Meeting With Chancellor Helmut Schmidt of the Federal Republic of Germany Remarks to Reporters Following the Meeting

THE PRESIDENT. The Chancellor and I have had a very productive discussion of many items of importance to the Federal Republic of Germany and to the United States of America.

We discussed our plans for the economic summit conference in Tokyo, to be held the last part of this month. We spent, I would say, more of our time on the energy question than any other single issue, because it has become of crucial importance to our countries and to the entire world. We recognize the importance of our acting in concert to the extent that our own national interests permit.

We discussed the upcoming summit conference in Vienna between myself and President Brezhnev of the Soviet Union. As has been my custom ever since I've been in office, I sought the advice and counsel of Chancellor Schmidt. We recognize that our countries share a great responsibility as members of NATO, and we discussed how upcoming discussions on SALT III and theater-type weapons might be addressed after SALT II is concluded and ratified.

We had a general discussion about other regional areas of the world-southern Africa, Mideast, Persian Gulf area—and general relationships between our two countries and matters of mutual interest.

It's always a great honor for us to have the leader of Germany come here and consult on matters that are important, and we, I think, without question, consider these discussions both fruitful and they are held in a spirit of great frankness and mutual productivity.

I described to Chancellor Schmidt the elements of the SALT II agreement, and we have continued the discussion and consultations with our major allies, like the Federal Republic of Germany, as the SALT II negotiations have progressed.

Again, on behalf of the American people, I would like to say, Chancellor Schmidt, that we're delighted to have you here with us. This visit has been very helpful to me and to our people.

THE CHANCELLOR. Thank you.

Well, ladies and gentlemen, I would just like to add a very few words. Especially, I would like to stress what the President has said about the friendliness and the frankness, at the same time, and the productivity of the talks between the President and myself, and I would also like to include the talks I had earlier on with Secretaries Blumenthal and Schlesinger and Harold Brown.

It's almost now been a habit that there be at least one occasion in the course of 12 months that the President and I have a chance for private exchange of views, except of official conferences. We learn a lot from such private talks. We know that we depend heavily on the United States of America in many fields, not only in defense, also in economics and in international politics.

As you may have heard, I have a chance to make two or three public speeches today and tomorrow, day after tomorrow. And I will certainly not only publicly underline the strong feeling of indebtedness which my nation shares with me vis-a-vis the United States, vis-a-vis the United States Government, vis-a-vis the United States President, in principle and in general, but we'll especially take these opportunities in trying to emphasize towards the American public that we also, from a European and especially from a German point of interest, looking forward to a swift and positive ratification process as regards SALT II, that we are in agreement with the United States on the basic lines of our energy policies in particular and our economic policies in general.

Thank you very much, Jimmy, for your hospitality and for the frankness and friendliness of our talks.

THE PRESIDENT. Thank you, again.