 Ladies and gentlemen, the President of the United States, accompanied by Ambassador Keel. Well, if there ever was occasion where someone did need an introduction, it's now. But I can't help expressing my own personal gratitude, Mr. President, for your taking time to come by on behalf of all of your, in fact, American citizens here to greet them. You've already heard from your colleagues how important your visit here is for NATO. And I know personally, in fact, the demands on your time, so it's with great deal of appreciation that we, in fact, have you come by and greet us. I know when you asked me to come over as Ambassador NATO a year ago, and we were looking ahead to the last two years of your term, and there were doubters out there saying that there couldn't be much left to accomplish, or that the curtain was coming down. And I'll never forget you're saying they ain't seen nothing yet. And there aren't any doubters here. It's very clear that we not only was there a lot left to be done, but a lot has been done, and a lot, in fact, we anticipate will be done. We just want you to know that we agree with you that you have saved the best for your last act. And we're just very proud to be part of your act. Mr. President. Well, thank you very much. Thank you. Well, thank you very much. Those people that are talking lame duck and nothing much left to do and so forth forgot about the business I used to be in. You don't quit before the third curtain. Well, let me say how much I appreciate the important work which all of you do here at NATO and particularly the great deal of work which I know went into this summit meeting. NATO is a very busy place to work because it has a very ambitious agenda to make the world safer and freer for ourselves and for our children. NATO is not a passive alliance which reacts only when it has to. It's a dynamic alliance which seeks to create opportunities for advancing peace and freedom. And that's why I consider NATO the greatest alliance in history. And all of you bear great responsibility and deserve great credit as our representatives to it. This summit meeting reaffirmed my view that recent successes such as the INF agreement can be followed by many others if NATO remains strong and unified. This probably means more work for you. But I know you expect that because that's why you're at NATO. I thank you for this work that your country thanks you History will also thank you because in the end result there's no more work or no work that is more important. I have just finished telling our companions there, our colleagues in NATO what a unique situation this is. Sitting around that circle in there and that big circle and looking at those other heads of state and remembering how many wars and what a history of wars are between those very countries that are represented there. And today here we are all together in an alliance for the purpose of reserving the peace and stopping wars. And I think it's a very unique thing that has happened in all the world so finally it came our turn and so there's no end to the importance of all that you are doing here and our pride in you for doing that. I could get tempted to go on here and how many times can I say thank you. I just thank you and God bless you all for what you are doing here. Thank you very much. Can I take just a second and tell a little joke here? I have a new hobby. Our time is your time. Well I have a new hobby and it is telling jokes that I can absolutely establish are jokes told by the people of the Soviet Union among themselves which incidentally reveal a great sense of humor in their part but also a certain cynical attitude toward their system. And this joke I actually told to Mr. Gorbachev I couldn't resist. This came from their country. It seems that they issued an order that the motorcycle policemen were to give tickets for speeding no matter how important the individual was. They were to get a ticket. One day General Secretary Gorbachev came out of his country place. He was due at the Kremlin. He was late getting started. He told his driver to get in the back seat and he would drive and down the road they went. They passed two motorcycle cops and one of them took out after him. A few minutes he rejoined his companion. He had them and said well did you give him a ticket? He said no. Well he said why not? He said this was too important. Well we were told no matter who it was they were to get a ticket. Who was it? He said I couldn't recognize him but his driver was Gorbachev. Let's shake a couple of hands and we'll be welcome. All right. I know I can't do this for everyone.