Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe White House Statement on the Belgrade Review Conference.

The President today congratulated Justice Goldberg and the U.S. Delegation to the Belgrade Review Conference of CSCE on their successful work during the past few months. The President is particularly gratified that the delegation has worked in close harmony with the U.S. Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, chaired by Representative Fascell, cochaired by Senator Claiborne Pell, and including both congressional and administration members.

The United States has achieved its basic goals at the Belgrade Conference, which will conclude its work next week:

—we conducted a full and frank review of the implementation of the Helsinki Final Act in all of its aspects. This included detailed discussion of human rights, including specific country-performance and individual cases. Human rights has now been firmly inscribed as a legitimate and proper concern on the agenda of international discussion;

—we maintained unity among the NATO allied states;

—we have worked with other nations to ensure that the process of security and cooperation in Europe, begun at Helsinki, will continue at Madrid in 2 years time;

—we took all of these steps in a spirit of seeking to enlarge the possibilities for cooperation among all the 35 states represented at Belgrade, and we will agree to the final document only to permit this process to continue.

Following the achievement of these basic goals at CSCE, we also presented, with our allies,. a number of specific new proposals, designed to make more effective the implementation of the Helsinki Final Act. Regrettably, the Soviet Union was not prepared to engage in a serious discussion of new proposals leading to agreement among the 35 states taking part. Nor, under the consensus procedure followed at Belgrade, was the Soviet Union prepared to agree to a final document that would take note of the full review of implementation—including human rights—that was the centerpiece of the conference.

We regret that the Soviet Union failed to permit the conference to proceed to its proper conclusion. We intend to press the Soviet Union to fulfill its commitment to respect human rights, to fulfill the Helsinki process, and to adhere to the final Helsinki Act itself. The Soviet refusal, under the consensus procedure, to accept a full final document in no way detracts from the success of the conference in conducting a full review of implementation, especially in the area of human rights. What has been done cannot be ignored, whether or not the Soviet Union is prepared to see it recognized in a formal document.

We will continue to build on the success that the Belgrade conference as a whole represents. During the period between now and the Madrid meeting, we will continue our efforts to promote implementation of the Helsinki Final Act. We will work closely with our allies, and with the European community, in that process. And at Madrid, we will renew the process of review, seeking always to raise the international standard of behavior, in all aspects of the Helsinki Final Act and particularly in the area of human rights.