The Rt. Hon. Sir John Major KG CH

Tag: Canada

  • Mr Major’s Opening Remarks at Arrival of Canadian Prime Minister – 11 May 1993

    Below is the text of Mr Major’s opening remarks at the arrival of the Canadian Prime Minister, Mr Mulroney, in London on Tuesday 11th May 1993.

    PRIME MINISTER:

    Can I just say what a pleasure it is to welcome the Prime Minister back to London. He is a very old and dear friend of the United Kingdom and he is always a very welcome guest indeed.

    We have had the opportunity this morning of looking at a whole range of things. We spent quite a time on Bosnia. Canada has had a very distinguished role in assisting in Bosnia; many of their troops have done an absolutely magnificent job over the last year or so and I was able to express my admiration to the Prime Minister for the work that they have done.

    We had the opportunity to discuss GATT, a whole range of bilateral matters, the Prime Minister’s recent visits to Russia and to Germany and a series of other international issues.

    What I am proposing to do this morning is leave the Prime Minister with you. I have some other meetings so I am going to leave him in your good hands. We are delighted to see him. I am looking forward to seeing him for dinner.

  • Mr Major’s Speech in Ottawa – 18 December 1992

    Below is the text of Mr Major’s speech in Ottawa made on Friday 18th December 1992.

    PRIME MINISTER:

    Forty years ago, my family nearly emigrated to Canada. They did not at the last moment do so and so my first visit here has been somewhat delayed. I began to think as our plane moved from one airport to another and our car moved from one road to another that the delay might be even longer than I first imagined it to be but nonetheless, I am delighted to be here this evening and most grateful to you Brian and to you Mila for the very warm welcome we have received.

    We meet this evening in the Province of Quebec and we do so on the 200th anniversary of the first meeting of the parliaments of Lower Canada and Quebec City and I wondered when I uncovered that nugget of information what our forebears who fought over this place might have made of this meeting today. Were you to believe some of the accounts you occasionally read of European relations within the memberships of the Community, you might have thought that little has changed, that I was General Wolfe and Jacques Delors was General Montcalm. I must tell you that would be a misleading impression.

    Jacques Delors and I come here today to scale a different set of heights, a different set of heights in a different cause, partners in what we believe is a great enterprise – the building, the construction of the European Community and a new and wider Europe and as we debate from time to time the details of this directive or that piece of legislation, it is all too easy to forget what the principal aim of the Community is and all to easy to forget that the Community is unique amongst international organisations; unique in its shared framework of law among nations; unique in the way in which it has turned traditional enemies into firm friends in a matter of two or three decades; unique in the way in which it is breaking down economic and political barriers across Europe. It is a mixture, our Community, of vision and of shared self-interest.

    On this very day when you Prime Minister, George Bush and President Selinas have completed the North American Free Trade Agreement I should like to pay tribute to those same qualities which you have shown in bringing that agreement to fruition. [Applause].

    As so many times in the past, my country marches arm-in-arm in our instincts with Canada for in a fortnight’s time our Single Market in Europe will be fully open for business and since we faced the task of breaking down barriers among twelve countries, I think we too can take some small pride in that achievement.

    Both developments are welcome but there is a greater prize and both of us must continue to work together to secure the greatest free trade prize of all, a successful outcome to the Uruguay Round and a successful outcome as speedily and as comprehensively as we can get it. [Applause].

    Why do we need it? Not because of some free trade philosophy, some ideal; we need it for the most practical of all reasons, because of the boost it will bring to our economies, to the world economy at a time when that boost is sorely needed from one end of the world to the other. On both sides of the Atlantic we face similar problems, problems of recession, problems of recession leading to higher unemployment. In Canada, as in Britain, the burden of corporate debt has held back recovery. Many businesses have cut back their workforces, many people today are without work because of the depth, severity and length of that recession and yet productivity is rising sharply and that is vital to our success in today’s increasingly competitive markets, a success that can only be earned and will only be retained by those prepared to take tough decisions often unpopular at the time and often unpopular for many months after they are taken.

    In Canada, you have achieved exemplary success in controlling inflation. We too recognise the danger of that particular scourge. In Britain, we have now brought our inflation down below the European average, a dramatic change over the last two years. Our interest rates today are the lowest in Europe and even, Prime Minister, a touch today below yours.

    New growth is desirable in itself, desirable for prosperity but essential to bring unemployment down again in our countries. It will take time to reverse the trend so in Britain and at our Edinburgh Council across Europe as a whole we have announced initiatives to boost investment, reduce burdens on business and redirect government spending towards projects which will encourage long-term growth and short-term employment as that growth is built.

    These, I think, are shared instincts we have between Europe and Canada but let me say a word perhaps for a moment about Canada and the United Kingdom because your country of Canada and mine have a relationship which goes far beyond economics. We share a bond that comes from membership of the Commonwealth and from having the same Head of State. It is a deep bond, a lasting bond, an enduring bond and as we have developed a new relationship between the Community and Canada neither we the British nor for that matter the French have had to suppress our national ties of history, culture and shared interests. Indeed to the contrary, we have built upon those traditional ties and somewhere I suspect in that mix in Canada, somewhere Brian I think there has been an added ingredient – that tiny speck of Irish ingredient that may have given it perhaps a special flavour in your country. [Applause].

    We speak of ties, of shared links. I should like to say this evening to you, Brian, thank you for what you have done to strengthen those ties between Canada and Europe. I believe you can take pride in those achievements and also in the world role that Canada increasingly plays. Wherever you may look, look around as you will in the world’s trouble-spots, be it Yugoslavia, Somalia, Cambodia, you will find Canada is there and in Yugoslavia and Cambodia British forces are there alongside yours. In Somalia, our humanitarian agencies will be enabled by you and the United States to carry through their tasks and the European Community collectively is making an all-out effort to try and bring peace to the former Yugoslavia. That can only be done in partnership with others and in that partnership Canada’s role is both valued and crucial.

    So we, Britain and Canada, are partners in several enterprises. Today, Jacques Delors and I have approached Canada in a new guise, in the European Community-Canadian relationship and no European Presidency these days is complete without adding to that relationship with Canada. The strength and scope of it was very clear even in the brief discussions the President, the Prime Minister and I have been able to have since we arrived a couple of hours ago.

    I say tonight with total certainty that I confidently expect the same result in this new relationship as Britain has had over many years in all its dealings with Canada. Canada is a valued ally. More than that, Prime Minister, it is a close friend; it has been, it is and it will remain so in the future.

    You began this evening in a most agreeable way as we all await our dinner and I must say I think it is a very attractive trait to have the speeches before dinner – we will all enjoy our meal more, you will be more hungry and we will be more relaxed and we will all benefit. You began with a toast. Let me propose another, a toast I think of great importance, if you can reach for your glasses, one I propose with an immense degree of pleasure. I would like you to rise and drink to the further strengthening of cooperation between Canada and the European Community. That, Ladies and Gentlemen, is the toast – Canada and the European Community. [Applause].

  • Mr Major’s Arrival Doorstep Interview in Montreal – 17 December 1992

    Below is the text of Mr Major’s arrival doorstep interview in Montreal on Thursday 17th December 1992.

    QUESTION:

    Prime Minister, can you confirm that Britain would not use a veto in the Security Council against any No Fly Zone enforcement moves that were taken up?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    I will have the opportunity of discussing this over the next two days but I certainly do not expect that there would be a resolution that we would need to veto, I think that that is most unlikely.

    QUESTION:

    What form would the resolution take, do you think?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    That is still to be discussed and I hope to have the opportunity of discussing that over the weekend with President Bush.

    QUESTION:

    Are you certain yet how far you are prepared to go in committing any more military effort from Britain, whether it was to enforce the No Fly Zone or anything else?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    Those are matters that we will discuss over the weekend, there are a number of complex matters that need to be brought together, I will discuss them over the weekend, I may have more to say by the end of the weekend.

    QUESTION:

    Do you accept what Mrs Thatcher is saying today that the West should accept some blame for what has happened in Yugoslavia?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    I have not seen what Lady Thatcher has said about that and I have no comment to make about it until I have seen the text.

    QUESTION:

    Do you regard the Bosnian question as top of the agenda with President Bush?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    I think it must be top of many people’s agenda, there are other matters to discuss with President Bush, of course, the GATT Round is still very important and we have other matters to discuss as well. But I do not think anyone can have any doubt about the importance of what has been happening in Bosnia, many of the actions there are appalling, there is no doubt about that, but we need to look and see what can be done to bring a settlement but we need to do that in the context of maintaining the humanitarian relief that is now going through, were that to be broken there would be very serious consequences this winter.

    QUESTION:

    Do you think some of the voices on the American side are too gung-ho and do you think the British and American positions can be reconciled?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    No I would not describe them in that fashion and I have no doubt that we will reach an accommodation before the Security Council resolution comes round, I have no doubt at all about that, I think there is a common acknowledgement of the problem and a common will to deal with it.

    QUESTION:

    To those who say something must be done, what do you say at this stage?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    We all want to do something and we are doing something and the question is what we can do that is most effective. We have to bear in mind that there are many people in very great difficulty in central Bosnia who actually need those humanitarian lines to be kept open, we have to bear in mind what nature of conflict this is and consider what actions we can most take that are most successful. I am not interested in gestures, I am interested in actions that will be successful, those are the matters we have to discuss.

    QUESTION:

    Could action be taken before Mr Clinton takes over in the White House?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    I cannot speculate upon that.

    QUESTION:

    Do you think you can make significant progress on GATT both in Ottawa later tonight and in Washington in unblocking the problems that are still facing the GATT negotiators?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    There are still some problems in Geneva and I think it is very important that we make progress, we will certainly discuss with the United States but of course we are now into multilateral negotiations in Geneva, it is not just a question of the Community and the United States, there are much wider interests as well.

  • Mr Major’s Joint Doorstep Interview with Brian Mulroney – 4 July 1992

    Below is the text of Mr Major’s joint doorstep interview with the Canadian Prime Minister, Mr Brian Mulroney, held in London on Saturday 4th July 1992.

    PRIME MINISTER:

    Perhaps I might just say a few words, I will then invite the Prime Minister to add a few words and we will take three or four questions before going in.

    Can I say firstly what a pleasure it is to have the Prime Minister back in the United Kingdom. Canada are very close allies, very important allies, and although we frequently have the possibility of consultation by telephone, it is always a pleasure to see Brian back in the United Kingdom.

    We have taken the opportunity in the last few minutes of looking at a whole range of different issues: the preparation for the G7 summit in Munich, a large number of matters there that we wish to discuss before we arrive there in a day or so; we have looked also at the continuing preparation and desirability for the earliest possible conclusion of the Uruguay Round, we both see that as not only desirable in itself but desirable in the impact it will have upon world trade; I was able to express my admiration of the Canadian troops in their activities in UNPRIFOR at the moment; and we have also been able to look at a whole range of bilateral matters.

    We will continue our discussions over dinner later on, but I may say already it has been an extremely useful exchange of views.

    MR MULRONEY:

    Thank you John. I was grateful for the expression of support by the Prime Minister about Canadian troops in Yugoslavia under the UN auspices, they are doing a very courageous and impressive job there and we are grateful for the support that we have been getting from G7 leaders and from UN leaders elsewhere.

    The bilateral relationship between our countries is excellent, this is an opportunity to deal with some of the smaller matters that can irritate our relationship, and High Commissioner Fred Eton does an excellent job of representing our interests with Her Majesty’s Government here.

    I raised some bilateral matters. The Prime Minister was interested in constitutional development, as he always is in Canada. The Newfoundland fishery problem, about the dramatic effect that this has had, we are trying to protect the northern cod stocks within 200 mile limits and the damaging effect that it has when Europeans fish outside of the 200 mile limit and how incompatible that is with the resolution to the problem. So I spoke to the Prime Minister in his capacity as President of Europe, but indicated I will be talking to him later on tonight and in the next few days about it in more specifics. I wanted to acquaint him with the domestic impact that this has had on Canadians and Newfoundlanders so far.

    So all in all so far an excellent meeting and I thank the Prime Minister for his courtesy and I will be happy to answer a few questions.

    QUESTION:

    [In French, not translated].

    MR MULRONEY:

    I have just been asked, Prime Minister, about whether the G7 should be extended to a G8 and my answer is no, not because of any hostility but simply because Russia certainly does not meet, in our judgment anyway, the economic standards and the institutional standards required of participating nations whose GDP represents some 65% of the world output but whose characteristics are that they are the most powerful industrialised modernised economies in the entire world. That would be the view today of Canada.

    QUESTION:

    Mr Major, do you conclude the same about the Soviets and the G8?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    I share that view entirely, yes, and for precisely the same reason. I think one could add further reasons to it but I think the G7 is working very well indeed. From time to time it may be desirable for the G7 to meet as G7 plus 1 and have discussions with the Republic of Russia, but I do not see the G7 becoming a G8, no.

    QUESTION:

    Mr Mulroney, you talked to the Prime Minister about the latest constitutional developments, could you share those thoughts with us about what the Premus [phon] talked about on Friday, what came out of that Premus meeting?

    MR MULRONEY:

    My information, Joe, is limited to what has been published and what I have told about the Premus meeting. They seem to have been in a mood to effect a compromise situation, from what I understand has evolved it seems to have a lot to commend it, but serious questions still exist, they are going to want to examine it in various quarters and they will meet again on Tuesday to see if they have satisfied their concerns. So I guess my opinion to the Prime Minister was that the Canadians want a solution to this matter and the politicians appear to be responding.

    QUESTION:

    Do you think relief aid to Sarajevo will continue to get through seeing as the fighting is carrying on?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    I very much hope they will, a second British plane got through satisfactorily today and no doubt there will be more, we certainly hope there will be more. What we cannot of course control and what we cannot be certain of is what precisely will be the position in and around the airport for planes actually to get in. As you know, the airport is sunk into a bowl surrounded by hills, it is extremely difficult for the aircraft to get in safely while there is any conflict going on. I hope that we will be able to get more planes in, it is patently necessary and if we can possibly get more planes in we will, but I cannot offer you a cast iron guarantee, no-one can be certain precisely what will happen.

  • Mr Major’s Joint Doorstep Interview with Brian Mulroney – 15 October 1991

    Below is the text of Mr Major’s joint doorstep interview with Mr Brian Mulroney, given in Harare on Tuesday 15th October 1991.

    MR MULRONEY:

    The Prime Minister and I, we have been together for the better part of the day and we met a little earlier this evening and we are going back to a dinner meeting where we are going to be focusing on the Soviet Union and on Yugoslavia and related matters, including the Uruguay Round which is of great concern to us all.

    But we spent some time a little earlier this evening discussing the Commonwealth and the importance of this conference and we will no doubt both have an opportunity to answer your questions tonight and during the course of the week.

    The conference has not started yet, it starts tomorrow, we had a preliminary meeting today that dealt with the manner in which the communique or the declaration could emerge. I told our colleagues that given the choice between the draft submitted by the Commonwealth and the British draft I liked the British draft, it was shorter, crisper, to the point and it I believe will become the basis for the Commonwealth declaration that we will see emerge later on during the week.

    We discussed in general terms today and in general terms because the Commonwealth conference has not started, you cannot have 8 or 9 people in a room purporting to speak on behalf of the Commonwealth, the debates will begin tomorrow. But we talked about human rights in general and in specific terms, we talked about aid, we talked about development in what was I think the Prime Minister will agree a very good exchange this morning although it was preliminary because the conference has not started.

    [Mr Mulroney continued to speak in French, this portion not translated]

    PRIME MINISTER:

    Brian, thank you very much indeed. I think you have set out very clearly and fairly what we have been discussing.

    We have a number of areas we particularly want to touch on, some we have discussed already, others we will discuss later over dinner, but Britain and Canada are partners in the G7, we are partners in NATO and we are partners in the Commonwealth. So there are a vast range of different areas that we will wish to take one another’s mind upon.

    We are certainly going to spend rather more time than we yet have discussing the GATT Round, that clearly is very important and I believe we will also spend some time later on this evening on the forthcoming NATO conference in Rome, that is a matter of considerable importance and of considerable interest to both of us.

    And of course we will both review what happened today in our preliminary discussions in the high level group and preview what will happen during the rest of the Commonwealth conference.

    I think the atmosphere today was extremely good. There was a great willingness, a communal willingness to cast minds forward and look at what the Commonwealth is developing into. We have had the early years of the Commonwealth, it has been there for a long time, it has matured, it is time for the Commonwealth to look at itself again, review the position and decide how it moves forward from the present position.

    And that I think will be the importance of what in due course when all colleagues have looked at it will be the Harare declaration. We had a very important declaration 20 years ago in Singapore, we now need to up-date that, refresh that and point the Commonwealth to the future. And that really will be the substance of our discussions this week and also I both hope and believe the substance of the declaration we will agree this weekend.

    QUESTION:

    There was a great deal of enthusiasm for sanctions against South Africa at past Commonwealth conferences, there does not seem to be the same type of enthusiasm for tying foreign aid to human rights as there has been for South Africa, I understand this was a British proposal?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    I think you may not have got that entirely right. There is a very great concern about human rights, I have expressed it elsewhere, the Prime Minister has expressed it elsewhere, and that is a concern that spreads amongst the vast majority of the Commonwealth and has been expressed by them. But one has to look at precisely what our aid is geared to. It is geared firstly to help alleviate need, that is the primary purpose of the bilateral aid but we need to make sure that it is focused properly and I think it is not a question of tying aid, it is not a question of saying unless you do this, that or the other thing there will be no aid, it is a question of looking at programmes and seeking to focus aid where it will have the greatest practical effect to improve good government. And I think good government in its widest aspects, I suppose broadly we mean democratic government, accountable government, is something of great concern to the Commonwealth, it is of concern to the World Bank and of concern to others and I think that has got very much tied up in our discussions this week.

    QUESTION:

    British sources have characterised the progress made on discussions on South Africa today as slow, it does seem that momentum either on reaching perhaps changes to the New Delhi accords which you would like to see, or indeed on inviting other representatives other than Nelson Mandela here does not seem to have been achieved?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    I think there is a dramatically changed atmosphere as far as South Africa is concerned and that has predominantly come about of course because of what has happened inside South Africa, people have seen the pillars of apartheid be repealed. And one looks forward to the time when the constitutional conference begins, is concluded and South Africa moves on to a new non-racial future.

    The climate in the Commonwealth is very much in favour of that developing as speedily as possible. I think that has been reflected in discussions, everyone knows a tremendous amount has been achieved but there is still some way to go.

    QUESTION:

    We understand from British briefings that Malaysia, for instance, was not enthusiastic about the proposal to tie aid and human rights records. Is the going a little tougher than you envisaged?

    1. MULRONEY:

    There was no such proposal, there was no such reaction from Malaysia. I don’t know what you are talking about. There was no such proposal, Dan, and there was no such reaction. In the discussions this morning – I think, John, you can correct me if I might have missed something on a coffee break or something what took place was an overview provided by the Secretary-General of his own views and that was followed by a debate both on the Declaration and on specifics. Prime Minister Major and I and others intervened very vigorously. I gave, for example, an indication of what I believe to be the case, that more and more the evolution of foreign policy will see us witness the sweeping away of any totalitarian regimes and the primacy of human rights. This is what will dominate the spectrum, dominate the concerns of national governments.

    Canada, like any national government, reserves the right to terminate completely any aid where it feels that that would be appropriate. We did it in the Commonwealth when Idi Amin came to power in Uganda; we have done it recently in Haiti, where we want the illegal occupation and usurpation of the Presidency of Haiti to end. I signalled to President Mitterrand in Houston in 1990 that Canada would not attend a summit of Francophone nations held in Zaire because of the human rights policies there – this was a year and a half ago. I sent word to the summit [Indistinct] a few weeks ago that we want Haiti excluded from the participation at the Summet de Chyu [phonetic] and so we express our points of view in different ways and they range from cutting off aid completely to channelling or focusing aid. For example, in some cases we go through the Red Cross to make sure that the aid gets to the people who are desperately in need without any of the aid getting into the hands of the government or the governing party in that particular country. That is the way Canada has done it over the years; I think Britain has followed similar policies, but it didn’t come up in any way, Dan, other than in the way I have described it to you.

    QUESTION [in French]:

    1. MULRONEY [answer also in French]:

    QUESTION:

    In your meeting tomorrow, Prime Minister, with Nelson Mandela will you be looking for increased signs of flexibility from the ANC in terms of the timing of the removal of sanctions against South Africa?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    I think what perhaps may not be appreciated in the United Kingdom is how much contact I have had with Nelson Mandela and indeed with others over the last year about South African matters. It is by no means an uncommon occurrence for us to pick up the phone and talk to one another about what is going on.

    I have made no secret about what I wish to see in South Africa. I wish to see the constitutional conference convened; I wish to see a conclusion; I wish to see South Africa move forward to a non-racial future.

    I will be talking to Mr. Mandela about how the constitutional conference can get under way, what progress he thinks is possible, how he thinks things will develop, what the time-scale will be and generally how he thinks we can inch forward. I think it is a mistake always to suddenly imagine one dramatic event is going to move things forward almost overnight in a huge way. It has been a continuing series of events that have moved progress forward in South Africa and I will be continuing to discuss with Mr. Mandela how we see that progress continuing. It is going in the right direction. Many people would like it to go faster, many others are surprised that it has gone as fast as it has over the past two years so there is no great drama about my meeting with him tomorrow. It is a meeting; we have had several meetings; we have spoken frequently; and we just want to carry that debate a little further.

    QUESTION:

    Mr. Prime Minister, can those citizens in Commonwealth countries where there are human rights abuses reasonably expect that the Commonwealth will emerge from this summit with effective measures to isolate those governments who persist in abusing human rights inside the Commonwealth?

    1. MULRONEY:

    I think that what you can reasonably expect is a very strong commitment and an endorsement of the primacy of human rights and the indispensable priority that it must be given not only in the Commonwealth but in other institutions around the world. I think you can probably expect as well that more and more governments are going to factor that in a major way into all of their foreign policy decisions including aid decisions.

    As I have just indicated, there are instances where, for example, the Government of Canada has been approached in regard to a decision where we were inclined as a government to terminate all aid and we were approached by the NGOs in that country and asked specifically if we would funnel aid through them as opposed to the government, to make sure that the aid got into the hands of the needy. In our programme, for example, of immunisation, where Canada put some $25 million into a programme of immunisation, the money of course was funnelled into NGO hands, into the Red Cross, into UNICEF hands as opposed to into the hands of the government or any agent or agency of the government and I think we are going to accentuate that. I think all governments are doing that. We are going to be judicious perhaps in the manner in which these decisions are arrived at but I think that the reflection that you will find from the Commonwealth itself will be a direct and a great commitment to the primacy of human rights and individual freedoms in the intercourse among nations and particularly as members of the Commonwealth. I think you can expect that from Great Britain and from Canada.

    QUESTION:

    I come from South Africa. Overall, Sir, would you be optimistic about making substantive progress on the South African issue at the Commonwealth Conference?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    I don’t think the South African issue is at this Commonwealth Conference the dominant issue. It has been because people were frustrated and worried that progress was not being made. I think now there is an acknowledgement that progress is being made – I am sure South Africa will be discussed, of course it will, it is very important. The dominant issue at this Conference will actually be to determine how the Commonwealth moves forward and to agree the Harare Declaration so I am not sure quite what is meant by “progress on South Africa”. We can’t externally make progress on South Africa; the progress that we need to see towards a new constitution and a new future for South Africa has to be made within South Africa by the people who live there and I don’t think we can externally deal with that.

    QUESTION (SAME QUESTIONER):

    I mean convincing your Commonwealth colleagues on Britain’s attitude towards South Africa relating to sanctions, for instance.

    PRIME MINISTER:

    I don’t think it is going to be a great issue, quite frankly, at this particular conference. There is now general agreement that people-to-people sanctions should be lifted – that is progress – and the direction in which the general thought of the Commonwealth is going is now quite clear: they are seeing progress made and they are reflecting in their own attitudes the acknowledgement that progress has been made, The European Community and others have gone a bit further than the Commonwealth and there are always going to be shades of difference but there are not great chasms of differences between us any more.

  • Mr Major’s Joint Doorstep Interview with Brian Mulroney – 14 July 1991

    Below is the text of a joint doorstep interview with John Major and the Canadian Prime Minister, Brian Mulroney. The doorstep interview was held in London on Sunday 14th July 1991.

    PRIME MINISTER:

    Good Morning. We have had the opportunity this morning to range over a large number of bilateral and international matters of mutual interest. On the bilateral front I was able to thank the Prime Minister personally for the tremendous help and assistance he was throughout the period of the Gulf war, there was a very close consultation throughout that period and one that was very much appreciated. The fact that the Canadian Field Hospital, so badly needed, was placed under British command was particularly welcome.

    We have also had a series of discussions over recent months, the Prime Minister has been kind enough to contact me from various parts of the world from time to time to discuss matters in the lead-up to this summit. He has of course the advantage of having chaired one of these summits on a previous occasion. So we had a series of bilateral matters to discuss.

    We also took the opportunity this morning of running through the agenda for the G7 and the subsequent meeting thereafter with President Gorbachev as well as matters of interest to us both as members of the Commonwealth. So we found it a most useful and productive preliminary meeting before the summit begins.

    MR MULRONEY:

    We had an excellent meeting this morning, as the Prime Minister has indicated, reviewing both bilateral matters and questions in regard to the run-up to the summit. Most recently I have had the occasion to spend some time with Prime Minister Kaifu and Chancellor Kohl and last Tuesday night a meeting with President Bush. And so it gave us an opportunity in respect of the agenda and Mr Gorbachev’s visit to compare notes and to get ready for what I believe will be four very challenging and important days of summitry.

    I thanked the Prime Minister for his contribution, his very generous contribution to the remarkably profitable and mutually beneficial bilateral relationship we have as evidenced by the very sensitive degree of cooperation and mutual understanding during the war.
    And so we discussed the Commonwealth, we had to cancel a meeting that was scheduled here for June with the Commonwealth because of preoccupations we both had elsewhere, but we did have a chance to review some Commonwealth matters today before we meet again on that subject in Africa in October.

    [More remarks in French but not interpreted].

    QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

    QUESTION:

    Prime Minister, do you think you can do business with the Soviet President?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    I think we will have to discuss with President Gorbachev what he has to say when he gets here, there will be ample opportunity when President Gorbachev gets here for him to set out before the G7 Heads of State and Government what his proposals and plans are and then we will discuss it. But I think it would be courteous to hear what President Gorbachev has to say before I respond to that question.

    QUESTION:

    Are you happy with the reform package?

    MR MULRONEY:

    We are still analysing the package, it is a very complicated one, and we will have to see when the seven get together. Obviously President Gorbachev is approaching this in what appears to be a quite constructive manner, whether the G7 will be able to respond to this I somehow doubt it. I do not believe that you will see either miracles or blank cheques from the G7 summit. I hope that what will take place will be a serious response to a serious proposal under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Major and then there be a meeting with the Chairman of the Summit and President Gorbachev which I hope will give rise to a process whereby the response could be geared to the implementation of a programme for important structural reform.

    But you are quite aware that for example some of the people around the table, not necessarily either of us, but some people round the table will raise questions like: Well if your economy is in such great difficulty, as it is, why will you persist in spending such vast amounts of money in refurbishing your military at a time when cash would seem to be scarce and ought to be placed into consumer goods and the rebuilding of your economy?

    So I think this is the kind of debate that probably will take place with Mr Gorbachev in the room and if his answers are appropriate. if his answers are persuasive, he may find the general approach constructive. If his answers are not I would not want to presume on the outcome.

    PRIME MINISTER:

    The last point is the key, we need to know what President Gorbachev has to say.

    QUESTION (Adam Boulton, Sky TV):

    Both your national economies are in recession, do you think there is any chance that there will be a significant package emerging possibly from this summit?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    What we are going to discuss in this summit is not the individual economies of the United Kingdom and Canada and in both cases of course the principal problem that we have faced over some time has been inflation and in both cases that is beginning to abate and interest rates are beginning to fall so both economies are getting themselves into a position where there will be fresh growth. But I think there will be very considerable concern to make sure as we come out of the slow-down in world trade generally, a recession in some countries, a near recession in others, that we come out of it in a way that does not re-engender inflation, I think we will be very concerned to avoid that.

    MR MULRONEY:

    I would second that and just add one comment. We have had a tough recession in Canada but we seem to be out of it now and interest rates have come down by some 500 basis points over the last year, all of the signals would appear to be quite promising, and so we are hopeful that the policies to which Prime Minister Major referred coming out of this summit will allow for quite strong growth in Canada but in a non-inflationary climate. That is what I think we are all looking for.

    QUESTION:

    Mr Mulroney, is there a chance that trade disputes will be used as a bargaining chip to unify the group over aid to the Soviet Union?

    MR MULRONEY:

    Not a chance.

    QUESTION:

    You have had a chance to look at the economic package as proposed by Mr Gorbachev, it seems that initially you have given it a somewhat dusty response, you are not terribly impressed with it?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    I have examined it overnight, we have not had a chance to do an analysis in detail, it is clearly built on the Pavlov plan. What one needs to do is to determine to what extent it can be carried out, what the impact would be of it being carried out, whether it is a plan that can be carried out by the Soviet Union at the centre or whether it actually needs the active cooperation of the Republics, to what extent it would get the active cooperation of the Republics, what it actually means in terms of draconian measures within the Soviet economy.

    All those are matters that actually deserve some form of detailed study before we pronounce upon it. That study is being undertaken at the moment and will be concluded before we have the meeting with President Gorbachev later on this week. So we will not only wish to study it in detail, as we are doing, and how it would be implemented in detail, we will also wish to hear what President Gorbachev has to say about it. For there are two points to be considered: one is that it is perfectly desirable and satisfactory to set out an economic reform programme, but it only actually has a practical application if the economic reform programme is actually carried into operation and is successful and there are a vast range of matters to consider about that and to ask President Gorbachev about.

    So that is why I genuinely think that we need to have this dialogue with President Gorbachev before we can reach conclusions upon it. It is very complex, as the Prime Minister said a moment or so ago, very complex indeed, we will want to analyse it, consider it, discuss it, listen to President Gorbachev and then we will be in a better position to draw conclusions about it.

    MR MULRONEY:

    Exactly what John has said – what does privatisation really mean to him? What does price liberalisation mean? What does currency stabilisation mean to him and how does he see technical assistance? There are definitions that I think are quite important and probably quite different but the only way we are going to find out is the 8 of us around the table, 7 with him. And so I think that will be how the Prime Minister has been leading us all if the truth be known, in a very demanding build-up to this, he has been in bilateral communication with all of us frequently and I think very effectively and so Prime Minister Major has ensured that all of us come to this summit well acquainted with the difficulties and the challenges and the pitfalls that we are going to confront and ready to I think come together, I hope, with a common response to that.

    QUESTION:

    [In French and not interpreted]

    MR MULRONEY:

    [In French and not interpreted]

    QUESTION:

    Is it too early to call it the G8?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    It is too early.