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Paris -- National Security Advisor Sandy Berger says Russian President Yeltsin has told President Clinton he believes the Founding Act establishing a new relationship between NATO and Russia is "good for Russia, for the United States, and good for Europe."

Berger said that in their May 27 meeting, Yeltsin also promised Clinton that as soon as he returns to Moscow he will meet with leaders of the Duma, Russia's legislature, to press them to move forward on a number of arms control initiatives, most notably START II.

Clinton welcomed Yeltsin's announcement that he was detargeting Russian missiles from NATO countries and expressed the hope that Yeltsin's upcoming meeting with Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma would be productive.

The two leaders also discussed Nagorno-Karabakh, this summer's Denver Economic summit and other issues of mutual interest.

Following is the White House transcript of the briefing, in which Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and White House Press Secretary Mike McCurry also participated.

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THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary (Paris, France) May 27, 1997

PRESS BRIEFING BY SECRETARY OF STATE ALBRIGHT AND NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR SANDY BERGER

The Ambassador's Residence

Paris, France

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Q: -- being removed, this detargeting, which is a lesser thing. Did he --

BERGER: The Russians clarified the steps -- at least the initial steps contemplated by President Yeltsin involved ending the detargeting agreement, which now exists between the United States and Russia and between Russia to the other states of NATO. Whether there are other further confidence-building measures -- we talked about this with the Russians before -- subsequent to that is something that we'll discuss at an expert level meeting. Clearly, I think this is what was the thrust of what both President Yeltsin -- (inaudible.)

Q: Could you imagine -- (inaudible) -- is that important -

BERGER: I think it is. I think it's significant. It is, I think, a reflection of the momentum of today in which Russia and NATO enter a new era, a new partnership, is a step that further reduces tension and is a further confidence-building measure.

Q: Sandy, was there any indication before today's event that Yeltsin would make the announcement on retargeting? And if not, why wasn't there?

BERGER: Detargeting is the proper word because basically when you detarget you take the code off that has a target in it. No, -- (inaudible) -- not have a prior indication that President Yeltsin would make that announcement, but it was a welcome one.

Q: The problem in translation, how is it that we got this translation that U.N. officials officially thought was an indication that the warheads were being removed?

BERGER: Well, I don't know what you were -- (inaudible) -- it wasn't clear from -- (inaudible) -- he had in mind. We've spoken during the afternoon to -- (inaudible) --

President Yeltsin and President Clinton just spoke. I think we clarified in our mind what President Yeltsin had in mind.

Q: Sandy, on the further confidence building measures, can you elaborate on that?

BERGER: No, because President Yeltsin didn't elaborate -- (inaudible) -- have further discussions and expert level discussions and we'll see what follows from that.

Q: To follow up on the question of detargeting, there's clearly no more deadly question than where nuclear missiles are targeted. This welcomes Russia into a closer security relationship with NATO. Does it give you any cause for concern that the President of Russia should be so apparently imprecise in his language on this that it takes a couple of hours to clarify and find out what exactly was intended?

BERGER: Well, I think a more significant fact here is that a step was taken in the direction of reducing nuclear tensions and I think that's important and significant.

SECRETARY ALBRIGHT: Could I add to this? First of all, I would call it a mistranslation and we had clarification on this within a few minutes.

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