[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 33, Number 21 (Monday, May 26, 1997)]
[Pages 725-726]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks Prior to Discussions With President Leonid Kuchma of Ukraine and 
an Exchange With Reporters

May 16, 1997

    President Clinton. Let me say I'm delighted to have President Kuchma 
back at the White House. He and the Vice President have worked hard 
today. They've made a lot of progress on economic issues and on security 
issues, and I'm quite encouraged by the report I have received and quite 
hopeful about our future partnership with Ukraine and Ukraine's role in 
a united, democratic Europe.

NATO

    Q. President Kuchma, are you interested in having Ukraine join NATO 
as a formal member?
    President Kuchma. First of all, I understand the situation nowadays 
in Europe, and I'm well aware of the configuration of political forces. 
And I understand that Ukrainian application to NATO would not be timely, 
though Ukraine has proclaimed its aim to integrate with European and 
transatlantic structures.
    Q. President Clinton, President Yeltsin seems to have a pretty 
different interpretation of the charter, the NATO charter with Russia, 
than what was described here. Is that the way you read what he's been 
saying and his advisers have been saying?
    President Clinton. I think that the agreement is clear and will be 
clear from the details as they're published. And I also believe it's a 
good agreement for NATO and a good agreement for Russia. And let me 
further say I hope now that the Russian Duma will proceed to ratify 
START II because it's very much in Russia's interest as well as the 
United States and in the interest of world peace. It will enable us to 
go on to START III, which will reduce the nuclear arsenals 80 percent 
from their cold war high and relieve Russia of an enormous financial 
burden while maintaining its strategic interests.

[At this point, one group of reporters left the room, and another group 
entered.]

    President Clinton. I am delighted to have President Kuchma back in 
the White House. The United States values its partnership with Ukraine 
and believes that we cannot have a successful, undivided, democratic 
Europe without a successful, democratic, progressive Ukraine. And I 
appreciate the hard work that President Kuchma and Vice President Gore 
have done in their commission all day and the results they have 
achieved, which they will announce, I think, at a press conference.
    President Kuchma. It was a pleasure for me to hear the words by 
President Clinton, that European security is impossible without a 
prosperous Ukraine and an independent Ukraine. In fact, this was the 
thrust, the direction of the efforts of the Vice President and my 
efforts. And I should say that we spared no efforts.

Summit of the Eight

    Q. How do you think--will Ukraine take part in the discussion of the 
Chernobyl issue in the summit of G-7 in Denver in some form--maybe in a 
conference, in another form?
    Vice President Gore. It will be a subject of discussion among the 
eight.
    President Clinton. I don't know the answer to that, I'm sorry to 
say, but I know that it will be a subject of our discussions because all 
of the seven have made clear their commitment for years to helping 
Ukraine to come to grips with Chernobyl and the aftermath and making 
sure that consequences can be dealt with and also that the country has 
the supplies necessary and energy to grow and to prosper.

[[Page 726]]

NATO

    Q. Mr. President, aren't there reasons to fear that Ukraine might 
fear that a NATO-Russian agreement might divide Europe into spheres of 
influence?
    President Clinton. No, quite the contrary. The argument that I made 
to President Yeltsin when we met at Helsinki was that we had to create a 
united Europe and that we should not view the mission of NATO in the 
future as we viewed the mission of NATO in the past. We have to create a 
world in the 21st century where people do not define their greatness by 
their ability to dominate their neighbors but instead define their 
greatness by their ability to maximize the achievements of their own 
citizens and band together with others to defeat common problems, like 
terrorism and weapons proliferation.
    Your can see that in the partnership that NATO has had with both 
Ukraine and Russia in Bosnia. All people who want to be free and who 
want their neighbors to be free have an interest in banding together to 
fight problems like that.

Note: The President spoke at 4:34 p.m. in the Oval Office at the White 
House. 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.