Bill Clinton: “Oh, China. Let me say--well, I will say again, the Chinese have taken the position we have, that they won't test. I hope…”

“Oh, China. Let me say--well, I will say again, the Chinese have taken the position we have, that they won't test. I hope they will continue to honor it. All I can tell you is, we're not going to test. I signed that treaty. It still binds us unless I go, in effect, and erase our name. Unless the President does that and takes our name off, we are bound by it. And we've not been testing since '92. So the Chinese should have every assurance that, at least as long as this administration is here, we support nuclear testing. Now, if we ever get a President that's against the test ban treaty-- which we may get; I mean, there are plenty of people out there who say they're against it--then I think you might as well get ready for it. You'll have Russia testing. You'll have China testing. You'll have India testing. You'll have Pakistan testing. You'll have countries abandoning the nonproliferation treaty. The reason I wouldn't make a commitment to Senator Lott not to bring this treaty up next year--let's just put that out on the table--apart from the President's prerogative, constitutional prerogative, there is a substantive reason. Four years ago, we got all the countries that were in the nonproliferation treaty-- even more than have signed the test ban treaty, I think 176 of them--and they say they're either not going to develop nuclear capacity, or if they have it, they won't share it. It's very, very important. And a lot of the countries that were edgy because their neighbors had nuclear capacity or because they had nascent nuclear capacity and they wanted to develop it more, they really wanted to know was there going to be a test ban treaty? So that if they stopped dead in their tracks, they wouldn't be discriminated against by people who were a little ahead of them, who could test. And the United States took the lead in assuring them we would continue to work until we got a test ban treaty. So we did. And that's why I was the first person to sign it, not only because I believe in the test ban treaty but because I think it is essential to reinforce the nonproliferation treaty. Consider how each of you would feel if you were running a country and you thought you had the scientific capacity to develop these kinds of weapons and you had neighbors with them you felt threatened by, but they were a little ahead of you, and they could test and you couldn't. So the reason I--what I told Senator Lott was, I said, ``Look, I believe if next year we have indications that three or four or five countries are going to bail out on the nonproliferation treaty, I could come to you, and I could convince you that we should bring it up. And therefore, I cannot promise not to bring it up. But, barring some international emergency, I wouldn't bring this treaty up until I thought we could get it ratified.'' To me it's not a matter of personal credit, it's a matter of leaving in place for the future a framework that will maximize the safety and security of the American people and minimize the prospect of nuclear conflict around the world. So that's where it is. I hope very much that people will see in the steadfast determination of this administration and of the American people, the determination to stay on this path. And I hope they will stick with us. I think if we ever have a President and a Senate not for this test ban treaty, then all bets are off. You will see a lot of testing, and they will bail on the NPT. That's what I think will happen, and we will be in a much, much more dangerous world. But we are not there today, and I hope I can discourage people from going there. Mark, [Mark Knoller, CBS Radio] and then Sarah [Sarah McClendon, McClendon News Service]. Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty”