[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 35, Number 13 (Monday, April 5, 1999)]
[Pages 545-546]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Statement on the Conventional Armed Forces in Europe Treaty

March 31, 1999

    I am very pleased that yesterday negotiators from the 30 countries 
that are party to the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe 
(CFE) reached an agreement setting the stage for a final adapted treaty. 
All countries agreed to deeper limits on their conventional forces and 
stronger measures to ensure compliance. The decision preserves NATO's 
ability to fulfill its post-cold-war missions, to ensure its new members 
are full military partners, and to deepen its engagement with 
Partnership For Peace states. It also takes into account the interests 
of non-NATO states and helps fulfill the commitment President Yeltsin 
and I made last September to conclude a final adapted treaty by the OSCE 
summit this year.
    At a time when we are trying to end a pattern of escalating 
insecurity, brutality, and armed conflict in the Balkans, I am gratified 
that these 30 countries, comprising the vast majority of European 
nations, are moving in a different direction. Together, we are building 
a Europe in which armies prepare to stand beside their neighbors, not 
against them, and security depends on cooperation, not competition.

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