The White House Briefing Room
December 2, 1998
REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT IN PHOTO OPPORTUNITY WITH PRIME MINISTER SHARIF OF PAKISTAN
1:15 P.M. EST
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
____________________________________________________________
For Immediate Release December 2, 1998
REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT
IN PHOTO OPPORTUNITY WITH
PRIME MINISTER SHARIF OF PAKISTAN
The Oval
Office
1:15 P.M. EST
THE PRESIDENT: Let me begin by saying I am delighted to
welcome Prime Minister Sharif and his group here to the White House
and to the Oval Office. The United States values its long friendship
with Pakistan very, very much.
We have a very full agenda today. All of you know of my
concern to do everything we can to end the nuclear competition in
South Asia, which I believe is a threat to Pakistan and India and to
the stability of the world. We also want to work with Pakistan to
promote economic growth there, to continue our mutual concern to
fight terrorism, and deal with some of the other regional issues.
So we have a great deal to discuss and I'm very much
looking forward to it.
Would you like to say anything?
PRIME MINISTER SHARIF: Thank you, Mr. President. I am
also very delighted to meet you, and thank you for inviting me to
America.
We've had meetings -- also. I am sure that you are
taking interest in the affairs of Pakistan, which, of course, also
concern the United States of America. And we hope to work together.
And you are doing your best, and of course, it is also my endeavor to
remove all the misperceptions which are there in our bilateral
relations.
And I look forward to working together with you, and
strengthening our relations with the United States of America.
Q Mr. President, New Zealand has said that it has
agreed to lease the 28 F-16s whose sale was blocked to Pakistan in
1990. Has that received the U.S. blessing?
And, Mr. Prime Minister, would you accept or find
acceptable such a deal which would only give you about $105 million,
much, much less than you originally paid for the plans?
THE PRESIDENT: Let me say that I don't presume to
answer for the Prime Minister, but we have -- I have a report to make
on this issue which is somewhat more extensive, and after we have a
chance to discuss it, then we will make available,
obviously, to the public where we are on this. And so I'd like
to have a chance to discuss it with him, and then we'll have a
statement to make on it.
Q Mr. President, what about the direction of the
Judiciary Committee's investigation, the expansion into campaign
fundraising irregularities? What should you and the White House
be doing to deal with that new turn in the investigation?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, you know, I have a group of
lawyers handling that and I presume they'll -- we'll find some
time to talk about that. But the Congress in the end has to make
its own decisions about what it will do and how it will conduct
itself. It's important for me to get on with the work of the
country and that's what I'm doing here and that's what I intend
to continue to do.
Q Mr. President, why have you decided not to --
Q -- on the signing of the Comprehensive Test Ban
Treaty, and would you consider anything short of that that would
allow you to go ahead with the visit to Pakistan and India next
year?
THE PRESIDENT: I hope it will be possible for me to go
next year. I've looked forward to it for a long time and I hope
I will be able to go. Obviously, I hope that the treaty will be
signed.
Q But is it a condition?
Q Mr. President, are you ready to bring both Prime
Ministers from India and Pakistan here in Washington for further
talks or to solve the problems of 50 years between the two
countries?
PRIME MINISTER SHARIF: That is -- (Laughter.)
THE PRESIDENT: You know, that's work that I always
like to do. I've enjoyed my opportunities to work with the
parties in the Middle East and in Northern Ireland, but it only
works when both parties wish the United States to be involved.
Otherwise we can't be effective.
Let me say that I have been very encouraged that the
two governments have resumed their direct conversations; I think
tt's very hopeful. And I think Prime Minister Sharif has been
very forthcoming in this regard. And I think he deserves a lot
of credit, and I hope the people of Pakistan support his decision
to continue this dialogue with India. I think it's very
important.
At any time there's anything that I can do that both
parties will agree to our doing, of course I will be happy to do
it.
Q Sir, can I ask you a question on the -- could I
ask you an economic question, please? Could I ask you a question
on the economy, please? Thousands of people are losing their
jobs at Boeing plants. Kellogg today announced a similar move.
The Exxon-Mobile merger is going to cause people to lose their
jobs. What's your concern about the economic impact, and is
there anything that the administration can do for these people?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I think on the merger question --
let's deal with that one first. Of course, you've heard what
Exxon and Mobile have said, you know where the price of oil is,
you know what the facts are. My position on mergers has always
been that if they increase the competitiveness of the company and
bring lower prices and higher quality service to the consumers of
our country, then they're good. And if they don't, they aren't.
And you know we've got the National Economic Council reviewing
this whole merger issue.
On this specific one I have to be very careful in what
I say because of the way our law works and the judgment that
might have to be made by independent people in the federal
government about that.
On the Boeing and the economy generally, this is --
particularly with Boeing, which I am very concerned about because
I've worked so hard to help Boeing and our aerospace industry
generally and to get employment up -- I think it is clearly a
result of the global financial crisis and in particular the
economic problems in Asia. And that's why I have given such a
high priority for the better part of a year now to trying to --
actually slightly more than a year now -- to trying to stabilize
the situation there, limit the spread of the financial contagion,
and then reverse conditions in Asia and restore economic growth
there.
I can't tell you how important it is from my point of
view for the United States to be actively involved in trying to
restore the conditions of growth in Asia. We can only maintain
our leadership in the whole aerospace area if there are countries
beyond our borders able to purchase the airplanes we produce.
And this, I think, is purely and simply a function of the
downturn in Asia. We saw it first in our farming communities,
where the price of grain dropped because Asian purchases dropped
so much. And if we can -- that's why I went to Korea and Japan.
And if we can make progress there and see some growth coming back
in Asia, then you'll see these orders -- the countries will be
able to make good on these orders, they'll start buying the
airplanes again, production lines will start up again, and
they'll call the workers back.
And that's my goal before it affects other industries,
to try to get that growth going back in Asia. It's very, very
important to the American people to do that.
Q Thank you.
* * * * *
THE PRESIDENT: Let me say, if everyone is here, I
would like to just make a brief remark. I am delighted to have
the Prime Minister and members of his government here in the Oval
Office today. We value our friendship with Pakistan very much.
We have a very full agenda to discuss. All of you know
of my concern to limit nuclear proliferation in South Asia. I
don't believe it's good for the peace and stability and security
of Pakistanis or Indians or the world. And I hope we can make
some progress there.
But I also want to be supportive in any way that we can
to help the economy of Pakistan to grow, to benefit ordinary
citizens of your country. And I hope we can discuss our common
interest in fighting terrorism, and a number of our other
interests in the region.
So I am delighted to have the Prime Minister here, and
I'm looking forward to our conversation.
Would you like to say something?
PRIME MINISTER SHARIF: I have already said, Mr.
President, I am delighted to be here, too. I thank you very much
for extending this invitation to me. I'd like to work with you,
Pakistan would like to work with the United States of America.
And there are a lot of issues on which we have common interest
and we will be very happy to extend all the help and assistance
as far as we are concerned especially on the issue of terrorism.
And we have been fighting terrorism and you know that we've been
cooperating with the United States of America also.
And all the other issues, as the President has
mentioned, we have a full agenda today. We will discuss -- each
and everything that concerns America and Pakistan.
Q Pakistan has been a victim of unilateral Pakistani
specific sanctions, whereas India, the -- country of Pakistan has
been let loose to tear up all their nuclear programs. India was
the one who started the first proliferation there, but still
Pakistan has been a victim of the U.S. sanctions. Don't you
think it was unfair, and if it was unfair, what is your
administration going to do to compensate for what Pakistan has
already suffered?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, first of all, we have, as a part
of our dialogue on nonproliferation, we have actually lifted a
large number of the sanctions that were applied against Pakistan
to try to get economic activity going there again. And we will
continue to discuss with the Prime Minister what we can do to
make further progress.
In terms of the test, what we were required to do was
mandated by an act of Congress, there was no discretion in the
Executive Branch about it. I have worked very hard to put our
relationships back on a more normal path, and we have lifted a
number of these sanctions already. And I look forward to making
further progress on that.
Q Mr. President, that's not --
Q -- you have been very effective in resolving the
Palestine dispute in the Middle East, and would you also --
THE PRESIDENT: That's a --
Q I mean, to some extent. Would you also be using
those good offices to resolving the Kashmir dispute which has
festered in threatens a war in the subcontinent?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, that is work that I think is
important to do. I've worked, as you pointed out, in the Middle
East and Northern Ireland. But the United States can be
effective in that role only when both parties want us to do so.
There is no case in which we have injected ourselves into a
dispute in the absence of the agreement of both sides, because
otherwise, it doesn't work.
I will say this. I want to applaud the Prime Minister
for supporting resumption of direct talks with the Indians. I
think that is very important. I think if you look at, if you
imagine what the world could be like in, let's say, 20 years if
the dispute over Kashmir were resolved, and South Asia -- India
and Pakistan were both reconciled to each other and focused on a
positive future, I think the potential for increased prosperity
among ordinary citizens and increased global influence that both
have is virtually unlimited. I think this conflict is holding
both nations back and diminishing the quality of life of ordinary
citizens.
So I would do anything I could to help to resolve it.
But the most important thing is that the leaders are discussing
it again, they're working on it. And I think what they need,
what both leaders need, is a little elbow room from the political
forces in their country and from ordinary citizens, because we
see in place after place after place, when people can resolve old
differences, then they can look to new possibilities.
And if you look at the potential that Pakistan and
India have for economic growth and for solving a lot of the
personal problems that ordinary people have, it's absolutely
staggering. There's no place on Earth with a greater potential
for development in the next 30 years than South Asia, no place.
And if this thorn can be taken from the sides of the people, that
will occur. So I would support that in any way I could.
Q Can I have a follow-up?
Q Mr. President --
THE PRESIDENT: Yes, yes, one more.
Q Will you renew your plan to visit the subcontinent
-- that you cancelled last year?
THE PRESIDENT: Let me say two things before you go.
First of all, on the question -- I very much hope it will be
possible for me to go next year. I have looked forward to going
for many years. As I think you know, my wife had a wonderful
trip not very long ago, and I want to go and I hope it will be
possible for me to go.
One other thing, Prime Minister, if you'll indulge me
before the Pakistani press leaves, I think I would like to say to
the people of Pakistan on behalf of not just myself personally,
but the United States -- our country has been enormously enriched
by the presence of Pakistani American citizens and immigrants.
And we are a stronger, better place today because of the people
who have come from Pakistan to the United States, and that makes
me all the more determined to try to be a positive force and a
good friend and a good partner. And I hope we're going to make
some progress today.
Q Thank you.
END 1:31 P.M. EST
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