-CONFIDENTIAL GBPM NTIflL 1097 THE WHITE HOUSE DECLASSIFIED PERE 0 13S26 WASH INGTON CLo 5' ousl MEMORANDUM OF TELEPHONE CONVERSATION 3 iy o 3 The President's Discussion with President SUBJECT Yeltsin on the Russian Election Bilateral Relations ' START II Ratification and NATO PARTICIPANTS The President President Yeltsin of Russia Peter Afanasenko Ted Sevigny Mary Canty Elaine Florio Steve Pifer Interpreter Notetakers DATE TIME AND PLACE February 21 1996 10 38-11 05 a m EST Oval Office PRESIDENT CLINTON Hello PRESIDENT YELTSIN Hello Bill PRESIDENT CLINTON U Hello Boris PRESIDENT U U Thank you for taking my call YELTSIN It's always my pleasure to talk to you PRESIDENT CLINTON I won't take a lot of your time but I to go over a couple of items U PRESIDENT YELTSIN Very well U want U PRESIDENT CLINTON I was very impressed by your speech announcing your candidacy for reelection I know you are going to be in a wide-open rough-and-tumble campaign just like I face here I see that as a great achievement of yours guaranteeing free and fair elections You have a chance of making a comeback and I was impressed by what you said and how you said it PRESIDENT YELTSIN Thank you very much U PRESIDENT CLINTON I had a good meeting with Chernomyrdin when he was here I was very pleased with the results of his talks with the Vice President The new commercial space launch accord and the agreement on financing U S engines for IL-96 airliners mean jobs real benefits to your people I think that's what it takes for sustaining public support for engagement I am also imFIDENTIAfe Reason 1 5 d Declassify On X6 WTOtftt COMF1 DENT I7Vb- -GGNHOENTIAt pleased that the Christopher-Primakov relationship is off to a good start It looks like they will work well together Christopher looks forward to visiting Moscow in March pf PRESIDENT YELTSIN I have been pleased by those very successful meetings I have been briefed on the successful meeting by Chernomyrdin and I believe Primakov also had a good meeting I can tell you the Gore-Chernomyrdin Commission already has a good track record with six intergovernmental sessions So they are off and running PRESIDENT CLINTON Let me say also that I am looking forward to the nuclear summit and to coming to Moscow I hope it will be possible for you to ratify START II It would be a momentous event if we could exchange instruments on START II it would add meaning to the nuclear summit It would also be useful for progress on CTBT and other agenda items I'd like to know your perspective what do you see as the prospects in the Duma for START II PRESIDENT YELTSIN As a matter of fact I had a conversation yesterday with the chairman of the Duma Mr Seleznev According to him one of these days they will be presenting this Treaty to the committees and after that they will try to pass it in the Duma as a whole I consider it is realistic that in April the whole operation will be completed But at the same time I want to note that we need a sure firm agreement that there will be no change to the ABM Treaty This is what I want from you that the Treaty will stand firm As for CTBT I am prepared to sign any document at any time and at any place p1 PRESIDENT CLINTON Thank you I agree with you on this As you know Congress passed legislation with provisions that would have undermined the ABM Treaty and I vetoed it They then took out the provisions that undermined the Treaty I told them of my commitment to the ABM Treaty and I believe they understand and that now we are free and clear with the ABM Treaty j21 PRESIDENT YELTSIN All this is very good news Thank you U PRESIDENT CLINTON I want to mention a couple of other things I am about to meet with President Kuchma It's important that we provide the support he needs at this critical point as he is taking bold steps to consolidate democracy and reform in Ukraine They are having a lot of difficult times but I believe it is important to keep Ukraine on the path of progress and think we should support him PRESIDENT YELTSIN All right Bill I can tell you that I met Mr Kuchma here recently in Moscow I believe we were able to JSGNFiDEMXlAL -eeNFtBEffflftt GeNRpriftb -CONFIDBN-TIAL remove some of the controversies especially on the Black Sea Fleet in terms of its division I think that some time in the very near future I will go to Kiev which will be a good occasion to sign a full-scale agreement between Russia and Ukraine PRESIDENT CLINTON That's good news very good news The only other thing I wanted to say is that I was encouraged by reports I've seen that your government is seeking a peaceful resolution to the Chechnya dispute I know it's a troublesome issue That would remove a difficult situation and enhance your political reputation around the world I want you to know that we would do anything we could to support a peaceful settlement j21 The other thing I wanted to say is that I am also pleased with our ongoing cooperation in Bosnia My military commanders tell me things are going well The quality of our cooperation has been high and we have enjoyed working with your soldiers J2j PRESIDENT YELTSIN This is also very good news I think we are getting ready on your side and our side for operating in Bosnia very successfully On Chechnya in my speech in Yekaterinburg I said it would be very important to end the conflict in this area and finish finish this up before the election PRESIDENT CLINTON This is good news I just wanted to call and let you know that during this election year we should call and talk more often We need to keep up our partnership and friend- ship I would like to know what you are going through and share developments here If you feel the need to call I hope you will do so any time jt PRESIDENT YELTSIN I agree we should give and take more often during the election year We should exchange the experience of our election campaigns This is very important Maybe things on your side are going a little easier but the campaign will be difficult in any case 2j I have one more thing if I may -- NATO the NATO situation and expanding to the east I think we you and I agreed that for one year there would be some kind of hiatus and that no one would raise this issue very strongly But at this time NATO is holding some kind of sessions raising the issue -- these individual dialogues with the Central and Eastern European states I would like to stay with the original understanding PRESIDENT CLINTON Let's discuss what is going on and what is not going on When the NATO ministers met can you hear me PRESIDENT YELTSIN Okay U -CONFI-DENT-IAL CONriDOITIAL- ONFIDENTIMr eempmt PRESIDENT CLINTON First of all our timetable which we discussed provides nothing in 1996 except for private conversa- tions with Partnership for Peace members that have indicated an interest in joining NATO on what it takes for them to meet the requirements There are no recommendations for timetables just conversations between countries about their desires Publicly what we seek to emphasize at our next NATO meeting is two issues first the desire of France to become more closely involved in NATO and in the European security structure 2 PRESIDENT YELTSIN This is the French and the military committee PRESIDENT CLINTON Second we want 1996 to be a year to focus on IFOR and Bosnia and what we are doing together There will be no surprises on the agenda We are going to stay with the agree- ment The timetable provides only for interested PFP members to be consulted in 1996 but that is all private The public focus will be on IFOR and France -- whether the French will be more involved in NATO -- mostly IFOR and Bosnia Nothing more PRESIDENT YELTSIN Bill thank you Thank you very much for your comments One thing I wanted to ask has to do with the IMF loan in the amount of nine billion dollars I will be meeting Camdessus here and would like to ask you to use your influence to perhaps add a little from nine to 13 billion dollars -- to deal with social problems in this very important pre-election situation and help the people PRESIDENT CLINTON I support concluding a new agreement see what can be possible I will do some work on it J2' PRESIDENT YELTSIN Good Bill PRESIDENT CLINTON All right PRESIDENT YELTSIN hug Thank you very much U Thank you Boris U Please receive my big PRESIDENT CLINTON Thank you I receive it best to Naina I'll see you soon Please give my PRESIDENT YELTSIN Please give my best to your wife in touch over the phone soon J Ti PRESIDENT CLINTON I'll All right bye U End of Conversation CONFIDENTITVIt- CQNFIDENTIftl -- We'll be This document is from the holdings of The National Security Archive Suite 701 Gelman Library The George Washington University 2130 H Street NW Washington D C 20037 Phone 202 994-7000 Fax 202 994-7005 nsarchiv@gwu edu