THE WHITE HOUSE Office of the Press Secretary _____________________________________________________________________ For Immediate Release September 28, 1994 REMARKS BY PRESIDENT CLINTON AND PRESIDENT YELTSIN AT JOINT RECEPTION FOR U.S. BUSINESS REPRESENTATIVES The Corcoran Gallery Washington, DC 4:50 P.M. EDT PRESIDENT CLINTON: Ladies and gentlemen, after about two days of solid meetings, President Yeltsin and I are talked out. (Laughter.) But we're delighted to see you. (Laughter.) We just came from our joint press conference where President Yeltsin listed about 40 things, or maybe 50, that we discussed. I never thought I would see anyone exhaust the American press corps, but he did it. (Laughter and applause.) So then I got up to answer the first question, and I said, before any questions, I want you to know our positions on items 13, 27 and 32. (Laughter.) Ladies and gentlemen, when I became President, I was absolutely convinced our country had to redefine the role of its national government as we move toward the 21st century; and that one of the things we had to do is to move away from the extreme views of government as a savior for all the problems of society on the one hand, or government as sort of sitting on the sidelines while history goes by on the other. It was obvious to me that we needed a new idea of partnerships between our national government -- partnerships with other countries, partnerships with the business community, partnerships with all ordinary Americans as they seek to fulfill their dreams and their abilities. This meeting represents two of those partnerships. I want to thank the Vice President for the work that he has done with Prime Minister Chernomyrdin in cementing our partnership with Russia on an economic basis and on a scientific basis. And I want to thank Bob Strauss and all the rest of you who have been a part of our partnership between the American government and the American business community reaching out for new opportunities all around the world. The depth and the durability of the relationship between the United States and Russia will affect the future of every person in our two countries and every person in the world over the next 10 years. 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. We are committed to that. And I know you are committed to that. And I can tell you that Boris Yeltsin is committed to that. Let me close by thanking some of the people who will turn our words into reality. Besides the Vice President, as he has already noted, the Secretary of Commerce, Ron Brown; the head of our Export-Import Bank, Ken Brody; Ruth Harkin, who runs OPIC for us. I thank all of them. And I also thank Ambassador Tom Pickering, who along with the Secretary of State and so many others in the State Department, have totally changed the direction of our American diplomacy so that now the American State Department is known all over the world as being interested in doing business and helping Americans do business, instead of being uninvolved. I thank Secretary O'Leary and all the other Cabinet members who have been to Russia. And, again, I close with pledging my full partnership to you, and to my friend Boris Yeltsin. Together, we can make the future what it ought to be for all our people. Thank you. (Applause.) PRESIDENT YELTSIN: Dear Mr. President, ladies and gentlemen. Let me just thank very, very much Ambassador Strauss and those who have assisted him. I believe and I'm quite convinced that he has been able to gather, on this meeting, the smartest and the best among the U.S. business community, both those who stand below the podium and on the podium. (Laughter and applause.) It is my understanding that President Clinton and I have been invited over here in order to acknowledge the initiative in establishment of the Gore-Chernomyrdin Commission, and also to hear the first report of that Commission. Let me tell you that this is my fifth visit to this country, and I am meeting President Clinton for the fifth time. And all those meetings have got me convinced that now we are talking, speaking about this Gore-Chernomyrdin Commission, that this is not just a partnership but a real business partnership. (Applause.) I must say that over the past two days, I have met with the representatives of the business community three times in different formats and in different numbers, beginning from six people up to a hundred. And I must tell you that I see great interest in investing on the part of those people in investing in Russia. But to be able to accomplish that objective and properly so, we must remove the remaining obstacles on the path of our trade, we must remove some tax imperfections. And in that context I would like to tell you that we are preparing a tax code, a fully-worded tax code, which will be adopted by our parliament early next year. (Applause.) One more thing, I must say, that goes to the credit of this Gore-Chernomyrdin Commission, which is that one of its cochairmen, Prime Minister Chernomyrdin, has had a lot of good training working side by side with the Vice President. (Applause.) And if before the establishment of the Commission there were some doubts that Prime Minister Chernomyrdin was not a true reformer, now one can say with confidence that we are talking about a very reliable Prime Minister, a very good partner of the President, and a great chairman of the Commission of the great power, which is the Russian Federation. (Applause.) So I can say with confidence and assure you that as long as I am President, Prime Minister Chernomyrdin will continue to be chairman of that Commission and chairman of the government. (Applause.) I would suggest that we vote yes and recognize that the Commission has done a good work. (Laughter and applause.) END5:10 P.M. EDT