THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary

(Bucharest, Romania)

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For Immediate Release

July 11, 1997

REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT
IN PHOTO OPPORTUNITY WITH
PRESIDENT CONSTANTINESCU OF ROMANIA

Cotroceni Palace Bucharest, Romania

12:48 P.M. (L)

Q Mr. President, are you going to tell the Romanian President when Romania will be taken into NATO?

THE PRESIDENT: (Laughter.) She's been doing this quite a long while. She's better at it than we are. (Laughter.)

Q What do you think of your reception, Mr. President?

THE PRESIDENT: It was wonderful seeing all the people in the streets and we're very, very glad to be here. It's quite impressive what they have accomplished here in Romania in such a short time. And I think you see it from the spirit of the people in the streets, their devotion to freedom. It's a great tribute to the President and the government, and I'm looking forward to this.

Q What do you hear from Mars? (Laughter.)

THE PRESIDENT: We're doing okay on Mars.

Q Mr. President, is the situation in Bosnia calm? I mean, have you any reports?

THE PRESIDENT: So far, yes. We have no reports to the contrary.

Q Are you sorry they didn't get the big guys?

THE PRESIDENT: Well, I think what was done was appropriate and within the SFOR mandate. The people were under sealed indictment and they came in regular contact with the SFOR forces there. And that's plainly within the mandate. The British sector, they were prepared to do that and we helped them to remove the people who were arrested to the War Crimes Tribunal in the Hague and I think it was the right thing to do.

Q Thank you.

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