Bill Clinton: “Partnership Council April 24, 1999 Thank you very much. Please be seated. Mr. Secretary General, Mrs. Solana, allies…”

“Partnership Council April 24, 1999 Thank you very much. Please be seated. Mr. Secretary General, Mrs. Solana, allies, and friends: It's a great honor for Hillary and for me to welcome the largest group of world leaders ever to assemble in Washington here to the White House on this beautiful spring evening. Just a few years ago, a gathering of all the nations here in partnership would have been unthinkable. But we are all here tonight because we are thinking--we are thinking of a future brighter than the past; a future of shared values and shared visions; a future in which we define national greatness by its commitment to human rights and mutual respect, not to ethnic and religious bigotry; in which we measure the success of nations by how well we lift people up, not by how much we tear them down. In a world full of both promise and peril, where for good or ill our destinies are more and more linked, we have chosen to be allies, partners, and friends. In an age most observers define by the rise of modern technology, modern scientific breakthroughs, a modern global economy, it is ironic and painful that all over the world and, of course, especially in Kosovo, the peace is threatened by the oldest demon of society: the fear and hatred of the other, those who are of a different race or ethnic background or religion. Just a few days ago, a voice from the age we honor at this 50th anniversary summit spoke to us from his home in Poland.…”