September 12, 1999

READOUT TO THE PRESS POOL BY NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR SANDY BERGER

3:00 P.M. (L)

               THE WHITE HOUSE

               Office of the Press Secretary
               (Auckland, New Zealand)
______________________________________________________________
For Immediate Release
September 12, 1999


          READOUT TO THE PRESS POOL
     BY NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR SANDY BERGER


                    AOTEA Centre
                    Auckland, New Zealand


3:00 P.M. (L)




................


     The President met with Prime Minister Putin also for about an hour.
The President began by talking about -- he said, I want to talk about what
I think are some of the important issues on our agenda over the next year
and that I have discussed with President Yeltsin in Cologne and last week
on the telephone.

     He started with arms control, essentially START II, START III, ABM,
NMD -- that cluster of issues.  The President made a number of points.  He
wants to preserve the ABM Treaty, but he does believe there is a new threat
from rogue states and from terrorists that are able to obtain missile
technology that may require new kinds of defensive systems.  He said he
wants to work together with the Russians on this and believes that the
benefit of a missile defense system could be shared with the Russians, as
he has said to President Yeltsin in Cologne.

     He also said that he understood that the Russians on the offensive
side wanted to cut the numbers of offensive weapons below START II.  There
was a gap between us in terms of numbers, but that's what the negotiations
would seek to address in a START III.

     The second issue he raised is non-proliferation.  He said he was glad
that Russia had in the past few months enacted some very strong new tools
to control export seepage, particularly referring to technology to Iran.
He said that he hoped that they would use those tools now so that they
could see results.

     On Dagestan, the President expressed his condolences for the explosion
that took place in Moscow.  He said that he had spoken out against
terrorism and that he would hope that the Russian response would avoid
innocent casualties.

     On corruption, number four, the President said that he was very
pleased that they were sending a Russian team to meet with the FBI.  I
believe they will be coming to the United States in the next few days.  The
President said it's very important that we handle this on the merits, not
involving politics.  He said he was pleased that President Yeltsin had said
that he would sign a money laundering law if one came to him that corrected
what Yeltsin saw were the constitutional deficiencies in the law he vetoed.

     And then the President said he wants to see this problem dealt with --
hopes that Russia will deal with this because it could eat the heart out of
Russian society if the problem of corruption is not dealt with.

     Q    Is that a quote?

     MR. BERGER:  Yes.  He said he wants Russia to be strong and that's why
it's important in his mind for this to be dealt with.

     He next talked about the economy.  He was pleased that the economy in
Russia is gaining some strength, production is up, balance of payments are
better and the President indicated now there's a need for a strategy for
moving forward with the economic growth in a way that can sustain
international support.
     And, finally, just generally on the U.S.-Russian relationship, he said
he would continue to support the direction of democracy and reform in
Russia that he has supported for the last six and a half years.

     Prime Minister Putin said that the President's support for Russia is
appreciated there and recognized.  He said that they welcomed a wide scale
dialogue with the United States, they were pleased that Secretary Cohen is
arriving there, I believe, in the next few days to meet with Defense
Minister Sergeyev, and he also welcomed Secretary Richardson coming soon.

     On corruption, he said it is a matter of concern.  He suggested that
there were some political dimensions to it, but he acknowledged that money
laundering problems exist in Russia, as in other countries, and that we
must develop a cooperative approach dealing with the problem and, again,
made reference to the experts who are coming to the United States to deal
with our law enforcement people.

     On the ABM, he said that there are threats from nuclear proliferation
and nuclear terrorism.  He understands the concerns that the President
expressed.  And they must be addressed in a way that takes account of the
security concerns of other nations, but these are matters for negotiations,
which he hoped would proceed.

     On START II and START III, he said that ratification of START II right
now would be difficult, but he said that we're trying our best and he
thought there was some wavering among the opposition to START II and that
we should continue our discussions on START III, which would make it
facilitate ratification of START II.  He thanked the United States for some
of the food support that we have given.  He talked about Dagestan and the
difficult problems that the Russians face there and the roots of those
problems.

     He then turned to the issue of technology transfer, nonproliferation,
cooperation with Iran.  And he said that the armament of Iran does not
correspond to the interest of Russia, that in his former capacity -- which
was in intelligence service and, before that as, in effect, the national
security advisor for Yeltsin -- he had dealt with this issue and that while
he recognized there were real problems in Russian export controls and that
he wanted to continue to cooperate actively in this area with American
exports so that we could gain control of the situation not only from
Russia, but he said technology -- other countries as well, weapons
technology because this is a threat to Russia as well as to the West.

     He briefly talked -- the President raised the question of Kosovo.
Putin said, we need each other there and we need to continue to cooperate
there.

     And that basically is a loud summary.  (Laughter.)

...............


     END  3:25 P.M. (L)