The Yeltsin-Clinton Summit

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WASHINGTON, D.C.: In a concession to Boris Yeltsin's continued poor health, President Clinton will travel to Helsinki next month for a two-day summit. The meeting, scheduled for March 20-21, was originally set for Washington, but was moved to a site closer to Moscow out of concerns about the Russian President. The trip will be Yeltsin's first trip abroad in nearly a year, after heart ailments and pneumonia in the last six months. Although the meeting is partially designed to show that Yeltsin can still perform his duties, the summit will be more than a photo op. On the table: the impending eastward expansion of NATO and Russia's finances. "The top issue on the agenda will be negotiations on a charter -- Russia wants to call it a treaty -- to regulate the relations between NATO and Russia," says TIME's Bruce Nelan. "The Russians are against the expansion in principle, but they are willing to discuss it. The U.S. hasn't given the issue much urgency, but now the European allies are nervous that expansion without an agreement will damage East/West relations." Nelan says that reforms of Russia's broken tax system and International Monetary Fund loans will also be high on the agenda. The U.S. has been a supporter of international aid to Russia, and offers support for U.S. companies exporting there. But with Russia's moribund economy, high crime and virtually no enforcement of business contracts, fiscal and judicial reform are vital to securing greater foreign investment. Just as important is Western confidence in Yeltsin's ability to lead, and Helsinki will offer him a chance to prove his resilience.