Informal Exchange With Reporters
Soviet
Military Reductions
Q.
Mr. President, what is your reaction to the -- --
Q.
Is Gorbachev trying to drive a wedge between the
The President. I think that he is
sincerely dealing with the problems that he has in his own country.
Q.
What do you think about the troop reductions, Mr. President?
Q.
What do you think, Mr. President, about reducing 500,000 men and 5,000 battle
tanks in
The President. We've only heard the
same as you've heard: that he has been suggesting doing something of this kind.
And it remains to be seen whether this -- --
Q.
Do you think that this will get the conventional talks underway? Is this the
kind of dramatic step that could get the talks underway, sir?
The President. We'll have to wait and
see.
Q.
What do you think our allies will think of that plan to unilaterally reduce
Soviet forces in the Eastern bloc?
The President. Well, I'm sure they'll
-- as we will -- they'll take it for what it is.
Q.
Is this giving them a very large propaganda advantage, since we are not
prepared to make a similar kind of dramatic step, sir?
The President. I don't say that we're
not prepared. There have been no negotiations. This is a unilateral act on
their part. But we have often discussed the idea of -- --
Q.
Well, what are you going to say to him today?
Q.
When he asks you what do you think of the plan, how do you think you'll react
to him?
The President. -- -- hear what has to be said, what he
has said at the United Nations, which I'm going in to get briefed on now.
Q.
What do you think of a U.N. role in the Afghan settlement and moving up the
deadline to
The President. I haven't heard
anything about that. February 15th is what we're talking about in
Q.
Would we stop supplying the guerrillas on January 1st in some sort of an
agreement, as he has proposed?
The President. Again, you're asking
about things that we haven't discussed as yet.
Yasser Arafat
Q.
He said the Arafat decision was wrong, Mr. President.
The President. Well, everybody's
entitled to their opinion.
Note: The exchange began
at