Interview With the President Question-and-Answer Session With Goran Milic of Yugoslavian TV and Juri Gustinicic of Politika.

U.S.-YUGOSLAV RELATIONS

Q. Mr. President, although American-Yugoslav relations have been developing favorably over a good many years.—

THE PRESIDENT. Yes.

Q. —it is widely believed that they made particularly strong advances during your Presidency. So, in this regard, how do you view your first visit to Yugoslavia? What do you expect from this visit?

THE PRESIDENT. First of all, I'm very excited about going to Yugoslavia. We were honored, as you know, with a visit here by President Tito. And we benefited so greatly from his visit and his advice that that's obviously one of the bases for the—I think, perhaps, the best relationships we have had with Yugoslavia in many years.

Secondly, we have had an undeviating policy toward Yugoslavia, a commitment to the independence, the territorial integrity, and the unity of Yugoslavia for more than 30 years, since President Truman was in this office.

And third, we have a broad range of bilateral concerns: about peace and stability, the prevention of terrorism and aggression, the role to be played by the nonaligned movement nations, and also, of course, to enhance trade and economic relationships.

I'm particularly eager to meet with the new leaders in Yugoslavia. And perhaps, since it will follow the economic summit conference in Venice, I can give them a report on what the major Western developed countries believe about the future of inflation and unemployment and energy and trade. So, I think it's going to be an exciting visit and also very profitable for us.

PRESIDENT'S CORRESPONDENCE WITH PRESIDENT TITO

Q. The Yugoslav—and also the international public—has noticed a more than usual intensity of personal correspondence between you and President Tito.

THE PRESIDENT. Yes.

Q. Could you tell us how such an exchange of personal messages came about, and what was the significance of it?

THE PRESIDENT. They were extremely significant to me and to our country. I have had a long admiration for President Tito and his contribution to the development of independent nations and the preservation of peace and liberty of not only the people of your country but, indeed, for many others around the world. When I became President I initiated this communication on a tentative basis, and he responded enthusiastically. And we exchanged many long letters that were private and confidential in nature, but extremely frank in our discussion of our two countries and our relationships and also matters that were of concern to us that happened in other nations.

His advice and counsel to me was profound, very thoughtful, and based upon his long years of experience in dealing with leaders of the world and with nations of the world that he knew much better than did I. When he came here on his official visit, we instantly got along very well, and again, we benefited greatly from it. So, this long series of communications back and forth, of private correspondence, I hope was of help to him in understanding our Nation and its current policies better. But it was extremely beneficial to me.

Q. I would be free to ask you, Mr. President, of course, if it is not a secret of state, is there any detail that you particularly remember from that personal correspondence with President Tito?

THE PRESIDENT. Well, as the relationship changed in the nonaligned movement, and as the relationship changed between ourselves and the Soviet Union, as we sought a basis for stronger detente and peace, and as we hammered out the principles of the SALT agreement to control nuclear weapons, and then later, of course, as the hostage question evolved, and the Soviets invaded Afghanistan—those kinds of current issues were discussed between us. I received his advice, and of course I gave him a response about what our own Nation's policies might be.

He was pleased with his visit here, and I don't have any doubt that he was very gratified at the outpouring of admiration for him that was so obvious among the people of my country.

THE NONALIGNED MOVEMENT

Q. You have already stressed, yourself, the importance of the nonaligned movement, of which Yugoslavia is a very active member. But one has the impression that lately, nonalignment is less frequently mentioned in American policy. Do you share this impression? And what is your position and your attitude to date to the nonalignment in world politics?

THE PRESIDENT. This was one of the subjects that President Tito and I discussed at length: the subversion of the nonaligned movement—which he initiated in its early days—by the later entry of influence, for instance, by the Cubans, who are obviously dominated by and aligned with the Soviet Union; and how the true nonaligned countries—India and Yugoslavia being leaders—could restore the integrity of the movement in the face of Cuban leadership there.

As he was preparing to go to the Havana conference, he outlined to me some of the principles that would be discussed and debated. And I think he won a notable success in the Havana nonaligned movement conference in trying to move the entire movement back to a true independence and true nonalignment.

We are deeply concerned about the integrity and the thrust of the nonaligned movement. I know that in his latter days President Tito [was], and now his successors are, very eager to see true nonalignment restored there. The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan is a serious departure from the respect for nonaligned countries. Although Afghanistan was not a signatory of the nonaligned movement charter, they were indeed a nonaligned country until the Soviets invaded them. And this encroachment on the integrity of the smaller and weaker nations was of great concern to him and is to me.

Q. But you do consider the nonaligned movement an important factor in today's politics?

THE PRESIDENT. Extremely valuable, yes, for the maintenance of peace and the stability of the world, and also for the meeting of economic challenges, such as the explosion in energy prices. What the nonaligned countries do and say is very important to our country, to the Soviet Union, I'm sure, and to the rest of the world.

THE INTERNATIONAL ECONOMY

Q. Your administration has recognized, Mr. President, the need for serious change in the structure of economic relations in the world. However, almost nothing has been done so far in this field. And how do you see the effective way out of this stagnation towards the new economical order?

THE PRESIDENT. Well, I believe it's accurate to say that we were making good progress on this economic development through the regional banks, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, through bilateral aid of an economic nature, through the enhancement of trade, through the elimination of protectionist barriers, through cultural exchanges. This applied to our relationship with Yugoslavia and to other countries, and among other nations that did not involve us directly.

The OPEC price increases, however, have added to the cost of energy so much that many nations now spend almost their entire export earnings just to buy oil from the OPEC countries at the exploded prices. For instance, in the 12-month period, during 1979, OPEC oil prices more than doubled. They went up more than they had, the entire history, since oil was first discovered. And we have large energy supplies of our own, but we still are a large importing nation as well. But this has shocked the world economy, and now we're working on ways to conserve energy and also to produce alternative forms of energy that don't rely on oil.

But I think we are making progress over a long period of time, but we had a setback with the unanticipated explosion in oil prices.

Q. Some say that petrol is expensive, but some say that computers are expensive, too, so what shall we do with the countries who don't have computers and which don't have petrol as well?

THE PRESIDENT. Well, different nations have natural and human resources that they can tap with adequate financial investments and with adequate means to sell their products. My own belief is that our country's greatest asset, on a historical basis over many decades of time, is the extremely productive land that we have to produce food and fiber for the rest of the world. Obviously, we've been blessed by technological advances with our highly competitive free enterprise system, which was built upon almost unlimited natural resources of minerals and growing forests and the production of our agricultural lands.

But each country is different, and what we are trying to do now is to have a marketing arrangement in the world that eliminates trade barriers and protects those poorer countries which are quite vulnerable—some of them only have one or two export items that are available to bring in much needed purchasing power for them.

We also have mounted, under my leadership, a commission on world hunger, to try to deal with the more equitable distribution of food supplies and, also, to let those who have very ill-developed production techniques do a better job with better seeds, some irrigation principles, better fertilizers that we ourselves have developed in this country. And as we go with our technicians into those small and developing countries to help them, we learn a lot in the process and, therefore, are better off ourselves.

DETENTE

Q. There's a lot of talk today about a very difficult time in detente. You spoke about it, too. Now, assuming that certain critical issues cannot be resolved in the very near future, what is then, in your opinion, going to happen to detente in the meantime?

THE PRESIDENT. We are trying to preserve the essence of detente—that is, to oppose aggression and also to eliminate the threats to world peace. These must be done simultaneously.

There was a major setback to detente and to the prospects for world peace with the unwarranted Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Even with this very serious development, however, we still are attempting in every possible way to preserve the peaceful nature of the world and to control the spread of nuclear weapons and, at the same time, to reestablish much better communications among nations who might see their relationships deteriorate, absent a sharing of hopes and dreams for a better and a more peaceful future.

In Africa, in Asia in particular, we've opened up new avenues of communication with nations like Nigeria, and before that, with Egypt which was formerly not a very close friend of ours, and more recently with normalized relationships with China.

But we intend to continue to oppose aggression, the persecution of human beings as is taking place now in Kampuchea, in Ethiopia where many refugees have escaped—the same thing, of course, in Afghanistan, and now in Cuba—and, at the same, enhance human rights and human freedom.

So, the maintenance of peace, the provision of stability, the searching for a way to control nuclear weapons, the enhancement of communications among nations, and the protection of human rights-those are the bases that I see for the perpetuation and improvement of detente.

CONFERENCE ON SECURITY AND COOPERATION IN EUROPE

Q. We've heard your position on this, but can the European conference help to maintain certain positive achievements in international cooperation in detente, at least in Europe? How do you see the Madrid Conference?

THE PRESIDENT. Yes, I thought the conference in Belgrade was an historic development in letting nations search among themselves—different nations with different perspectives—for common ground on which they could predicate plans for the future.

We will go to Madrid with a commitment to enhance what was decided at Helsinki: to provide for better security among nations, for a more open relief of tension that might develop because of misunderstood intentions among the countries, for the enhancement of human rights, and for better economic relationships.

So, there will be differences at Madrid. I think that's an accurate prediction. But we believe that together we can carry out the principles and the spirit and the commitments made at Helsinki.

ADMINISTRATION'S ACCOMPLISHMENTS

Q. Mr. President, at the end I would like to ask a more personal question. You have now been in office for almost 4 years, and I remember when you started. You said on one occasion that it's a heavy burden and also that there are limitations to what a President can do. Now, looking ahead to a new term, would you feel more strongly the burden or the high hopes you had at the beginning?

THE PRESIDENT. I think I failed to anticipate the burdens, and I failed to anticipate the limitations on resolving the problems in the world. We are a superpower, but our dealings are with free and independent other nations who have a different perspective from us. And in a free world, where people can act on their own, when nations make their own decisions, there are bound to be these differences.

We have made progress, though. The world has basically been at peace. Our country has stayed at peace. We've made progress in hammering out the principles of the SALT II agreement, which we intend to see ratified, and then go on to SALT III and the control of theater nuclear forces. We've opened up new relationships with a fourth of the people on Earth, with the People's Republic of China. We've made notable progress under the most difficult circumstances in the Mideast, with peace treaties now between Israel and the major Arab nation, and now working under difficult circumstances, as I say, toward further progress. I think we've strengthened our NATO Alliance and, as you pointed out earlier, the relationship between ourselves and Yugoslavia has never been better.

So, we're making progress. We face issues frankly and without trepidation. We don't flinch when a difficult decision has to be made. And the damage that was done in our own country, because of the Vietnam war and because of the Watergate embarrassment, has substantially been repaired. We have a much stronger country in its spirit and in its unity and, although we have some economic problems, they are not nearly so severe as they are in many other nations.

So, in general, I'm pleased with the progress so far, and I hope that I'm reelected and will have a chance to serve 4 more years and, if so, we'll continue to make further progress.

Q. Thank you very much for this interview, Mr. President.

THE PRESIDENT. It's a pleasure, and I'm really looking forward to being in Yugoslavia.