UNITED STATES: U.S. PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON BRUSHES ASIDE ANY POLITICAL SIGNIFICANCE TO HIS HANDSHAKE WITH CUBAN PRESIDENT FIDEL CASTRO AT U.N. MILLENNIUM SUMMIT

Record ID: 338262

  • Title: UNITED STATES: U.S. PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON BRUSHES ASIDE ANY POLITICAL SIGNIFICANCE TO HIS HANDSHAKE WITH CUBAN PRESIDENT FIDEL CASTRO AT U.N. MILLENNIUM SUMMIT
  • Date: 8th September 2000
  • Summary: NEW YORK, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES (SEPTEMBER 8, 2000) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. MV: U.S. PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON AND CHINESE PRESIDENT JIANG ZEMIN SITTING DOWN, PUSH INTO JIANG SMILING 0.24 2. SV: (SOUNDBITE) (English) CLINTON SAYING "We're going to discuss human rights issues as we always do but I feel very strongly that PNTR should be passed and I
  • Embargoed: 23rd September 2000 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: NEW YORK, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES
  • City:
  • Country: USA
  • Reuters ID: LVABS5V2Z1JV0SB38TA4YRB2I5BV
  • Story Text: United States President Bill Clinton said on Friday
    that his handshake with Cuban President Fidel Castro "just
    happened" when Castro approached him, brushing aside any
    political significance in the gesture.



    Clinton's encounter with Castro on Wednesday at the
    U.N. Millennium Summit marked the first time the two men had
    spoken and was apparently the first handshake between the
    communist leader and a U.S. president since the 1959 Cuban
    revolution.

    During a picture-taking session with Chinese President
    Jiang Zemin as they began a meeting, Clinton described the
    incident.

    "It just happened," he said. "There were a whole lot of
    people in the room. I was talking to them and I turned around
    and he was standing there. He had apparently come up and
    waited...The encounter lasted just a few seconds. That's all
    that happened."
    Castro and Clinton, whose nations are separated by 40
    years of acrimony, had attended a lunch for some 150 world
    leaders attending the summit and were making their way to a
    conference room for a group photograph when the encounter took
    place.

    Cuba's state media, which has given blanket coverage to
    Castro's activities at the summit, has so far studiously
    avoided any mention of the encounter with Clinton.


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