Promoting security and stability in Europe - address at a White House news conference on January 7, 1994 - Transcript

Good morning. As almost everybody in America knows by now, the President will be leaving Saturday night for Brussels directly from Arkansas. This will be the first stop in his first official visit to Europe as President, and it will be the first of three visits he's making to Europe over the next six or seven months.

This series of trips to Europe underscores the fundamental importance that the United States attaches to its relationships with Europe. And what I'm going to do is to try to give you a quick walk-through toward the trip that he is taking to Europe.

In his speech in Brussels on Sunday and his speeches at NATO and the European Union on Monday and Tuesday, the President will articulate his vision for transatlantic security and prosperity. He will reaffirm the commitment of the United States to the transatlantic Alliance, indicating that we're determined to remain engaged in Europe, keeping our unbreakable bonds in good order and in good form.

Last year, I repeatedly emphasized that successfully concluding the GATT negotiations was as important to transatlantic security as renewing NATO. And as you all know, last month the United States and Europe completed the largest trade agreement in history. Next week we'll come together to take steps to renew this important Alliance, the most important successful alliance in history.

NATO now faces a very momentous choice: Will it embrace innovation or will it risk irrelevance, which--if that happens--I think would be very adverse to security and have dangerous consequences for all of Europe. That's why President Clinton is bringing to Brussels a proposal to help the Alliance adapt to this new post-Cold War era, and especially to adapt to the dramatic changes that are taking place all through Eastern Europe.

The agenda that he'll be bringing to Brussels has several key elements on which we hope to secure agreement from the Allies during the course of the week.

First, we'll be seeking to create a Combined Joint Task Force--so-called CJTF--a concept which will allow flexible military structures for potential new missions outside of NATO territory as well as within NATO territory.

A second closely related initiative will be to take steps in the development of the European Security and Defense Initiative the so-called EDSI--that will reflect both NATO's flexibility and Europe's integration.

A third summit initiative will be to strengthen NATO's role in combatting proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. Secretary Aspin, as would be appropriate, will be discussing these three defense-related initiatives after I conclude here.

The final and most important element, indeed the centerpiece of the NATO summit, is the plan to turn former adversaries into partners. This is the purpose of President Clinton's Partnership for Peace proposal. It will deepen NATO's engagement in the East and draw the new democracies toward the West. Through this Partnership for Peace, the forces of non-NATO states will be developing practical working relationships with NATO as they plan, train, and exercise their armed forces together. The Partnership will help adapt NATO's capabilities in several areas--areas such as crisis management, humanitarian relief, and possible peace-keeping. At the same time, I want to emphasize that this new Partnership for Peace will in no way erode NATO's core capabilities or undermine, in any respect, its responsibilities for the collective security of the NATO countries.

I want to emphasize that the Partnership for Peace, important in itself, should also be seen as a logical corollary to a summit declaration-- which we hope will be adopted--that NATO looks for and anticipates and hopes to add new members to the Alliance in an evolutionary process of expansion. The Partnership for Peace is open to all nations in Eastern Europe on a non-discriminatory basis. Nations choosing to be active in the Partnership will develop habits of cooperation and routines of consultation which are so important to the Alliance as we've known it over the last years. The Partnership is a flexible tool that will allow the nations to demonstrate their credentials for potential future membership.

The United States believes that the objective of promoting security and stability in Europe could be undermined if NATO were to be expanded too rapidly. We want to avoid premature selections or hasty prejudgments. Such a course as that would risk dividing Europe by creating new blocs and unintentionally replicating a bit further to the east a line of demarcation that NATO has fought for such a long time to erase. Before the United States would extend its security perimeter to the east, the Congress-- and, indeed, the public--must debate the impact on our military strategy and on our budget resources. That will take time. But next week's summit will launch what we expect to be a very important process for NATO's expansion to the east.

To move on now to a different subject: The nations of Eastern Europe making the difficult transition to free market democracy must be able to deliver tangible benefits to their people. And President Clinton will be making the point that Western nations and institutions must help them do that by widening their access to Western markets. The President will be delivering that message when he speaks to the European Union on Tuesday afternoon.

On Wednesday, in Prague, when he meets with the leaders of the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia, he'll be discussing ways in which the Partnership for Peace will offer these countries practical forms of military cooperation so as to deepen their ties. I was very glad to read, as I was coming over in the car, that the defense ministers of the four Visegrad countries have endorsed the Partnership for Peace I hope, putting to rest some questions that have existed about the attitude of those four countries.

The President will also take this opportunity to express our country's deep admiration for the courageous action that these countries are taking, the Visegrad countries, who he would be meeting with in Prague--admiration for their courageous steps toward free market reform.

The President's visit to Moscow comes at a crucial moment as Russia's newly and freely elected Parliament is meeting for the first time. The President will reaffirm that the United States is on a steady course of supporting democratic and market reform through bilateral assistance, private trade, and investment. The President will also discuss how the international community can help support the Russian Government's efforts to provide basic social protections during the painful transition. Secretary Bentsen, I know, will be addressing that question in his remarks in just a few minutes.

In Moscow, of course, the President will also be discussing with President Yeltsin the recently concluded NATO summit. We anticipate, indeed, we will welcome the anticipation of Russia's participation in the Partnership for Peace. One of the many benefits of Russian reform--one that I have felt personally so many times is the ability that we have now to cooperate with Russia on global and regional foreign policy issues. Accordingly, the presidents--President Yeltsin and President Clinton--will be discussing a wide range of foreign policy issues: the Middle East, relations with the new independent states, non-proliferation, and other foreign policy issues.

From Moscow, the President will travel to Minsk as part of our effort to encourage reform and non-proliferation in the new independent states. As you all know, Belarus has made the courageous choice to ratify the START Treaty and also to adhere to the non-proliferation treaty as a non-nuclear state. The President will be discussing with the officials of Belarus and other new independent states, who may be represented there, ways in which we can cooperate with them as they go through this difficult transition.

Finally, the President's trip will conclude with a meeting in Geneva with President Asad of Syria. As you know, on the Middle East, we have structured a sequence of steps this month, beginning with the recently concluded consultations with officials from Lebanon and Syria and their heads of delegations--steps that we hope will energize the peace process. Following the Geneva meeting between President Asad and President Clinton, we have invited the heads of delegations from all the other tracks to meet here in Washington for streamlined, less structured peace process talks. The Geneva meeting between the two presidents is a very important part of this process. We remain committed to helping the parties achieve a comprehensive peace, and it is certain that Syria is essential to achieving a comprehensive peace in this region.

COPYRIGHT 1994 U.S. Government Printing Office
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