[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 35, Number 44 (Monday, November 8, 1999)]
[Pages 2221-2224]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks Following Discussions With Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik 
of Norway and an Exchange With Reporters in Oslo

November 1, 1999

    Prime Minister Bondevik. Mr. President, dear journalists, it's a 
very special occasion for us in Norway. This is the very first visit 
from a sitting President of the United States to our country. So we are 
so glad to receive President Clinton here.
    We have had fruitful discussions, where we could continue our talks 
from the White House in Washington, only 2 weeks ago. And of course, we 
have discussed the Middle East peace process. We think that the 
ceremonial commemoration tomorrow for the late Prime Minister Rabin and 
the talks in that framework can stimulate the peace process. And we are 
both committed to assist the two parties. The main responsibility for a 
final solution is, of course, upon the two parties.
    Norway and the U.S. will seek ways to expand our common efforts in a 
number of areas for security, development, and for well-being. The 
President and I have today agreed on an initiative to follow up the 
Reykjavik Conference on Women and Democracy, where the First Lady, 
Hillary Clinton, participated. We are also agreed on a joint initiative 
on funding for support of disabled victims of the war in Sierra Leone.
    Mr. President, I believe that you want to say a few words before we 
answer one or two questions. Mr. President.
    President Clinton. Thank you. First, Prime Minister, let me say I am 
delighted to be here, honored by your invitation to come a few weeks 
ago, and then by the King's invitation to come to Norway. As you perhaps 
know, I traveled here alone as a young man some 30 years ago--it was 
actually 30 years ago this December--and I fell in love with this 
country. I'd long wanted to come back. I was amazed to discover that I 
am the first sitting President ever to visit Norway. I can't imagine 
what the others were thinking about--[laughter]--but I am delighted to 
be here.

[[Page 2222]]

    I also would like to thank you for the wonderful reception that my 
wife and my daughter received when they represented our Nation in 
Lillehammer at the Olympics, and for the support, Prime Minister, you 
have given to the women's conference and the women's issues that Hillary 
has tried to raise, most recently in Reykjavik with representatives of 
your country and the other countries in the region.
    We have been friends for a long time. We have been allies for 50 
years with NATO. Today the Prime Minister and I discussed building a 
Europe that is united, democratic, and free; and I am looking forward to 
seeing the Prime Minister again shortly in Turkey at the meeting of the 
OSCE. And I'm very grateful that Norway is now the leader of the OSCE, 
serving its term as chair.
    We did discuss the Sierra Leone, and I would just like to say again, 
I am profoundly grateful that Norway has agreed to work with the United 
States to provide prosthetics, to provide artificial limbs to as many 
people as we possibly can, many of them children, whose limbs were 
deliberately amputated in the cruel civil war in Sierra Leone.
    I also want to thank you, Prime Minister, for Norway's support for 
our common efforts to end the ethnic cleansing in Kosovo. And I want to 
say a special word of thanks to the Norwegian people, because I believe 
that when the 800,000-plus Kosovar Albanians were driven from their 
home, on a per capita basis, Norway took in more of the refugees from 
Kosovo than any other country in the world. And that is something that 
you can be very proud of and something for which your friends must be 
very grateful. So I want to thank you for that.
    And finally, let me thank you for your continuing interest in the 
Middle East peace process and for having this wonderful occasion to 
honor the memory of my friend and partner, former Prime Minister Rabin. 
I think it will be very successful, indeed. Your country has a lot to be 
proud of. You have enormous influence for your size, and it is very much 
earned and deserved. Thank you.

Middle East Peace Process

    Q. Mr. President, do you believe that the Middle East talks here in 
Oslo can move the peace process substantially forward?
    President Clinton. Yes, I do. I don't think you should expect some 
sort of major announced breakthrough here, because, keep in mind, the 
parties have had--since, in the last couple of years, they had the Wye 
peace agreement under Prime Minister Netanyahu and Chairman Arafat. Then 
when Prime Minister Barak came in, they modified the Wye peace agreement 
and agreed to an even faster schedule of implementation.
    Since then, Israel has released controversial political prisoners, 
agreed to establish safe passage between--and started it, actually, 
started the safe passage between the West Bank and Gaza, and agreed to 
open a port, which was a source of great tension between them before. 
Now they have to move into the final status talks, as conceived almost 7 
years ago now here in Oslo, with the Oslo accords. So the important 
thing now is that the two leaders know that they have set themselves an 
ambitious timetable and that they agreed about how they're going to meet 
the timetable. This is the hard part--I mean the really hard part. And 
we all need to support them.
    But do I believe that we can come out of this meeting and this 
solemn occasion with a renewed commitment to the peace process? Yes, I 
do.

EgyptAir Flight 990 Aircraft Tragedy

    Q. Mr. President, they're still combing the wreckage of EgyptAir 
Flight 990. Do you know any more about the cause of the tragedy, whether 
it was a mechanical malfunction or has terrorism been ruled out? And 
have there been any threats recently against any carriers flying out of 
the United States?
    President Clinton. We know nothing more than I said to you earlier 
today--it seems like half a lifetime ago--when I came out of church with 
Hillary. We are still searching. We have to find--as you know, to make a 
final determination about the cause of the crash will require the 
recovery of as much of the airplane as possible, as well

[[Page 2223]]

as the equipment, which will give us some--if the usual case is present 
here, give us a pretty definitive idea of what happened.
    But that has not been done yet, and therefore, I will say again, 
nothing has been ruled in, nothing has been ruled out. And I hope no one 
will draw any conclusions one way or the other until we finish the work.

President's Legacy

    Q. Mr. President, how do you hope that people will remember you as 
the President of the United States? And is the peace process in the 
Middle East important in that regard? Would you like to be remembered as 
the President that created peace in the Middle East?
    President Clinton. Well, first of all, that's a question I'd feel 
more comfortable answering if I weren't President anymore, because I 
hope I'm still piling up memories for them. But I can tell you what I 
tried to do.
    What I tried to do is, first of all, take a country which I've found 
in economic distress and social division and turn it around toward 
greater prosperity and greater harmony, and convince people that, 
working together, we could solve our social problems. And then, I hope I 
will be remembered as someone who got our country to assume its 
responsibilities in the post-cold-war world, to make America a major 
force for peace and freedom, and against terrorism and racial and ethnic 
and religious hatreds. That is what I have worked to do and what I 
intend to continue working to do every day I have left to serve.

Threats to U.S. Air Carriers/Middle East Peace Process

    Q. Mr. President, two things. Could you address Mr. Katz' question 
about whether there had been any threats to U.S.--to carriers, airline 
carriers flying out of the United States? And also, do you see any merit 
to the idea that's been floated about having a Camp David-style 
negotiation in January to help Israel and the Palestinians meet the 
rigorous deadlines that they've set for themselves on the toughest 
issues in the talks?
    President Clinton. First, Terry [Terence Hunt, Associated Press], on 
the first question you ask--and I didn't mean to evade it--if there have 
been any such threats, I do not know about them. That is, I am not aware 
of any specific threats against American airlines or airplanes flying 
out of American airports with large numbers of American passengers. If 
there have been any such, I don't know about them.
    Now, it is possible that there could have been some that I don't 
know about, so I don't want to--I can't tell you the things I don't know 
about didn't happen. But I can tell you that I'm not aware of any, and 
as you know, I work on my intelligence information every day.
    As to the possibility of a Camp David-style meeting, I think it is 
premature to discuss that at this time. What we need now is an 
understanding of the parameters of where we're going and how we're going 
to get there. I wouldn't rule out anything, but there is, as you know, 
going all the way back to '93, there is nothing I would not do if I 
thought it would genuinely help to build a lasting peace in the Middle 
East. There is nothing I would not do. So--and I'm prepared to reaffirm 
that to Prime Minister Barak and to Chairman Arafat.
    But one of the things we have also learned here is that, in the end, 
the hard decisions have to be made by the parties. The United States can 
help with financial support, with military support, with moral backup. 
The rest of the world can help in many ways. But we have to get a 
framework of going forward that is consistent with the timetable they, 
themselves, have adopted, because I don't think we want to slip the 
timetable. Even though these decisions are very hard, they've been 
looming out there for several years now, and they're not going to get 
any easier, in my judgment, by letting them linger. So I will do what I 
can to get this thing going.
    Prime Minister Bondevik. Last question.
    Q. Yes, Mr. President, what do you regard as a real progress in the 
discussions with you and the Palestinians and the Israelis concerning 
the discussions about peace in Palestine and Israel?
    President Clinton. The real problems?
    Q. The real progress. What will you regard as the real progress?
    President Clinton. Oh, I'm sorry. Well, I would feel that real 
progress has been made

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if they made agreements about the modalities under which they will 
proceed--the procedures, the process, how it's going to operate--so that 
we can move into and then through these decisions in a timely fashion.
    There's no way in the world they can come here and agree in talks 
with me on the big issues. You know what all the big issues are. That's 
why they're final status issues. But if we can get everybody sort of 
focused on what it would take to get there within the time allotted, the 
time they have allotted themselves, then I think that that would be a 
very good thing, indeed.
    Keep in mind, you have here leaders who have demonstrated their 
commitment to peace and demonstrated their willingness to take risks. 
And you also have leaders who have been supported by their people for 
taking those risks. So I don't think this is a time for handwringing. 
But when you have a lot of implementation, like you did recently with 
the Wye modified agreement, and then you have the prisoners release, you 
have the port decision going forward, you have the safe passage open, 
you have some settlements closed and not all settlements closed--what it 
does is, it whets everyone's appetite, on the one hand, for more to be 
done; and it also builds in a little bit of a resistance to more being 
done. It's like, ``I'm tired; I did this last week,'' you know? And what 
we've got to do is to create a renewed energy to make the process 
continuous, until you work all the way through to the end.
    Prime Minister Bondevik. I'm sorry, I just have to end up by saving 
that I know that you have been informed that I could be to your disposal 
after the President has left this building. Unfortunately, because we 
are on overtime for the luncheon at the Royal Castle, I also have to 
leave now. But I can be to your disposal at the Grand Hotel at 2:15, 
approximately, and tell you even more about our discussions.
    We have, of course, also discussed the situation in Chechnya, our 
relations to Russia. We have found that we have very much in common 
regarding the priorities in foreign policy, combating poverty, promoting 
human rights, preventing conflicts. And I feel that our meeting has 
served to strengthen the already close ties between our two nations.
    Thank you so much.

Note: The remarks began at 12 p.m. in the Prime Minister's Office. In 
his remarks, the President referred to King Harald V of Norway; former 
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and current Prime Minister Ehud Barak 
of Israel; and Chairman Yasser Arafat of the Palestinian Authority. A 
portion of these remarks could not be verified because the tape was 
incomplete..