U.S. Department of State Dispatch
Volume 6, Number 49, December 4, 1995
Bureau of Public Affairs
ARTICLES IN THIS ISSUE:
1. U.S., U.K. Reaffirm Joint Commitment to Democracy--President Clinton
2. The U.S. and the U.K.: Working Together to Shape History--President
Clinton, British Prime Minister Major
3. Waging Peace in Northern Ireland--President Clinton
4. The U.S. and Ireland: Fulfilling the Hope for Peace--President
Clinton
5. Reconciliation in Ireland Welcomed by the United States--President
Clinton, Irish Prime Minister Bruton
6. U.S. Troops Meet the Challenge of Maintaining Peace in Bosnia--
President Clinton
7. U.S., European Union Establish a New Transatlantic Agenda--Secretary
Christopher, Spanish Foreign Minister Solana, Ambassador Kantor
8. Fact Sheet: The New Transatlantic Agenda
9. The New Transatlantic Agenda
ARTICLE 1:
U.S., U.K. Reaffirm Joint Commitment to Democracy
President Clinton
Remarks to the British Houses of Parliament, London, U.K., November 29,
1995
My Lord Chancellor, Madam Speaker, Lord Privy Seal, the Lord President
of the Council, Mr. Prime Minister, my lords, and members of the House
of Commons: To the Lord Chancellor, the longer I hear you talk the more
I wish we had an institution like this in American Government. I look
out and see so many of your distinguished leaders in the House of Lords,
and I think it might not be a bad place to be after a long and
troublesome political career. My wife and I are honored to be here
today, and I thank you for inviting me to address you.
I have been here to Westminster many times before. As a student, I
visited often, and over the last 20 years I have often returned. Always
I have felt the power of this place, where the voices of free people who
love liberty, believe in reason, and struggle for truth have, for
centuries, kept your great nation a beacon of hope for all the world and
a very special model for your former colonies which became the United
States of America.
Here--where the voices of Pitt and Burke, Disraeli and Gladstone rang
out; here where the rights of English men and women were secured and
enlarged; here where the British people's determination to stand against
the tyrannies of this century were shouted to the entire world--here is
a monument to liberty to which every free person owes honor and
gratitude.
As one whose ancestors came from these isles, I cherish this
opportunity. Since I entered public life I have often thought of the
words of Prime Minister Churchill when he spoke to our Congress in 1941.
He said that if his father had been American and his mother British,
instead of the other way around, he might have gotten there on his own.
Well, for a long time I thought that if my forebears had not left this
country, perhaps I might have gotten here on my own--at least to the
House of Commons.
But I have to tell you, now our American television carries your
Question Time. And I have seen Prime Minister Major and Mr. Blair and
the other members slicing each other up, face-to-face--with such great
wit and skill, against the din of cheers and jeers. I am now convinced
my forebears did me a great favor by coming to America.
Today, the United States and the United Kingdom glory in an
extraordinary relationship that unites us in a way never before seen in
the ties between two such great nations. It is perhaps all the more
remarkable because of our history--first, the war we waged for our
independence and then, barely three decades later, another war we waged
in which your able forces laid siege to our capital. Indeed, the White
House still bears the burn marks of that earlier stage in our
relationship. Now, whenever we have even the most minor disagreement I
walk out on the Truman Balcony and I look at those burn marks, just to
remind myself that I dare not let this relationship get out of hand
again.
In this century, we overcame the legacy of our differences. We
discovered our common heritage again, and even more important, we
rediscovered our shared values. This November, we are reminded of
exactly how the bonds that now join us grew--of the three great trials
our nations have faced together in this century.
A few weeks ago, we marked the anniversary of that day in 1918 when the
guns fell silent in World War I--a war we fought side-by-side to defend
democracy against militarism and reaction. On this Veterans Day for us
and Remembrance Day for you, we both paid special tribute to the British
and American generation that, 50 years ago now, in the skies over the
Channel, on the craggy hills of Italy, in the jungles of Burma, in the
flights over the Hump, did not fail or falter. In the greatest struggle
for freedom in all of history, they saved the world.
Our nations emerged from that war with the resolve to prevent another
like it. We bound ourselves together with other democracies in the West
and with Japan, and we stood firm throughout the long twilight struggle
of the Cold War--from the Berlin Airlift of 1948 to the fall of the
Berlin Wall on another November day just six years ago.
In the years since, we have stood together also--fighting together for
victory in the Persian Gulf; standing together against terrorism;
working together to remove the nuclear cloud from our children's bright
future; and together, preparing the way for peace in Bosnia, where your
peacekeepers have performed heroically and saved the lives of so many
innocent people. I thank the British nation for its strength and its
sacrifice through all these struggles. And I am proud to stand here on
behalf of the American people to salute you.
Ladies and gentlemen, in this century, democracy has not merely endured;
it has prevailed. Now it falls to us to advance the cause that so many
fought and sacrificed and died for. In this new era, we must rise, not
in a call to arms, but in a call to peace.
The great American philosopher, John Dewey, once said, "The only way to
abolish war is to make peace heroic." Well, we know we will never
abolish war or all the forces that cause it because we cannot abolish
human nature or the certainty of human error. But we can make peace
heroic. In so doing, we can create a future even more true to our ideals
than all our glorious past. To do so, we must maintain the resolve and
peace we shared in war when everything was at stake.
In this new world our lives are not so very much at risk, but much of
what makes life worth living is still very much at stake. We have fought
our wars. Now let us wage our peace.
This time is full of possibility. The chasm of ideology has disappeared.
Around the world, the ideals we defended and advanced are now shared by
more people than ever before. In Europe and many other nations, long-
suffering people at last control their own destinies. And as the Cold
War gives way to the global village, economic freedom is spreading
alongside political freedom, bringing with it renewed hope for a better
life, rooted in the honorable and healthy competition of effort and
ideas.
America is determined to maintain our alliance for freedom and peace
with you and determined to seek the partnership of all like-minded
nations to confront the threats still before us. We know the way.
Together we have seen how we succeed when we work together.
When President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill first met on the
deck of the HMS Prince of Wales in 1941 at one of the loneliest moments
in your nation's history, they joined in prayer, and the Prime Minister
was filled with hope. Afterwards, he said,
"The same language, the same hymns, more or less the same ideals.
Something big may be happening, something very big."
Well, once again, he was right. Something really big happened. On the
basis of those ideals, Churchill and Roosevelt and all of their
successors built an enduring alliance and a genuine friendship between
our nations. Other times in other places are littered with the vows of
friendship sworn during battle and then abandoned in peacetime. This one
stands alone, unbroken, above all the rest--a model for the ties that
should bind all democracies.
To honor that alliance and the Prime Minister who worked so mightily to
create it, I am pleased to announce here, in the home of British
freedom, that the United States will name one of the newest and most
powerful of its surface ships--a guided missile destroyer--the United
States Ship Winston Churchill. When that ship slips down the ways in the
final year of this century, its name will ride the seas as a reminder
for the coming century of an indomitable man who shaped our age, who
stood always for freedom, and who showed anew the glorious strength of
the human spirit.
I thank the members of the Churchill family who are here today with us--
Lady Soames, Nicholas Soames, Winston Churchill--and I thank the British
people for their friendship and their strength over these many years.
After so much success together, we know that our relationship with the
United Kingdom must be at the heart of our striving in this new era.
Because of the history we have lived, because of the power and
prosperity we enjoy, because of the accepted truth that you and we have
no dark motives in our dealings with other nations, we still bear a
burden of special responsibility.
In these few years since the Cold War, we have met that burden by making
gains for peace and security that ordinary people feel every day. We
have stepped back from the nuclear precipice with the indefinite
extension of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, and we hope, next
year, a comprehensive test ban treaty.
For the first time in a generation, parents in Los Angeles and
Manchester and, yes, in Moscow, can now turn out the lights at night
knowing there are no nuclear weapons pointed at their children. Our
nations are working together to lay the foundation for lasting
prosperity. We are bringing down economic barriers between nations with
the historic GATT agreement and other actions that are creating millions
of good jobs for our own people and for people throughout the world. The
United States and the United Kingdom are supporting men and women who
embrace freedom and democracy the world over with good results--from
South Africa to Central Europe, from Haiti to the Middle East.
In the United States, we feel a special gratitude for your efforts in
Northern Ireland. With every passing month, more people walk the streets
and live their lives safely--people who otherwise would have been added
to the toll of The Troubles.
Tomorrow, I will have the privilege of being the first American
President to visit Northern Ireland--a Northern Ireland where the guns
are quiet and the children play without fear. I applaud the efforts of
Prime Minister Major and Irish Prime Minister Bruton who announced
yesterday their new twin-track initiative to advance the peace process--
an initiative that provides an opportunity to begin a dialogue in which
all views are represented and all views can be heard.
This is a bold step forward for peace. I applaud the Prime Minister for
taking this risk for peace. It is always a hard choice--the choice for
peace, for success is far from guaranteed, and if you fail, there will
be those who resent you for trying. But it is the right thing to do. And
in the end, the right will win.
Despite the progress we have made in all these areas and despite the
problems clearly still out there, there are those who say at this moment
of hope we can afford to relax now behind our secure borders. Now is the
time, they say, to let others worry about the world's troubles. These
are the siren songs of myth. They once lured the United States into
isolationism after World War I. They counseled appeasement to Britain on
the very brink of World War II. We have gone down that road before. We
must never go down that road again. We will never go down that road
again.
Though the Cold War is over, the forces of destruction challenge us
still. Today, they are armed with a full array of threats, not just the
single weapon of frontal war. We see them at work in the spread of
weapons of mass destruction, from nuclear smuggling in Europe to a vial
of sarin gas being broken open in the Tokyo subway, to the bombing of
the World Trade Center in New York. We see it in the growth of ethnic
hatred, extreme nationalism, and religious fanaticism, which most
recently took the life of one of the greatest champions of peace in the
entire world--the Prime Minister of Israel. We see it in the terrorism
that, in recent months, has murdered innocent people from Islamabad to
Paris, from Riyadh to Oklahoma City. And we see it in the international
organized crime and drug trade that poisons our children and our
communities.
In their variety, these forces of disintegration are waging guerrilla
wars against humanity. Like communism and fascism, they spread darkness
over light, barbarism over civilization. And like communism and fascism,
they will be defeated only because free nations join against them in
common cause.
We will prevail again if--and only if--our people support the mission.
We are, after all, democracies, and the people are the ultimate bosses
of our fate. I believe the people will support this. I believe free
people, given the information, will make the decisions that will make it
possible for their leaders to stand against the new threat to security
and freedom and to peace and prosperity.
I believe they will see that this hopeful moment cannot be lost without
grave consequences to the future. We must go out to meet the challenges
before they come to threaten us. Today, for the United States and for
Great Britain, that means we must make the difference between peace and
war in Bosnia.
For nearly four years, a terrible war has torn Bosnia apart, bringing
horrors we prayed had vanished from the face of Europe forever--the mass
killings, the endless columns of refugees, the campaigns of deliberate
rape, the skeletal persons imprisoned in concentration camps.
These crimes did violence to the conscience of Britons and Americans.
Now we have a chance to make sure they do not return--and we must seize
it. We must help peace take hold in Bosnia, because as long as that fire
rages at the heart of the European continent--as long as the emerging
democracies and our allies are threatened by fighting in Bosnia--there
will be no stable, undivided, free Europe. There will be no realization
of our greatest hopes for Europe. But most important of all, innocent
people will continue to suffer and die.
America fought two world wars and stood with you in the Cold War because
of our vital stake in a Europe that is stable, strong, and free. With
the end of the Cold War, all of Europe has a chance to be stable,
strong, and free for the very first time since nation states appeared on
the European continent.
Now the warring parties in Bosnia have committed themselves to peace,
and they have asked us to help them make it hold--not by fighting a war,
but by implementing their own peace agreement. Our nations have a
responsibility to answer the request of those people to secure their
peace. Without our leadership and without the presence of NATO, there
will be no peace in Bosnia.
I thank the United Kingdom, which has already sacrificed so much for its
swift agreement to play a central role in the peace implementation. With
this act, Britain holds true to its history and to its values. And I
pledge to you that America will live up to its history and its ideals as
well.
We know that if we do not participate in Bosnia, our leadership will be
questioned and our partnerships will be weakened--partnerships we must
have if we are to help each other in the fight against the common
threats we face. We can help the people of Bosnia as they seek a way
back from savagery to civility. And we can build a peaceful, undivided
Europe.
Today, I reaffirm to you that the United States, as it did during the
defense of democracy during the Cold War, will help lead in building
this Europe by working for a broader and more lasting peace and by
supporting a Europe bound together in a woven fabric of vital
democracies, market economies, and security cooperation.
Our cooperation with you through NATO--the sword and shield of
democracy--can help the nations that once lay behind the Iron Curtain
become a part of the new Europe. In the Cold War, the alliance kept our
nation secure and bound the Western democracies together in a common
cause. It brought former adversaries together and gave them the
confidence to look past ancient enmities. Now, NATO will grow and expand
the circle of common purpose, first through its Partnership for Peace,
which is already having a remarkable impact on the member countries; and
then, as we agree, with the admission of new democratic members. It will
threaten no one. But it will give its new allies the confidence they
need to consolidate their freedoms, build their economies, strengthen
peace, and become your partners for tomorrow.
Members of the House of Commons and noble lords: Long before there was
a United States, one of your most powerful champions of liberty and one
of the greatest poets of our shared language wrote: "Peace hath her
victories, no less renowned than war." In our time, at last, we can
prove the truth of John Milton's words.
As this month of remembrance passes and the holidays approach, I leave
you with the words Winston Churchill spoke to America during America's
darkest holiday season of the century. As he lit the White House
Christmas Tree in 1941, he said,
"Let the children have their night of fun and laughter. Let us share to
the full in their unstinted pleasure before we turn again to the stern
tasks in the year that lies before us. But now, by our sacrifice and
bearing, these same children shall not be robbed of their inheritance or
denied their right to live in a free and decent world."
My friends, we have stood together in the darkest moments of our
century. Let us now resolve to stand together for the bright and shining
prospect of the next century. It can be the age of possibility and the
age of peace. Our forebears won the war. Let us now win the peace.
May God bless the United Kingdom, the United States, and our solemn
alliance. Thank you very much.
(###)
ARTICLE 2:
The U.S. and the U.K.: Working Together to Shape History
President Clinton, British Prime Minister Major
Remarks prior to press conference at 10 Downing Street, London, U.K.,
November 29, 1995
Prime Minister Major. Can I, firstly, welcome the President here to
London. I am delighted he has been able to come in what is, I know for
him, an extremely busy time. He and Mrs. Clinton are extremely welcome
guests here.
The President comes to London fresh from explaining to Congress and the
American people his plans for a very large United States contribution to
the peace implementation force in Bosnia. Bosnia is, and has been for
some years, a shared responsibility. British troops have been there now
for something over three years--in numbers ranging up to 8,000 at a
time. And both of our countries have made huge contributions to the
international aid effort.
What I think we now need to do is to carry the remarkable Dayton
agreements through to a successful conclusion. Dayton was a very hard-
won and hugely important breakthrough by the United States and her
Contact Group partners. For the first time in the many discussions over
the years that the President and I have had on Bosnia, we can look, this
morning, at a realistic prospect of a real and lasting peace in Bosnia.
But it is still a fragile prospect, and we need to make sure that it
does not in some fashion just slip away from us. That is why we both
agree that it is vital to deploy a genuinely effective implementation
force to Bosnia as soon as the peace agreements come into effect. I very
much welcome the President's intention to contribute a large force to
that particular cause.
I can certainly confirm that we shall do the same. We intend to make a
large contribution--around 13,000 troops will be the size of the British
contribution to that force. They will find themselves working in the
future, as so many times in the past, with their American colleagues in
a common endeavor. And I believe it is an endeavor of immense importance
to the future of Bosnia and for many places beyond it. I look forward to
the peace implementation conference in London in a couple of weeks time,
which will work on the very important civil aspects of that peace
agreement.
The President and I, this morning, have also had the opportunity to talk
about Northern Ireland and about the twin-track initiative that I
launched yesterday with the Irish Prime Minister. I am delighted that
the President will, tomorrow, become the first serving United States
President to visit Northern Ireland. I have no doubt that that will give
a huge encouragement to the people in Northern Ireland who have been
working for peace. And I am sure that it will boost the very valuable
help that George Mitchell will be giving us in his work, for he has
generously agreed to undertake the work as chairman of the new body to
look at the question of decommissioning.
George Mitchell, of course, is no stranger to the situation in Northern
Ireland, and over the years has given us very great help in promoting
investment in Northern Ireland's economy. So I think the chairmanship of
the international body is in very good hands. I am very grateful to
Senator Mitchell for undertaking it, and to the President for permitting
that.
I had the opportunity to discuss with the President, this morning, the
present situation in Northern Ireland. What I hope people will see with
his visit there in a day or so is the changed life in Northern Ireland.
For far too long, the world has been very familiar with the negative
side of Northern Ireland. I think the President's visit will enable him
and his colleagues to see how very dramatically life has changed there
over the past 15 months. We look forward to carrying that further.
We had the opportunity to discuss a number of other matters, but I think
in the limited time available, I won't touch upon those at the moment,
but I will invite the President to say a few words.
President Clinton. Thank you very much, Prime Minister. This is my sixth
trip to Europe as President, and the latest of the many, many sessions I
have had with Prime Minister Major. Europe and the United States have
unbreakable ties, but the United Kingdom and the United States enjoy a
unique and enduring relationship.
Because of our values and the work we have done together over the last
50 years, the things we stand for are, more and more, becoming widely
accepted all around the world. Today, we discussed our ongoing efforts
to reinforce our partnership; to reduce the threat of weapons of mass
destruction; to combat terrorism, international crime, and drug
trafficking; and to advance the global march of peace. And, of course,
we mostly discussed Northern Ireland and Bosnia.
Let me begin by just congratulating the Prime Minister on the important
initiative that he and Prime Minister Bruton announced yesterday to
advance the process of peace in Northern Ireland. The twin-track
initiative will establish an international body to address arms
decommissioning and, at the same time, will initiate preliminary
political talks in which all parties will be invited to participate.
This is an opportunity for them to begin a dialogue in which all views
are represented and all voices are heard.
I cannot say enough to the British people about how much I appreciate
and admire the Prime Minister in taking this kind of risk for peace.
This was not an easy action for him to take--not an easy action for
Prime Minister Bruton to take. Very often, people who take risks for
peace are not appreciated for doing so. But we in the United States
appreciate this work and hope very much that it will prove fruitful.
Tomorrow, I will visit a Northern Ireland that is closer to true peace
than at any time in a generation. The risks that have been taken to date
by the Prime Minister and by the Irish Prime Minister and his
predecessor are a big reason why.
The United Kingdom has also taken extraordinary risks for peace in
Bosnia. The United States deeply appreciates all this country has done
to end the suffering in Bosnia--your brave soldiers who risked their
lives as part of UNPROFOR, your countless humanitarian relief efforts to
aid the people of that war-torn land, and your diplomatic and military
strength as members of the Contact Group and NATO.
Now the people of Bosnia have made a commitment to peace and we have to
do our part to help it succeed. That means participating in NATO's
implementation force--not to fight a war in Bosnia, but to help secure a
peace. It means implementing the arms controls provisions of that
agreement while ensuring that the Bosnian Federation has the means to
defend itself once NATO withdraws. And it means supporting the
reconstruction in Bosnia so that all the people there can share in the
benefits of peace.
If we can secure the peace in Bosnia--and I am convinced that we can and
will--that will bring us a step closer to the goal of a free, peaceful,
and undivided Europe.
The Prime Minister and I discussed developments in Russia-- including
the upcoming parliamentary elections--and agreed that fuller integration
of Russia and Europe remains a key goal that both of us share. We also
reaffirmed our joint determination to open NATO to new membership in a
gradual and open way.
I also welcome the priority the United Kingdom has given to
strengthening the Atlantic community. This weekend, at the summit
meeting between the United States and the European Union in Madrid, I
hope we can agree on a vigorous Atlantic agenda that we both can work to
implement.
Let me close by saying that we live in a time of remarkable opportunity
for peace and prosperity, for open markets and open societies, for human
dignity and human decency. Together, the United States and the United
Kingdom have helped to shape this hopeful moment in our history. We have
some more work to do. We talked about only two of our biggest
challenges. But I am confident that our people are up to those
challenges and that that work will be done.
(###)
ARTICLE 3:
Waging Peace in Northern Ireland
President Clinton
Remarks to employees and community of the Mackie Metal Plant, Belfast,
Northern Ireland, November 30, 1995
This is one of those occasions where I really feel that all that needs
to be said has already been said. I thank Catherine and David for
introducing me, for all the school children of Northern Ireland who are
here today, and for all whom they represent. A big part of peace is
children growing up safely, learning together, and growing together.
I thank Patrick Dougan and Ronnie Lewis for their remarks, for their
work here, for all the members of the Mackie team who are with us today
in welcoming us to this factory. I was hoping we could have an event
like this in Northern Ireland at a place where people work and reach out
to the rest of the world in a positive way, because a big part of peace
is working together for family and community and for the welfare of the
common enterprise.
It is good to be among the people of Northern Ireland who have given so
much to America and the world, and good to be here with such a large
delegation of my fellow Americans, including, of course, my wife, and I
see the Secretary of Commerce here, and the ambassador to Great Britain,
and a number of others. But we have quite a large delegation from both
parties in the United States Congress, so we have sort of a truce of our
own going on here today. And I would like to ask the members of Congress
who have come all the way from Washington, DC, to stand up and be
recognized. Would you all stand?
Many of you perhaps know that one in four of America's presidents trace
their roots to Ireland's shores--beginning with Andrew Jackson, the son
of immigrants from Carrickfergus, to John Fitzgerald Kennedy, whose
forebears came from County Wexford. I know I am only the latest in this
time-honored tradition, but I am proud to be the first sitting American
President to make it back to Belfast.
At this holiday season all around the world, the promise of peace is in
the air. The barriers of the Cold War are giving way to a global village
where communication and cooperation are the order of the day. From South
Africa to the Middle East, and now to troubled Bosnia, conflicts long
thought impossible to solve are moving along the road to resolution.
Once-bitter foes are clasping hands and changing history, and long-
suffering people are moving closer to normal lives.
Here in Northern Ireland, you are making a miracle--a miracle symbolized
by those two children who held hands and told us what this whole thing
is all about. In the land of the harp and the fiddle, the fife and the
lambeg drum, two proud traditions are coming together in the harmonies
of peace. The cease-fire and negotiations have sparked a powerful
transformation.
Mackie's plant is a symbol of Northern Ireland's rebirth. It has long
been a symbol of world-class engineering. The textile machines you make
permit people to weave disparate threads into remarkable fabrics. That
is now what you must do here with the people of Northern Ireland.
Here we lie along the peace line, the wall of steel and stone separating
Protestant from Catholic. But today, under the leadership of Pat Dougan,
you are bridging the divide, overcoming a legacy of discrimination where
fair employment and integration are the watchwords of the future.
On this shop floor, men and women of both traditions are working
together to achieve common goals. Peace, once a distant dream, is now
making a difference in everyday life in this land. Soldiers have left
the streets of Belfast; many have gone home. People can go to the pub or
the store without the burden of a search or the threat of a bomb. As
barriers disappear along the border, families and communities divided
for decades are becoming whole once more.
This year in Armagh on St. Patrick's Day, Protestant and Catholic
children led the parade together for the first time since The Troubles
began. A bystander's words marked the wonder of the occasion when he
said, "Even the normal is beginning to seem normal." The economic
rewards of peace are evident as well. Unemployment here has fallen to
its lowest level in 14 years, while retail sales and investment are
surging. Far from the gleaming city center, to the new shop fronts of
Belfast, to the Enterprise Center in East Belfast, business is thriving
and opportunities are expanding. With every extra day that the guns are
still, business confidence grows stronger and the promise of prosperity
grows as well.
As the shroud of terror melts away, Northern Ireland's beauty has been
revealed again to all the world--the castles and coasts, the Giants
Causeway, the lush green hills, the high white cliffs--a magical
backdrop to your greatest asset which I saw all along the way from the
airport here today, the warmth and good feeling of your people. Visitors
are now coming in record numbers. Indeed, today, the air route between
Belfast and London is the second busiest in all of Europe. I want to
honor those whose courage and vision have brought us to this point:
Prime Minister Major, Prime Minister Bruton, and before him, Prime
Minister Reynolds, laid the background and the basis for this era of
reconciliation. From the Downing Street Declaration to the joint
framework document, they altered the course of history. Now, just in the
last few days, by launching the twin-track initiative, they have opened
a promising new gateway to a just and lasting peace. Foreign Minister
Spring, Sir Patrick Mayhew, David Trimble, and John Hume all have
labored to realize the promise of peace. Gerry Adams, along with
Loyalist leaders such as David Irvine and Gary McMichael, helped to
silence the guns on the streets and to bring about the first peace in a
generation.
But most of all, America salutes all the people of Northern Ireland who
have shown the world in concrete ways that here the will for peace is
now stronger than the weapons of war. With mixed sporting events
encouraging competition on the playing field, not the battlefield; with
women's support groups, literacy programs, job training centers that
served both communities--these and countless other initiatives bolster
the foundations of peace as well.
Last year's cease-fire of the Irish Republican Army, joined by the
combined Loyalist Military Command, marked a turning point in the
history of Northern Ireland. Now is the time to sustain that momentum
and lock in the gains of peace. Neither community wants to go back to
the violence of the past. The children told of that today. Both parties
must do their part to move this process forward now.
Let me begin by saying that the search for common ground demands the
courage of an open mind. This twin-track initiative gives the parties a
chance to begin preliminary talks in ways in which all views will be
represented and all voices will be heard. It also establishes an
international body to address the issue of arms decommissioning. I hope
the parties will seize this opportunity. Engaging in honest dialogue is
not an act of surrender; it is an act of strength and common sense.
Moving from cease-fire to peace requires dialogue. For 25 years now, the
history of Northern Ireland has been written in the blood of its
children and their parents. The cease-fire turned the page on that
history; it must not be allowed to turn back.
There must also be progress away from the negotiating table. Violence
has lessened, but it has not disappeared. The leaders of the four main
churches recently condemned the so-called punishment beatings and called
for an end to such attacks. I add my voice to theirs.
As the church leaders said, this is a time when the utmost efforts on
all sides are needed to build a peaceful and confident community in the
future. But true peace requires more than a treaty, even more than the
absence of violence. Those who have suffered most in the fighting must
share fairly in the fruits of renewal. The frustration that gave rise
to violence must give way to faith in the future.
The United States will help to secure the tangible benefits of peace.
Ours is the first American administration ever to support in the
Congress the International Fund for Ireland, which has become an engine
for economic development and for reconciliation. We will continue to
encourage trade and investment and to help end the cycle of
unemployment.
We are proud to support Northern Ireland. You have given America a very
great deal. Irish Protestant and Irish Catholic together have added to
America's strength. From our battle for independence down to the present
day, the Irish have not only fought in our wars; they have built our
nation, and we owe you a very great debt.
Let me say that of all the gifts we can offer in return, perhaps the
most enduring and the most precious is the example of what is possible
when people find unity and strength in their diversity. We know from our
own experience even today how hard that is to do. After all, we fought a
great Civil War over the issue of race and slavery in which hundreds of
thousands of our people were killed.
Today, in one of our counties alone--in Los Angeles, there are over 150
different ethnic and racial groups represented. We know we can become
stronger if we bridge our differences. But we learned in our own Civil
War that that has to begin with a change of the heart.
I grew up in the American South, in one of the states that tried to
break from the American Union. My forebears on my father's side were
soldiers in the Confederate Army. I was reading the other day a book
about our first governor after the Civil War who fought for the Union
Army and who lost members of his own family. They lived the experience
so many of you have lived. When this governor took office and looked out
over a sea of his fellow citizens who fought on the other side, he said
these words:
"We have all done wrong. No one can say his heart is altogether clean
and his hands altogether pure. Thus, as we wish to be forgiven, let us
forgive those who have sinned against us and ours. "
That was the beginning of America's reconciliation, and it must be the
beginning of Northern Ireland's reconciliation.
It is so much easier to believe that our differences matter more than
what we have in common. It is easier, but it is wrong. We all cherish
family and faith, work and community. We all strive to live lives that
are free and honest and responsible. We all want our children to grow up
in a world where their talents are matched by their opportunities. And I
believe those values are just as strong in County Londonderry as they
are in Londonderry, New Hampshire; in Belfast, Northern Ireland as in
Belfast, Maine.
I am proud to be of Ulster Scots stock. I am proud to be, also, of Irish
stock. I share these roots with millions and millions of Americans--now
over 40 million Americans. And we rejoice at things being various, as
Louis MacNeice once wrote. It is one of the things that makes America
special.
Because our greatness flows from the wealth of our diversity as well as
the strength of the ideals we share in common, we feel bound to support
others around the world who seek to bridge their own divides. This is an
important part of our country's mission on the eve of the 21st century,
because we know that the chain of peace that protects us grows stronger
with every new link that is forged.
For the first time in half a century now, we can put our children to bed
at night knowing that the nuclear weapons of the former Soviet Union are
no longer pointed at those children. In South Africa, the long night of
apartheid has given way to a new freedom for all people. In the Middle
East, Arabs and Israelis are stepping beyond war to peace in an area
where many believed peace would never come. In Haiti, a brutal
dictatorship has given way to a fragile new democracy. In Europe, the
dream of a stable, undivided free continent seems finally within reach
as the people of Bosnia have the first real hope for peace since the
terrible fighting began there nearly four years ago.
The United States looks forward to working with our allies here in
Europe and others to help the people in Bosnia--the Muslims, the Croats,
the Serbs--to move beyond their divisions and their destructions to make
the peace agreement they have made a reality in the lives of their
people.
Those who work for peace have got to support one another. We know that
when leaders stand up for peace, they place their forces on the line,
and sometimes their very lives on the line, as we learned so recently in
the tragic murder of the brave Prime Minister of Israel. For, just as
peace has its pioneers, peace will always have its rivals. Even when
children stand up and say what these children said today, there will
always be people who, deep down inside, will never be able to give up
the past.
Over the last three years, I have had the privilege of meeting with and
closely listening to both Nationalists and Unionists from Northern
Ireland, and I believe that the greatest struggle you face now is not
between opposing ideas or opposing interests. The greatest struggle you
face is between those who, deep down inside, are inclined to be
peacemakers, and those who, deep down inside, cannot yet embrace the
cause of peace. Between those who are in the ship of peace and those who
are trying to sink it, old habits die hard. There will always be those
who define the worth of their lives not by who they are, but by who they
are not; not by what they are for, but by what they are against. They
will never escape the dead-end street of violence. But you--the vast
majority--Protestant and Catholic alike, must not allow the ship of
peace to sink on the rocks of old habits and hard grudges.
You must stand firm against terror. You must say to those who still
would use violence for political objectives: You are the past; your day
is over. Violence has no place at the table of democracy, and no role in
the future of this land. By the same token, you must also be willing to
say to those who renounce violence and who do take their own risks for
peace that they are entitled to be full participants in the democratic
process. Those who show the courage--those who do show the courage to
break with the past are entitled to their stake in the future.
As leaders for peace become invested in the process, as leaders make
compromises and risk the backlash, people begin more and more--I have
seen this all over the world--they begin more and more to develop a
common interest in each other's success; in standing together rather
than standing apart. They realize that the sooner they get to true
peace, with all the rewards it brings, the sooner it will be easy to
discredit and destroy the forces of destruction.
We will stand with those who take risks for peace--in Northern Ireland
and around the world. I pledge that we will do all we can, through the
International Fund for Ireland and in many other ways, to ease your
load. If you walk down this path continually, you will not walk alone.
We are entering an era of possibility unparalleled in all of human
history. If you enter that era determined to build a new age of peace,
the United States of America will proudly stand with you.
But at the end of the day, as with all free people, your future is for
you to decide. Your destiny is for you to determine. Only you can decide
between division and unity, between hard lives and high hopes. Only you
can create a lasting peace. It takes courage to let go of familiar
divisions. It takes faith to walk down a new road. But when we see the
bright gaze of these children, we know the risk is worth the reward. I
have been so touched by the thousands of letters I have received from
schoolchildren here, telling me what peace means to them. One young girl
from Ballymena wrote--and I quote:
"It is not easy to forgive and forget, especially for those who have
lost a family member or a close friend. However, if people could look to
the future with hope instead of the past with fear, we can only be
moving in the right direction."
I couldn't have said it nearly as well.
I believe you can summon the strength to keep moving forward. After all,
you have come so far already. You have braved so many dangers; you have
endured so many sacrifices. Surely, there can be no turning back. But
peace must be waged with a warrior's resolve--bravely, proudly, and
relentlessly--secure in the knowledge of the single, greatest difference
between war and peace: In peace, everybody can win.
I was overcome today when I landed in my plane and I drove with Hillary
up the highway to come here by the phenomenal beauty of the place and
the spirit and the goodwill of the people. Northern Ireland has a chance
not only to begin anew, but to be a real inspiration to the rest of the
world, a model of progress through tolerance.
Let us join our efforts as never before to make that dream a reality.
Let us join our prayers in this season of peace for a future of peace in
this good land. Thank you very much.
(###)
ARTICLE 4:
The U.S. and Ireland: Fulfilling the Hope for Peace
President Clinton
Address to the Irish Parliament, Dublin, Ireland, December 1, 1995
Mr. Speaker Comhaile, you appear to be someone who can be trusted with
the budget. Such are the vagaries of faith which confront us all.
To the Taoiseach, the Tanaiste, members of the Dail and the Seanad, head
of the Senate: I am honored to be joined here, as all of you know, by my
wife, members of our Cabinet and members of the United States Congress
of both parties--the congressional congregation chaired by Congressman
Walsh--they are up there. They got an enormous laugh out of the comments
of the Comhaile. For different reasons they were laughing.
I thank you for the honor of inviting me here, and I am especially
pleased to be here at this moment in your history before the elected
representatives of a strong, confident, democratic Ireland--a nation
today playing a greater role in world affairs than ever before.
We live in a time of immense hope and immense possibility; a time
captured, I believe, in the wonderful lines of your poet, Seamus Heaney,
when he talked of the "longed-for tidal wave of justice can rise up and
hope and history rhyme." That is the time in which we live.
It is the world's good fortune that Ireland has become a force for
fulfilling that hope and redeeming the possibilities of mankind--a force
for good far beyond your numbers. And we are all the better for it.
Today, I have traveled from the North where I have seen the difference
Ireland' leadership has made for peace there. At the lighting of
Belfast's Christmas tree for tens of thousands of people there, in the
faces of two communities divided by bitter history, we saw the radiance
of optimism born, especially among the young of both communities. In the
voices of the Shankill and the Falls, there was a harmony of new hope. I
saw that the people want peace--and they will have it.
George Bernard Shaw, with his wonderful Irish love of irony, said,
"Peace is not only better than war, but infinitely more arduous." Well,
today, I thank Prime Minister Bruton and former Prime Minister Reynolds
and Deputy Prime Minister Spring and Britain's Prime Minister Major, and
others, but especially these, for their unfailing dedication to the
arduous task of peace.
From the Downing Street Declaration to the historic cease-fire that
began 15 months ago, to Tuesday's announcement of the twin-track
initiative which will open a dialogue in which all voices can be heard
and all viewpoints can be represented, they have taken great risks
without hesitation. They have chosen a harder road than the comfortable
path of pleasant, present pieties. But what they have done is right. And
the children and grandchildren of this generation of Irish will reap the
rewards.
Today, I renew America's pledge. Your road is our road. We want to walk
it together. We will continue our support--political, financial, and
moral--to those who take risks for peace. I am proud that our
Administration was the first to support, in the executive budget sent to
the Congress, the International Fund for Ireland--because we believe
that those on both sides of the border who have been denied so much for
so long should see that their risks are rewarded with the tangible
benefits of peace.
In another context, a long time ago Mr. Yeats reminded us that too long
a sacrifice can make a stone of the heart. We must not let the hearts of
the young people who yearn for peace turn to stone.
I want to thank you here, not only for the support you have given your
leaders in working for peace in Northern Ireland, but for the
extraordinary work you have done to wage peace over war all around the
world. Almost 1,500 years ago, Ireland stood as a lone beacon of
civilization to a continent shrouded in darkness.
It has been said, probably without overstatement, that the Irish, in
that dark period, saved civilization. Certainly you saved the records of
our civilization--our shared ideas, our shared ideals, and our priceless
recordings of them.
Now, in our time, when so many nations seek to overcome conflict and
barbarism, the light still shines out of Ireland. Since 1958--almost 40
years now--there has never been a single, solitary day that Irish troops
did not stand watch for peace on a distant shore. In Lebanon, in Cyprus,
in Somalia, in so many other places, more than 41,000 Irish military and
police personnel have served over the years as peacekeepers--an immense
contribution for a nation whose armed forces today number fewer than
13,000.
I know that during your presidency of the European Union next year,
Ireland will help lead the effort to build security for a stable,
strong, and free Europe. For all--all you have done, and for your
steadfast devotion to peace, I salute the people of Ireland.
Our nation also has a vital stake in a Europe that is stable, strong,
and free--something which is now in reach for the first time since
nation-states appeared on the continent of Europe so many centuries ago.
But we know such a Europe can never be built as long as conflict tears
at the heart of the continent in Bosnia. The fire there threatens the
emerging democracies of the region and our allies nearby. And it also
breaks our heart and violates our conscience.
That is why, now that the parties have committed themselves to peace, we
in the United States are determined to help them find the way back from
savagery to civility, to end the atrocities and heal the wounds of that
terrible war. That is why we are preparing our forces to participate
there, not in fighting a war, but in securing a peace rooted in the
agreement they have freely made.
Standing here, thinking about the devastation in Bosnia, the long
columns of hopeless refugees streaming from their homes, it is
impossible not to recall the ravages that were visited on your wonderful
country 150 years ago--not by war, of course, but by natural disaster
when the crops rotted black in the ground. Today, still, the Great
Famine is seared in the memory of the Irish nation and all caring
people. The memory of 1 million dead, nearly 2 million more forced into
exile--these memories will remain forever vivid to all of us whose
heritage is rooted here.
But as an American, I must say as I did just a few moments ago in Dublin
downtown, that in that tragedy came the supreme gift of the Irish to the
United States. The men, women, and children who braved the coffin ships
when Galway and Mayo emptied; when Kerry and Cork took flight, brought a
life and a spirit that has enormously enriched the life of our country.
The regimental banner brought by President Kennedy that hangs in this
house reminds us of the nearly 200,000 Irishmen who took up arms in our
Civil War. Many of them were barely off the ships when they joined the
Union forces. They fought and died at Fredericksburg and
Chancellorsville and Gettysburg. Theirs was only the first of countless
contributions to our nation from those who fled the famine. But that
contribution enabled us to remain a nation and to be here with you today
in partnership for peace for your nation and for the people who live on
this island.
The Irish have been building America ever since--our cities, our
industry, our culture, our public life. I am proud that the delegation
that has accompanied me here today includes the latest generation of
Irish-American leaders in the United States, men and women who remain
devoted to increasing our strength and safeguarding our liberty.
In the last century, it was often said that the Irish who fled the great
hunger were searching for casleain na n-or--castles of gold. I cannot
say that they found those castles of gold in the United States, but I
can tell you this--they built a lot of castles of gold for the United
States in the prosperity and freedom of our nation. We are grateful for
what they did and for the deep ties to Ireland that they gave us in
their sons and daughters.
Now we seek to repay that in some small way--by being a partner with you
for peace. We seek somehow to communicate to every single person who
lives here that we want for all of your children the right to grow up in
an Ireland where this entire island gives every man and woman the right
to live up to the fullest of their God-given abilities and gives people
the right to live in equality and freedom and dignity.
That is the tide of history. We must make sure that the tide runs strong
here, for no people deserve the brightest future more than the Irish.
God bless you and thank you.
(###)
ARTICLE 5:
Reconciliation in Ireland Welcomed by the United States
President Clinton, Irish Prime Minister Bruton
Remarks prior to press conference, Dublin, Ireland, December 1, 1995
Prime Minister Bruton. Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. President: I would
like to welcome you warmly to Ireland, to thank you for all that you
have done to help bring peace to our country, to thank you for all that
you are continuing to do to bring the people that live on this island
closer together, and to improve the relations that exist between this
island and its neighbors.
I'm delighted that it was possible for the British Prime Minister, John
Major to whom I pay tribute here, and myself to agree on a framework for
moving forward toward a settlement of the differences that have existed
on this island for 300 years now, and the fact that we were able to do
that on the eve of your visit is no accident. Because we both realized--
both John Major and I, that the sort of support that you have been able
to give--yesterday and today--to the people of this island searching for
peace, searching for reconciliation, searching to heal the wounds that
have been there for so long, and looking positively to the future, we
both appreciate it that your support gives them encouragement, gives us
encouragement, and is something for which we, from the bottom of our
hearts, sincerely thank you. Mr. President.
President Clinton. Thank you very much. I would like to begin by
thanking the Prime Minister for his warm welcome and, more importantly,
I want to say a special word of thanks to all of the people of Ireland
and the people of Northern Ireland who have shown such extraordinary
warmth and generosity to Hillary and me, and now, our American
delegation.
This has been an extraordinary experience for us, and I will never
forget it. I thank the Prime Minister for what he said, but the truth is
that the credit for this latest progress belongs to the Taoiseach and to
Prime Minister Major. They announced this twin-track initiative to
advance the peace process of Northern Ireland shortly before I arrived
here. It gives the parties a chance to engage in an honest dialogue
where all their views are represented and everybody's voice can be
heard. I certainly hope that it will be successful.
Let me also say, as you know, it establishes a means to address the
issue of decommissioning, and I am gratified that my good friend,
Senator George Mitchell, is going to lead the international body to deal
with that issue. He is seizing this opportunity already. He has begun to
organize the effort with other members, and I expect him to be at work
shortly.
Let me again say, I know that I speak for all Americans who want peace
and ultimate reconciliation on this island when I say that the Taoiseach
has shown great courage in the pursuit of peace and we intend to do
whatever we can to help him, Prime Minister Major, Mr. Spring, and all
others who are working for peace to succeed.
The United States is honored to stand with those who take risks for
peace, and we are doing it all across the world--in the Middle East, in
Bosnia, and here. It is a difficult road to travel. It is always easier
to stay in the known way and to play on the known fears. But the right
thing to do is to do what is being done here, and I applaud it and I
want to do everything I can to support it.
Let me also say that we had the opportunity to discuss the situation in
Bosnia, and I described as best I could the terms of the peace agreement
and what we in the United States intend to do, along with our allies, to
implement it in a military way, and what non-military tasks have to be
undertaken.
I am very hopeful that after the peace agreement is signed in Paris in
just a couple of weeks, we will see a dramatic change in that war-torn
land. Let me say that the kind of thing that the international community
is going to have to do in Bosnia is consistent with what Ireland has
done every day for nearly 40 years now.
Irish peacekeepers have helped people to live in peace from Cyprus to
Somalia, to feed the hungry, to do so much that most people in the world
don't even know about. Again, I want to say on behalf of the American
people, I am very, very grateful for that.
So we had a good meeting, we have a wonderful relationship, the sun is
shining, and I hope it is a good omen for peace in Northern Ireland.
Thank you.
(###)
ARTICLE 6:
U.S. Troops Meet the Challenge of Maintaining Peace in Bosnia
President Clinton
Remarks to troops of Task Force Eagle, U.S. Army Base, Smith Barracks,
Baumholder, Germany, December 2, 1995
General Joulwan, General Nash, General Crouch, Secretary West: A special
word of greeting to America's good friend, Chancellor Kohl, who has been
a wonderful partner to our country, with great thanks to Germany for
their partnership with this fine unit.
I am immensely proud to be here today with the men and women of the 1st
Armored Division. You truly are America's Iron Soldiers. Previous
generations of Iron Soldiers have answered our nation's call with
legendary skill and bravery. Each time be-fore, it was a call to war.
From North Africa to Italy, they helped freedom triumph over tyranny in
World War II. Then for 20 years, their powerful presence here stood down
the Soviet threat and helped to bring victory in the Cold War. And just
four years ago, when Saddam Hussein attacked Kuwait, the 1st Armored
Division's awesome power turned back Iraq and protected the security of
the Persian Gulf.
I know many of you were there. But I would like to remind you that in
just 89 hours of combat, you destroyed 440 enemy tanks, 485 armored
personnel carriers, 190 pieces of artillery, and 137 air defense guns.
You should be very proud of that remarkable record.
Now America summons you to service again. This time, not with a call to
war, but a call to peace. The leaders of Bosnia, Croatia, and Serbia
have agreed to end four long years of war and atrocities. They have
asked for our help to implement their peace agreement. It is in our
nation's interest and consistent with our values to see that this peace
succeeds and endures. We are counting on you--the men and women of Task
Force Eagle--to get that job done.
For three years I refused to send our American forces into Bosnia where
they could have been pulled into war. But I do want you to go there on a
mission of peace. After speaking to your commanders and looking at all
of you and listening to you, there is not a doubt in my mind that this
task force is ready to roll.
Your mission: To help people exhausted from war make good on the peace
they have chosen, the peace they have asked you to help them uphold.
Just two weeks ago in Dayton, Ohio, the warring parties in Bosnia agreed
to put down their arms; to pull back their armies and their heavy
weapons; to hold free elections; to start rebuilding their homes, their
towns, and their lives. But they need help to do that, and they have
asked America and our NATO allies and other willing countries to provide
it.
They need that help because after nearly four years of terrible
brutality, trust is in short supply in Bosnia, and they all trust you to
do the job right. Each side wants NATO to help them live up to the
commitments they have made, to make sure each army withdraws behind the
separation line and stays there, to maintain the cease-fire so that the
war does not start again, and give all the parties the confidence they
need to keep their word--and also to give them the trust that the other
side will keep its word, as well.
I pledged to the American people that I would not send you to Bosnia
unless I was absolutely sure that the goals we set for you are clear,
realistic, and achievable in about a year. This mission meets those
essential standards. I also vowed that you would not go to Bosnia until
I was sure that we had done everything we could to minimize the risks to
your safety.
You know better than anyone that every deployment has risks. There could
be accidents. In a formerly hostile environment, there could be
incidents with people who have still not given up their hatred. As
President, I take full responsibility for your well-being. But I also
take pride in the knowledge that we are making this mission as safe as
it can be.
You will take your orders from General Joulwan, who commands NATO. There
will be no confusing chain of command. You are superbly prepared; you
will be heavily armed. The reputation that you--I didn't want anyone to
think there was a division of the house on that point.
Perhaps even more important, you will be heavily armed with the
reputation that proceeds you. That and the technology and training that
protect you will make those who might wish to attack think twice. But
you will also have very clear rules of engagement that spell out the
most important rule of all in big, bold letters: If you are threatened
with attack, you may respond immediately and with decisive force.
Everyone should know that when America comes to help make the peace,
America will still look after its own.
Your presence will help to create the climate of security Bosnia needs.
It will allow the international community to begin a massive program of
humanitarian relief and reconstruction. It will bring the people of
Bosnia the food, the medicine, the shelter, and the clothing they have
been denied for too long. It will help them rebuild their roads and
their towns, open their schools and their hospitals, their factories and
their shops. It will reunite families torn apart by war and return
refugees to their homes. It will help people recover the quiet blessings
of normal life.
This morning, after two days of working for peace in Northern Ireland, I
met at the airport in Dublin with Zlata Filopovic, the young Bosnian
girl whose now-famous diary of her wartime experience in Sarajevo has
moved so many millions of people around the world. She is my daughter's
age--just 15. But she has seen things that no one three or four times
her age should ever have to witness. I thanked her for a powerful letter
of support for our efforts for peace in Bosnia that she wrote me just a
few days ago. And then I told her I was on my way to visit with all of
you.
This is what she said: "Mr. President, when you're in Germany, please
thank the American soldiers for me. I want to go home." She also asked
me to thank you and all the American people for, in her words, "opening
the door of the future for her and for all the children of Bosnia."
Without you, the door will close, the peace will collapse, the war will
return, the atrocities will begin again. The conflict then could spread
throughout the region, weaken our partnership with Europe, and undermine
our leadership in other areas critical to our security. I know that you
will not let that happen.
As you prepare for your mission, I ask you to remember what we have all
seen in Bosnia for the last four years--ethnic cleansing, mass
executions, the rape of women and young girls as a tool of war, young
men forced to dig their own graves and then shot down in the ground like
animals, endless lines of desperate refugees, starving people in
concentration camps. Images of these terrible wrongs have flooded our
living rooms all over the world for almost four years. Now the violence
has ended. We must not let it return.
For decades, our people in America have recognized the importance of a
stable, strong, and free Europe to our own security. That is why we
fought two world wars. That is why, after World War II, we made
commitments that kept Europe free and at peace and created unparalleled
prosperity for us and for the Europeans as well. That is why you are
still here, even after the Cold War.
Europe can be our strongest partner in fighting the things that will
threaten the security of your children--the terrorism, the organized
crime, the drug trafficking, the spread of weapons of mass destruction.
But it can only be a strong partner if we get rid of the war that rages
in the heart of Europe in Bosnia. We have to work with the Europeans on
this if we are going to work on all those other problems that will be
the security problems of the future.
When people ask--as they sometimes do back home because they are so
concerned about you--well, why can't the Europeans do this without us--
just remember that when you went to Desert Storm we asked for help from
a lot of nations who could have taken a pass, but they stood up with us.
And when we led in Haiti we were supported by a lot of other nations who
had no direct interest in Haiti, but they answered our call and they
stood up with us. Now in Bosnia we are needed. You are needed.
Men and women of Task Force Eagle, I know the burden of our country's
leadership now weighs most heavily on you and your families. Each and
every one of you who have volunteered to serve this country makes hard
sacrifices. We send you a long way from home for a long time. We take
you away from your children and your loved ones. These are the burdens
that you assume for America--to stand up for our values, to serve our
interests, to keep our country strong in this time of challenge and
change.
In Bosnia your mission is clear. You are strong, you are well-prepared,
and the stakes demand American leadership that you will provide. You
don't have to take it just from me. I have gotten it myself from the
words of your own children. A seventh-grade English teacher at
Baumholder High School, Patricia Dengel, asked her students to write
letters to their parents who are preparing to go to Bosnia. I have seen
a few of those letters and I was moved. I was moved by the fears they
expressed, but even more by the pride and confidence they showed in you.
Justin Zimmerman's father, Captain Ronald Zimmerman, is a company
commander with the 40th Engineering Battalion. This is what Justin
wrote: "Dad, I know you'll be fine in Bosnia because of all the
training you've had. I'll miss you and count the days until we see you
again." And Rachel Bybee, whose father, Major Leon Bybee, is a doctor
with the Medical Corps tells him, "I'm proud of your job, which is to
help others. It must make you feel great to know you save lives."
Your children know you are heroes for peace, and soon so will the
children of Bosnia. Your country and I salute you. We wish you Godspeed
in the days and months ahead. You are about to do something very
important for your nation, very important for the world, and very
important for the future that you want your own children to have. God
bless you all, and God bless America.
(###)
ARTICLE 7:
U.S., European Union Establish a New Transatlantic Agenda
Secretary Christopher, Spanish Foreign Minister Solana, Ambassador
Kantor
Remarks at a press conference following a bilateral meeting, Madrid,
Spain, December 2, 1995
Foreign Minister Solana (translated from Spanish). First of all, allow
me to thank Secretary of State Warren Christopher and Ambassador Kantor
for their visit here to Madrid. It is not the first time that they visit
us, but today has a special importance for us. The Secretary of State
has been kind enough to come to Madrid and to hold a working meeting
with the Spanish delegation 24 hours prior to the formal summit between
the European Union and the United States of America, and I want to thank
him for advancing his visit by 24 hours in order to work together with
us this morning.
I want to say that today's meeting has basically been in preparation for
tomorrow's. I want to emphasize the importance to the Spanish presidency
to have been able to reach an agreement regarding the new Transatlantic
Agenda in record time. And you know that the Spanish presidency,
together with our friends from the United States, decided to determine
as a priority issue throughout these past months, providing a new
impetus, the relations between the European Union and the United States
of America. I reiterate that we have been able in a relatively short
period of time to carry out a largescale operation and this New
Transatlantic Agenda, which will be signed tomorrow by President Clinton
with the President of the Government of Spain and the President of the
European Commission.
I want to take advantage of this opportunity to thank the people who
have worked so hard and so well--with regard to the American delegation,
some of them are with us this morning, and with regard to the Spanish
delegation--Carlos Westendorp, Mr. Villar, and [inaudible]--that have
worked intensely over the recent months in order to reach this
agreement.
I would like to say as well that we have spoken logically about other
things. We have spoken about Turkey, and we have expressed our firm
desire--both from the Spanish presidency and the United States--to reach
in the upcoming days the formalization of the Customs Union between the
European Union and Turkey. Turkey is an important country for all of us,
and we all hope--both Spain and the United States--that Turkey may take
over its appropriate role in the present and in the future.
However, as this could not be, we have talked about Bosnia. In talking
about Bosnia, I want, first of all, to offer my most sincere thanks to
Secretary of State Warren Christopher for his tenacious, persevering
work throughout the past months in order to finalize the peace
agreements in Dayton. I believe that without his tenacity and his
physical perseverance in Dayton in the past days, we would not be where
we are today, with peace on the tips of our fingers--a peace which is
now the responsibility of all of us to implement. In the name of the
Spanish Government and, I believe, in the name of the European Union, I
want to thank him personally for the work that with such intelligence
and such tenacity he has carried out.
We have a big task facing us. We have yet to complete the task of
implementing these peace agreements, and we still have to deal with the
entire effort of the reconstruction of the territory of Europe which,
unfortunately, has been destroyed by the war.
At the same time, I also want to thank you most sincerely for the
confidence that you and your government have put in me, so that I may
take over the position of the General Secretary of the Atlantic
alliance. I am perfectly aware of the difficulties, of the challenges
that the Atlantic alliance faces at this time. As I said before, I want
to reiterate that I will assume this responsibility and will dedicate my
best efforts, my best energy, and the best of my intelligence to lead
these great challenges we are facing at present to a successful end. I
basically point out two of these--the implementation of the peace
agreements in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the extension of the Atlantic
alliance to Central and East European countries.
Therefore, I want to thank the Secretary of State again, Ambassador
Kantor, and all the friends who have joined us in Madrid. I thank them
for their presence in Madrid and for moving their trip forward so that
tomorrow's meeting may be a success, as I am certain that it will be.
Secretary Christopher. Good afternoon. I'm very pleased that the U.S.-EU
Summit has given me a good reason to come back to Madrid and to spend
some time with my colleague and friend, Foreign Minister Solana. This is
a particularly auspicious and happy occasion. It gives me a good deal of
pleasure to be the first NATO Foreign Minister to meet with Foreign
Minister Solana since his selection as the next NATO Secretary General.
He and I worked well together over the last several years, and I can
testify that he's shown very strong leadership and determination in
building a very sound transatlantic relationship. Certainly, his
skillful diplomacy has contributed to an unusually successful six months
in Spain's presidency of the European Union. At a time of great
challenge for the NATO alliance, Minister Solana is really an
outstanding choice to serve as Secretary General. I congratulate him,
and I congratulate Spain because I think this choice is a compliment to
him, but also a compliment to the road that Spain has traveled, and that
recognition is reflected in the choice of its Foreign Minister as the
next Secretary General.
The Dayton agreement, which the minister kindly referred to, I think,
shows once again the enduring strength of the transatlantic alliance.
Working together, our combined military and diplomatic effort has
brought us to a very hopeful point. The United States and its European
allies are about to undertake a mission that is a true test of our
ability to meet the challenges of the post-Cold War period.
The Madrid summit that is coming up tomorrow in which President Clinton,
Prime Minister Gonzalez, and the President of the European Commission,
Mr. Santer, will participate in will set the stage for important new
cooperation between our two continents.
Only six months ago, here in Madrid, I called on the United States and
the nations of Europe to shape a New Transatlantic Agenda, and I am
delighted that we're now able to announce one tomorrow. At that time, I
said that every generation must renew the partnership by adapting to
meet the challenges of the new time. I believe the New Transatlantic
Agenda that will be signed tomorrow by our leaders will allow us to
advance the very enduring interest between the United States and Europe
in security, democracy, and prosperity around the world.
The Agenda reflects President Clinton's very strong commitment to Europe
and relationships with Europe that have been a central element of our
foreign policy ever since the President took office now almost three
years ago. Under the new Agenda, we'll move from periodic consultation
to a sustained cooperation to promote our common interests in four
important areas.
First, promoting peace, development, and democracy around the world.
Second, combating--and this is really a new agenda--combating
international crime, terrorism, and drug trafficking, and meeting
environmental challenges around the world.
Third, expanding global trade and eliminating the remaining barriers to
transatlantic trade and investment. My colleague, Ambassador Kantor,
will explain our initiative of a new Transatlantic Marketplace that will
support business and create new jobs.
Fourth, building new bridges between the peoples--not just the
countries, but between the peoples of Europe and the United States.
The new Agenda contains several priority initiatives. It includes
urgently needed efforts to bolster cooperation between our law
enforcement officials to anchor Central Europe and Turkey more firmly in
the West--and the minister has referred to the very important decision
the European parliament will make with respect to Turkey. We strongly
hope it will be approved. We are also working together to support the
Middle East peace process, as well as to fight nuclear proliferation.
A high priority of the Agenda, of course, will be working together to
implement peace in Bosnia in addition to the military cooperation that
we will launch in our NATO meetings this week. The United States and
Europe will work together in the human rights field as well as to ensure
that there are free and fair elections in Bosnia. We are also working
together on economic reconstruction, an area where the European Union
has indicated that it will take the lead.
Let me conclude with a final word of appreciation for the role of Spain
in bringing peace to the former Yugoslavia. The United States recognizes
the very considerable sacrifices that Spain has made in sending
peacekeepers to Bosnia as well as having Spanish air-crews fly by our
side, helping to move us to this important point of hope in the former
Yugoslavia. I pay tribute to the people of Spain for their willingness
to participate in this NATO effort and undergo the sacrifices. I want to
reaffirm the importance the United States and all the American people
place on our relationships with Spain as an ally, partner, and a friend.
Thank you Mr. Secretary, and thank you Minister Solana. Congratulations
to you and to all of us for this very fine choice. Now Ambassador Kantor
will have just a few remarks.
Ambassador Kantor. I think it's more than appropriate that we are here
in Spain to initiate a new Transatlantic Marketplace as Spain initiated
the first transatlantic marketplace 500 years ago. The New Agenda and
the Action Plan which President Clinton, Prime Minister Gonzalez, and
President Santer will formally sign tomorrow confirms the strength of
our bonds in the mutual interest in prosperity and peace and raising
standards of living that we all share.
The marketplace has four or five items that are most important to it.
First is confidence-building. We just initialed an agreement on the
enlargement question--on the question of the reference price system for
grains--and we're delighted with that outcome. Everyone who worked on
that deserves congratulations for reaching that agreement. We trust in
the near future that it will be ratified by all sides.
Second, of course, there will be deliverables in 1996 in order to
continue this confidence-building process, everything from mutual
recognition agreements to tariff reductions to, of course, working on
government procurement in other areas as well.
Third, of course, is the joint study. [Inaudible] good discussion this
morning about both sides wanting to initiate that study as quickly as
possible to look at reducing and eliminating barriers to trade between
these two great trading partners.
Fourth is to continue the business dialogue--institutionalize it to
build on that very successful meeting in Seville and to make that a
permanent fixture as we move forward with the marketplace.
And last, of course, is the information technology agreement which can't
be overstated in terms of its importance.
I think we ought to recognize--as I complete my remarks--from an
economic standpoint alone, how important this is. Fifty percent of the
world's trade is represented by activity involved with the European
Union and the United States both between us and with our trading
partners. We can have an enormous impact on world trade, on standards of
living, on growing jobs, and on future prosperity. I want to thank you
again for your leadership. Thanks to Secretary Christopher for his
vision of what could happen here, and, of course, to all of our
colleagues who worked so hard on this agreement.
(###)
ARTICLE 8:
Fact Sheet: The New Transatlantic Agenda
President Clinton, Prime Minister of Spain Felipe Gonzalez, and European
Commission President Jacques Santer announced a New Transatlantic Agenda
at the U.S.-EU Summit in Madrid, Spain, December 3, 1995. The Agenda
reaffirms the strong and enduring ties between the United States and
Europe, which have contributed significantly to political stability and
security in Europe and the world and to global prosperity through
expansion and strengthening of the multilateral free trade system. It is
based on the framework for U.S.-European cooperation outlined by
Secretary Christopher in his June 2 Madrid speech.
The Agenda establishes four key goals for the U.S.-EU relationship:
-- Promoting peace, stability, development, and democracy around the
world;
-- Responding to global challenges;
-- Contributing to the expansion of world trade and closer economic
ties; and
-- "Building bridges across the Atlantic" by encouraging closer
communication between American and European business people, scientists,
educators, and others.
The United States and the EU have referenced these broad goals in
developing a Framework for Action, which highlights key areas for
cooperation, and a detailed Action Plan, which includes more than 150
items.
The most immediate priority is reconstructing the former Yugoslavia. The
Agenda commits the United States and the EU to work boldly and rapidly
to implement the peace, assist the recovery of the war-ravaged regions,
and support economic and political reform and new democratic
institutions. The U.S. and the EU will cooperate to ensure respect for
human rights; establish a framework for free and fair elections in
Bosnia and Herzegovina; and begin a process for arms control,
disarmament, and confidence-building measures. Humanitarian and
reconstruction assistance will be carried out in the widest possible
context of burden-sharing with other donors.
Equally important is continued U.S.-EU cooperation aimed at facilitating
the entry of the countries of Central Europe into Western institutions
and promoting further integration of Turkey into the West. The U.S. and
the EU will assist the efforts of these nations to restructure their
economies, strengthen democracy, and promote respect for human rights.
To support the achievement of a just, lasting, and comprehensive peace
in the Middle East, the U.S. and the EU will coordinate their assistance
programs, further open their markets to products from the West Bank and
the Gaza Strip, and work together to end the Arab boycott of Israel.
In economics and trade, the goal is to take practical steps that can
result in more open markets and bring closer the realization of a New
Transatlantic Marketplace. Many specific initiatives are grouped under
this effort, including a joint study on ways to reduce barriers to
trade, a high-priority push for agreement on mutual recognition of
product testing and certification, a new agreement on customs
cooperation, and a program to collaborate on regulatory issues to
promote the development of a Transatlantic Information Society.
Steps also are being taken to strengthen the international trading
system before the Singapore World Trade Organization (WTO) ministerial.
In line with Seville business leaders' recommendations to the U.S. and
the EU, there is agreement to launch a new negotiating effort to
conclude an information technology agreement, to seek new mutually
agreed tariff reductions, and to consider acceleration of other Uruguay
Round tariff cuts.
A new element of U.S.-EU cooperation involves the creation of a high-
level consultative mechanism to coordinate U.S.-EU development and
humanitarian assistance programs. In a time of declining resources,
working together can improve our efforts to respond to humanitarian
crises, promote development, and support democracy and human rights.
Similarly, the U.S. and the EU are committed to joint initiatives aimed
at building a global early-warning system to fight infectious diseases,
reducing public health hazards associated with exposure to lead, making
environmentally friendly technology available to the developing world,
and pooling research efforts for intelligent transportation systems and
a vaccine for malaria.
Significant progress also has been made in coordinating efforts against
international crime, terrorism, and drug trafficking through new forms
of cooperation between European and U.S. law enforcement agencies,
especially in the new Central and East European democracies. By
instituting new procedures to prosecute fugitives, improve extradition
agreements, and seize assets used in or resulting from the commission of
crimes, the message to criminals is that there is "no place to hide."
The U.S. and EU are taking a strong stance against nuclear
proliferation, providing support for the Korean Peninsula Energy
Development Organization.
The Agenda calls for engaging citizens of the U.S. and the EU member
states to create an active and vibrant transatlantic community. This
includes the Transatlantic Business Dialogue, strengthening of people-
to-people links through enhanced educational exchange, studying ways to
encourage artistic and cultural cooperation projects, and using the
Internet to broker a two-way information flow across the Atlantic.
The New Transatlantic Agenda is the roadmap to a stronger and deeper
transatlantic partnership. It also is the first step in a longer
process of adapting the U.S.-EU partnership to the new challenges it
will face in the 21st century.
(###)
ARTICLE 9:
The New Transatlantic Agenda
Following is the text of the U.S.-European New Transatlantic Agenda
released at the U.S.-EU Summit held in Madrid, Spain, on December 3,
1995.
We, the United States of America and the European Union, affirm our
conviction that the ties which bind our people are as strong today as
they have been for the past half century. For over fifty years, the
transatlantic partnership has been the leading force for peace and
prosperity for ourselves and for the world. Together, we helped
transform adversaries into allies and dictatorships into democracies.
Together, we built institutions and patterns of cooperation that ensured
our security and economic strength. These are epic achievements.
Today we face new challenges at home and abroad. To meet them, we must
further strengthen and adapt the partnership that has served us so well.
Domestic challenges are not an excuse to turn inward; we can learn from
each other's experiences and build new transatlantic bridges. We must
first of all seize the opportunity presented by Europe's historic
transformation to consolidate democracy and free-market economies
throughout the continent.
We share a common strategic vision of Europe's future security.
Together, we have charted a course for ensuring continuing peace in
Europe into the next century. We are committed to the construction of a
new European security architecture in which the North Atlantic Treaty
Organization, the European Union, the Western European Union, the
Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and the Council of
Europe have complementary and mutually reinforcing roles to play.
We reaffirm the indivisibility of transatlantic security. NATO remains,
for its members, the centerpiece of transatlantic security, providing
the indispensable link between North America and Europe. Further
adaptation of the Alliance's political and military structures to
reflect both the full spectrum of its roles and the development of the
emerging European Security and Defense Identity will strengthen the
European pillar of the Alliance.
As to the accession of new members to NATO and to the EU, these
processes, autonomous but complementary, should contribute significantly
to the extension of security, stability and prosperity in the whole of
Europe. Furthering the work of Partnership for Peace and the North
Atlantic Cooperation Council and establishing a security partnership
between NATO and Russia and between NATO and Ukraine will lead to
unprecedented cooperation on security issues.
We are strengthening the OSCE so that it can fulfill its potential to
prevent destabilizing regional conflicts and advance the prospect of
peace, security, prosperity, and democracy for all.
Increasingly, our common security is further enhanced by strengthening
and reaffirming the ties between the United States and the European
Union within the existing network of relationships which join us
together.
Our economic relationship sustains our security and increases our
prosperity. We share the largest two-way trade and investment
relationship in the world. We bear a special responsibility to lead
multilateral efforts towards a more open world system of trade and
investment. Our cooperation has made possible every global trade
agreement, from the Kennedy Round to the Uruguay Round. Through the G-7,
we work to stimulate global growth. And at the Organization for Economic
Cooperation and Development, we are developing strategies to overcome
structural unemployment and adapt to demographic change.
We are determined to create a New Transatlantic Marketplace, which will
expand trade and investment opportunities and multiply jobs on both
sides of the Atlantic. This initiative will also contribute to the
dynamism of the global economy.
At the threshold of a new century, there is a new world to shape--full
of opportunities but with challenges no less critical than those faced
by previous generations. These challenges can be met and opportunities
fully realized only by the whole international community working
together. We will work with others bilaterally, at the United Nations
and in other multilateral fora.
We are determined to reinforce our political and economic partnership as
a powerful force for good in the world. To this end, we will build on
the extensive consultations established by the 1990 Transatlantic
Declaration and the conclusions of our June 1995 Summit and move to
common action.
Today we adopt a New Transatlantic Agenda based on a Framework for
Action with four major goals:
Promoting peace and stability, democracy and development around the
world. Together, we will work for an increasingly stable and prosperous
Europe; foster democracy and economic reform in Central and Eastern
Europe as well as in Russia, Ukraine and other new independent states;
secure peace in the Middle East; advance human rights; promote non-
proliferation and cooperate on development and humanitarian assistance.
Responding to global challenges. Together, we will fight international
crime, drug-trafficking and terrorism; address the needs of refugees and
displaced persons; protect the environment and combat disease.
Contributing to the expansion of world trade and closer economic
relations. Together, we will strengthen the multilateral trading system
and take concrete, practical steps to promote closer economic relations
between us.
Building bridges across the Atlantic. Together, we will work with our
business people, scientists, educators and others to improve
communication and to ensure that future generations remain as committed
as we are to developing a full and equal partnership.
Within this Framework, we have developed an extensive Joint U.S.-EU
Action Plan. We will give special priority between now and our next
Summit to the following actions:
I. Promoting Peace and Stability, Democracy and Development Around the
World
-- We pledge to work boldly and rapidly, together and with other
partners, to implement the peace, to assist recovery of the war-ravaged
regions of the former Yugoslavia and to support economic and political
reform and new democratic institutions. We will cooperate to ensure: (1)
respect for human rights, for the rights of minorities and for the
rights of refugees and displaced persons, in particular the right of
return; (2) respect for the work of the War Crimes Tribunal, established
by the United Nations Security Council, in order to ensure international
criminal accountability; (3) the establishment of a framework for free
and fair elections in Bosnia-Herzegovina as soon as conditions permit
and (4) the implementation of the agreed process for arms control,
disarmament and confidence-building measures. While continuing to
provide humanitarian assistance, we will contribute to the task of
reconstruction, subject to the implementation of the provisions of the
peace settlement plan, in the context of the widest possible burden-
sharing with other donors and taking advantage of the experience of
international institutions, of the European Commission and of all
relevant bilateral donors in the coordination mechanism.
-- We will support the countries of Central and Eastern Europe in
their efforts to restructure their economies and strengthen their
democratic and market institutions. Their commitment to democratic
systems of government, respect for minorities, human rights, market
oriented economies and good relations with neighbors will facilitate
their integration into our institutions. We are taking steps to
intensify our cooperation aimed at sharing information, coordinating
assistance pro- grams and developing common actions, protecting the
environment and securing the safety of their nuclear power stations.
-- We are determined to reinforce our cooperation to consolidate
democracy and stability in Russia, Ukraine and other new independent
states. We are committed to working with them in strengthening
democratic institutions and market reforms, in protecting the
environment, in securing the safety of their nuclear power stations and
in promoting their integration into the international economy. An
enduring and stable security framework for Europe must include these
nations. We intend to continue building a close partnership with a
democratic Russia. An independent, democratic, stable and nuclear
weapons-free Ukraine will contribute to security and stability in
Europe; we will cooperate to support Ukraine's democratic and economic
reforms.
-- We will support the Turkish Government's efforts to strengthen
democracy and advance economic reforms in order to promote Turkey's
further integration into the transatlantic community.
-- We will work towards a resolution of the Cyprus question, taking
into account the prospective accession of Cyprus to the European Union.
We will support the UN Secretary General's Mission of Good Offices and
encourage dialogue between and with the Cypriot communities.
-- We reaffirm our commitment to the achievement of a just, lasting
and comprehensive peace in the Middle East. We will build on the recent
successes in the Peace Process, including the bold steps taken by Jordan
and Israel, through concerted efforts to support agreements already
concluded and to expand the circle of peace. Noting the important
milestone reached with the signing of the Israeli-Palestinian Interim
Agreement, we will play an active role at the Conference for Economic
Assistance to the Palestinians, will support the Palestinian elections
and will work ambitiously to improve the access we both give to products
from the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. We will encourage and support the
regional parties in implementing the conclusions of the Amman Summit. We
will also continue our efforts to promote peace between Israel, Lebanon
and Syria. We will actively seek the dismantling of the Arab boycott of
Israel.
-- We pledge to work together more closely in our preventive and
crisis diplomacy; to respond effectively to humanitarian emergencies; to
promote sustainable development and the building of democratic
societies; and to support human rights.
-- We have agreed to coordinate, cooperate and act jointly in
development and humanitarian assistance activities. To this end, we will
establish a High-Level Consultative Group to review progress of existing
efforts, to assess policies and priorities, and to identify projects and
regions for the further strengthening of cooperation.
-- We will increase cooperation in developing a blueprint for UN
economic and social reform. We will cooperate to find urgently needed
solutions to the financial crisis of the UN system. We are determined to
keep our commitments, including our financial obligations. At the same
time, the UN must direct its resources to the highest priorities and
must reform in order to meet its fundamental goals.
-- We will provide support to the Korean Peninsula Energy Development
Organization (KEDO), underscoring our shared desire to resolve important
proliferation challenges throughout the world.
II. Responding to Global Challenges
-- We are determined to take new steps in our common battle against
the scourges of international crime, drug trafficking and terrorism. We
commit ourselves to active, practical cooperation between the U.S. and
the future European Police Office, EUROPOL. We will jointly support and
contribute to ongoing training programs and institutions for crime-
fighting officials in Central and Eastern Europe, Russia, Ukraine, other
new independent states and other parts of the globe.
-- We will work together to strengthen multilateral efforts to
protect the global environment and to develop environmental policy
strategies for sustainable worldwide growth. We will coordinate our
negotiating positions on major global environmental issues, such as
climate change, ozone layer depletion, persistent organic pollutants,
desertification and erosion and contaminated soils. We are undertaking
coordinated initiatives to disseminate environmental technologies and to
reduce the public health risks from hazardous substances, in particular
from exposure to lead. We will strengthen our bilateral cooperation on
chemicals, biotechnology and air pollution issues.
-- We are committed to develop and implement an effective global
early warning system and response network for new and re-emerging
communicable diseases such as AIDS and the Ebola virus, and to increase
training and professional exchanges in this area. Together, we call on
other nations to join us in more effectively combatting such diseases.
III. Contributing to the Expansion of World Trade and Closer Economic
Relations
-- We have a special responsibility to strengthen the multilateral
trading system, to support the World Trade Organization and to lead the
way in opening markets to trade and investment.
-- We will contribute to the expansion of world trade by fully
implementing our Uruguay Round commitments, work for the completion of
the unfinished business by the agreed timetables and encourage a
successful and substantive outcome for the Singapore WTO Ministerial
Meeting in December 1996. In this context we will explore the
possibility of agreeing on a mutually satisfactory package of tariff
reductions on industrial products, and we will consider which, if any,
Uruguay Round obligations on tariffs can be implemented on an
accelerated basis. In view of the importance of the information society,
we are launching a specific exercise in order to attempt to conclude an
information technology agreement.
-- We will work together for the successful conclusion of a
Multilateral Agreement on Investment at the OECD that espouses strong
principles on international investment liberalization and protection.
Meanwhile, we will work to develop discussion of the issue with our
partners at the WTO. We will address in appropriate fora problems where
trade intersects with concerns for the environment, internationally
recognized labor standards and competition policy. We will cooperate in
creating additional trading opportunities, bilaterally and throughout
the world, in conformity with our WTO commitments.
Without detracting from our cooperation in multilateral fora, we will
create a New Transatlantic Marketplace by progressively reducing or
eliminating barriers that hinder the flow of goods, services and capital
between us. We will carry out a joint study on ways of facilitating
trade in goods and services and further reducing or eliminating tariff
and non-tariff barriers.
-- We will strengthen regulatory cooperation, in particular by
encouraging regulatory agencies to give a high priority to cooperation
with their respective transatlantic counterparts, so as to address
technical and non-tariff barriers to trade resulting from divergent
regulatory processes. We aim to conclude an agreement on mutual
recognition of conformity assessment (which includes certification and
testing procedures) for certain sectors as soon as possible. We will
continue the ongoing work in several sectors and identify others for
further work.
-- We will endeavor to conclude by the end of 1996 a customs
cooperation and mutual assistance agreement between the U.S. and the
European Community.
-- To allow our people to take full advantage of newly developed
information technology and services, we will work toward the realization
of a Transatlantic Information Society.
-- Given the overarching importance of job creation, we pledge to
cooperate in the follow-up to the Detroit Jobs Conference and to the G-7
Summit initiative. We look forward to further cooperation in the run-up
to the G-7 Jobs Conference in France, at the next G-7 Summit in the
Summer of 1996 and in other fora such as the OECD. We will establish a
joint working group on employment and labor-related issues.
IV. Building Bridges Across The Atlantic
-- We recognize the need to strengthen and broaden public support for
our partnership. To that end, we will seek to deepen the commercial,
social, cultural, scientific and educational ties among our people. We
pledge to nurture in present and future generations the mutual
understanding and sense of shared purpose that has been the hallmark of
the post-war period.
-- We will not be able to achieve these ambitious goals without the
backing of our respective business communities. We will support, and
encourage the development of, the transatlantic business relationship,
as an integral part of our wider efforts to strengthen our bilateral
dialogue. The successful conference of U.S. and EU business leaders
which took place in Seville on November 10-11, 1995 was an important
step in this direction. A number of its recommendations have already
been incorporated into our Action Plan and we will consider concrete
follow-up to others.
-- We will actively work to reach a new comprehensive U.S.-EC science
and technology cooperation agreement by 1997.
-- We believe that the recent U.S.-EC Agreement on Cooperation in
Education and Vocational Training can act as a catalyst for a broad
spectrum of innovative cooperative activities of direct benefit to
students and teachers. We will examine ways to increase private support
for educational exchanges, including scholarship and internship
programs. We will work to introduce new technologies into classrooms,
linking educational establishments in the U.S. with those in the EU and
will encourage teaching of each other's languages, history and culture.
Parliamentary links. We attach great importance to enhanced
parliamentary links. We will consult parliamentary leaders on both sides
of the Atlantic regarding consultative mechanisms, including those
building on existing institutions, to discuss matters related to our
transatlantic partnership.
Implementing our agenda. The New Transatlantic Agenda is a comprehensive
statement of the many areas for our common action and cooperation. We
have entrusted the Senior Level Group to oversee work on this Agenda and
particularly the priority actions we have identified. We will use our
regular Summits to measure progress and to update and revise our
priorities.
For the last fifty years, the transatlantic relationship has been
central to the security and prosperity of our people. Our aspirations
for the future must surpass our achievements in the past.
[Box item
On the Internet
Copies of the complete text of this Agenda and the Joint U.S.-EU Action
Plan are available on the World Wide Web at:
http://dosfan.lib.uic.edu/dosfan.html
Box end]
[END DISPATCH VOLUME 6, NUMBER 49]
(###)
To the top of this page
Index of Dispatch Magazine Archives 1995 Issues||
Index of Dispatch Magazine Archives||
Index of "Briefings and Statements"
Index of Electronic Research Collections
ERC Reference Desk ||
Alphabetic Index ||
Sitemap ||
ERC Homepage
Last modified: Jun. 8, 1999