Foreign Press Center Briefing Transcript
Upcoming Meeting Between Vice President Gore
and Russian Prime Minister Stepashin
Leon Fuerth, National Security Adviser to Vice President Gore
Carlos Pascual, Senior Director For Russia, Ukraine And Eurasia, National Security Council
Friday, July 23, 1999, 10:30 A.m. EDT
MR. FUERTH: My remarks will be very brief.
We're looking forward to the prime minister's visit. We re going to hold these meetings in the format of a so-called "executive session," which means it is not a full-up meeting of the commission. It is stripped down. It is intended to focus on exchanges between the two principals. Its purpose is to help set priorities for coming months in the work of the commission and to discuss U.S.-Russian relations that are involved in what the commission does.
The prime minister will arrive on the West Coast in Seattle on Sunday. He will be here in Washington on Tuesday. The day is divided into three parts. There will be a morning meeting at breakfast in the vice president's home. There will be an executive session on security-related issues in the afternoon at about 2:00, and another executive session on economic issues in the afternoon at about 3:00. There is a planned meeting between the prime minister and President Clinton, and a press availability.
The commission has been and continues to be an important element in the U.S.-Russian relationship. It continues to be highly oriented towards pragmatic goals and concrete accomplishments. But clearly, we've reached the point where, when you sum up many of the things that have been done in the relationship, the commission can claim a lot of credit for the past and we still have great hopes for the future.
MR. SILVER: With that, we'll open the floor to questions. Please wait for the microphone and please identify yourself. (Pause.) This may be the shortest press briefing on record. (Laughter.)
Q (Off mike.)
MR. SILVER: Excuse me. Could you wait for the mike, and just let us know who you are.
Q All right. Barry Schweid of Associated Press. On arms control, you see to have gotten what you want, which is to -- let's be polite about this -- to redo the ABM Treaty, at the last meeting with the president of Russia.
Where do you take arms control, or what some might call the departure of arms control, at this point? In other words, when we see Stepashin, is there anything more you are asking of Russia so far as -- again looking for the polite word -- so far as revising the ABM Treaty to permit a missile defense that some people think is barred by the treaty?
MR. FUERTH: We and the Russians need to be talking to each other about the passage of START II, about the design of a successor negotiation. We need to be talking about new things in relationship to all kinds of weapons but also in relationship to defensive weapons and ballistic missile defense, a new ABM Treaty.
So it is an ambitious agenda. We also need to be talking to the Russians about nonproliferation, which is an important joint interest and which has some bearing also on the arms-control issues between the two countries.
So we think there is plenty to talk about. And we regard these things as being of mutual concern and interest, not specifically of interest simply to the United States.
Q But again, here we go again; every time there is a Russian meeting, the president or the prime minister, whoever it is at the moment, speaks of a sincere effort to get START II ratified. But, as you know and as we all know, the Duma is not under the control of Mr. Yeltsin and his government. They have their own minds. There are nationalists and communists there who don't like the treaty. So I don't know what this meeting can do about START II, particularly.
And I thought you had an agreement at the last meeting, to go ahead with those successor negotiations on -- sort of an accelerated pace? Both sides want it. What is there to do specifically about START III at this meeting?
MR. FUERTH: I think you have got to make sure that both governments begin to get a sense of what the time line is going to look like and a precise sense of who is meeting whom where, in order to begin to lay down the details. And that again goes to the practical nature of the discussions.
Q Okay.
MR. FUERTH: Charles --
MR. PASCUAL: Okay, let me also -- if I could also add, very briefly, the reason that our governments continue to talk about START II is that both the United States and Russia have seen START II as being in their self-interest. This isn't one side winning over the other side; it's both sides recognizing that reduction of nuclear arsenals is a common objective that serves both of our national interests, and that's why we continue to pursue ratification. And that's why the Russian government, I would emphasize, has said they want to keep this on the agenda with the Duma.
Now in a meeting in Cologne between President Clinton and President Yeltsin, they agreed that there would be discussions that would begin later this year -- later this summer, I should say -- on START III and ABM. They did not talk about negotiations, but we talked about discussions later this year.
And the reason that's important is that we want to keep talking about the future of arms control. We recognize that they're evolving threats. We recognize that we both have an interest in continuing the process of reducing nuclear arsenals. And the only way that we're going to be able to sustain the momentum on this is that if we continue a discussion of what the threats are to both of our countries, if we both recognize that the kinds of threats that we're talking about on ballistic missiles are not threats against one another here, but threats that could come from rogue states, and that's why we have been talking about a ballistic missile defense. And we both recognize that if we can sustain the momentum to talking about the reduction of nuclear arsenals, that's going to increase the prospects of moving on to START III in the future. So the intent is to be able to sustain the momentum here.
There will be experts who are engaged in those kinds of dialogues, but obviously the vice president and the prime minister of Russia have an ability to give a general political overview between one another and to their experts on the kinds of talks that can continue. And it's important for them to sustain the political guidance and momentum on this.
MR. SILVER: Okay. Let's go over here for a question.
Q Nickolay Zimin, the Russian daily Segodnia. Mr. Fuerth, as you know, everything was ready for have this meeting -- I mean between Mr. Gore and the Russian prime minister -- in last March. And the short format of this particular meeting -- does it mean that since then one of two sides or two sides have changed their priorities?
MR. FUERTH: No. I think the first thing that we have to do is to explore Prime Minister Stepashin's formulation of Russia's priorities, and to have a real discussion with him and with those he's bringing with him about where they would like to take their own government and their own policies.
But it seems to me that in very broad terms, we still share the same set of interests. This is more a question of how the new government's approach to these issues is going to differ from the predecessors'. We're still going to be talking about trade, we're still going to be talking about, I hope, small business, we're still going to be talking about public health matters. We still feel that we should be talking to the Russian government about environmental issues. We are still going to be talking about space cooperation, commercial space, the space station, and so on. But you do have a new government, and so this format allows us to hear in a very efficient way what's on that new government's mind.
Q Andrei Sitov from Tass. We know who's coming from the Russian side. Can you tell us about who will be taking part in the negotiations? It's kind of building on the same sort of question -- who will be conducting the negotiations on the secretary -- government secretary level on the American side?
MR. FEURTH: On our side?
Q Yeah. And what kind of results do you expect? And do you expect any specific results in any of the areas that you mentioned?
MR. FEURTH: We expect the secretary of Commerce to be involved, the secretary of the Treasury to be involved, probably the U.S. Trade Representative to be involved, the director of NASA to be involved. And I'm probably leaving people out as I go through.
Who else?
MR. PASCUAL: Deputy Secretary Talbott. Secretary Albright will in fact be meeting with Minister Ivanov almost at exactly the same time in Singapore at the ASEAN meetings.
Q And about the results?
MR. FEURTH: Still in process. And in interpreting this meeting, I think it's important not to rank it in terms of things delivered and documents signed. We have to get warmed up with a brand new government, and that's the primary purpose of this meeting. And we have to give the system that works on both sides a renewed sense of where the priorities really are and then move them along.
MR. SILVER: Okay, let's go there. Yeah?
Q Given some --
MR. SILVER: Could you wait for a microphone please?
Q Oh, sure.
MR. SILVER: And let us know who you are.
Q Vissarion Sisnev, Russian newspaper Trud.
Is there some economic package on the agenda, any aid or investments or something like that?
MR. FUERTH: No.
Q The first one. The second question: Is a meeting with the presidents scheduled already?
MR. FUERTH: Yes. The meeting with the president is scheduled. It will be the last event, officially, of the day. I think the prime minister has some other encounters later on, but they are not inside the U.S. government.
As for economics, what we need to do is to sit down and discuss the highest-priority ideas that both sides have about economic growth in Russia and about commercial trade relations between the two countries.
This is not a meeting for what we usually call deliverables because, while the process has continued, it has continued at a slower rate, given the change of government in Russia. This is a moment to get things back up to speed.
MR. SILVER: (Inaudible.)
Q You said getting things back to speed, and you also mentioned that this would be a warming-up meeting. Does the fact that we are entering into an election year, will this affect things, do you fear? Is it more difficult to warm up, as it were, and really get going, when there is a certain amount of political distraction going on?
And also, will the meeting with President Clinton be substantive, or is it scheduled as a sort of --
MR. FUERTH: You are talking about the Russian elections? (Laughter.)
Q Both of them?
MR. FUERTH: Well, it never occurred to me that you had anybody else's elections in mind as a distraction. The only thing that the elections mean to us is that time is precious and that both sides need to concentrate on what can be accomplished that's worth doing in the period of time that remains.
It also is true that there are some things we are working on that can't be completed before elections but are still worth pursuing. And you know, let the future decide what happens to these things, but it would be a mistake to stop them and wait.
As for the meeting with the president, it will be substantive.
MR. SILVER: Okay.
Q You kind of got into my question, which was --
MR. SILVER: Please identify yourself.
Q -- James Rosen (sp), Scripps Howard Newspapers.
MR. SILVER: Thanks.
Q You kind of got into my question, which is, is the vice president meeting with him strictly as vice president or also as a declared candidate for president? How does that color anything that might come up?
MR. FUERTH: I think the vice president is parking his politics at the door. He is meeting as the vice president of the United States and as a key member of the Clinton administration.
MR. SILVER: Okay. We have a question here from Reuters.
Q Thank you. David Storey from Reuters. How much is the Kosovo disagreements with Russia hanging over this meeting? How much do you expect this meeting to move the relationship further back towards normalcy after that?
MR. FUERTH: The fact that this meeting is occurring is in itself an indication of the underlying will on both sides to move towards normalcy and to keep a sense of partnership alive. Kosovo was unmistakably a severe test of the relationship. We passed through it successfully, and there's substantial credit for that due, I think, on the Russian side to their conduct of diplomacy under very difficult circumstances. So -- and we have to make up for some lost time, but we intend to do so.
MR. PASCUAL: I would only underscore that. At the meeting in Cologne, Presidents Clinton and Yeltsin set an agenda for our two governments to continue to pursue economics and arms control and nonproliferation. We agreed at that meeting that all parts of our government were going to work actively to pursue those issues. The reason that we set that agenda is that it's based on the self- interests of both of our countries, that both of us have it in our interest to reduce nuclear arsenals, to control dangerous technologies, to advance open a and competitive markets. And so this meeting is consistent with that and follows up with the agenda that the two presidents set, and continues to implement their vision for the areas that we really need to work hard in our relationship.
MR. SILVER: We had a question over here.
Q Rob Schroeder (sp) with Bridge Financial News. The Russians are probably going to ask you during these meetings for some more food aid. They've indicated that in Moscow. But as I understand it, the U.S. is still evaluating the large package that was given to them, I believe last spring. So are you prepared to overlap with new food aid, and how much?
MR. FUERTH: Do you want to answer that?
MR. PASCUAL: Yeah. First of all, what I would say is that we will have a team that will go out to Russia a bit later this summer and review the food situation on the ground. Obviously, anything that we do in providing food to Russia has to be consistent with what the needs are, and we will act on that basis.
I would also underscore that the timing of the food has been very much thought of in terms of the Russian harvest. There have been articles in the past that have questioned the timing of the arrival of our food aid, and in fact the reason that it began to arrive when it did was that we wanted to time it to come after the peak of the Russian harvest and to come when food supplies in Russia were lowest. And that's when the food has been arriving.
There is a series of shipments that will still be coming for some time. So there is in fact adequate time to assess what the needs are going to be, to see what the new harvest might be, and make decisions about what needs to be done in the future.
Q (Off mike.)
MR. SILVER: We've got time for a couple more questions.
Q (Off mike.)
MR. SILVER: All right. Let's try one who hasn't -- and then we'll go to you, Barry.
Q Okay.
Q (Off mike) -- with the Russian News Agency. Mr. Fuerth, what exactly are you going to discuss in the area of space? And is it true that the enlargement of the commercial launches will be on the agenda as well?
MR. FUERTH: Well, in a sense, the commission process has already produced a result in advance of the prime minister's arrival here, andthat is a decision by the United States, after discussions with the commercial people involved and with the Russians, to expand the launch quota by four. There's enough to keep things turning over on the commercial side.
At the same time, we will be having intensified discussions with the Russians about ballistic missile technology proliferation, and we are working hard with them on that subject.
MR. SILVER: Okay, let's take one more from the Russians and then we'll back to the -- you get the last one, okay?
Q (Off mike) -- Russian newspaper, for Mr. Fuerth. What kind of documents you expect to be signed as a result, if any?
MR. FUERTH: At this stage we are working on a joint statement. That would be the only document to emerge from this meeting, so far as I know.
MR. SILVER: Okay.
Q On assistance, in a broader sense, a couple of three summits back, the president's position was until the Russians do some serious things about a credible tax collection system, other reforms, there's no point in talking about assistance. And then things began to change; you saw some positive signs in the legislature. I lost track of the IMF consideration of a loan which was due about now. What is the administration's -- obviously you say a joint statement, so I don't know that there will be any action on assistance. But could you touch on that very important subject to the Russians?
MR. FUERTH: Yeah. On bilateral assistance, the overall quantity of American assistance is diminishing each year as the result of the way things come out of the budget process and the legislative process, but our assistance to Russia has continued more or less without interruption to the programs as we go through this.
It seemed to me your question related more to Russia's negotiations with the IMF.
Q Yeah.
MR. FUERTH: All right.
Q Which the U.S. has an input.
MR. FUERTH: Well, we have hopes on this, but the IMF makes up its own mind.
One of the things that Prime Minister Stepashin has accomplished, working in the Duma, is to get a number of important pieces of legislation passed that the IMF said were required before it could come to a decision. As a government, the United States hopes the negotiation between Russia and the IMF will succeed because a lot of other things are also racked up behind that, such as the World Bank and various bilateral assistance agreements with some other governments -- not ours, and also the Paris Creditors Club. So this is very important. But we don't call the shots here. On the other hand, we are reasonably optimistic, based on the progress that has been made by the Russians so far.
Carl?
MR. PASCUAL: I think one of the reasons the president emphasized, as he did, that it was important for Russia to move forward on its own reform program is that the extent to which Russia has a stronger budget, can meet its obligations, those are going to be good things for the Russian people.
And in fact, over the past two months or so, what we've seen is that Russia has worked hard to increase its revenue collection, has cracked down on those who have not been paying taxes, has increased the revenues that are available to the government, has passed some new legislation to boost those revenues, has increased its ability to meet some its social payments, has passed some new legislation to work on bank reform, has passed some new legislation to deal with bankruptcy issues.
These are going to be important factors to help Russia create a stronger economic foundation that gives greater confidence in the government's ability to meet its obligations, and to the extent that occurs, may create greater confidence to invest in Russia.
So those are all positive things not just vis-a-vis the IMF, but for Russia itself. They also happen to be the kinds of things that the IMF has been looking for in order to look at as the basis for moving forward with a program. That review by the IMF will take place later next wee, but it hasn't occurred yet.
MR. FUERTH: One area where things done by the Duma could be strategically important in relation to the United States would be in production-sharing legislation, because when all of that is finally in place, the gates are open to much heavier U.S. investment in the energy field in Russia than has occurred to date. That kind of investment exceeds by far the magnitude of what governments can actually produce in bilateral assistance and would be of great value at the regional as well as the national level in Russia, and sectorially in terms of the Russian energy sector. So progress is being made there, and we're hopeful that it will come to completion.
MR. SILVER: Okay, I think we have time for one last question. Let's see if we can sneak it in.
Q I'm Nina Donahue (sp), BBC. I wanted to ask you if any Y2K problems will be high on the agenda, particularly about this -- the Pentagon was trying to set up a Joint Early Warning Monitoring system, and the Russians have backed out fairly recently. Are you going to be pushing for that kind of thing?
MR. FUERTH: Yes. We would like to pick up the pace on discussions of some Y2K issues with the Russians. There's enough time left to get some useful things done.
MR. SILVER: Okay. Well, I'd like to thank our guests, then. And thank you, ladies and gentlemen.
MR. FUERTH: Thanks.
END
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