The young Clinton administration, some feared, would focus so intently on domestic concerns that it would pay no attention to messy foreign-policy issues.
White House aides, for example, said they preferred to wait months before dealing with how best to support political and economic reform in Russia.
To his credit, President Clinton is wasting no time proving the worrywarts wrong on Russia.
Secretary of State Warren Christopher and Russian Foreign Minister Andrei Kozyrev announced last week that Clinton will venture outside the United States for the first time as president to meet with Boris Yeltsin.
They agreed on a date of April 4. Washington had pushed for an earlier meeting, but Moscow held out for more time to prepare.
The increased sense of urgency in the U.S. is driven by a realization that the Russian president’s political fortunes are slipping. Although the White House doesn’t want to talk about it, Yeltsin and his reforms could collapse if he loses an increasingly bitter power struggle with parliament. (A State Department official responsible for Soviet aid was replaced last week after he publicly predicted Yeltsin would soon be ousted.)
The Clinton administration wants Yeltsin to stay in power, and it hopes the summit will help achieve that goal by showing Clinton and Yeltsin discussing weighty issues as equals and friends. It also wants to use the summit to promote Russia as an international partner whose cooperation is vital to solving problems in areas like the Balkans and the Middle East.
It’s a delicate task, because the U.S. doesn’t want to be viewed as a meddler in internal Russian politics. But Clinton knows that with Yeltsin out, conservatives and old-line Communists likely would halt economic reform and might resume hostile policies toward America. If that were to occur, Clinton, who is relying on defense cuts in his economic package, would likely have to increase Pentagon spending.
Reaching out to Russia and elevating its status on international issues are timely, critical steps, but Clinton will face more difficult ones ahead. Russia undoubtedly will seek additional economic assistance. Most Americans couldn’t care less about foreign aid, so Clinton must convince them that assistance to Russia is a wise security investment for the U.S.
Clinton continues to devote most of his time to the economy and a health-care overhaul. But he is wise to recognize that Russia can’t wait.
