    [Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 35, Number 17 (Monday, May 3, 1999)]
    [Pages 735-736]
    [Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

    <R04>
    Remarks at the Close of the NATO 50th Anniversary Summit

    April 25, 1999

        Hello. I am going to read a statement, and then I have to go,
    unfortunately, to another appointment. But Secretary Albright, Secretary
    Cohen, Mr. Berger, General Shelton are going to be available to answer
    questions.
        We came to this summit committed to chart a course for the NATO
    Alliance for the 21st century, one that embraces new members, new
    partners, and new missions. Here we committed NATO first to fulfill its
    mission of collective defense with the ability to meet new security
    threats; second, to remain open to new allies and to seek stronger
    partnership with nations all across Europe, central Asia, and obviously
    including Ukraine and Russia.
        We've also reaffirmed our determination repeatedly to intensify our
    actions, military and economic, until we achieve our objectives in
    Kosovo. On this, the Alliance leaves Washington more united even than it
    was when we came here.
        Meanwhile, we will stand by the neighboring countries that have
    accepted risks and hardship in support of this effort. If Mr. Milosevic
    threatens them for helping us, we will respond. And we will work to
    support democracy and development in the region, so that the forces
    pulling people together will be stronger than those pulling them apart,
    and all nations--including, someday, a democratic Serbia--can join the
    European mainstream.
        What NATO did here this weekend was to reaffirm our commitment to a
    common future, rooted in common humanity. Standing against ethnic
    cleansing is both a moral imperative and a practical necessity, as the
    leaders of the frontline states, who have so much at stake in the
    outcome, made so clear to us.
        Our vision of a Europe undivided, democratic, free, and at peace,
    depends upon our constructive commitment to the hundreds of thousands of
    poor refugees, so many men,

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    women, and children, with no place else to turn, who have been made
    pawns in a power struggle. It depends upon our ability and our
    collective commitment after this crisis has past to help all the people
    of southeastern Europe build a better future.
        In our last luncheon, just a few moments ago, when we had all the
    members of our Partnership Council there, someone made a joke. He said,
    ``Look around this room. We have several members of the last Politburo
    here that the Soviet Union had.'' And then they were counting up. And
    then others said, ``Well, we weren't on the Politburo, but we should
    have been.'' [Laughter] And they were laughing.
        But they made an important point. There has been this breathtaking
    explosion of freedom. But the old order has not yet been replaced by a
    new one that answers all the legitimate needs of people, not just for
    freedom but also for security and prosperity.
        We must be committed to building that kind of future for the people
    of central Europe, for the people of southeastern Europe, and for our
    other partners, going all the way to the central Asian states. We cannot
    expect for people to stop being drawn back to old ways of organizing
    themselves, even profoundly destructive ways resting on ethnic and
    religious divisions, unless there is a far more powerful magnate out
    there before them.
        And so we committed ourselves to building that kind of future for
    all of our allies in the 21st century. When all is said and done, I
    think people will look back on this summit, perhaps many years from now,
    and say, that was its lasting value. We looked to the future with a
    clear vision and made a commitment to build it.
        Thank you very much.

    Note: The President spoke at 4:25 p.m. in the amphitheater at the Ronald
    Reagan International Trade Center. In his remarks, he referred to
    President Slobodan Milosevic of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
    (Serbia and Montenegro).