[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 33, Number 21 (Monday, May 26, 1997)]
[Pages 732-733]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks Prior to Discussions With NATO Secretary General Javier Solana 
and an Exchange With Reporters

May 19, 1997

    The President. Let me say that the United States is very, very 
appreciative of the leadership that Secretary General Solana has shown 
in negotiating this NATO-Russia Founding Act. We are excited about the 
partnership. It is consistent with what we believe NATO should be doing. 
It is consistent with our plans to expand NATO. And I think the 
Secretary General has done a marvelous job, and I'm looking forward to 
having this chance to talk with him about our meeting, I guess a week 
from today, in Paris, to celebrate the NATO-Russia partnership and then, 
of course, the Madrid summit this summer.
    Secretary General Solana. Thank you very much, Mr. President, for 
your kind words. What you did is a prudent thing. [Laughter]
    The President. Go ahead.

NATO

    Q. Mr. President, not to put too much of a damper on your 
enthusiasm, but some people are quite critical of the--questioning this 
NATO expansion. They're saying it will create more tension and cost more 
money and give us less security in the long run. Can you give assurances 
that this is not the case?
    The President. Well, it's a question of what you believe. I believe 
that we have had a long cold war and two world wars in the 20th century 
and a 19th century full of heartache and bloodshed because people were 
arguing over territory in Europe. And we now have a chance to create a 
European Continent where nation-states, for the first time, say they're 
going to respect each other's borders and work together on common 
security problems, as we are all doing together in Bosnia. And it seems 
to me, to find a framework which accomplishes that and which also keeps 
the United States and, I might add, Canada tied to the security and the 
freedom and the territorial integrity of Europe, is an extraordinary 
achievement and gives us a chance to write a whole new chapter in the 
21st century different from the one we have just written.
    So I just simply disagree with those; it's a difference of opinion. 
I think that we're right and I believe history will prove us right and 
I'm prepared to take the decisions and live with the consequences.

Base Closings

    Q. Mr. President, do you feel, as the Secretary of Defense does, 
that more bases need to be closed, more military bases? That is a 
politically, of course, unpopular idea.
    The President. I believe that the Secretary of Defense has done a 
good job on this quadrennial review. And what he has shown is the 
following. If we're going to keep a defense budget that is modest and 
take care of the men and women in uniform and continue to modernize our 
weapons system so we will maintain the kind of technological superiority 
we enjoyed in the Gulf war--and hopefully, never even have to fight a 
Gulf war again in the near future--to do that within the dollars 
available, we're going to have to continue to reorganize the military. 
And he's going to present that to the Congress

[[Page 733]]

and we will debate it and discuss it but I think there are going to have 
to be some difficult decisions in the future. We can't balance the 
budget and continue to invest in the things that we need, whether it's 
new weapons systems or education, without continuing to restructure the 
underlying governmental support system.
    Let me remind you that, on the civilian side we've reduced the size 
of the Federal Government by 300,000 since 1993, and as a percentage of 
the civilian work force, it's now as small as it was in 1933 when 
President Roosevelt took office before the New Deal. So this is a 
restructuring that you see going on all over the world; it has to be 
done in America in the Government, and the Defense Department can't be 
fully exempt from it. They've managed it brilliantly, and I think 
they've done a good job. And it's not just the Secretary of Defense, 
it's also the Joint Chiefs. They've all worked on this. They believe 
it's in our national security interests, and I'm going to do my best to 
be supportive.

Most-Favored-Nation Trade Status for China

    Q. Mr. President, supporting MFN for China, how will you reconcile 
that support with the human rights record of China?
    The President. I think we're more likely, as I've said repeatedly, I 
think we're more likely to have a positive influence on China by 
engaging them than we are by trying to isolate them. I think it's a 
simple judgment.

Russia-NATO Agreement

    Q. Boris Yeltsin said today that he would reconsider his agreement 
with NATO if former republics like the Baltic States were to join NATO. 
Is it of concern to you?
    The President. I think--look, let's just take this--we're moving in 
the right direction. We've got an agreement that speaks for itself with 
Russia. And if we can continue to work with a democratic free Russia led 
by a man like Boris Yeltsin, I think you'll see a more peaceful world. 
And I think we'll harmonize these things as we go along. You can't 
resolve every issue at ever moment. We're moving in the right direction, 
and I'm quite comfortable that we're going to get there.

Note: The President spoke at 1:15 p.m. in the Oval Office at the White 
House. A tape was not available for verification of the content of these 
remarks.