Office of the Historian

7. Memorandum From Secretary of State Haig to President Reagan1

Washington, March 18, 1981

SUBJECT

  • Results of Preparatory Meeting for North/South Summit Held in Vienna March 13–15

The eleven foreign ministers meeting in Vienna at the preparatory meeting for the North/South Summit to be held in Mexico met [Page 24] all of the conditions we had stipulated for U.S. attendance including: (a) Summit postponed to October 22–23; (b) Cuba was not extended an invitation; (c) meeting to be informal exchange of views, and (d) no decisions to be taken.

Further detail on each of these major issues follows:

1. Timing: While some developing countries continued to express apprehensions over postponing the North/South Summit until after the Ottawa Summit, it was generally felt that U.S. participation was sufficiently important to merit holding the meeting later in the year and the timing, therefore, was easily resolved.

2. Participants: Invitations will be extended to eight developed and twelve developing countries (four from each region) plus Yugoslavia and China.2 There will be no observers with the possible exception of U.N. Secretary General Waldheim. Delegations will be limited to three: heads of state, foreign minister, and one other official. There was reportedly no serious attempt, even by the Mexicans, to push for Cuban participation; apparently the Cubans themselves decided that they stood no chance and their foreign minister did not show up in Vienna as originally planned.

Unfortunately, the Canadians did not succeed in preventing further efforts to involve the USSR. The Germans and French argued that the Soviets must be invited both to offset criticism from some quarters in the developing country group and to demonstrate that the USSR has responsibilities to the South. Austrians and Germans have been commissioned to determine whether the Soviets wish to receive an invitation—Genscher is expected to raise the matter with the Soviets during his late March visit to Moscow. Few believe the Soviets will accept an invitation based on past reluctance to be involved in such exercises. In order to maintain uniformity, invitations will not be issued until April, following consultations with the USSR.

3. Substance. A preparatory meeting is anticipated for all foreign ministers the first week of August to determine agenda, format, and outcome.3 The Mexican foreign minister mentioned raw materials and international trade, energy, food and agricultural production, and international financial and monetary matters as possible subjects. The Swedes added population/resources. This group of eleven held to its earlier line that the Summit should be political in character, non-negotiating in form, and informal in nature. The chairman, presumably [Page 25] Lopez-Portillo, will give a press conference at the end summing up the discussions on his own responsibility.

As you indicated in your conversation with Lopez-Portillo, it is expected that one of the results of your meeting in late April will be a formal announcement of U.S. participation.4

  1. Source: Reagan Library, Roger Fontaine Files, Subject File, [North-South Summit 1981]; NLR–193–11–15–7–8. Secret. Sent under a March 23 covering memorandum from Allen to Reagan, on which Reagan wrote: “Ok” and his initials.↩
  2. A footnote in the original lists Britain, Canada, France, Japan, FRG, U.S., Austria, Sweden, Yugoslavia, China; Asia, Saudi Arabia, India, Philippines, Bangladesh; Africa, Algeria, Nigeria, Tanzania, Ivory Coast; Latin America, Venezuela, Brazil, Mexico, and Guyana.↩
  3. Haig and Ministers from 21 other countries met in Cancun August 1–2 to make final preparations for the Cancun Summit. See Document 32.↩
  4. See footnote 2, Document 5.↩