§ Mr. Parryasked the Prime Minister if she will make a statement on her recent meeting with President Reagan.
§ The Prime MinisterI had a wide-ranging exchange of views with President Reagan, Vice-President Bush, Secretary of State Shultz, and senior members of the US Administration on 22 December at Camp David. The main subject of my discussion with the President was East-West relations and arms control talks. Among other subjects we discussed were the middle east, Central America and the US economy. We expressed our grave concern at the current famine in Africa and noted action which had already been taken by our Governments to alleviate the situation. I gave the President an account of my visit to China and my talks with Mr. Gorbachev and informed him of my recent meeting with Mr. FitzGerald.
This meeting was my first opportunity since President Reagan's re-election to discuss with him personally the prospects for arms control negotiations between the United States and the Soviet Union. Our discussions, during which we naturally touched on the strategic defence initiative (SDI) research programme, were thorough and extensive.
Our assessments of the prospects were very similar, and, as I had earlier made clear to Mr. Gorbachev, we will not allow others to create divisions between ourselves and the United States on these important questions. During our discussion the President and I agreed on four specific points:
(1) the US, and Western, aim is not to achieve superiority, but to maintain balance, taking account of Soviet developments;
(2) SDI-related deployment would, in view of treaty obligations, have to be a matter for negotiation;
(3) the overall aim is to enhance, not to undercut, deterrence;
(4) East-West negotiation should aim to achieve security with reduced levels of offensive systems on both sides. This will be the purpose of the resumed US-Soviet negotiations on arms control, which I warmly welcome.