Yeltsin Says Russia Needs U.S. Support, Not Cash

MOSCOW (Reuters) - President Boris Yeltsin said on Wednesday Russia needed political support from the United States, not cash, to attract investors. "What we need from the United States is political support, support for Russian refoms," Yeltsin told a joint news conference with visiting U.S. President Bill Clinton. "This is what we need. And then all investors who want to come to the reformed Russia, then they will come." Yeltsin said he had no intention of abandoning his reform course despite the pressures of an economic crisis and resistance from his communist opponents in parliament. "We must carry out reforms to the end, to the end and receive returns for this accordingly," he said, adding a set of measures has been worked out to halt the crisis. "We have now adopted a programme of stabilisation measures. I believe that this programme will bear fruit in the next two years." Boris Yeltsin further said he had not had a single disagreement with U.S. President Bill Clinton during their two-day Kremlin summit. "We remain friends," he told a joint news conference. "We had not a single disagreement throughout our talks." Clinton also expressed his warm feelings towards Yeltsin but added immediately they differed over NATO‘s plans to expand to the east. Yeltsin in later remarks called the expansion of the U.S.-dominated defence alliance "an historic mistake". U.S. President Bill Clinton and Russian President Boris Yeltsin signed accords on Wednesday promising tip-offs about worldwide missile launches and pledging to cut plutonium stockpiles. They signed the two documents and a range of other joint statements at a ceremony in the ornate Catherine Hall in the Kremlin after a second day of summit talks.They shook hands firmly and exchanged the documents after the televised ceremony. The Kremlin described the main documents as joint statements on global security in the 21st century, on early warning of worldwide missile launches and on reducing stocks of plutonium. They also issued joint declarations covering biological weapons, trade and investment, and the situation in the Yugoslav province of Kosovo. Details of these declarations were not immediately available. The two presidents then began a joint news conference.