[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 32, Number 19 (Monday, May 13, 1996)]
[Pages 823-828]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
The President's News Conference With President Stephanopoulos

May 9, 1996

    The President. Good afternoon. Let me say once again what a pleasure 
it is to welcome President Stephanopoulos to the White House. The 
alliance, the friendship between our two nations is anchored by our 
common commitment to freedom and democracy. Much of our discussion today 
focused on the work we are doing together to build a peaceful, 
democratic, and undivided Europe. I was glad to have a chance to thank 
President Stephanopoulos for the leadership the Hellenic Republic has 
shown in resolving the problems in the Balkans, from Albania to the 
former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.
    I also want to thank Greece, and especially its soldiers, for 
helping to safeguard the peace in Bosnia. Our Armed Forces are proud to 
stand with you, Mr. President, in this important mission of peace. The 
progress we are making there reminds us all that it

[[Page 824]]

is possible to choose the promise of the future over the conflicts of 
the past. This can be the case in the Aegean, as well. The United States 
will continue to help in any way we can to make the region one of peace 
and opportunity for all its people.
    As I emphasized to President Stephanopoulos, the United States 
strongly supports the principle of respect for international agreements 
and the territorial integrity of all nations in the Aegean region.
    We are deeply concerned about the continuing dispute over the islet 
of Imia. I was personally involved in our efforts to convince our two 
NATO allies to pull back from their confrontation. And now we are trying 
to reduce tensions further and to settle the ownership question through 
an international tribunal. I believe the problems in the Aegean can and 
must be resolved through peaceful means, without force or the threat of 
force.
    We also discussed the issue of Cyprus, something that has been of 
special interest to me since I became President. We hope to be able to 
take an initiative on Cyprus this year. A breakthrough in Cyprus could 
pave the way to further progress and be a model to other nations that 
are seeking peace.
    Finally, I underscored to the President our commitment to fight 
terrorism. Greeks and Americans alike have been the victims of terrorist 
brutality at home and abroad. We know the pain and destruction it can 
bring, and we have a responsibility to do all we can to defeat it. We 
look to Greece to be a strong partner in this effort.
    As an ally in NATO and a key player in the European Union, Greece is 
helping to shape the future of Europe and the next half century of our 
transatlantic partnership. The world's oldest democracy is reaching out 
to Europe's newest democracies to build an undivided, integrated 
continent at peace. The United States looks forward to continuing our 
partnership and to benefiting the peoples of both of our countries and 
the entire world.
    Again, Mr. President, welcome to Washington. The microphone is 
yours.
    President Stephanopoulos. Thank you very much, Mr. President.
    I would like to thank once more in the warmest and most sincere way 
President Clinton for his kind invitation, invitation which I accepted 
with great pleasure.
    We held interesting talks in which we established once more the 
identical views on many important issues. The efforts of the United 
States of America for stability and peace in the Balkans find us in the 
same camp. Greece, as you know, contributes to the extent they can do to 
achieve the same objectives.
    We discussed what we can do in order to establish peace for good in 
this turbulent area of the world, which was founded in bloodshed for 
years and years. It is high time that this region of the world lives in 
peace and conciliation between its peoples. I assured President Clinton 
that Greece, vis-a-vis these countries, but also vis-a-vis Albania, for 
which there is common interests of the two countries, is showing the 
same political willingness in order to develop better political 
relations with one, of course, precondition, which I will reiterate: The 
perfect respect of the rights of the Greek minority and, more 
specifically, their right to practice their religion and to be educated 
in their own language, the Greek language, which they have spoken for 
centuries and centuries, as well as all the other Greeks.
    We discussed for long the crisis in the Aegean, and I expressed once 
more the views of the Greek side in my own words and as I see it, of 
course. And I have been very satisfied hearing Mr. Clinton reaffirming 
the principles of American policy, namely, respect of international 
principles, international treaties, territorial integrity of all states 
in the area. And I do believe that these principles, common principles, 
will finally and ultimately be implemented in the areas, so that this 
turbulent area of the world will live in peace and cooperation. There 
are other joint projects with the United States related to technology 
transfer, common educational programs, assimilation of democratic 
institutions in which Greece and the United States of America can play 
an extremely important role.
    Our wish is to be useful to the international community. I believe 
that Greece, as a member of the European Union, not only serves this 
European ideal of peace and cooperation but also we continue to believe

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that the most important ally of Europe is and will continue to be the 
United States of America. With the cooperation between these two 
entities, the European Union and the United States, many things can be 
achieved. Greece will be present and participating in all these efforts.
    Thank you, Mr. President.

Budget Negotiations

    Q. Mr. President, on a domestic issue, yesterday you said that the 
White House and the Congress were closer together on a balanced budget 
plan than was ever reported in the press. And then the Republicans 
produced a plan that cuts back on their tax cuts and scales back on 
savings and domestic programs. Does that sound like a formula that you 
could go along with?
    The President. Well, I'm encouraged that they moved. I think that's 
encouraging. They abandoned the proposal to abolish the Department of 
Education, for example. That's a good thing, but I want to study the 
details of the program. But it appears to me that we still have 
significant differences and that they propose big cuts in education and 
in the environment and to abolish the guarantee of coverage under 
Medicaid for poor children and the elderly in nursing homes and for 
families with family members with disabilities. And I think the Medicare 
number appears to be still too high. But I think it's a movement in the 
right direction.
    There are other specific things that I have concerns about. Again, 
they seek to abolish the direct college loan program, which has led to 
lower costs, better terms, better repayments for large numbers of 
college students. They seek to abolish the national service program. 
There are a lot of things in there I don't agree with, but it is a 
movement in the right direction. And this is the point I am trying to 
make now, that what we ought to do is to resume our negotiations and 
reach an agreement and do what we did on this year's budget instead of 
having a replay of a unilateral take-it-or-leave-it deal, which is what 
was done in 1995.
    And so I hope that this is the beginning of a process that will end 
in a negotiated seven-year balanced budget. We plainly have the savings 
in common to achieve it. And we are having a better year this year than 
we thought we were going to have on deficit reduction. And so we can get 
this done if we'll do it together.
    Mr. President, do you want to call on a Greek journalist?

Greek-Turkish Relations

    President Stephanopoulos. Yes.
    Q. Mr. President, the average Greek is very concerned about the fact 
that the U.S. is supporting Turkey as a regional superpower, arming 
Turkey and so on. You also talked about Europe's position to the use of 
force in the Aegean. The average Greek would like to know from you, sir, 
what will you do if Turkey is again going to use force in the area? What 
is the U.S. going to do? If I could just ask President Stephanopoulos, 
the senior Stephanopoulos in the room--[laughter]--what exactly did you 
ask the U.S. in terms of Greek-Turkish relations in this meeting?
    The President. First, let me say, I made my position abundantly 
clear and very clear to the Turks, including to President Demirel on his 
recent trip here. We do not favor--we not only don't favor the use of 
force in the region; we don't favor any threats of the use of force. And 
we have two countries that are our allies in NATO with which we have 
good relations. And we want to try to facilitate a peaceful resolution 
of the disputes in the Aegean, of the issue of Cyprus. If Turkey and 
Greece could resolve their differences, the potential that they have of 
working together to stabilize the situation in the Balkans, to promote a 
Europe at peace and not torn asunder by ethnic and religious conflicts, 
to build a better future for all of us, is staggering.
    So I'm going to do everything I can to keep down not only force but 
the threat of force, so that we can have a peaceful resolution of all 
these agreements, respecting territorial integrity, based on 
international agreements and without any force. That is clear. And I 
think the--I do not expect there to be a situation in which force comes 
into play, because I think that the wisdom will prevail over passion, 
and we'll avoid that.
    President Stephanopoulos. I didn't come to the United States to ask 
for anything. That

[[Page 826]]

was not the purpose of my visit. Greece does not feel the need to ask 
anyone anything beyond the mere implementation of international treaties 
and rules of international law. This is the only demand of Greece.
    I hope that the region will prevail more reasonable, more peaceful 
point of view. I think you do know, you and Mr. Papoulias, that there 
are threats of war against Greece. I hope, also, that these threats will 
be withdrawn sometime in the future. But if they're not withdrawn, 
especially if these threats materialize, Greece has the possibility to 
defend itself very, very effectively. I do not wish to raise the tone of 
the discussion, but I really do hope that we will not have this 
opportunity to defend ourselves. I do hope that we will be able to apply 
international law, and I also hope that our neighbor will realize the 
need that these differences, some differences which have some legal 
foundation--and I mean, in this case, the Continental Shelf and Imia.
    So I hope that Turkey realizes that the only solution is the resort 
to the International Court of Justice at The Hague. And in this 
instance, President Clinton's views and my views do coincide perfectly.

Middle East Peace Process

    Q. Since you came into office, you have promoted the Middle East 
peace process. But a Washington Post reporter writes from Cairo that 
Arab leaders and man on the street believe that because of your all-out 
support of Israel, including the attacks on the U.N. refugee camp, 
leaving 50 people killed, that you have lost your credentials as an 
even-handed, honest broker. What do you say to that?
    The President. Well, first of all I'd say, if you look at the fact 
that the United States has continued its aid to Egypt; if you look at 
what we have done to try to help Jordan to support its political, 
economic, and military objectives as it has made peace with Israel; if 
you look at the efforts that we have made as a government, working with 
other governments and working with our citizens to try to support Mr. 
Arafat and what he is doing and to try to ensure that the Palestinian 
Authority will be successful; if you look at the terms of the agreement 
that the Secretary of State brokered to restore the cease-fire and to 
make it enforceable along the border of Israel and Lebanon; if you look 
at all those things, it seems to me that we have quite good credentials 
to be fair and balanced and to pursue the interests of all the people in 
the region.
    But I would like to remind--it's easy for the people in the region 
to forget because the shelling shocked everyone and the fighting, and 
the Israelis made no secret of the fact that they were dismayed by the 
deaths in the refugee center and that they did not intend to do it. But 
I would remind you that----
    Q. [Inaudible]--think they didn't know where it was?
    The President. I would remind you--people make mistakes in war time. 
There are no such things as perfect weapons. Just because we're living 
in a high-technology age, if you think we can have sort of surgical 
battles in which there are never-ending unintended consequences, that 
just doesn't happen. It just doesn't happen.
    But I would remind you that the Israelis were shelled. And their 
citizens were subject to shelling on the day--starting the day I arrived 
in Israel after the Sharm al-Sheikh Conference, by people who didn't 
like the fact that we got together at Sharm al-Sheikh and who didn't 
want the peace to succeed. And so all--you know, what we always said is 
that the Israelis had a right to defend themselves. We also support the 
United Nations resolution. We look forward to the day when Lebanon will 
be free of all foreign soldiers, when its sovereignty will be intact, 
and when its people will live in peace.
    I just talked yesterday to the Prime Minister of Lebanon on the 
telephone assuring him that I would do what I could to support the 
reconstruction of Lebanon, as well as the fair implementation of this 
agreement.
    So I think if you--as we move away from the understandable passions 
that were inflamed by the violence along the border, is that as time 
passes and the agreement is implemented, the people in the Arab world 
will look at what we have done with the Palestinians, with the 
Jordanians, with the Egyptians, with the brokering of this agreement and 
what its terms are. And I think they will see

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that the United States has been fair and honest. We never made any 
secret of the fact that we did not ever intend to support anybody who 
wanted to attack and destroy Israel. We never have, and never will.

Balkan and Aegean Development and Security

    Q. Mr. President, as far as I know, your Government worked on some 
plans for economic development for security, stability, and peace in the 
Aegean Sea and Balkans. Would you like to say anything about that?
    The President. Is that a question for----
    Q. A question to you.
    The President. To me? [Laughter] I'm hard of hearing, and 
unfortunately I was trying to put these on and I didn't need them. So 
would you ask the question again?
    Q. Of course. As far as I know, your Government works on some plans 
for economic development for security, peace, and stability in the 
Aegean Sea and the Balkans. Would you like to explain to us what 
exactly----
    The President. Well, right now, obviously, in the Balkans our main 
focus is on trying to make sure that the Dayton Agreement and the Paris 
Peace Agreement in Bosnia takes hold and works. We have also--and we are 
working very hard on that. We have also had discussions with the 
President today about our hopes for the further progress and a final 
resolution of the difficulties between Greece and the former Yugoslav 
Republic of Macedonia. I am encouraged by what has been done. But I 
think that is a very important part of stability and growth in the area.
    And the President shared with me some of the things which are now 
being done between Greece and Albania. And we discussed, among other 
things, what could be done in terms of our partnership in spreading 
technology in the region in ways that would generate significant 
economic activity. So we discussed all these things. But most of our 
immediate money, right now, is going in to trying to make sure that we 
succeed in Bosnia and then we want to build out from there.
    President Stephanopoulos. I would like to answer that. Greece has 
many possibilities of its own to assist development and cooperation in 
the Balkans. And this is what we have been doing for a long time now. 
You very well know that Greek businessmen operate very effectively in 
our neighboring countries and there are many projects stemming from 
northern Greece, from which we expect a lot of results. I do also know 
that the American contribution will be very important and very useful. 
There are many possibilities for U.S. businessmen to cooperate with 
Greek businessmen. Greek businessmen know better than anyone else the 
local conditions. So U.S. and Greek businessmen should work together in 
order to enhance economic and industrial cooperation in the area.
    As far as the Aegean is concerned, local differences should be 
resolved first before envisaging further cooperation, without this 
meaning that we exclude cooperation at this point in time. We have 
established all forms of cooperation with all countries, and we aspire 
to this cooperation also with the Turkish side. I hope that the time 
will come when this trade and economic cooperation will be our sole 
concern.

McDougal-Tucker Trial

    Q. The testimony that you gave a few weeks ago for the McDougal-
Tucker case is going on in Little Rock right now and is expected to be 
played this afternoon. I wonder if you could tell us what you want 
Americans to understand from what you said in your testimony, what you 
want the jury to understand, and also, if you still object to the 
release of the videotape publicly?
    The President. Well, my testimony will speak for itself. It will be 
fairly straightforward. All I want the American people to understand is 
that I was asked to testify because they thought I might have some 
evidence that was helpful, and I was glad to testify. And then what I 
said will be a matter of public record when it's run. If it's run this 
afternoon, it will be.
    I believe the press should have access to my testimony. I just think 
that it ought to be treated like everybody else's testimony in Federal 
court, and it shouldn't be subject to abuse or misconstruction. I think 
it's a very straightforward--it was a very straightforward set of 
questions, at least most of it, and I gave the best, direct, 
straightforward answers I could. I don't think it's a very big

[[Page 828]]

deal, but I did my best to answer the questions that were asked of me.
    Thank you.

Aegean Peace Process

    Q. You were basically being asked to refute testimony--[inaudible]--
participate in a fraudulent deal--
    The President. I didn't say anything different in the trial that I 
haven't said in public on that.
    Q. Mr. President, are you planning a Camp David summit for Greece 
and Turkey over the Aegean issue?
    The President. I guess the short answer right now is no, but what I 
am planning to do is to stay in close touch with this issue. I am 
encouraged that the representatives of Greece and Turkey have already 
met once and intend to meet again in Berlin in the next few weeks and 
seem to be moving toward a resolution along the lines of the standards 
that the President and I have both endorsed today--along the lines of 
respect for international agreements, respect for territorial integrity, 
no force, no threat of force. We believe that is very important.
    If it becomes obvious at some point in the future that the United 
States could constructively play a larger role and that both parties are 
willing to have that done, I wouldn't rule that out. But I think the 
important thing is that the parties themselves have to resolve this 
difference, and they have to agree about the way it's going to be 
resolved. And I believe that the principles I just laid out had to be 
embraced by both sides in order for any success to occur.
    But I will say again--let me just say again--I believe if the 
differences in the Aegean and the differences over Cyprus could be 
resolved so that Greece and Turkey, that are allies in NATO, could 
become in a general sense better partners, the impact on the whole 
future of Europe, the whole future of the linchpin area of the Balkans, 
the connection of that area of Europe down to the Middle East--and 
therefore the impact on all of us--the positive impact would be 
breathtaking.
    So the rest of the world has a lot riding on whether Greeks and 
Turks can resolve their differences. So quite apart from the enormous 
interest that we have in the United States because of our large number 
of Greek-Americans, we know that the whole world has a lot riding on 
this. And so if there is anything we can do, we'll do it.
    But right now, the parties are trying to work it out for themselves, 
and I think they deserve a lot of support for that, and encouragement.
    Thank you.
    Yes, please, Mr. President.
    President Stephanopoulos. Allow me to add that you're advancing 
things with your question. Greece has clarified what we can accept in 
terms of dialog with Turkey. We have clarified that no dialog is 
possible right now, because it is condemned to failure. If Turkey 
doesn't accept to send the Imia question to the International Court of 
Justice at the Hague, then the second precondition is the resolution of 
the Continental Shelf question through the same way.
    So we do not deny dialog. But we want dialog, provided dialog is 
realistic and that it doesn't affect the sovereign rights of Greece and 
that it will be carried out according to international treaties and 
international law. So we should not talk about something which need not 
be realized now.
    The President. Thank you all very much. See you this evening.

Note: The President's 121st news conference began at 12:50 p.m. in Room 
450 of the Old Executive Office Building. President Stephanopoulos spoke 
in Greek, and his remarks were translated by an interpreter.