[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 35, Number 25 (Monday, June 28, 1999)]
[Page 1164]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]
<R04>
Exchange With Reporters Following Discussions With Prime Minister Janez
Drnovsek of Slovenia in Ljubljana
June 21, 1999
Q. Mr. Prime Minister, I wonder if you could tell us what President
Clinton's visit means to your country, what you hope to get out of the
visit?
Prime Minister Drnovsek. [Inaudible]--to visit, the first time we
have the President of the United States in Slovenia, and I think it is
confirmation of excellent relations that we established during the last
year. And we cooperated in southeast situation; the Kosovo crisis was
another crisis.
So I think this is a confirmation for Slovenia, for our partnership,
because of our role in this part of the world.
President Boris Yeltsin of Russia
Q. Mr. President, yesterday you had a chance to sit down across the
table from Boris Yeltsin. We saw him get off at the airport--he looked
very frail, at times his speech sounded slurred. You sat across the
table, eyeball-to-eyeball, how would you assess Boris Yeltsin today?
President Clinton. Yesterday, I can say, his movements were halting,
but his mind was quite clear; he was very precise, very strong, and very
eager for us to resolve our past differences and go on into the future.
I actually was reassured by the meeting. I thought he was quite strong
and quite clear yesterday.
Note: The exchange began at 4:55 p.m. in the Presidential Palace. A tape
was not available for verification of the content of this exchange.