Foreign Relations of the United States, 1969–1976, Volume E–8, Documents on South Asia, 1973–1976

227. Memorandum of Conversation¹ ²

Washington, April 12, 1976, 6 p.m.

SUBJECT:

• Secretary’s Meeting with Pakistani Ambassador Yaqub-Khan

PARTICIPANTS:

• PAKISTAN
• Ambassador Yaqub-Khan
• Iqbal Riza, Minister-Counselor
• US
• The Secretary
• Deputy Assistant Secretary Adolph Dubs, NEA
• Robert A. Peck, NEA/PAB (Notetaker)

Ambassador Yaqub: Thank you, Mr. Secretary, for receiving me in the midst of your many preoccupations.

The Secretary: Most of my preoccupations these days have to do with avoiding criminal charges.

Ambassador Yaqub: The Prime Minister asked me to convey his response to the President’s recent letter. When the letter arrived, he was in the midst of an extensive tour of Baluchistan. The Prime Minister received the letter there and our response has been somewhat delayed due to his desire to study all aspects of the issue and to give the most careful consideration to this response. He asked me to deliver this letter personally to you.

The Secretary: May I open it?

Ambassador Yaqub: Yes.

The Secretary: (After reading text) Well, I would like to study this further. Obviously, the letter was drafted with great care. As I understand the last paragraph, you are willing to multilateralize your reprocessing plant. Are you willing to invite other countries to participate? What countries would you have in mind?

Ambassador Yaqub: Iran.

The Secretary: How about Israel? You would get a lot of Congressional support if you would invite Israel to participate. Let me study this further.

Ambassador Yaqub: My second point pertains to a message for you from Aziz Ahmed which he asked me to handle personally. You may recall that during your meeting with the Prime Minister in New York we had spoken about the question of arms sales which are going ahead, but rather slowly. There have been some delays and probably some of them are due to our side. We are trying to see what can be done.

The Secretary: (to Dubs) Are we sitting on anything? (to Ambassador Yaqub) I have the last vestiges of Protestant moralism working for me. They are always trying to block these things.

Mr. Dubs: There have been some problems, mainly due to bureaucratic procedures. We are ready to move ahead on two letters of offer at the moment—the TOW sale and an ammunition order for $36 million.

Ambassador Yaqub: That’s good.

The Secretary: Are these avoidable delays? What are your problems?

Ambassador Yaqub: There are these letters of offer which we have been expecting.

Mr. Dubs: There may be a problem with getting the various clearances that are required.

The Secretary: Who is holding this up?

Mr. Peck: ACDA has been holding up a couple of Pakistani uses.

The Secretary: ACDA. How does ACDA get into this?

Mr. Peck: This is in conformity with the Humphrey Amendment in recent legislation which provides for an ACDA role in all arms transfer cases.

The Secretary: What is ACDA’s objection?

Mr. Peck: They have some general reservations.

Mr. Dubs: We are trying to iron this out with ACDA through George Vest.

The Secretary: George Vest is working for me. Can I have a report on this by the end of the week?

Ambassador Yaqub: The final point I would like to make is a matter to which we attach very great importance. I believe the Prime Minister has already talked with Ambassador Byroade regarding an agreement of mutual support and friendship which we want to work toward with Iran and Turkey. We want to discuss this at the RCD Summit which will take place toward the end of the month. This agreement would be meant to fortify the ties which already exist between our three countries. We are anxious to know your reactions.

The Secretary: We would basically leave this up to you. We took some soundings in Iran and had the impression that they are not prepared to get into this, but we could be mistaken. We would have no objections. How would this differ from CENTO?

Ambassador Yaqub: CENTO has non-regional members.

The Secretary: Since we are all together in CENTO, there is no reason for us to object to your having another link outside of CENTO. We will not work against it. We cannot promote it and are not in a position to encourage the concept. I don’t think India will be overjoyed.

Ambassador Yaqub: India is already imagining that half of all the Iranian equipment is siphoned off to Pakistan and equipment from all sorts of sources is flowing into Pakistan.

The Secretary: Do you think this will stimulate India to undertake a counter organization in some way.

Ambassador Yaqub: Well, they already have a similar treaty with the Soviet Union.

The Secretary: We will not work against it and, if asked, we will say we have no objections. It is really up to you.

Ambassador Yaqub: This is a perfectly clear position and an understandable one. I will convey it to the Prime Minister. I would just like to convey the Prime Minister’s own greetings to you and those of your many admirers in Pakistan.

The Secretary: Give the Prime Minister my warm regards. I enjoyed seeing him in New York. It is always pleasant to meet with him.

1. Source: National Archives, RG 59, Central Foreign Policy Files. Secret; Nodis. It was drafted by Peck. The meeting took place in the Secretary’s office.
2. Ambassador Yaqub Khan delivered a letter from Prime Minister Bhutto to Secretary of State Kissinger suggesting establishing a multilateral nuclear processing facility with Iran as a compromise to Pakistan buying a nuclear reprocessing plant. Kissinger and YAQUB also discussed other issues.