Bill Clinton: “Today marks a milestone in our common effort to build a transatlantic community where cooperation, not confrontation, is…”

“Today marks a milestone in our common effort to build a transatlantic community where cooperation, not confrontation, is the key to security. The parties to the CFE Treaty have achieved a goal that was thought unattainable less than a decade ago: They have destroyed more than 50,000 pieces of military equipment to establish a stable balance of conventional forces in Europe at levels dramatically lower than existed only a few years ago. CFE's implementation--including the conduct of thousands of onsite inspections and the exchange of detailed information on military forces, in addition to the destruction of thousands of pieces of armor, artillery, combat aircraft, and attack helicopters--is tangible evidence that the era of cold war confrontation is behind us. We owe this remarkable achievement to the determination of the 30 governments represented in the CFE Joint Consultative Group. As envisaged when the CFE Treaty was signed in 1990, this group has been the key to finding cooperative solutions to countless implementation problems, large and small. You have made the treaty work. CFE has been a flexible instrument in promoting our common security. This has been demonstrated by our ability together in the joint statement approved today to agree on the broad outline of a solution to the issue of the flanks, which preserves the integrity of the treaty and does not diminish the security of any state.…”