22 September 1998
TRANSCRIPT: NSC ADVISOR BERGER BRIEFING IN NEW YORK, SEPTEMBER 21
THE WHITE HOUSE Office of the Press Secretary (New York, New York) September 21, 1998 PRESS BRIEFING BY NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR SANDY BERGER Marriott Eastside New York, New York ................ Let me give you a quick readout on the -- I think the key bilateral of today, which was the meeting with Prime Minister Sharif from Pakistan. The Prime Minister began the meeting by saying to the President that he was extraordinarily pleased by the reception that the President had received at the UNGA when he came in to speak. He said, "It reflects the love and respect the international community feels for you." The conversation focused very much on nonproliferation issues. The Prime Minister indicated that he will have a positive statement to make with respect to the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty when he speaks at the General Assembly later this week. As you know, we have been engaged in a very intensive discussion with both the government of India and the government of Pakistan on a series of nonproliferation issues which are important to get us back on the nonproliferation track after the nuclear explosions in India and Pakistan. One of the critical issues has been adherence to the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty and I believe, based on the Prime Minister's statement, he will have something to say about that on Wednesday. He thanked the President very much for the time and attention he has devoted to this issue. I think they've spoken six or eight times in the past several months. He indicated that these are very difficult issues for Pakistan, given the security environment as they perceive it, and that obviously he seeks from the United States continued help in dealing with the security concerns that they perceive, including, most importantly, the problem in Kashmir. They talked about Kashmir and the Kashmir problem, the President indicating that there was a willingness on the part of the United States to try to be helpful, but that the government of India has taken the position consistently that this is not a matter for outside mediation or outside participation. The Prime Minister and the President agreed that they would have their teams -- our team led by Deputy Secretary Talbott -- continue to work on the other nonproliferation issues which we have given priority to, relating to a collective moratorium on the production of fissile materials, restraints on missile deployments, and restraints on export controls. The Prime Minister made very clear the difficult economic circumstances in Pakistan, the adverse impact, in his judgment, that the sanctions are having on Pakistan, and his hope that we would be able to ease or lift the sanctions. The President made clear that our capacity to do that is quite directly related to the progress we make on the nonproliferation issues. .................... And I think that covers the meetings and the speech. Q: Sandy, on Pakistan, the President apparently told Sharif that he was doing his best to deal with the sanctions and noted that there is a possible presidential waiver for lifting the sanctions. What -- MR. BERGER: There is no presidential waiver. There is an amendment that has been offered by Senator Brownbeck which would give the President waiver authority for one year with respect to the Glenn Amendment. It's an amendment we support because we support in all of these sanctions regimes the capacity for the President to have discretion to use these sanctions in a way that can be most effective. And the President said that he wanted to be helpful, that both by virtue of the test itself, by virtue of the application of the Glenn Amendment, there are requirements of U.S. law that need to be enforced. But as the Pakistanis -- and I would say the same of the Indians -- seek to deal with the various issues involved in the arms race in South Asia, we are going to be in a stronger position to try to help on the sanctions. Q: Sandy, did the President tell Sharif straight out that he would exercise this waiver? First of all, are you convinced that you will get this waiver authority from Congress? And, two, did the President tell Sharif that he would, in fact, exercise this waiver authority if Sharif signed the CTBT? And how do you see the timing -- MR. BERGER: Well, first of all, the President did not say that we were certain that we would get the -- that the Brownbeck amendment would pass both the House and the Senate, because we aren't. We support it; we will work for it. Neither did the President give the Prime Minister any particular commitment with respect to what would happen if the Brownbeck amendment were enacted, except to say that as the government of Pakistan made steps along the path of strengthening the nonproliferation regime, we would be in a stronger position to take steps on the sanctions side. Q: When you said that he would have a positive statement to make on the CTBT on Wednesday, do you assume that he means that he's going to say that they'll sign it? MR. BERGER: Well, I don't want to speak for the Prime Minister. He will address the issue on Wednesday, and my impression is that what he will say on this issue will be constructive. ................ Q: Sandy, is it possible that the Pakistanis' announcement on a test ban treaty later in the week could have an effect on whether the President visits Pakistan this year? MR. BERGER: We've not made a decision on a visit. There have been a number of issues that we have raised the Pakistanis and the Indians in the nonproliferation area -- CTBT being one. I think we'll have to evaluate as we get towards the end of the month, before the end of the month, exactly where we are in those discussions and decide whether, in a sense, we're over the bar and we can go, or whether there are other ways that we continue the dialogue. ................ Q: Do you consider this meeting with Sharif to be a breakthrough or progress in any way, or is it pretty much -- it sounds like it's pretty much as you expected. MR. BERGER: I think we've made some progress with the government of Pakistan on these issues. I think there are still a lot of areas we need to work on in the nonproliferation area. I should make clear that our relationship with Pakistan and with India is not only about nonproliferation. These are two important countries. They represent, together, about a quarter of the world's population. India is the largest democracy in the world. Pakistan is a traditional friend of the United States. One of the things the President very much wanted to do in his -- particularly in this term, is to improve our relationship with India and Pakistan, and I think one of the reasons why the testing was such a disappointment to him was that it impedes our capacity to really have a different kind of post-Cold War relationship with India and Pakistan that are not totally defined by India's relationship with Russia or Pakistan's relationship with Afghanistan or China. So these are countries that are important in their own right, but there right now is a large boulder in the road here, after the tests. We need to make good progress on nonproliferation so that we can continue on the road of improving our overall relationship. ................ Q: Is there any special significance to the fact that the President has met Mr. Sharif but not Mr. Vajpayee? Is it because India didn't ask for a meeting or -- MR. BERGER: Well, I don't believe that Prime Minister Vajpayee is arriving until later this week. So I think part of this is a coincidence of timing and part of it I think relates to the progress that we've made with Pakistan on the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, although even on that issue I think there may be still some room for further progress. ............ (end transcript)
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