11 March 1998
GORE AND CHERNOMYRDIN WRAP UP TENTH GCC MEETING
(Press conference March 11) (680) By Louise Fenner USIA Staff Writer Washington -- Vice President Al Gore and Russian Chairman of the Government and Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin held a press conference at the completion of the tenth meeting of the U.S.-Russian Commission on Economic and Technological Cooperation (the Gore-Chernomyrdin Commission) March 11, signing a Joint Report outlining the accomplishments of the Commission after five years in existence and witnessing the signing of five other documents of cooperation between their two countries. In the Commission's history, more than 200 bilateral documents have been signed, Chernomyrdin noted, and he urged their timely implementation. Those signed at the press conference dealt with reducing risk from lead contamination in Russia, technology commercialization, U.S. exports to small businesses in Russia, cooperation on rural credit in Russia, and cooperation between the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) and Russia's State Conversion Foundation (SCF). The Commission "has made a real difference in the relations between our two nations and in the lives of the American people and the Russian people," Gore said. He noted that trade between the two countries has increased over 50 percent in the past five years, "and now the United States is the single largest investor in Russia's dynamic marketplace. "Russia is putting its fiscal house in order, inflation is under control, and Russia's economy has turned the corner on growth, promising the first upswing in a decade. Optimism prevails universally among those who are familiar with what is going on in Russia," he said. The challenge now is "to insure that the reform and progress we have worked to achieve can become self-sustaining and systemic," Gore said. He recommended that in the future the Commission focus on nurturing a "truly entrepreneurial economy" both in the United States and Russia, building stronger ties at the grassroots level, and empowering their private sectors to become "sustaining engines of reform and growth." Gore said he and Chernomyrdin specifically discussed "our common concern about the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and the need for both of our countries to work together aggressively on this problem." He noted that Russia has established "new and stronger legal authority to keep sensitive technologies from leaking beyond Russia's borders. Implementation is key." The United States and Russia, Gore added, "have agreed to expand and intensify collaboration on export controls on weapons, weapons materials and dual-use goods." Chernomyrdin noted that in 1993, when the Commission was first envisioned, the U.S.-Russia economic relationship was "quite modest," scientific ties were limited, and there was no serious U.S. investment in Russia. "All that had to be drastically changed, and I believe that is exactly what we have been doing here," he said through an interpreter. He cited the significant growth in trade and investment between the two countries and noted that there are now major joint projects by U.S. and Russian companies not only in the oil sector but also in high-tech, aerospace, nuclear safety, and other sectors. The United States and Russia have been able to find common ground on issues such as the peaceful use of nuclear energy, arms reduction, and conversion of nuclear materials to safe use such as energy production. "We have created so much lethal weaponry in the past, that today cleaning up those piles of weaponry will only be possible if we do it jointly," Chernomyrdin said. In the past five years, the Commission "has turned into an important stabilizer of U.S.-Russian relations," he said. Its principles of trust and openness "allow us to discuss any questions today having to do with our relations in a quiet and constructive manner, without unnecessary rhetoric or pressure on each other, in an absolutely normal and businesslike atmosphere. This is one great achievement of our work." However, this is not a time for complacency, he added. The United States and Russia must continue to expand economic ties and "bring them closer to modern-day realities of trade and investment between two industrially developed countries."
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