Remarks

President Yeltsin: Distinguished President of the French Republic who is chairing our meeting today, distinguished heads of states and governments, distinguished Secretary General of NATO: Europe is undergoing a time of deep transitions. What is being created is a foundation for a new type of relations among states. We are determining the face of the future European environment, and the decisions being taken at this time will determine which way and how our continent will enter the next 21st century.
The most important thing now is to make sure that it create a whole greater Europe, because this is the only way we can make sure that it will be peaceful and safe. It is impossible to create safety and security for one single state. Security will be stable and reliable only when it's the same for everyone and it is indivisible.

What we're going to do now, ladies and gentlemen, is to put our signatures to a historic, in my view, document, which is the Founding Act -- the Founding Act on Mutual Relations Cooperation and Security between the Russian Federation and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. We will do that jointly and this will determine the new quality in the relations between Russia and NATO. It will protect Europe and the world from a new confrontation and will become the foundation for a new, fair and stable partnership, a partnership which takes into account the security interests of each and every signatory to this document, to the Founding Act.

This document meets the interests not only of our countries, because this document will help and promote stability throughout Europe an even beyond the borders of that continent. This is our joint accomplishment, and this is also a victory for a reason.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of the heads of states, thank all of those who very actively worked to make sure that we had a document, the document that we have, the atmosphere in which all of us, including Russia, could feel ourselves comfortable on European soil.

What we're going to do today was preceded by very difficult negotiations, maybe the most difficult negotiations throughout the whole period which followed the end of the Cold War. I'll be absolutely frank and candid with you and tell you that for the Russian leadership the decision to prepare a document with NATO was far from easy. We had to make sure we protected the security of our country; but at the same time we also had to, of course, create the basis, the foundation for a constructive cooperation between Russia and NATO.

Russia still views negatively the expansion plans of NATO. At the same time, however, we recognize -- we pay tribute to the readiness exhibited by NATO countries, despite those difficulties, to reach an agreement with Russia and take into account our interests. And that is precisely the rationale of the situation we're experiencing now, the difficulty of negotiations between Russia and NATO and also the essence, the thrust, of the Founding Act itself.

Through joint efforts in that document we try to answer very difficult questions. And those very difficult issues deal, first of all, with nondeployment of nuclear weapons and also making sure that such a deployment is not something that we will be preparing for. We also were working on the attitudes towards a reduction of having arms to continent. There is an obligation to non-deploy on a permanent basis of combat forces of NATO near Russia. All of this means that we have agreed not to harm the security interests of each other. And I think it is the most important accomplishment for us all.

What is also very important is that we are creating the mechanisms for consultations and cooperation between Russia and the Alliance. And this will enable us to -- on a fair, egalitarian basis -- to discuss, and when need be, pass joint decisions on major issues relating to security and stabilities, those issues and those areas which touch upon our interests.

As a result of the signing of the Founding Act, we're opening up for ourselves new possibilities for joint actions in the following areas: in crisis settlement; in preventing the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction; in further arms reduction, including, of course, the strategic arms. We are also providing ourselves with opportunities to better resist new dangers and threats to security in Europe.

Our agreement, however, at the same time, accomplishing all that, will not harm the interests of any other state. I would like to especially highlight at this point the act which will be signed by heads of states and governments is a firm and absolute commitment for all signatory states. We are under an obligation to make sure that it is implemented in as quickly a time period as possible.

Russia and NATO are going to continue developing their partnership relationship and make sure that it is done as quickly as possible; that the meeting of the Council stipulated by the Act is called as quickly as possible. But for this, we need the efforts of all member states, and the efforts deployed by OEC states to make sure that we end up with common and all-embracing security system for the Europe of the 21st century. We have to once again deploy joint efforts to make sure that we work out the European security charter, and we do take this obligation upon ourselves today when we sign the Founding Act.

I would like to express my heartfelt thanks for all the participants of the negotiations -- all of them, every single one of them -- for the work accomplished, but, first of all, first and foremost, to the Secretary General of NATO, Mr. Javier Solana. He had to deploy a lot of determination so as to be able to go through six rounds of negotiations. I also value very highly the contribution brought in by heads of states -- in particular the President here, the President of the United States, Mr. Bill Clinton; the German Chancellor Helmut Kohl; and of course, our host today, the President of France, Mr. Jacques Chirac, and also the leaders of other countries whom I hold in high esteem and respect.

Distinguished President of the French Republic, distinguished heads of states and governments, distinguished Secretary General: I value the event today extremely highly, and I do hope that with the signing of the Founding Act we are going to start a new phase in the life of Europe, peaceful Europe.

The fate of this continent, Europe, is far from easy. It is very easy to account of all the wars and skirmishes it has undergone. And each century brought with it new tests and new challenges, new wars to the soil of this continent. Several times attempts to stem this tragic chain of events have been made, but now our efforts can and should bear fruit. It has been almost 10 years, and for the first time in the history, the people of Europe are joined together by common democratic values.

The Europeans have now the long awaited chance to create the relationships among states on a peaceful basis. And this is the chance, this is the opportunity which we have to use to make sure that we provide our children, our grandchildren with a happy future. It is up to them to live in the 21st century and it is up to them to continue on the work which we began. It is because of them that we have to make sure that Europe becomes the bulwark of stability and security in this world of ours, which is a very difficult one and sometimes less than peaceful.

We do have the will for that. We do have the experience for that. And our people are with us in this endeavor and I do believe that that is exactly what the future holds in store for us all. (Applause.)