COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA
SPEECH BY
The Rt Hon. J. G. GORTON, M. P.
ON
PRIME MINISTER'S VISIT OVERS
( Ministerial Statement) 2
[ From the ' Parliamentary Debates', 15 April 1969] r
Mr GORTON ( Higgins-Prime Minister)
-by leave-As honourable members are
aware, news of the death of the late
President Eisenhower on 28th March
reached Canberra on Saturday, 29th March,
a few hours before I was to have left on a
visit to Washington for discussions with
the President of the United States of
America. Necessarily, these discussions were
postponed but I continued with my journey
to represent Australia at the funeral ceremonies
for the late President and to make
the official visit to Canada which had been
arranged in response to the invitation of the
Prime Minister of Canada. However, on 1st
April, when I was received by President
Nixon, we were able to re-schedule our
postponed discussions for 6th and 7th May.
This call provided the opportunity for us
to review the topics which we are later to
discuss and the President has arranged for
further preparatory work relating to a
number of topics to be undertaken in
Washington prior to my return.
Subsequently I had separate and preliminary
discussions with the Secretary of
State, the Honourable William P. Rogers,
the Secretary of Defence, the Honourable
Melvin R. Laird, the Secretary of the
Treasury, the Honourable David * M.
Kennedy, and President Nixon's special
adviser, Dr Henry A. Kissinger, on matters
of mutual interest in defence and foreign
14858/ 69 affairs including the conflict in Vietnam
and future stability and progress in the
region of which we are a part. Even in this
introductory stage of our discussions I
found a continuance of the deep interest and
the warmth of friendship that characterises
the Australian-American relationship and 1
look forward to resuming the talks with the
President of the United States and his
Administration on my return to Washington
in three weeks' time.
Since the discussions so far held are of
a preliminary character and since they are
not yet concluded, I think the House will
agree that it would be more appropriate
for a full statement to be made after my
return from the concluding talks. There
was, however, value in the opportunity to
open up discussions on matters which will
be the subject of further study in the United
States before our second series of talks arc
held. On the afternoon of 2nd April I flew to
Ottawa and was welcomed to Canada at
a dinner given by the Prime Minister of
Canada, the Right Honourable Pierre
Trudeau. On the following day I had a
series of discussions with the Prime Minister
and attended a meeting of the Canadian
Cabinet. I also had separate discussions
with the Minister of Industry and the
Minister of Trade and Commerce, the
Honourable Jean-Luc Pepin, the Minister
of Finance and Receiver-General of
Canada, the Honourable Edgar J. Benson,
and the Secretary of State for External
Affairs, the honourable Mitchell Sharpe.
The Canadian Cabinet expressed their
interest in the various forms which their
own participation in the region could take.
We emphasised our joint and mutual
interest in making the International Grains
Agreement work and we had already
arranged discussions about these matters
between experts which were taking place
on that very day in Washington D. C. The Minister of Finance discussed with me
Canadian experience with overseas investment
in Canada.
The principal purpose of my visit was
to foster closer relations between our two
countries. In addition to Mr Pepin's
presence here this month I hope that a visit
to Australia by Mr Trudeau will not be
long delayed and both our Governments
were delighted that a representative party
from the Australian Parliament will be
visiting Canada in June.
Printed for the Government of the Commonwealth by W. G. MURRAY at the
Government Printing Office. Canberra