Clinton calls just-ended Bogor meeting 'historic'

JAKARTA (JP): United States President Bill Clinton called the Bogor declaration a historic one but warned that it should be followed up by the next meeting of leaders.

"I feel very good about it, this is potentially a very historic declaration. But next year, if we don't lay down the blueprint, it is not a good sign.

"If we do lay down the blueprint, that is a good sign. That is my test," he told a press conference here yesterday after the conclusion of the Bogor APEC Economic Leaders Meeting.

The president was asked about how the leaders in the meeting would know that what they had agreed upon today was really going to happen.

Clinton said the critical question is whether the leaders themselves are willing to continue to meet personally every year "even if it is inconvenient for them to do so" to make concrete progress.

On the question of how cooperation could be forged in a world where the media outlet was dominated by the "First World", he said that more and more news is being devoted to foreign policy that affects the developing world.

"Everyone who is here has a little different understanding about the Third World," he said pointing to the hundreds of journalists attending the press conference at the Hilton Hotel. He said the developing countries would have to be more patient with their process of learning.

East Timor

In answering a question related to East Timor, Clinton said that East Timor people should have a greater say over their own affairs.

"This has been the United States' stand since 1991," he said, adding that he planned to discuss the issue with President Soeharto during his state visit today.

Asked why he made a visit to the Istiqlal mosque in Jakarta, Clinton said he went there to see the impressive building and because Indonesia is a predominantly Moslem country which has a very vibrant Catholic, Protestant, Hindu and Buddhist heritage.

"In the mosque I was told how these various religions have come into this country and how they operate today within the country, together, without undermining or conflicting one with the other," he said.

Clinton said that he made the visit in order to be able, as much as possible, to tell the American people and the Western world that even though the United States has problems with terrorism coming out of the Middle East "it is not inherently related to Islam, not to the religion, not to the culture and the tradition of Islam."

"And Indonesia, I think, made that point very graphically. It's something that people in America need to know, it's something people throughout the West need to know."

Education

Asked if international education exchanges are seen as an investment in the United States, Clinton answered in the affirmative, adding that it is a very important program.

He acknowledged that this investment has been reduced in recent years due to the staggering explosion of the U.S. national debt.

"I will say that most of our major universities, particularly state universities, are investing much more of their money and their efforts in trying to recruit students from around the world and promote student education exchanges.

"What I can do before I make a final judgment is to see what the total effort is in our country, but we should be doing more of it. Now I feel very strongly about that."

Asked about how APEC could overcome international politics in its efforts to achieve global trade liberalization, Clinton said that he believed that the business of politics is in part to achieve the maximum opportunity for the positive economic forces in the world to succeed within each country.

The United States, he said, keeps on thinking about the good things it has and what is in store in the world and how to eliminate obstacles to them.

When politics takes over economics, he said, it is very often because of the country's preoccupation with some other goal, which is destructive of the human spirit. (hbk)