[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).