6. Notes of a Meeting1
MEETING BETWEEN LOPEZ-PORTILLO AND RASHISH, 3/12/81
After brief pleasantries, Lopez-Portillo (LP) indicated that he was at the disposal of his guests.
Rashish began by referring to Reagan’s call in which Reagan expressed his desire to participate in the economic development meeting or what some call the North-South Summit.2 The U.S. President had indicated that he had some questions and would be designating someone to discuss these questions with LP. Rashish indicated that he was that person. The first question was the issue of timing. It would be difficult for the President to attend until after the end of the summer months.
LP interrupted to say yes that the meeting would be held in the autumn. He repeated a second time the Spanish word for autumn and acknowledged full agreement.
Rashish continued that there were additional questions which we wanted to discuss before the Vienna meeting this weekend.3 It was so important that the proposed meeting result in productive and effective discussion.
LP agreed and acknowledged that there were risks and unpredictable situations which one would want to minimize.
Rashish noted that it was our view that the discussions should be philosophical, not directed toward taking specific decisions.
LP responded that that was precisely his view. We would want to look into the matter of political will without taking commitments. The meeting would serve to make participants aware of problems, define these problems, and determine general guidelines for solution to these problems which might then be submitted to other appropriate organizations.
Rashish said this was exactly our thinking. Problems would be with us for a long time.
LP noted that to solve problems, you must define them. Then there is time to solve them. If the only result of this meeting was to make [Page 23] participants aware of the problems, that would be enough. Of course, it would also be nice to solve some of the problems.
Rashish urged that the number of participants not be too great.
LP said there should be an even number of southern and northern countries, representing various continents, and not going beyond 25–26.
Rashish noted that the original 21 was a balanced number.
LP said yes we agree on that.
Rashish expressed his hope that the meeting would not be confrontational and that participants would understand the U.S. President’s sensitivity to the participation of Dr. Castro.
LP said he wanted to say something about that. Most of the northern countries have said no to Castro. Castro has not been invited. This bothers Castro. He wants to be present not as President of Cuba but as representative of the Non-Aligned Movement. LP said he understood difficulty of including Castro from a practical point of view. He personally would like to have Castro participate. He said this because he wanted to be open with his guests. But, while he would like it, he understood the reasons. Surely, he noted, Castro will not be called. Personally I am sorry for that. Because, within a framework of reasonable attitude (and LP said he would assume the responsibility to achieve this framework), I could influence Castro to be reasonable. And it would be very interesting to have Reagan and Castro meet. All right, he concluded, that is a card that is there and that can be played later. A reserve card to play at an opportune moment.
Rashish thanked LP for his understanding and said that was all he had on the North-South summit.
[Omitted here is discussion of other bilateral issues.]
- Source: Reagan Library, Douglas McMinn Files, Economic Summit Files, Mexico—General; NLR–369–10–56–8–2. Secret. Nau forwarded the notes to Allen under a March 13 information memorandum, indicating that he had drafted the notes.↩
- See footnote 2, Document 5.↩
- The preparatory meeting for the North-South Summit took place in Vienna March 13–15; see Document 7.↩