THE WHITE HOUSE 8956 WASHINGTON MEMORANDUM OF TELEPHONE CONVERSATION SUBJECT Telcon with President Yeltsin of the Republic of Russia PARTICIPANTS The President Boris Yeltsin President of Russian Republic Interpreter Peter Afanasenko Notetaker Ed Hewett DATE TIME December 8 1991 1 08 - 1 36pm AND PLACE Oval Office The President Hello Boris how are you sir U President Yeltsin Hello Mr President very fine to welcome you Mr President just as we had agreed that when extraordinary events took place we would inform each other I inform you and you inform me Today a very important event took place in our country and I wanted to infOrm you myself before you learned about it from the press The President All right thank you U President Yeltsin We got together today Mr President the leaders of the three states Byelorussia Ukraine and Russia We gathered and after many discussions that lasted about two days agreed that the system in place and the Union Treaty everyone is pushing us to sign does not satisfy us And that is why we got together and literally a few minutes ago signed a joint agreement Mr President we the leaders of the three states Byelorussia Ukraine and Russia m- noting negotiations to the new treaty are at a standstill have seen objective reasons that the formation of independent states has become reality Also noting that the rather short sighted policy of the center has brought us to economic and political crisis affecting all means of production and various layers of society we the community of independent states of Byelorussia Ukraine and Russia have signed an acc0rd This accord consisting of 16 articles is basically a creation of commonwealth or group of independent states Mr President this accord creates a so called commonwealth of states including an article that this is an open commonwealth open to all states including all the former members of the union BECLASSIFIED PER 12958 eons-seem AS AMENDED Declassify on OADR unm mew if lm 08' The President I see U President Yeltsin The members of this commonwealth have a goal for strengthening international peace and security They also guarantee all international obligations under agreements and treaties signed by the former Union including foreign debt We are also for the unitary control of nuclear weapons and nonproliferation This accord was signed by the heads of all states involved Byelorussia Ukraine and Russia The President Okay U President Yeltsin The room from which I am calling also contains the President of Ukraine and Chairman of Supreme Soviet of Byelorussia I also just finished speaking with President Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan I read to him the full text of the accord including all 16 articles He is fully in accord with all of our actions and he wants to sign the accord He is about to fly to the Minsk airport to sign it Haw President Bush I U President Yeltsin This is very serious These four states form 90% of the national product of the Soviet Union This is an attempt a step to maintain a commonwealth but to free us from the global center which had issued commands for over 70 years This is a very serious step and we hOpe we are sure we are certain that this is the only way out of the critical situation we find ourselves ind 46 The President Boris are President Yeltsin Mr President I must tell you confidentially President Gorbachev does not know these results He knew that we were to meet in fact I told him myself we would meet Surely we will immediately send him the text of our accord as certainly he will have to make decisions at his level Mr President I was extremely extremely frank with you today We four states feel there is only one possible way out of this critical situation We don t want to do anything secretly -- we will give a statement immediately to the press We are hoping for your understanding The President Well Boris I appreciate your call and your frankness We will look immediately at the 16 points What do you think the center s reaction will be President Yeltsin First of all I talked with Minister of Defense Shaposhnikov I want to read the 6th article of the agreement As a matter of fact Shaposhnikov fully agreed and supported our position I am now reading Article 6 1L4 it 3 The member countries of the commonwealth will cooperate for international security and peace as well as arms control and reduction of armaments and expenditures for defense They will aim for arms control including complete elimination of nuclear arms and complete disarmament under strict international controls #97 The President Uh huh U President Yeltsin They will respect each other s attempts to create non nuclear states nuclear free zones and or neutral states U The President I see U President Yeltsin Please note well the next paragraph Mr President and I urge the interpreter to translate this precisely The states will keep and support united command over common military and strategic space They will work out develop and codify unitary command over the military will provide for single control of nuclear weapons and will work out all procedural sides of this Dear George I am finished This is extremely extremely important Because of the tradition between us I couldn t even wait ten minutes to call you U The President First I am very grateful to you Second we will study the 16 points with great interest as soon as we receive them President Yeltsin I am sending them immediately U The President We will owe you a reaction we will get back to you We are grateful for your exceptional courtesy U President Yeltsin I am very satisfied This is really really hot off the press -- this is the latest information To be frank even Gorbachev doesn t know although we shall inform him right away an The President Thank you again for this special courtesy to the United States We will work with you and others as this develops Of course we hope this whole evolution is a peaceful process U President Yeltsin Yes absolutely U The President Please pay my respects to the other two presidents and Nazarbayev when you see him U President Yeltsin Mr President thank you for all your understanding of our position and your support For the situation we are in we could not do so otherwise 6 7 President Bush We certainly want to study this carefully We realize this must be sorted out by participants not outside parties like the United States 49 President Yeltsin We guarantee this Mr President U President Bush Well good luck and thank you for your call We are interested in the reaction from the center and other republics Time will tell I guess President Yeltsin I m sure all other republics will understand and join us very soon The President Thank you again for your call after such an historic happening U President Yeltsin Goodbye U The President Goodbye U -- End of Conversation