Congressman 
Gingrich that I looked forward to having a chance to meet with them when 
I come back. I left, frankly, as you know, shortly after the elections, 
so there wasn't a great deal of opportunity to think through all the 
details. And I asked them to work with Mr. Panetta about that, and I 
presume they are doing so.
    Yes, sir.

North Korea

    Q. Mr. President, do you feel that--[inaudible]--President Jiang 
Zemin said in reaction to the agreement on North Korea nuclear issue? 
And also, do you expect a firm commitment from Prime Minister Murayama 
and President Kim when you meet with them later this evening?
    The President. Well, they all said that they strongly supported the 
agreement and that they thought it was very important that we continue 
to work it through. They understood that the implementation of the 
agreement would not be without difficulty and it would require a lot of 
efforts on several fronts.
    They all also agreed that we ought to see a resumption of the North-
South dialog, that these two countries have some things to resolve 
between themselves that the rest of us simply cannot do for them. A lot 
of these things they're going to have to talk through themselves. But I 
was very encouraged by what President Jiang said and what Prime Minister 
Murayama said and what President Kim said about the agreement. They were

[[Page 2384]]

all very forthright and strong in their support of it.
    Wolf [Wolf Blitzer, Cable News Network].

Human Rights

    Q. Mr. President, some of your critics back home are suggesting 
you're giving too much importance to trade and economic issues with 
China, with Indonesia, other members of APEC and not enough to human 
rights. Specifically, this morning in your meeting with the Chinese 
leader, you didn't forcefully address these human rights issues, 
presumably as many human rights groups would like. And at this time that 
you're here in Indonesia, Amnesty International is suggesting that human 
rights abuses here in Indonesia are getting worse. How do you respond to 
these critics?
    The President. That the United States, perhaps more than any other 
country in the world, consistently and regularly raises human rights 
issues. There was a discussion of human rights issues in the meeting 
with President Jiang Zemin this morning in which a number of specific 
things were raised and in which we made it absolutely clear that in 
order for the United States' relationship with China to fully flower, 
there had to be progress on all fronts.
    So I think it was quite clear. And as I said, I have met with 
President Soeharto before; I have met with these other leaders before. 
Wherever there is a clear human rights problem, I have tried to address 
it and will continue to do so and use whatever influence we can in a 
positive way.

United Nations and Foreign Aid

    Q. Senator Helms is talking about cuts in foreign aid and cuts for 
U.N. funding, saying that a lot of our money in years past has gone down 
what he called ``foreign ratholes.'' Does this bode well for your 
relationship with him, and does it undercut your position at meetings 
like this one?
    The President. Well, let me say, first of all, I think that all 
Americans would agree that not every dollar that was spent by the United 
Nations in the past was spent as efficiently as possible. We have been 
very active since Ambassador Albright has been at the United Nations in 
pushing for U.N. reforms to increase the efficiency of the organization 
and to increase the impact of the dollars and other currencies that are 
spent there. And we have made some progress in improving the efficiency 
of the United Nations. I am proud of the work that Madeleine Albright 
and others have done in supporting that.
    Now, having said that, it still seems to me that we are far better 
off working where we can with other nations of the world and trying to 
make our fair contribution as long as we know our dollars are going to 
be well spent.
    If I might just point out, one of the things that we're looking 
forward to as we go through the various phases of our mission in Haiti 
is turning over our mission to a United Nations operation to complete 
the overall mission in Haiti of training the police force, the armed 
forces, and being there until the next elections are conducted. That's 
an area in our own backyard where the presence of the United Nations and 
the willingness of other nations to participate and to contribute is of 
economic benefit to us.
    So I think we have to be--I agree with anyone, including Senator 
Helms, who wants the United Nations to be efficiently run and to say we 
have to continue to work at it. But I do not agree that it is a mistake 
for us to support peacekeeping. I think it is a good thing, a good 
allocation of our resources if properly done. And I would hope to be 
able to persuade a majority of both parties in the Congress, and in the 
Senate especially where there's so much foreign affairs interest, that 
that is the right course.

Human Rights Demonstrations

    Q. [Inaudible]--protesters at the Embassy are demonstrating the best 
nonviolent American tradition. And we're all going to move on, but 
they're going to still be here and have to face the justice system. Are 
you going to send any signal to the Indonesian Government this week that 
we're worried about how they'll be treated after we're all gone?
    The President. We've already done that. We've already said that we 
had no problem with these young people coming and expressing their views 
in our Embassy grounds, that we talked with them, we worked with them. 
And we have been assured that there will be no retribution against them 
for exercising

[[Page 2385]]

their political expression and bringing their concerns to us. We have 
been assured of that, and I feel comfortable that the commitment we 
receive will be honored.

APEC Summit

    Q. [Inaudible]--economic summit. I understand that you're hoping 
that a timetable of action aimed at liberalizing trade comes out of this 
meeting. That may not seem like a giant political payoff for people back 
home, and I'm wondering how do you explain what the benefits of this 
meeting are to Americans who are wondering why you came to Jakarta?
    The President. Well, first of all, let's wait and see what happens. 
But I would like to make two comments about it. I told the American 
people when I sought this office that it was necessary for the President 
to look to the long-term economic interest of the country as well as to 
the short-term economic interests of the country, that we were moving 
into a global economy in which we had to make long-term commitments and 
expect others to make them if we wanted Americans to have good jobs, 
stable incomes, and brighter futures.
    We don't yet know--I don't want to jump the gun on what the 
agreement will be, but I think most Americans would like it very much to 
know that at some date certain that every market in this part of the 
world, the fastest growing part of the world, with already some of the 
most powerful economies in the world, would be as open to our products 
as our markets are to theirs. I think Americans would like that.
    And I would ask that the Americans who want immediate results to 
remember that after 2 years of hard work, we have the economy going in 
the right direction. We need to provide more stability and higher wages 
in it and more security, ability to afford health care and things of 
that kind. And we have seen some significant advances in foreign policy 
in the Middle East, in Northern Ireland, in Haiti, with the missile 
agreement with China, with the nuclear agreement with North Korea. These 
things take time, but you do get the pay-off if you invest the time.
    This is a remarkable thing, the fact that these 15 leaders are 
meeting for the second time in 2 years and talking about ripping down 
the barriers that divide us so that all of our people can be more 
prosperous in the future.
    I did not want, when I became President, I did not want to see this 
world polarized by trading blocs which would take the place of the 
nuclear blocs of the cold war. I wanted to see regions cooperate within 
themselves but also reach out beyond their borders. That's what I have 
worked for in Europe, in Latin America, in Africa, and certainly in 
Asia. It is the fastest growing part of the world. The American people 
cannot be as prosperous as they need to be unless we succeed here in 
Asia.
    Thank you.

Bosnia

    Q. Mr. President, we haven't heard you on Bosnia. Do you care to say 
something about that?
    The President. Well, I can say that I obviously have been very 
concerned about the events of the last few days in Bihac. We have tabled 
a--we have put forth a proposal to our allies there and to the members 
of the Contact Group. And we are hoping to see the situation stabilize.
    Q. What about the embargo, the criticism that you----
    The President. We have been criticized by some of our allies, but I 
think they need to understand the situation. The United States Congress 
has a heavy majority in favor of unilateral lifting of the arms embargo. 
Instead of that, we got a bill through the Congress which said that we 
should pursue a multilateral lift of the arms embargo through the United 
Nations if the Contact Group proposal was not adopted but that we would 
stop spending American tax dollars to enforce the embargo directly.
    Now we know that the Bosnian Government itself, which enjoys such 
wide support in the Congress in both parties, has asked us not to lift 
the arms embargo for a period of 6 months while they continue to work to 
try to sell the Contact Group proposal.
    We have worked very hard in the last few days--I want to compliment 
the Secretary of State and Secretary of Defense and others in our 
administration, including the United Nations Ambassador and the National 
Secu- 

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rity Adviser--we've all worked hard to try to explain to our allies 
exactly what we have done and what we have not done. We are not 
violating the arms embargo. We are observing the international arms 
embargo. We will continue to do it. But the arrangement which we have 
adopted on enforcement is the product of intense negotiations in the 
United States Congress, which Senator Nunn and others helped us to work 
out to avoid what I believe would have been a very serious mistake, 
which would have been a unilateral vote by the Congress to lift the arms 
embargo.
    Thank you.
    Q. Mr. President, can you take one question from Indonesian press?
    The President. Yes, I think I owe you one. I was looking for someone 
to raise their hand. Go ahead, I'll give you one.

Military Sales and the APEC Summit

    Q. Mr. President, does the relationship between the civilian and the 
military in a developing country affect U.S. military sales to the 
country?
    The President. Well, there are many things that affect United States 
military sales to a country. And so I guess the answer to that would be, 
it depends on the facts; it would depend on the specifics of a case. But 
we have been quite careful in what we do with our military equipment and 
sales, and we will continue to do that.
    You didn't ask this question, but I do think I should say again--I 
want to hammer this home for the Indonesian press, if not for the 
American press--this is a remarkable thing that is being done here in 
Indonesia and quite remarkable that President Soeharto is trying to 
spearhead a clear and specific commitment on the part of all these 
nations in the fastest growing part of the world to tear down their 
trade barriers. It is a very significant thing.
    So far as I know, there is no precedent for it. I had hoped such a 
thing would occur when I convened the leaders in Seattle last year, but 
I knew that this was something that would have to bubble up from the 
grass-roots, from the people in the fast-growing economies of Asia. And 
this is a remarkable meeting that, in history, will be looked back on as 
a very important part of what the world looks like well into the 21st 
century.
    Thank you.
    Q. Any jet lag?
    The President. Just a tad. I think I'm still somewhere between 
Jordan and Jerusalem. [Laughter]

Note: The President's 80th news conference began at 4:37 p.m. at the 
U.S. Ambassador's residence. In his remarks, he referred to Prime 
Minister Tomiichi Murayama of Japan; Prime Minister Paul Keating of 
Australia; President Kim Yong-sam of South Korea; and President Soeharto 
of Indonesia. A tape was not available for verification of the content 
of this news conference.