[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 35, Number 11 (Monday, March 22, 1999)]
[Pages 432-433]
[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

March 15, 1999

    President Clinton. Let me just say that I'm delighted to have 
Secretary General Solana here. I think he has done a superb job in 
leading NATO. We are very much looking forward, in just a little over a 
month, to celebrating the 50th anniversary of NATO by admitting new 
members. The documents were issued over the weekend. The Secretary of 
State went to Missouri with the representatives of Poland, Hungary, and 
the Czech Republic, and we're very pleased. I'm looking forward to the 
meeting and looking forward to NATO's missions in the 21st century.
    Let me say I'm also very, very pleased by the news we received this 
morning that the Kosovar Albanians have agreed to sign the peace 
agreement. And I want to thank Mr. Solana and Secretary Albright and all 
the others who have worked on this so hard. And again, I would encourage 
Mr. Milosevic to agree to the terms, as well, so that we can avoid 
further conflict and bloodshed.

Kosovo

    Q. Do you think they will--the Serbs will go along with it?
    President Clinton. I don't know. I hope they will. And I think it is 
clearly the right thing to do. From his point of view, I think it's the 
best chance to preserve the integrity of Serbia and avoid economic and 
other adversity. So I would hope that he would do that.
    Q. Mr. President, is it a certainty that NATO will strike if he 
doesn't sign? Is that for sure?
    Q. Well, do you have anything to talk him into it?
    President Clinton. One at a time. Wait. Wait.
    Q. Is it a certainty that NATO will strike the Serbs if Milosevic 
does not sign?
    President Clinton. Well, all I can tell you is I think we have a 
clear statement out there about what our policy is. And if he shows 
intransigence and aggression, I think from our point of view we would 
have little option. You might want to ask Mr. Solana what he thinks 
about that.
    Q. Do you agree with that, Mr. Secretary General?
    Secretary General Solana. I agree. Yes, yes. As just said, the 
President--I do agree, yes.
    Q. Mr. President, how long are you prepared to let these talks in 
France go on?
    President Clinton. Well, I think they ought to be able to talk this 
through a little bit. I don't know that anyone was absolutely sure the 
Kosovar Albanians would sign this morning. And peace is better than war. 
But obviously, they can't go on indefinitely. We need to give everybody 
time to assess the current situation and where they're going to go from 
here.
    But again, I think the most important thing now is that Mr. 
Milosevic and the Serbs agree to sign. And it's clearly the right thing 
to do.
    Q. Mr. President, in the past, NATO has only been willing to act in 
the wake of extreme atrocities. Why is it credible to threaten the use 
of military force in this situation if that doesn't take place?
    President Clinton. What would your answer be?

[[Page 433]]

    Secretary General Solana. My answer is that if an agreement is not 
reached--if President Milosevic doesn't sign, the risk of a catastrophe 
will be very likely. And we have to prevent that from happening. And 
NATO will prevent that from happening.
    President Clinton. Let me say, in sort of support of the other NATO 
allies as well, the reason we--you're absolutely right, there's not a 
lot of precedent for what we're trying to do here. But the reason that 
we worked so hard--that Secretary Albright, Secretary Cohen, the rest of 
us--the reason we worked so hard to get NATO to take this position is to 
avoid the level of atrocity and death that we saw in Bosnia. We didn't 
want to go down that road again. We wanted to try to dramatically 
shorten the timetable from aggression and the loss of innocent life and 
upheaval to action.
    And so far I would say that it seems to have been a successful 
policy, in the sense that we at least have one side now signing on to 
this peace agreement. We just have to stay with it. We have to be firm 
about this.
    Press Secretary Joe Lockhart. Thank you, pool.
    Q. Thank you.
    President Clinton. Thank you.
    Q. Going to hold a news conference soon, right?
    President Clinton. Good morning. That's what--I think so. I just 
miss you so terribly and not having any questions.

Note: The President spoke at 10:08 a.m. in the Oval Office at the White 
House. In his remarks, he referred to President Slobodan Milosevic of 
the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro). A tape was 
not available for verification of the content of this exchange.