[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 33, Number 42 (Monday, October 20, 1997)]
[Pages 1557-1558]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Declaration of the Presidents of the United States of America and of the 
Republic of Venezuela

October 13, 1997

    Meeting in the city of Caracas, we, William Jefferson Clinton, 
President of the United States of America, and Rafael Caldera, President 
of the Republic of Venezuela, have had a fruitful dialogue about 
developments in our bilateral relations and the shared perspective and 
objectives of both countries in the hemisphere and in the world.
    We reaffirm that our reciprocal relations are inspired by the 
highest ideals of liberty and democracy, and we express our satisfaction 
for the existence of that form of government in almost all the countries 
that make up our hemisphere.
    This meeting has also permitted us to agree on the necessity of 
promoting at the international level respect for and guarantee of human 
rights, cooperation in the struggle against corruption and terrorism, 
and the non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. In short, we 
reaffirm the long history of shared friendship and cooperation be

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tween Venezuela and the United States of America and we express our 
willingness to expand and deepen the ties in all areas of common 
interest.
    We reaffirm the commitment to continue working toward the creation 
of a Free Trade Area of the Americas by the year 2005, and in this sense 
give our support to the comprehensive negotiations which to this end 
will begin during the 1998 Summit of Santiago, Chile, on all the 
subjects related to this theme listed in the Miami Declaration. We 
reaffirm the commitment made in the Declaration of Miami that concrete 
progress toward the attainment of this objective will be made by the end 
of this century.
    We recognize the importance of the expansion of commerce and 
bilateral investment to improve the standard of living of the people of 
our countries and for this reason reaffirm our political will to sign a 
high-standards Bilateral Investment Treaty which meets the interests of 
both parties and satisfactorily resolves those issues over which 
agreement has not yet been reached. We recognize the progress reached in 
the negotiations which we have conducted, and have instructed our 
representatives to aim to conclude this treaty as quickly as possible. 
Furthermore, we express our willingness to reinitiate talks on a basis 
that leads to the signing of a treaty to avoid double taxation.
    As an expression of our close bilateral association in the field of 
energy, we note with great satisfaction the signing of the Memorandum of 
Understanding on Energy Cooperation that extends ties in petroleum 
matters to new areas such as renewable energy, energy efficiency, 
development of natural gas, and integration of energy resources that 
will promote still more reciprocal investment in the energy sector.
    In view of the importance of the strengthening of the process of 
hemispheric cooperation and integration in the area of energy, we 
support the initiative of the Government of Venezuela to convene a 
hemispheric meeting of ministers of energy in January 1998 as an 
important step prior to the Hemispheric Summit of Santiago de Chile.
    Given the active cooperation of our two countries in the struggle 
against narcotics trafficking and related crimes, we welcome the signing 
of the ``Strategic Alliance Against Drugs'' as the expression that our 
governments continue to give the highest priority to combat this scourge 
together and without quarter. Thus we reaffirm the desire to initiate 
negotiations as soon as possible to sign a new comprehensive maritime 
cooperation agreement for the struggle against drugs. We note with 
approval that the United States of America continues to cooperate with 
Venezuela in counternarcotics activities through the provision of 
equipment, training teams and other useful measures.
    We salute the initiative adopted by both governments to sign a 
Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty as well as a Customs Cooperation 
Agreement that will facilitate our combating more effectively crimes of 
corruption, money laundering, and in the customs area.
    Finally, we confirm our political will to maintain and deepen the 
ties of friendship and reciprocal assistance that we have maintained at 
all times and express the conviction that our respective peoples will 
continue to benefit from those gifts conferred by our proximity and our 
common destiny.

For the United States of America

                                     William Jefferson Clinton

For the Republic of Venezuela

                                                Rafael Caldera

Note: An original was not available for verification of the content of 
this declaration.