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July 7, 1998

PRESS BRIEFING BY MIKE MCCURRY AND

                           THE WHITE HOUSE
                    Office of the Press Secretary
______________________________________________________________
For Immediate Release                              July 7, 1998     
                         PRESS BRIEFING BY 
                         MIKE MCCURRY AND    			     
         CHRIS JENNINGS, DEPUTY ASSISTANT TO THE PRESIDENT 
                       FOR HEALTH CARE POLICY
	     
                         The Briefing Room   
	     
1:04 P.M. EDT
	    
.................
	     Q	  Mike, the Pakistan Foreign Secretary was here and 
met with officials at the State Department.  According to reports, 
unless the sanctions on Pakistan are lifted by the U.S., Pakistan may 
be forced to sell nuclear material to other countries. 
	     MR. MCCURRY:  Well, I'd ask that you check further at 
the State Department, but the Deputy Secretary of State is going to 
engage shortly in some high-level consultations that will be designed 
to further our interest in restraint when it comes to the development 
of programs, to remind governments of their obligations under 
international law and convention with respect to technology 
proliferation, and to encourage both of these governments that would 
take steps that would help, in a sense, put the genie back in the 
bottle.
	     Q	  How is he going to do that? 
	     MR. MCCURRY:  Well, we've had some diplomatic 
conversations that we hope will grow into a more useful set of 
exchanges and dialogue.
	     Q	  Does that mean Strobe Talbott is going back to 
India and pakistan to meet with officials there?
	     MR. MCCURRY:  No.  If you've followed the discussion at 
State the other day, you know that he's about to have some 
conversations at a different venue.  But I'd check further there 
because they've been briefing about that every day.
	     Q	  What about a different venue?
	     MR. MCCURRY:  It hasn't been officially announced yet, 
but it's in Europe.
.......................
	     Q	  Mike, do you see the Asian economic crisis -- in 
Pakistan unless sanctions are lifted soon?
	     MR. MCCURRY:  I think that there is an impact of the 
sanctions that both countries now face because of their misguided 
decision to conduct nuclear tests.  That is having an impact on the 
economies of both India and Pakistan, although, arguably, the impact 
is much greater with respect to Pakistan.  The impact, whatever the 
impact is of sanctions, comes at a time in which both countries are 
also feeling the effects of a border-regional economic crisis.
	     So the answer is, yes, they have hurt themselves deeply 
and caused some additional discomfort, if not true pain, for their 
citizens by taking actions that they should have not taken in the 
first place.
	     Q	  How do you know that?  Have we gotten reports --
	     MR. MCCURRY:  You can see the reports.  There have been 
press reports and other reports that we have available on what the 
impact of the sanctions have been and what the condition of both 
economies are.  And in the case of Pakistan, it is not a happy 
picture for the people of Pakistan.
	     Q	  I thought that they amount of aid was actually so 
minimal that the --
	     MR. MCCURRY:  It's not aid that's the issue; it's 
lending authority and credit availability which has been the issue.
................
             END                          1:50 P.M. EDT
#515-07-07