15. Telegram From the Embassy in Belgium to the Department of State1
6087. USEEC. For S/S Only. Subject: Secretary Haig’s Meeting with EC Commission President Gaston Thorn.
1. (C—Entire text).
2. Following is uncleared memcon of Secretary Haig’s meeting with Gaston Thorn. Suggest distribution of cleared version to EC capitals, Ankara, Tokyo, and Ottawa.
3. Begin summary. Secretary Haig and Gaston Thorn met Tuesday, May 5, at EC Commission headquarters. Discussion touched on results of just-completed NATO Ministerial; U.S. economic policy; Turkey; EC concern over the recently announced Japanese restraint measures on auto exports to the U.S., which the Commission believes were arrived at without adequate U.S.-EC consultation; the trade item on the Ottawa Summit agenda; and North-South. Accompanying Thorn were [Page 43] Vice-President (External Relations) Haferkamp, Director General Sir Roy Denman, EC Washington delegation head Roland de Kergorlay, and Thorn’s Chef de Cabinet Fernand Spaak. U.S. participants were Assistant Secretary-Designate Eagleburger, Spokesman Fisher, Executive Assistant Goldberg, and USEC Chargé Lamb. End summary.
4. Secretary Haig and Gaston Thorn joined other participants after a brief private discussion. The Secretary led off by stating that a central objective of U.S. foreign policy under the Reagan administration is to elicit greater restraint on the part of the Soviet Union, particularly in the Third World. Soviet behavior is susceptible to being influenced. They need our trade and, most of all, they need international legitimacy. The Soviets have to understand that the price of the kind of relationship they want with us is good behavior on their part.
5. At home, the Secretary continued, we are going to increase defense spending substantially and put the U.S. economy to rights by implementing the administration’s far-reaching domestic economic policy. The Secretary underscored the importance, not only to the U.S. but to Europe, of getting U.S. inflation under control. He observed that until inflation is mastered, interest rates will stay high. This is bad news for Europe in the short run, but our priority has to be fighting inflation. When we succeed, interest rates will fall.
6. Turning to Third World issues, the Secretary noted that the Soviet approach is to bring in arms and establish a client relationship. Development doesn’t take place, and Third World countries are increasingly aware of that fact. In contrast, the U.S. is committed to helping the Third World. Recent examples include our substantial contribution to ZIMCORD, the major effort we have made in Geneva on behalf of African refugees, and our efforts to bring about a solution on Namibia.
[Omitted here is discussion unrelated to Third World issues.]
14. Thorn said that he wanted to draw the Secretary’s attention to the importance that the Community attaches to the North-South dialogue. Europe believes that it can find some solutions to its current economic problems in expanding economic relations with developing countries. Europe believes that the dialogue can be useful, and that it has some important political aspects as well.
15. The Secretary recalled his earlier remarks on Zimbabwe, African refugees, and Namibia, adding that within the limits of a necessarily austere federal budget the U.S. would maintain a flow of substantial resources to the developing countries. He also drew Thorn’s attention to the fact that the President has agreed in principle to attend the mini-summit in Mexico, where North-South issues will be discussed. He assured Thorn that the U.S. would remain sensitive to the concerns of the developing countries.
- Source: Department of State, Executive Secretariat, S/S Files, Secretary Haig Memcons and Whitehead Briefing, Lot 87D327: SEC/Memcons—May 1981. Confidential; Immediate; Exdis. Haig was in Rome May 2–5 to attend the NATO Ministerial meeting and stopped in Brussels, May 5, en route to the United States.↩