October 10, 2000 White House Press Secretary Jake Siewert briefed reporters at early morning and early afternoon sessions. CLINTON DEEPLY ENGAGED IN TRYING TO BREAK CYCLE OF VIOLENCE IN MIDDLE EAST President Clinton is "deeply engaged" in trying to find ways to break the cycle of violence in the Middle East, Siewert told reporters October 10. The President has "spoken to numerous leaders in the region" since October 6 and is continuing to do so, including phone conversations October 10 with Israel's Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat. Clinton also was expected to talk with UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, who is in the Middle East, "to see how his meetings went and get an update from him and discuss the diplomacy that he's undertaken in the region to end the violence," the White House Press Secretary said. Siewert added that there has been "somewhat of a decline in the level of violence" in the Middle East, "but not nearly enough, and we're continuing to urge all sides to do more, to urge all publicly and privately, the people that they can influence in the region to do more, to take more concrete steps to lower the level of violence." Barak's extension of the ultimatum "seemed to be helpful in defusing the tension and gives us a chance to end the violence there," Siewert said. Arafat, he added, "has taken some steps, but he could do more to lower the level of violence. And I think the President has communicated that to him." A number of different options are under consideration about how best to move the peace process forward, Siewert said, and "how best to defuse the tension in the region and to break the cycle of violence and that's what we are going to continue to discuss with leaders in the region." Some of the discussions "involve meetings in the region; some of them involve a trip by the President; some of them involve a trip by the Secretary of State. Ultimately we'll have to make a decision about what we think is most effective in furthering the cause of reducing violence, reducing tension in the region, and creating the right conditions on the ground," the spokesman said. Asked his reaction to news reports that Egypt has said it does not want to host a summit in Sharm e-Sheikh, if there were one, Siewert said "That is one of the ideas that had been under discussion, but we have other options that we could employ. We remain committed to talking to both Chairman Arafat and Prime Minister Barak, to see what concrete steps they can take to move this process forward." Siewert reminded reporters that Clinton had talked to Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak several times over the weekend, and said he expects Egypt to continue to play a role. CLINTON SIGNS LEGISLATION NORMALIZING TRADE WITH CHINA President Clinton signed legislation October 10 granting permanent normal trade relations to China at a White House ceremony attended by bipartisan Congressional supporters of the measure. They included the speaker of the House of Representatives, Dennis Hastert, Republican-Illinois; Senate Finance Committee chairman William Roth, Republican-Delaware; House Ways and Means Chairman Bill Archer, Republican-Texas; as well as Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Democrat-New York and Representative Charles Rangel, Democrat-New York. The measure was passed by the U.S. House of Representatives in May, and the Senate in September. It ends the 20-year-old policy of annual review of China's trade status and guarantees Chinese goods the same low-tariff treatment in the U.S. market that products from nearly every other nation receive. In exchange for the benefits, China agreed to open a wide range of markets from agriculture to telecommunications under the terms of an agreement aimed at clearing the way for Beijing to join the World Trade Organization (WTO). CLINTON MEETS AT WHITE HOUSE WITH NORTH KOREA'S SENIOR MILITARY OFFICIAL President Clinton met for some forty minutes in the Oval Office October 10 with Marshal Cho Myong-nok, the first vice chairman of the National Defense Commission of North Korea, North Korea's senior military official. The two "had a very positive, direct and warm meeting this morning," Wendy Sherman, U.S. North Korea policy coordinator and counselor to the Secretary of State, told reporters at a White House briefing on the historic meeting. President Clinton and Vice Marshal Cho "both agreed that the inter-Korean summit has created an opportunity for this historic meeting here today, and spent some time talking about the importance of that inter-Korean dialogue," she said. Vice Marshal Cho brought a letter to Clinton from North Korea's leader Kim Jong Il, that describes "the important point we are in, in our relationship with each other, and the hope that we would improve it further." The vice marshal conveyed to the President, on behalf of Chairman Kim Jong Il, "some ideas on how to build on the progress that we have made in our bilateral relationship," Sherman said. The issues discussed, Sherman said, ranged "from soldiers to missiles, to terrorism, to what we have built on in the past in terms of our bilateral relationship, our presence, our nuclear concerns, the whole range." The issues, she added, were dealt with "in a summary, introductory fashion to really start off the meetings and the discussions we're going to have over the next two days in a very positive way." Sherman pointed out that "we are in the early stages of this visit." She noted that the vice marshal and his delegation "will have further meetings and discussions today.... The Secretary will host a dinner on the eighth floor of the State Department today, then she will hold a bilateral meeting tomorrow morning to discuss the progress that we have made today and to begin to reflect on some of the ideas that the vice marshal brought with him today." (Distributed by the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov) NNNN
|