George H.W. Bush: “Helsinki, Finland July 9, 1992 May I first thank President Koivisto and the Government and the wonderful people of…”

“Helsinki, Finland July 9, 1992 May I first thank President Koivisto and the Government and the wonderful people of Finland for their hospitality. It's fitting that we meet again in Helsinki, the city whose name came to symbolize hope and determination during the cold war. We declared the cold war over when we met in Paris in 1990. But even then we did not appreciate what awaited us. Since 1990, a vast empire has collapsed, a score of new states have been born, and a brutal war rages in the Balkans. Our world has changed beyond recognition. But our principles have not changed. They have been proven right. With our principles as a compass, we must work as a community to challenge change toward the peaceful order that this century has thus far failed to deliver. The United States has always supported CSCE as a vehicle for advancing human rights. During the cold war we saw the denial of human rights as a primary source of the confrontation that scarred Europe and threatened global war. And now a new ideology, intolerant nationalism, is spawning new divisions, new crimes, new conflicts. Because we believe that the key to security in the new age is to create a democratic peace, the United States sees an indispensable role for CSCE. Accordingly, I'd like to suggest a five-point agenda to make CSCE more effective. First, let us commit ourselves to make democratic change irreversible.…”