*EPF501 03/17/00
Transcript: Clinton March 17 Q&A with Reporters on Foreign Policy
(President talks about oil, China, South Asia, N. Ireland) (1230)

President Clinton, in a question-and-answer session with reporters in the Oval Office March 17, answered questions about high oil prices, China and Taiwan, chances for peace in Northern Ireland, and his upcoming trip to India, Bangladesh and Pakistan.

Following is White House transcript of the session:

(begin transcript)

THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary

March 17, 2000

The Oval Office

Q: Mr. President, on the issue of oil, do you expect to announce any of the measures that you talked about yesterday that you hope to do in the next couple of days to reduce the effect of high oil, gas and diesel prices for the -- and the second question, if I may, on the same subject did you discuss the oil market with King Fahd -- yesterday or with any other Saudi officials, and did they give you any assurances regarding production increases for March 25th OPEC meeting?

THE PRESIDENT: Well, the answer is yes, I expect to have something to say before I leave for India and, yes, I talked about the markets with His Majesty King Fahd. And I think it's appropriate for me to let the OPEC members make their own decisions. But the Saudis have already expressed their support publicly for a production increase.

I think everybody's struggling now to find a consensus. The point I've been trying to make is that it is necessary, in order to get the oil prices down to an acceptable level, but still have them at a high enough level to earn a fair return to the producing countries and to keep them from precipitously falling and destabilizing the world economy again as they did a couple of years ago, it's necessary to have a substantial production increase that will not only close the gap between production and consumption on a daily basis, but also enable the stocks to be rebuilt, because a lot of the oil price stocks have been drawn down too low, and that's one of the things that spiked the market so significantly.

But I think that in terms of the decision they will make, that's for them to make and they'll have to announce it. I think they're struggling to try to get a consensus. But they are, I think, concerned because the last time they increased production, there was this really big fall in the oil prices to a level that even those of us in the consuming countries thought was too low.

But the problem is, that time they increased production just as the global economy went down, the Asian financial crisis and other problems. This time, we had the reverse effect. Just as the global economy was coming up in Asia and the Europeans were growing, they cut production, which had exactly the reverse impact. So, first, prices went too low; now, they've gone way too high.

In our country, for example, lower-income motorists, other motorists who live in rural areas and places where they have to drive a long way to work, and a lot of truckers, particularly independent truckers, have really, really been hurt by this situation. So there is a stable, win-win situation here that -- where the fuel prices will be affordable by the American people and others, and they will still be able to have a fair return on their production and not risk the precipitous fall that they endured over the last couple of years. So they've got to find the right balance.

They can do that, but as I said, we need to have enough to meet daily consumption requirements and to rebuild the stocks.

Q: Mr. President, any thoughts on China and the elections, on Taiwan?

THE PRESIDENT: Well, we've already said publicly that we want to see a resumption of the cross-state dialogue as soon as the election is over. But the election in Taiwan is for the Taiwanese people, and I don't think I should comment on it until they have all their votes in and they'll elect a new president and then we'll go from there.

Q: Mr. President, from a foreign policy standpoint, what is your best hope for this series of meetings this afternoon with Irish leaders, and what is your best hope on your upcoming trip to India and Pakistan?

THE PRESIDENT: First of all, the good news about Ireland is that even though the institutions have been taken down over the difference between the parties on decommissioning, no one wants to go back to the way it was or give up the peace process. The voters in Northern Ireland in both communities have overwhelmingly voted for it, and I think there's no sense that I got yesterday in my first round of encounters with the leaders that there's any desire to go back to the way it was.

I think what we've got to do is to find a formula by which the institutions can be restored, the people can get back to governing. They actually found out they were quite good at working together and they were getting a lot done, and we need to restore that process, and we need to restore a process that will eventually lead to all the requirements of the Good Friday Accord being observed, and we'll just keep working on it until we find that answer.

And on South Asia, obviously what I hope to do first is to rekindle the relationship between the United States and India. It's the world's largest democracy. No president has been there in 22 years. We have a lot of things that we can do together, a lot of mutual interests. I want to do what I can to reduce tensions on the Indian subcontinent to reduce the likelihood of weapons proliferation and the likelihood of conflict. And I want do to what I can to support the restoration of democratic rule in Pakistan and to continue our cooperation with them against terrorism and in many other ways that we have both profited from over many decades.

I also will be going to Bangladesh and I'm looking forward to that. I have seen a lot of the initiatives taken in Bangladesh, particularly for the empowerment of poor people that I think are important there and throughout the world. And if you look at the size and the potential of the Indian subcontinent, if they could find a way to manage their difficulties, there's probably no other place in the world with the capacity for growth and modernization over the next two decades that you will find there. If you look at the success of Indians, Pakistanis and Bangladeshis in the United States, that's clear evidence of that. So I'm going to do the best I can.

Q: Do you have a meeting coming up with the Syrian President?

THE PRESIDENT: I don't have anything else to say about my foreign policy agenda today. But I will in the next several days, continue to talk to you about all this stuff. And I thank you.

THE PRESS: Thank you.

END

2:30 P.M. EST

(end transcript)

(Distributed by the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: usinfo.state.gov)
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