THE WHITE HOUSE




                  Office of the Press Secretary

                         (Naples, Italy)

______________________________________________________________

For Immediate Release                          July 10, 1994     




	     

              PRESS CONFERENCE BY PRESIDENT CLINTON

                  AND RUSSIAN PRESIDENT YELTSIN

	     

	     

                          Palazzo Reale

                          Naples, Italy   






3:40 P.M. (L)






	     THE PRESIDENT:  Good afternoon.  As you know, this 

was a very important day in which President Yeltsin joined us as 

a full partner in the G-8 for political discussions.  And we 

followed that meeting with a bilateral meeting, continuing our 

good personal relationship which made some significant progress.

	     

	     I'd like to make a few comments on the G-8 and on 

our bilateral meeting, and then have President Yeltsin make any 

statement he'd like to make.  And, of course, we'll take some 

questions.

	     

	     First of all, today's statement read by Chairman 

Berlusconi on behalf of all eight of us makes it clear that we 

share fundamental foreign policy goals:  support for democracy, 

free markets, building new security relationships.  On these 

matters, we spoke as one.  If you read each of the items in that 

statement, I think it is remarkable that these eight countries 

have together agreed on these things.

	     

	     In the wake of the death of Kim Il Sung, we also 

expressed our strong commitment to continuing talks with North 

Korea and our support for the holding of the summit which had 

previously been scheduled between leaders of North and South 

Korea.  We also strongly agreed on the importance of pushing 

ahead with a resolution of the crisis in Bosnia.

	     

	     Finally, the United States and Russia joined all of 

the nations in expressing regret over the death of the Italian 

sailors at the hands of terrorists in Algeria, and reaffirmed our 

opposition to terrorism anywhere, anytime.

	     

	     With regard to my meeting with President Yeltsin, 

let me just mention one or two issues.  First of all, there has 

been a promising development in the Baltics.  After my very good 

discussion with the President of Estonia, Mr. Meri, I passed on 

his ideas to President Yeltsin today in effort to break the 

impasse between the two nations over troop withdrawals.

	     

	     I believe the differences between the two countries 

have been narrowed and that an agreement can be reached in the 

near future so that troops would be able to withdraw by the end 

of August.  But now that is a matter to be resolved between 

President Yeltsin and President Meri, which President Yeltsin has 

promised to give his attention and for which I am very grateful.

	     

	     When the Russian troops withdraw from the Baltics 

and Germany, it will end the bitter legacy of the second world 

war.  I want to say publicly here that none of this could have 

been accomplished without the emergence of a democratic Russia 

and its democratic president.  And I thank President Yeltsin for 

that.

	     

	     We talked about Ukraine, its importance to Russia, 

to the United States, to the future.  And we agreed on continuing 

to work on the issues that we all care about, including economic 

reform and continuing to implement the agreement on 

denuclearization which has so far been implemented quite 

faithfully.  We talked about our security relationship, and I 

must say again how pleased I am that Russia has joined the 

Partnership for Peace. 

	     

	     And finally, I'd like to congratulate President 

Yeltsin on the remarkable, steadfast and success of his economic 

reform efforts.  Inflation is down.  The Russian deficit is now a 

smaller percentage of annual income than that of some other 

European countries.  Over the half the workers are now in the 

private sector.  There's a lot to be done, and the rest of us 

have our responsibilities, as well.  And we talked a little bit 

about that and what the United States could do to increase trade 

and investment.

	     

	     Looking ahead, I have invited President Yeltsin to 

come to Washington to hold a summit with me and to have a state 

visit on September 27th and 28th, and he has accepted.  I'm 

confident that would give us a chance to continue the progress we 

are making and the friendship we are developing.

	     

	     Mr. President.

	     

	     PRESIDENT YELTSIN:  Thank you, Mr. President Bill 

Clinton, for the kind words that you said toward Russia and its 

President.  

	     

	     I, of course, am very satisfied by the summit, the 

political 8, which has taken place today.  I think that this, of 

course, is just a beginning.  But as I said, the Russian Bear is 

not going to try to break his way through an open door, and we 

are not going to force ourselves into the full G-8 until it is 

deserved.  When our economic system, our economic situation, will 

become coordinated with the economic systems of the other seven 

countries, then it will be natural and then Russia will enter as 

a full-fledged member of the eight then.

	     

	     Nonetheless, I am grateful to the chairman -- Prime 

Minister of Italy, Mr. Berlusconi -- and to all the heads of the 

states of the seven for the attention which they showed towards 

Russia -- the welcome, including yesterday's statement by the 

chairman and today's statement on political issues.  

	     

	     Together, today, we held a discussion on political, 

international issues around the world, and we found common 

understanding which says a lot about the fact that we can find 

this mutual understanding and, in realistic terms, cooperate and 

help in the strengthening of peace on this planet.

	     

	     I believe that this meeting and -- yesterday's, I 

mean -- and today's is yet another large step towards the 

security of Europe, for a much more economically stable 

situation, and an order that, really, the world can live in peace 

and in friendship.  And we should all help in this endeavor, and 

I think this meeting is yet another large step to full security 

of peace on Earth.




	     In developing my thoughts, I wanted to add that this 

meeting was a meeting, bilateral meeting, that we had with the 

President of the United States, Bill Clinton.  But our meetings 

are always held in a very dynamic and interesting way, we get 

very specific.  We don't have a lot of philosophizing there now.  

Say if it's 1:15 p.m., 1:20 p.m., we get in and start discussing 

about 30, 35 different issues, at least, on one side, on the 

other side.  And we find -- of necessity, we sit down and we find 

some kind of compromise solution to find an answer.




	     And I have to say, yet again, this time we were able 

to summarize after the last summit meeting, where Bill came to 

Russia, we were able to summarize all the things that happened.  

Many, many things took place, very positive things, and we 

expressed satisfaction to the fact of how our relationship is 

developing and growing -- our partnership, our friendship, our 

cooperation. 




	     At the same time, of course, as people who are 

sincere, both of us could not but touch upon some of the issues 

which, unfortunately, are yet unresolved, which still we could 

not have found answers to up until now.  This has to do with 

certain discrimination toward Russia in trade, for example.  

	     

	     This time at the 8 Russia did not ask for money.  It 

said -- I said -- that you -- let's all together take certain 

measures and steps and decisions in your individual countries, 

included among them the United States of America, so that Russia 

on an equal basis, equal basis, could trade with everybody.  

We're not asking for any preferential conditions, we're not 

asking for any special circumstances for us alone.  No.  We're 

saying let's give us equal rights, get rid finally, once and for 

all, of this red jacket.  Take that red jacket from the President 

of Russia -- which I don't wear now for three years; I've taken 

that red, besmirched jacket off of myself.  You understand what 

I'm talking about, right?   You understand.  

	     

	     You earned the right of asking the first question.  

(Laughter.)  

	     

	     Q	  I said, you're not going to like my first 

question.  Will you have all the Russian troops out of the 

Baltics by August 31?

	     

	     PRESIDENT YELTSIN:  No.  I -- nice question.  I like 

the question, because I can say no.  (Laughter.)  We took out of 

Lithuania -- we removed 31st of August with drumbeat, we're going 

to take under his arms and take that last soldier from Latvia.  

Now, Estonia, somewhat more difficult relationship since there in 

Estonia, there are very crude violations of human rights, vis a 

vis Russian-speaking population, especially toward military 

pensioners.  

	      

	     Bill Clinton, when he was there in Riga and he met 

with a large group of people, about 40,000 people, and the heads 

of three Baltic States, he expressed his point of view that you 

have to maintain and protect human rights.  And I think that 

after his saying so, the President of Estonia will begin to 

listen.  I promised Bill that I personally will meet with him, 

with the President of Estonia.  We're going to discuss these 

issues, and after, we're going to try to find a solution to this 

question.

	     

	     Q	  Boris Nikolayevich, you said that at the 7, now 

7 -- where you're not with the political 8 -- but with the 7, you 

talked about removing discriminatory measures.  Do you feel that 

this is a task that is a timely task vis-a-vis relations with the 

United States?  In other words, Russian high technology had 

access to the marketplace included among the United States 

market.

	     

	     PRESIDENT YELTSIN:  I have to say that we signed 

with the European Union at Corfu, we signed an agreement in 

Greece where all the discriminatory measures are removed from 

Russia.  Now, as far as other countries are concerned, some of 

those provisions remain.

	     

	     Now, lets talk about COCOM, export of high 

technologies, et cetera, except for weapons.  Today Mr. President 

of the United States at the 8, and then later when we talked 

together, he stated that when I come to the United States with an 

official visit on the 27th and 28th of September, he's going to 

make an official statement that these limitations are being 

removed altogether.

	     

	     But in the new post-COCOM organization, our 

specialists are going to participate in the development of list 

of all those materials and technologies which are not going to be 

allowed for export in the whole world, and that will also have to 

do with Russia.  In other words, we're going to be on an equal 

footing.

	     

	     PRESIDENT CLINTON:  Just a minute -- I'd like to 

just clarify and support what President Yeltsin said on that and 

make a couple of points.

	     

	     First of all, the United States is committed to 

joint economic activities that advance Russia's interests.  The 

most significant one that's been ratified recently is the 

overwhelming support in the United States Congress for the space 

station program, which now is a partnership between Russia, 

Europe, Japan and Canada.

	     

	     Secondly, what happened when the COCOM was even out 

of existence is a lot of the countries' individual laws were 

still in existence.  So we need a new order to replace COCOM.  

And what I said was, as he said, was we want Russia to be a part 

of that, so that there will be no discrimination in trade between 

Russia and other countries, except insofar as we all accept 

restraints that tend to limit the proliferation of weapons of 

mass destruction.

	     

	     The third thing I want to say is, I was glad to see 

Europe sign that agreement with Russia at Corfu.  But if you look 

at the facts of who's done what kind of business, I think you'll 

see that the Americans stand up very well against the Europeans 

on that.

	     

	     Q	  President Yeltsin, the Americans are looking to 

Russia for help on persuading the Serbs to agree to the new map 

for Bosnia.  Will you provide the help?  I know, of course, 

Russia joined in the statement, but how aggressive will you be 

about that?  And I'm going to throw in a quick second question.  

What is the state of Russian trade with terrorist-supporting 

countries.  The communique today, of course, took a strong stand 

against terrorism.

	     

	     PRESIDENT YELTSIN:  As far as the map is concerned, 

the Bosnian map, Croatia, and between Serbs and the Muslims, 51-

49, the Contact Group has developed these proposals.  The 

ministers of foreign affairs, including Minister Kozyrev of 

Russia, have agreed with this proposal, and that's why we are 

going to act -- and I personally, very decisively, as much 

character as we have in our bodies.

	     

	     Now, as far as trade is concerned from the countries 

where terrorism stems from, we're going to attempt to limit --

we're moving in the direction of limiting trade with those 

terrorist countries.

	     

	     Q	  What do you feel is the principal difference 

between the Tokyo Summit last time and this one?  And how do you 

feel the next meeting of the 7, or maybe we can call it the 8, 

from the Naples session -- how is the next one going to differ?

	     

	     PRESIDENT YELTSIN:  Well, I will say that this one 

differs significantly from the Munich and the Tokyo Summit very 

significantly.  Russia, for all practical purposes, has been 

accepted into the world community.  It has been recognized as a 

democratic state.  For us, this  is the most important.  

	     

	     Of course, it hurts a little bit that that amount of 

money which we're calling support back in Tokyo and we weren't 

even able to get half of it -- but in the final analysis, I said 

that today the most important thing is not to ask money, but that 

we be accepted and recognized as equal.  And then we, together, 

are going to go out and earn.

	     

	     Now, as far as from the perspective of the Halifax 

meeting next year -- I received an invitation today from Prime 

Minister of Canada, and he said that from the point of view of 

the 8, this is going to be a much more official and stronger, 

more cohesive meeting.

	     

	     MS. MYERS:  Last question.

	     

	     Q	  Did you discuss at all with the other leaders 

of the 8 the possibility that the United States might take 

military action in Haiti at some point?  And do you still 

maintain that you would discuss such action with the United 

States Congress, or can you foresee a situation, sir, in which 

you would judge American lives to be in danger and, therefore, 

feel that you could move immediately?

	     

	     PRESIDENT CLINTON:  The answer to your question is 

that I did not discuss that with the 8.  The thing that I 

appreciated was that they were all very vigorous in saying that 

the military leaders should keep their commitment and should 

leave, and that we should restore democracy to Haiti, and that 

they supported that.  That was the full extent of the 

conversation.

	     

	     Q	  Maybe indirectly, maybe this is tied to today's 

meeting.  How do you assess yourself as President -- the results 

of foreign policy of Russia as a President?

	     

	     PRESIDENT YELTSIN:  I'm learning gradually, and the 

more I learn it the better it goes.  Thank you very kindly.  

(Applause.)




                               END4:02 P.M. (L)