Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, April 2, 1993 TAG: 9304020060
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: The Washington Post
DATELINE: ANNAPOLIS, MD. LENGTH: Medium
RUSSIAN AID BOOST DEFENDED
President Clinton on Thursday offered a broad justification for increasing U.S. assistance to Russia, saying the security and economic health of the United States depends in large measure on Russia's success in establishing democracy and a market economy."We must do what we can, and we must act now," Clinton said in a speech intended to sell the American public on a new Russian aid package, "not out of charity, but because it is a wise investment . . . [in] our own future."
Looking ahead to his weekend summit with Russian President Boris Yeltsin, Clinton said his goal at the Vancouver, British Columbia, meeting will be "to strike a strategic alliance with Russian reform." He lauded Yeltsin as "the leader of reform," but made clear his primary commitment is to the process of Russian reform itself.
"We must be concerned over every retreat from democracy, but not every growing pain within democracy. . . . As long as there are reformers in the Russian Federation and the other states leading the journey toward democracy's horizon, our strategy must be to support them. And our place must be at their side," Clinton said.
The address, to the American Society of Newspaper Editors gathered at the U.S. Naval Academy, was Clinton's first foreign-policy speech as president. Using it as a prelude to the meeting with Yeltsin, Clinton outlined several principles on which he said U.S. efforts to help Russia should rest. But he avoided disclosing the specifics of the aid package.
Clinton compared the need to aid Russia to U.S. assistance to Japan and Germany after World War II, which he said had spawned today's global economy and opened lucrative markets to American industry. With the end of the Cold War and the disappearance of a "menacing adversary," he said "not fear but vision must drive" U.S. investment. He called Russia's struggle to build a free society "the greatest security challenge for our generation."
Clinton acknowledged that many Americans have a strong antipathy toward helping other nations at a time of economic difficulties at home. But, he argued, failure of Russia's reforms could result in that giant nation's reverting to authoritarianism or chaos, and he imparted a sense of urgency to preventing that from happening.
"The world cannot afford the strife of the former Yugoslovia replicated in a nation spanning 11 time zones and armed with a vast arsenal of nuclear weapons," he said.