PM Transcripts

SECOND VISIT TO THE U. S. 1969
WASH INGTON
ARRIVAL STATEMENT BY THE PRIME MINISTER,
MR. JOHN GORTON 6 MAY 1969
I am glad to be here on a second visit to Washington
within a space of only a few weeks, and glad that this visit is made
in happier circumstances than the last.
I return for fuller consultations on matters opened up
on my last visit but postponed because of the period of mourning.
I now look forward to resuming my discussions with
the President and with the Secretaries of State and Defence and feel
these meetings will be more fruitful as a result of preliminary talks
last month. I hope to be told Mr. Nixon's latest assessment of
Vietnam and the Paris talks, and to discuss with him the general
problem of world security particularly as it affects Australia's
regional interest in the South East Asian area. 1 hope also to discuss
matters concerned with our common defence.
I am also meeting merubers of the Senate Foreign
Relations Committee at the invitation of Senator Fu lbright. This is
an opportunity I warmly appreciate.
My visit to Washington is not to deal with any one
specific subject. I regard it, rather, as a practical expression of
the close, frank and continuing relationship between two good friends
Australia and the United States.
Our two countries share many common objectives.
We both want a world where nations big and small can live in
independence and security, develop their standards of living, and
share in an expanding world economy. In this world of change we
want change to occur peacefully and to be of a kind designed to lead
to better lives for all men. We can and must work together to help
achieve this.