May 15, 1998
[EXCERPTS] PRESS BRIEFING BY Mike McCurry
12:08 P.M. (L)
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
(Birmingham, England)
_________________________________________________________________For Immediate
Release May 15, 1998
PRESS BRIEFING
BY
Mike McCurry
Swallow Hotel
Birmingham, England
12:08 P.M. (L)
..................
MR. MCCURRY: The President and Prime Minister Hashimoto just
had a very good, substantive, detailed, almost 90-minute bilateral meeting
here.
...........
On the subject of India and Pakistan, the leaders
talked about ways in which we could urge the government of
Pakistan to show restraint.
..............
Q Did they discuss any specifics on any formula
that they might use to get the Pakistanis to refrain from
testing?
MR. MCCURRY: They did discuss some specifics. I'm
going to decline to detail those here, but obviously, Pakistan
and its current disposition with respect to testing will likely
be a subject that the leaders address during the course of the
meetings here.
..............
Q Back on Pakistan, could you explain what the
President meant again when he said that he thought that they had
found a way to work out the F-16s --
MR. MCCURRY: I think as people know, there's been
an effort on our part to see if we can't arrange some third-party
transactions with respect to the money that is owed the
government of Pakistan -- that goes back prior to the testing
issue -- goes all the way back to the President's commitment to
then-Prime Minister Bhutto -- that he would attempt to arrange
that. We continue to work on that issue, but nothing to announce
just yet.
Q Did he receive a report yet from Strobe
Talbott?
MR. MCCURRY: The answer is no. Deputy Secretary
Talbott and General Zinni are having their meetings today in
Islamabad. They are expecting to see Prime Minister Sharif as
well as other defense and foreign ministry officials. They were
going to have an evening dinner meeting and then depart for
London, and we expect them in London at some point tomorrow.
Q Will the President see --
MR. MCCURRY: The President will likely see Deputy
Secretary Talbott either sometime later in the day tomorrow or
early Sunday. Talbott was expected to be here in Birmingham for
the President's bilateral meeting with President Yeltsin on
Sunday.
Q Is the President anticipated to offer other
incentives to Pakistan, other than trying to work out the details
of the F-16 deal?
MR. MCCURRY: Obviously, he wanted Deputy Secretary
Talbott and General Zinni to explore a host of issues related to
Pakistan's regional security situation, including the status of
whatever nuclear program it has. I'm just going to decline to
get into any specifics because those are under discussion now by
senior U.S. diplomats who are in Pakistan.
I'm done with the pool here, is there any burning
question there at the filing center? If you've got a burning
question, I don't know -- you know how to relay it here anyhow,
because we may not have two-way.
.............
END 12:25 P.M. (L)
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