A lot of good will and a little good luck helped Bill Clinton and Boris Yeltsin wrap up their two-day summit Wednesday with some surprisingly good results.
The U.S. and Russian presidents, telling the world what close friends they have become, found common ground on a few contentious issues, agreed to defer decisions on a few others and took steps to expand American investment in Russia’s cash-starved economy.
They looked ahead toward expanding business ties, which both regard as vital to Russia’s future, and sought to clean up some of the dangerous remnants from the Cold War, promising to speed reductions in nuclear weapons.
Yeltsin, who has adopted a chip-on-the-shoulder style lately in response to complaints that he is too pro-American, did not bother to conceal his robust delight with his two days of intensive discussions with Clinton and a vigorous program of business recruitment.
The Russian president was ebullient at an afternoon press conference with his American counterpart, teasing his translator and playfully taunting reporters as he raced through a seemingly endless list of subjects discussed with “Bill.”
“You can’t think fast enough?” Yeltsin asked reporters at one point, smiling as he mockingly slowed the pace. “Non-pro-lif-er-a-tion of wea-pons,” he said, articulating one syllable at a time, as reporters and U.S. officials laughed, stirring even a dozing Secretary of State Warren Christopher.
The normally gabby Clinton clearly was upstaged, a wry smile on his face as he observed the Russian’s antics. But if Clinton’s behavior was more restrained, his rhetoric was every bit as buoyant as he reviewed his talks with “my friend, Boris.”
“After our talks, one thing is clear,” Clinton said. “Relations between our nations are moving forward at full speed. Both our countries, as President Yeltsin said yesterday, are sometimes not so easy to deal with, but we’re succeeding in tackling some hard challenges.
“Over the past two days we have made good progress on security, economic and diplomatic issues.”
The summit did not produce any blockbuster agreements, but several major sticking points in Russian-American relations were resolved, or finessed.
Among the chief results were:
– A commitment to speed up the dismantling of each nation’s deadly nuclear weapons.
– A pledge by Yeltsin that Russia would not enter into any further weapons deals with Iran, although he disappointed the Americans by insisting that the Kremlin is honor-bound to live up to a controversial agreement signed six years ago that amounts to $1 billion a year in arms sales.
– Plans to cooperate in combatting crime, nuclear smuggling and narcotics trafficking.
– A big boost in U.S. government guarantees that would reduce the risks facing private U.S. investors in Russian industry.
– Assurances by Yeltsin that Russia will address the most serious obstacles to foreign investment, notably an onerous and unpredictable tax system that can eat up almost all of an investor’s profits.
“In our meeting with businessmen,” Yeltsin said, “every one of them spoke of the same thing. Taxes. Taxes.” Russia’s tax laws, he added, are “full of mistakes both for our own businessmen and for foreign businessmen” and soon will be replaced by a new tax code based on American practices.
U.S. officials emphasized that this summit sets an agenda for the future: A relationship rooted in growing economic ties.
“The depth and durability of the relationship between the U.S. and Russia will affect the future of every person in our two countries,” Clinton told U.S. business leaders at an evening reception.
“We have to make it right. And one of the ways we can make it right is by a deep economic partnership rooted in trade and investment,” Clinton said.
Reflecting an eagerness to get beyond remnants of the old Cold War hostility, the two presidents pledged to speed up dismantling of their strategic nuclear arsenals, although substantial political hurdles remain.
They agreed to eliminate or disable nearly two thirds of their nuclear warheads as soon the START II treaty is ratified by both countries, rather than under the accord’s more gradual timetable.
The treaty, signed in January 1993 by Yeltsin and President George Bush, calls for reducing each side’s nuclear forces to no more than 3,500 warheads by the year 2003, down from more than 8,000 currently.
The two leaders expressed hope that the treaty will be ratified by the U.S. Senate and Russian Parliament by the next time they meet, probably in May when Russia and the U.S. celebrate the 50th anniversary of victory over Nazi Germany.
But many Russian officials doubt that their Parliament, dominated by Communists and nationalists, will ratify the treaty anytime soon because of concerns about the cost of dismantling the weapons and the military’s reluctance to give them up.
And efforts at U.S. ratification may be delayed by concerns that Russia – even with American financial aid – isn’t moving quickly enough on those weapons slated for destruction under prior agreements.
Facing resistance from Clinton, Yeltsin retreated from a call earlier in the week to begin negotiations on a START III agreement for still deeper reductions in nuclear weapons. U.S. officials express fear that such talks could hurt chances for Russian ratification, but such comments also reflect the Pentagon’s hesitancy over deeper cuts.
The two leaders got a break on Bosnia-Herzegovina over their disagreement on ending the United Nations arms embargo on the Muslim-dominated Bosnian government. The Bosnians offered Tuesday to delay seeking an end to the arms embargo, allowing Yeltsin to soften his earlier opposition.
“In six months, we’ll take a look and see,” he said.
Clinton, who has said he would ask the UN to lift the embargo after Oct. 15 unless the Bosnian Serbs agree to a peace treaty, remained guarded.
“We still have a potential difference on that issue,” he said. “There’s no doubt about it.”
Indeed, it appeared that various regional conflicts – the civil wars and ethnic turmoil proliferating since the end of the Cold War – posed some of the thorniest issues for the two leaders.
Yeltsin had cast a pall over the summit even before it began by asserting that Russia must play the primary role in keeping peace in former Soviet states such as Georgia, Azerbaijan and Tajikistan.
His comments, made in a speech to the UN General Assembly on Monday, stoked concerns that Moscow might be scheming to stake its claim on these new nations as part of a plan to someday recreate the Soviet empire.
But on Wednesday, even as he repeated his claim of a special role for Russia in the so-called “near abroad,” Yeltsin suggested that Russia prefers to engage in peacekeeping efforts under the aegis of the UN or other international organizations.
“Come on, let’s be honest,” he said when asked about Russia’s intentions toward its troubled neighbors,. “we’ve helped them financially, just like you help other countries – Latin America, Africa, etc.”
He went on: “We will continue to support them, but not in any way that contravenes international norms of behavior.”
Whatever qualms Clinton had about Russia’s intentions regarding former Soviet states apparently were resolved by his discussions with Yeltsin.
“I think that Russia plainly does have an interest, a significant interest, in what happens on its borders and in countries on its borders,” Clinton said.
“In all of our discussions, President Yeltsin has acknowledged that he respected the sovereignty, the independence and the territorial integrity of all those countries, but that what has happened there affected what happened in his country and that there were things he might be able to do there in pursuit of stability without being inconsistent with sovereignty and independence and territorial integrity. . . . “
Nonetheless, Russian peacekeeping moves should “be made more like Haiti . . . consistent with and within the framework of United Nations resolutions,” Clinton added.
