Memorandum, State Department Summary of Telegrams

NLT ( Noval A: de)155 OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY OF STATE the WASHINGTON DECLASSIFIED E.O. 12065, Sec. 3-402 January 17, 1951 State Dept. Guidelines, March 6, 1982 By, DcB NLT, Date 9-4-81 TOPSECRET SUMMARY OF TELEGRAMS COUNCIL OF We have sent to our Embassies in Paris FOREIGN MINISTERS and London a revised text of the proposed reply to the Soviet note as prepared by rep- - resentatives of the British and French Embassies in Washington and the Department. There is still a difference of opinion regarding the place of meeting. The British have urged that the Ministers meet in London or Paris but agree that exploratory talks with the Soviets and tripartite pre- - paratory talks should be in Washington. The British also believe that this should not be considered a CFM but merely a meeting of four Foreign Ministers. They hope thus to avoid Soviet arguments regarding limitation of the agenda. The French say that the meeting will be a CFM and should be held in the US but that exploratory talks with the Soviets should be in Paris in order to accept the Soviet view on that point. We have agreed that at this stage we should leave open the question whether the meeting is to be a CFM or merely a meeting of four Ministers and the text of the proposed reply avoids explicit reference to CFM. However, we have pointed out that if, in the exploratory talks, the Soviets agree to a broad agenda we do not see any necessity for maintaining the theory that the meeting is not a CFM. In any case, we in- - sist the Ministerial meeting should be in the US. We also desire that ex- ploratory talks and tripartite talks be held in the US but agree to Washington instead of New York. Our draft does not close the door to agreement on exploratory talks in Europe if that is the only point on which the Soviets hold out, but the text leaves open the possibility of the Soviets agreeing on New York or Washington. We have instructed our Embassies to take up with the respective governments the question of the place of meeting, empha- sizing the desirability of avoiding further delay in replying to the Soviets. Our representatives are to point out that we have made many changes in the draft to accommodate the British and French in the interest of expediting a reply and hope that London and Paris will similarly agree.