ACCESSION NUMBER:232947
FILE ID:TX-501
DATE:06/26/92
TITLE:EDITORIAL: THE YELTSIN-BUSH SUMMIT (460) (06/26/92)
TEXT:*92062601.TXT
EDITORIAL: THE YELTSIN-BUSH SUMMIT (460)
(Following is an editorial, broadcast by the Voice of America June 26,
reflecting the views of the U.S. government.)
After World War Two, the United States spent over 4,000,000 million
dollars to contain Soviet expansionism. Today, the Soviet Union no longer
exists and Russia is a federation of free peoples. The recent visit to the
United States by Boris Yeltsin, the Russian Federation's first
democratically elected president, highlighted the new relations between the
United States and Russia after decades of tension and suspicion.
The Washington Charter for American-Russian Partnership and Friendship
signed by Bush and Yeltsin calls for new cooperation on security issues.
In this regard, perhaps the most important accomplishment of the summit is
the agreement to reduce the most deadly offensive nuclear weapons. The two
nations will also work to develop a global system of protection against
ballistic missile attack.
In addition to signing agreements dealing with security issues, Presidents
Bush and Yeltsin signed a series of trade, investment and tax agreements
designed to make it easier for Americans to do business in Russia. The
U.S.-Russian Trade Agreement provides for most-favored-nation tariff
treatment for the products of each country. The United States expects this
agreement to create commercial opportunities for Russian enterprises and to
promote the development of a market-based economy in Russia. The Freedom
Support Act, a package of assistance for the Russian Federation and the
other countries of the former Soviet Union, is currently under
consideration by the U.S. Congress.
For his part, the Russian president gave the United States, and the world,
the gift of truth. Pledging that "there will be no more lies," Yeltsin
agreed to open for inspection the files of the Soviet secret police -- the
KGB -- and the Soviet communist party central committee. This will help to
ensure that, as Yeltsin said, "the idol of communism, which spread social
strife, enmity and unparalled brutality everywhere," will not come to
dominate Russia again.
More than 150 years have passed since the French political commentator
Alexis de Tocqueville made one of the most famous prophecies in history.
"There are at the present time," he wrote in 1835, "two great nations in
the world, which started from different points, but seem to tend toward the
1ame end. I allude to the Russians and the Americans...each of them seems
marked out by the will of Heaven to sway the destinies of half the globe."
Today, Russia and America are in partnership, as President Yeltsin said,
"in the name of a worldwide triumph of democracy, in the name of liberty
and justice in the 21st century."
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