Rosalynn Carter's Trip to the Caribbean and Latin America Remarks of the President and Mrs. Carter Prior to Her Departure From Brunswick, Georgia.

THE PRESIDENT. I just want to say this morning that I am very grateful that Rosalynn is able to go down to the Caribbean and to Central and South America. She and Mrs. Kay Vance, wife of the Secretary of State, will be going to Jamaica and also to Costa Rica, Ecuador, and Peru, to Brazil and Colombia and to Venezuela.

They have been well prepared for this trip. It's a gesture of good will between our own country and those nations in Latin America, who have been so close to us in years gone by, historically our friends and allies. We share with them a common purpose, a common culture, common interests, problems, and opportunities.

In addition to this expression of friendship, this small group will be discussing subjects which are of interest to the leaders of those countries, and Rosalynn will be making daily reports back to me and to the Secretary of State about the results of the conversations with the leaders of those countries.

She and Mrs. Vance and others have been well briefed about the current status of relationships 'between ourselves and the people whom she will visit.

We have, I think, an opportunity to strengthen these ties with our friends to the south. We don't have a special slogan for Latin America anymore, but we have a commitment to treat them as individuals.

One of the problems in the past has been that we have looked on South America, Central America, the Caribbean as parts of a homogeneous group of nations, but we see much more clearly now that they have special individual problems and special individual opportunities in relationship with us.

So, they go with my good wishes. She will deliver to each one of the leaders of those countries my special commitment to strengthen our relationships with them in a friendly and equal fashion. They are just as valuable to us as we are to them, and we want them to understand how we cherish their good will and their trust and our mutual commitment.

Perhaps Rosalynn would like to say just a word.
MRS. CARTER. Thank you.

I am looking forward to the trip. I am glad that I was the one that was chosen to go to Latin America and to the Caribbean. I think it is so important when there is a new administration to develop personal relationships with the leaders of the other countries.

I think they are interested in us. We are always interested when a new leader comes to power in another country. So, I think it's important. And I think that I can establish a personal relationship with the heads of the countries that I am going to visit and our family.

I've had a long-time interest in Latin America. Jimmy and I have traveled there many times, and so we already have a special feeling for the countries that I am going to be visiting.

I think you all know that during the campaign I really studied and learned the domestic issues. Since Jimmy has been President, I have done my homework on foreign affairs. I've had intensive briefings.

I think that I will be--well, I am sure that I can stress the goals and priorities of the Carter administration in foreign affairs to the leaders of these countries.

Jimmy said all during the campaign that we had neglected our friends among the countries of the world and that he was going to be sending his family to visit these countries if he were elected President.

In that sense, I think you can call it a good will trip. But I wanted it to be more than just a good will trip. I wanted it to be valuable to the countries that I was visiting. And, therefore, I have studied. I do know Jimmy's basic foreign policy, which I will be stressing to these foreign heads of states and consulting with them to 'bring back to Jimmy the concerns that they have and the special problems that each of the countries have.

I'm looking forward to it. Thank you very much.