[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 35, Number 24 (Monday, June 21, 1999)]
[Pages 1122-1127]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
The President's News Conference With President Jacques Chirac of France 
in Paris

June 17, 1999

    President Chirac. We wanted to have the Sun shine for President 
Clinton's visit, and I would like to welcome him most warmly for the 
meeting this year, in the framework of frequent contact and very 
pleasant contacts--always very pleasant contacts--whether it's over the 
phone or whether it's a friendly meeting such as today's. And I'm very 
pleased that President and Mrs. Clinton were able to take some time to 
come through Paris on the occasion of the President's trip to Cologne 
for the G-7/G-8.
    Yesterday evening we had a very pleasant dinner. I can't say that we 
worked a great deal yesterday evening, to tell you the truth. But 
however, we did spend time which personally I very much enjoyed. So a 
bit yesterday evening and much more this morning, we, first of all, drew 
the lessons from the crisis in Kosovo, and we noted that our victory in 
Kosovo will be a complete victory only once refugees have been able to 
come back to their homes and when all the communities living in Kosovo 
are able to live in safety, namely, thanks to the vigilance of the 
military security force which is at present deploying in the region.
    We also discussed a number of other problems: the European defense 
system, in particular, concerning recent events which have occurred in 
the Balkans, but also following positions taken at the Washington 
summit; the relaunching of the peace process in the Middle East, such as 
we very much hope for following the forthcoming appointment of the 
Government of Israel, and the role which Europe and France might play 
and the help we might contribute to those efforts made to ensure an 
effective launching of the peace process.
    We also considered various problems on the agenda of our Cologne 
meeting, summit; the very important initiatives that we're taking on the 
eve of the next century concerning the debt owed by poor countries; the 
reinforcement and adjustment of the international financial system; the 
social dimension, which you know I'm very deeply attached to, of 
globalization and the consequence to be drawn from this.
    And I also suggested to President Clinton that the G-8 summit 
consider the possibility of taking initiative in an area which is of 
great concern, namely to Europeans at present, and which is that of food 
security, safety of foodstuffs. Our people are increasingly concerned, 
worried, and I would like to suggest that the setting up of a global 
higher scientific council for food safety. I shan't go into the details, 
but I have proposed this to the heads of state government of the G-8, 
and I shall have an opportunity to develop this point in Cologne. But my 
wish is to have this considered by heads of state and government of the 
G-8, and we see whether it might be possible to find a solution able to 
better guarantee the health of Europeans--of all of the inhabitants of 
the world, of course.
    And before giving the floor to President Clinton, I should like to 
say in concluding how very much I welcome the very good quality of 
Franco-American relations. Everybody knows, and it's obvious, 
occasionally we have differences of views. But we know how to deal with 
them, and have done so for some time and to resolve these differences in 
a spirit of friendship between partners who respect each other. And it 
is probably a fact

[[Page 1123]]

which is based on a very long, very long, century-old friendship between 
our two peoples and our two countries.
    Bill, you have the floor.
    President Clinton. Thank you very much, Mr. President. I will be 
brief. President Chirac has given you a good summary of the things that 
we discussed today.
    I would like to thank him again, publicly, for the wonderful dinner 
that he and Mrs. Chirac gave to Hillary and to me last night. We had a 
terrific time. We did not discuss a lot of business. We mostly discussed 
archaeology, and endangered species around the world. But we had a 
wonderful dinner.
    Let me say a few words about Kosovo. As of today, 26,000 Serb 
soldiers have left Kosovo, 15,000 of our KFOR forces have arrived. The 
refugees are coming home, indeed, in many cases, faster than we think 
safe, because of the landmines, which we are working hard to remove. But 
they want to go home.
    It has been very moving to me to see the troops of all of our 
nations cheered by the people there; also moving to see our soldiers 
uncovering evidence of what we stood against, evidence of mass graves, 
evidence in the form of the piles of documents stripped from the 
refugees to erase their identities.
    I'd like to pay particular tribute to President Chirac for his 
leadership and his firmness in this crisis. This was the longest 
operation in which NATO had engaged in 50 years. We had 19 countries 
representing hundreds of millions of people with all manner of different 
domestic situations. But we stayed together, and we will stay together, 
and we will continue our mission there until we succeed.
    But the French President was especially adamant that, having begun, 
we had to stay until we won, and we had to do it in the right way and to 
do whatever it took to do that. And I am very grateful to him for the 
relationship that we have enjoyed personally and for the relationship 
that our countries have enjoyed and the solidarity we've had within 
NATO.
    Now we have to finish the job. We have to help the Kosovars to 
restore their homes and the basic conditions of living, the institutions 
of civil society necessary for them to exercise autonomy. We also have 
to help the region. We have made a commitment at the NATO Summit, which 
I know will be reaffirmed at the G-7 and G-8 meeting, and which the EU 
has already articulated, to try to build a different future, a more 
prosperous, more democratic future for the entire region. And we are all 
committed to doing that.
    If we don't want the Balkans and southeastern Europe to be torn 
apart in the future by ancient religious and ethnic hatreds, we have to 
give them a better tomorrow to work for. And we are strongly committed 
to that.
    Now, we also discussed any number of other subjects, but I think it 
would be better for me to open the floor to questions. I would close by 
saying I was particularly moved by the discussion we had about the 
Middle East peace process. Hopes are high now, but we all know that we 
have to give the Prime Minister-elect the opportunity to put his 
government together and get off to a good start. But the reports we have 
about a broad-based coalition are quite encouraging, and I think it's 
fair to say that France and all of Europe, the United States, hope that 
we can play a constructive role in what we hope will be a productive 
next step in that.

NATO-Russia Negotiations on Kosovo

    Q. President Clinton, what is the latest from the Russians? There is 
a report----
    President Clinton. Go ahead, Sam [Sam Donaldson, ABC News].
    Q. President Clinton, what's the latest on the Russians, sir? 
There's a report that they may have agreed on the command structure 
acceptable to NATO but are still insisting on something like a zone. 
What can you tell us?
    President Clinton. Well, I can tell you that just before I came over 
here for my meeting with President Chirac, I got an update. You know 
that Secretary Cohen has been meeting with the Russian Defense Minister, 
Sergeyev. You know that Secretary Albright left here and flew to 
Helsinki to meet with Foreign Minister Ivanov. And the atmosphere is 
pretty positive and pretty hopeful. President Chirac and I talked about 
it for a long time.
    We want the Russians to be involved in this mission in a 
comprehensive way. We

[[Page 1124]]

think it is important. But we also think it is important that we 
maintain clear unity of command, under KFOR, according to the U.N. 
resolution. And they're working through that, and I hope and believe 
they will reach a successful conclusion.
    I don't have any specific details for you because they're in the 
middle of trying to work this out. But I know that--I'm aware that there 
are two or three options they're working on, all of which would be 
acceptable to us and to our partners, including the French. So we're 
working on it.

Reconstruction of the Balkans

    Q. In the reconstruction of Yugoslavia do you take into 
consideration the only full member state of the NATO having a direct 
border with Yugoslavia, Hungary, that applied many times for being the 
center and headquarters of the reconstruction?

[At this point, another question was asked in French, and no translation 
was provided.]

    President Chirac. The certainty of France is that it is necessary to 
organize as soon as possible in the region a system which is democratic. 
It is by enabling democracy to put down roots that it shall be possible 
to create the conditions for tolerance. And it is tolerance that will 
allow communities that have clashed for a long time to live together at 
peace. It will take time.
    Naturally, there is an objective. The objective is the possibility, 
calling for these countries to become members of the European Union and 
their interest to do so. And therefore, the prospect for France is to do 
our utmost to help the region to overcome the difficulties that presents 
but also to do our utmost to convince them that their future is the 
European Union, and this entails peace at home. And this peace can only 
be found thanks to development and to the enrooting of democracy.
    President Clinton. You asked me a question about whether Hungary 
might be the center of the reconstruction efforts. Actually, I have--as 
you know, the Hungarian President was just in Washington for a state 
visit, and it was a wonderful success. And then I called your Prime 
Minister to thank him for his solidarity with NATO during this very 
difficult period for Hungary.
    Both of them expressed a willingness for Hungary to play a role in 
the reconstruction of Kosovo and the entire Balkans region. Both 
expressed some interest in being the center of the reconstruction 
effort. That decision is a decision which would have to be made by all 
of our allies, and not just by the United States, especially given the 
leading role the European Union has played in making commitments to the 
long-term redevelopment of the area.
    But I think that because of Hungary's ties to Serbia, because of the 
large number of Hungarians in northwest Serbia and Vojvodina, I think it 
is very important that the Hungarians be very much involved in this.
    Terry [Terence Hunt, Associated Press].

War Crimes Trials/Reconstruction of Yugoslavia

    Q. Mr. President, now that the conflict is over, do you and 
President Chirac think that a full-court press should be made to bring 
Slobodan Milosevic to trial to answer for the war crimes indictment? And 
President Chirac, do you agree with President Clinton that there should 
be no reconstruction aid for Belgrade as long as Mr. Milosevic is in 
power?
    President Chirac. Great democracies, in particular, and the 
international community, in general, have, as a rule, to give 
development aid to a country only if the country meets the democratic 
criteria which are usually retained. And there are still some countries, 
unfortunately, which are subject to embargoes, do not receive aid, 
precisely because they are not democratic regimes. And this is the 
reason why. Personally, I absolutely share the feelings of President 
Clinton; that is, that there can be no economic development aid to a 
regime which is not democratic and whose present leader, furthermore, 
has been indicted with crimes against humanity by the International War 
Crimes court.
    Development aid is one thing; humanitarian aid is a different thing. 
What we wish to sanction is a regime that does not apply

[[Page 1125]]

democratic rules, obviously; it is not unfortunate Serbs who are also 
victims. Hence, humanitarian aid, yes; development aid, economic aid, 
no--so long as democratic criteria are not met.
    President Clinton. Let me say, first of all, I--as you know, I agree 
exactly with what President Chirac has said, also on the humanitarian 
issue. I think there's some humanitarian support we should make 
available to all the people of the region, including the Serbs in 
Serbia. But on redevelopment, I believe what he just said; we're all 
together on that.
    Even though I strongly support the decision of the War Crimes 
Tribunal--or the prosecutor, Mrs. Arbour, too, to make the charges she 
did, I think it's important that we not in any way mislead people about 
what happens next. Our heaviest responsibility, the NATO Allies, is to 
get the Kosovars back home in safety and then to give them self-
government, autonomy, and rebuilding assistance, and then work on the 
region.
    Under the rules that we have followed, any of us, if we had 
jurisdiction over Mr. Milosevic, would turn him over, or anyone else who 
had been charged, just as we do in Bosnia. If he remains in Serbian--
inside the confines of Serbia, presumably he's beyond the reach of the 
extradition powers of the other governments.
    But sometimes these things take a good while to bear fruit. I think 
we'll just have to wait and see how that develops. But I think, given 
the evidence that was presented by Mrs. Arbour and what we know to be 
the evidence, I think she made the right decision. I think it's a very 
important thing. But I do not believe that the NATO Allies can invade 
Belgrade to try to deliver the indictment, if you will.
    And I don't think we should be--that does not mean that this is not 
an important thing, or that there won't someday be a trial, but we need 
to focus on our obligations, our fundamental humanitarian obligations to 
get the Kosovars home and to continue to uncover whatever evidence of 
war crimes there is in Kosovo as well.

Middle East Peace Process

    Q. Mr. President, what are the steps that your administration 
intends to undertake to revive the Middle East peace process, and to 
what extent are you determined to achieve a major breakthrough before 
the end of your second term?
    President Clinton. Well, as you know, I have spent an enormous 
amount of time on this, for 6\1/2\ years now. The major step I took to 
revive the peace process was 9\1/2\ days at Wye Plantation last year in 
the Wye peace talks. I don't believe that I will have to take any steps 
to revive the peace process. I believe when the new government takes 
office, if what we see in the press reports is right about the 
composition of this broad-based coalition government, I believe that 
there will be a vigorous pursuit of all channels of the peace process.
    And the United States will do what it can, as I have for 6\1/2\ 
years, and as we have done as a nation before, to support the parties 
that are seeking peace and to provide whatever security and other--
economic and other incentives we can to bring it to a successful 
conclusion. But I expect there to be a revival of the peace process 
generated by the parties themselves. And then I expect to support it 
very strongly, and I would expect that President Chirac and the European 
Union will do the same.
    President Chirac. Allow me to add that Europe today unanimously--and 
Europe has shown this once again in Berlin--and France naturally, given 
the traditional ties France has with all countries of the region, are 
absolutely determined in this new context to give maximum support to the 
efforts made by the parties concerned and, obviously by the United 
States.

Serbian Withdrawal From Kosovo

    Q. Mr. President, do you expect the Serbs to get the other 14,000 
troops out by the Sunday deadline? And are you surprised that President 
Milosevic has kept his word so far?
    President Clinton. The short answer I guess is, yes and no. Yes, I 
do expect them to meet the deadline, unless there is some practical 
reason they can't. And it's interesting, when the Serb military made the

[[Page 1126]]

agreement, we even got word from some of the Kosovars that they expected 
the agreement to be kept. They thought that if the Serbian military 
forces actually gave their word, they would keep it. And I thought that 
was a hopeful reaction in terms of our ability to see some work together 
in the future.
    Now, as you know, General Jackson has already--our Commander in 
Kosovo--has already given permission at one phase of this withdrawal for 
a day's delay. So if General Jackson were to be asked and were to accede 
to some reasonable change because there were some fact that I'm unaware 
of, I wouldn't necessarily oppose that. I've got great confidence in 
him. But they are keeping to schedule.
    And am I surprised that Mr. Milosevic is doing that? No, I'm not, 
not really, because--not only because of the impact of our military 
campaign but because we have forces going in on the ground.
    Of the previous understandings that I have had over the last several 
years with Mr. Milosevic, the ones we had at Dayton, coming out of 
Bosnia have pretty much been honored. But the facts were the same; we 
had forces on the ground. And I believe that that has a way of 
reinforcing people's commitments, when we have our forces there.

Iraq

    Q. Mr. President, is there still a strong disagreement with the 
United States as to how to get out of the crisis with Iraq--accept the 
principle of the French proposals on Iraq concerning the 100-day 
suspension of embargo on Iraq?
    President Clinton. Well, as you know, there is some difference here. 
I think largely it's a difference over what is likely to be more 
effective. The United States supports the efforts of the British and the 
Dutch and the Security Council because we believe that without the 
strongest possible inspection mechanism, Saddam Hussein will attempt to 
rebuild weapons of mass destruction stocks, particularly in the chemical 
and biological areas and perhaps missile technology, as well.
    President Chirac can speak for himself, but he believes that if the 
French-Dutch resolution were--I mean, the British-Dutch resolution were 
to pass, that it would simply be not accepted by Saddam Hussein, and so 
we would still be at an impasse. So there is a difference of opinion 
there. We agreed that we would discuss it further at the G-8, and we 
would try to come to a conclusion on it.
    This is not an easy issue, and I respect the efforts that the French 
are making, that the President is making. I can tell you generally what 
my concern is. It is not so much Saddam Hussein himself as my belief 
that 10 years from now the person who is standing here as President and 
the person who is standing there as the President of France will be--and 
all of you, those of you who will be here asking questions--one of the 
things that you will be really worried about is the spread of biological 
and chemical weapons, probably high-tech, small-scale weapons, into the 
hands of international terrorist groups and organized crime groups that 
have loose relationships with irresponsible countries that give them 
these things. And I think it will be a substantial problem for the first 
couple of decades of the next century. And I just think we ought to do 
everything we possibly can to minimize that problem.
    But I think I have fairly stated the practical difference between 
our two positions, and I think the President should speak for himself.
    President Chirac. Well, obviously, I have the same concerns as 
President Clinton. But I think that the most important is, today, to 
once again reestablish inspections on Iraq's weapons, international 
verification. And to do so, what we need, at the very least, is to 
reexamine the conditions of the embargo--what is necessary, in any case, 
it seems to me, for reasons that have to do with the very serious 
degradation of living conditions of the Iraqi people, who are the 
victims of the situation. So we shall discuss a way of synthesizing, 
bring together these concerns.
    But let us not challenge the solidarity and the unity of the 
Security Council. If we are not convinced that we're going to reach a 
result and the present state of affairs, as President Clinton was saying 
a moment ago, that in any case Iraq will refuse the resolution which is, 
at present, being drafted, and therefore, it would be a somewhat 
pointless gesture which would not lead to any concrete results but might 
strain the solidarity of the Security Council. And you know how very

[[Page 1127]]

deeply France is attached to the U.N., in general, and the Security 
Council, in particular. Thank you very much.
    President Clinton. Thank you.
    Q. Mr. President, do you believe the Russians lied to you, sir?
    Q. [Inaudible].
    President Clinton. We're going to be out there some more tomorrow.

Gun Control Legislation

    Q. [Inaudible]--NRA may win with the--[inaudible]----
    President Clinton. I know. I got up at 5 a.m. and started making 
calls this morning. I'm doing my best.
    Q. What's your view?
    President Clinton. I don't know yet. I'm not close enough to have a 
good count.

Al Gore's Announcement of Candidacy

    Q. How do you think Al Gore did yesterday?
    President Clinton. Wonderful. I thought he was terrific.

Note: The President's 175th news conference began at 11:24 a.m. in the 
Garden at Elysee Palace. President Chirac spoke in French, and his 
remarks were translated by an interpreter. In his remarks, President 
Clinton referred to Bernadette Chirac, wife of President Chirac; Prime 
Minister-elect Ehud Barak of Israel; Defense Minister Igor Sergeyev and 
Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov of Russia; President Arpad Goncz and Prime 
Minister Viktor Orban of Hungary; President Slobodan Milosevic of the 
Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro); Louise
Arbour, independent chief prosecutor, International War Crimes Tribunal; 
Lt. Gen. Mike Jackson, British Royal Army, Commander, Kosovo 
International Security Force; and President Saddam Hussein of Iraq. A 
tape was not available for verification of the content of this news 
conference.