Meeting With Prime Minister J. Malcolm Fraser of Australia Remarks to Reporters on the Prime Minister's Departure

THE PRESIDENT. We're delighted to welcome back to the White House Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser of Australia, who came here a few days ago to consult very closely with me on matters of common interest to our two countries, but particularly the late developing events centered around the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

Following his visit here, Prime Minister Fraser went to London to meet with the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Great Britain, then went to meet with the Chancellor of Germany, and then the President of France. Following those visits, the leaders of the European countries suggested that because his meetings were so fruitful with them that he might stop by to see me again to give me a report on the consultations in Europe. I'm deeply grateful that Prime Minister Fraser has been willing to do this. His report has, indeed, been helpful.

We are grateful also to Australia because of their courageous stand as an ally of ours in condemning the invasion that threatens the peace in Southwest Asia and the Persian Gulf region; the fact that as a major exporter of grain, Australia immediately announced that they would not replace the grain being withheld by our country from the Soviet Union. And I'm also very pleased at the close military, economic, and political alliance that exists among Australia, New Zealand, and the United States.

There was a meeting of foreign ministers scheduled in this Alliance in July. At the suggestion of Prime Minister Fraser, we have decided to move that meeting up until the last week in February so that we can expedite the common discussions among us about the situation in the Indian Ocean and the regions bordering that sea.

We have had a thorough discussion about the Olympics and what might be done concerning the Olympics if the Soviets do not quickly withdraw all their forces from Afghanistan, and Prime Minister Fraser has taken the lead in this discussion and consultation as well. It's with a great deal of pleasure that I welcome him back here, and I'd like to ask him as an honored guest to make a few comments to you.

THE PRIME MINISTER. Thank you very much, Mr. President. I value very greatly, indeed, the discussions that we had a few days ago and also today. I had said at the outset of this round of discussions that I have undertaken that it's important for the development of Australia's own policy in the future to know as well as possible, the mind of the President of the United States, the policies of this country, and also of principal countries in Europe.

We have no presumptuous view of the influence of 14 million Australians, but we are determined to play what part we can in a cause that is important for free peoples, wherever they may be. We're glad, indeed, and thankful that the United States has responded in recent days, that the President made and delivered the statement he did in the State of the Union message, which should surely give clear warnings to the Soviets about any further moves beyond Afghanistan, and the clear need that there clearly is to bring greater reassurance to the world by removing forces from Afghanistan.

There are times when all of us in independent nations have necessarily to depend on the United States for the kind of world in which we live. This is the world's greatest free power, the strongest country in the world. And in times of danger, in times of invasion—as there have been, the Soviet of Afghanistan—it is the United States that must set a lead. And the United States has done what is necessary in the preservation, as Australia believes, of world peace. And because we strongly believe that what the President has done is right, because we strongly believe that what the President has done is necessary, Australia has moved to support— -in what ways we can—the actions of the United States, and we will continue to do so in a cause which is of such great importance for us all.

The United States has also taken a lead over the matter of the Olympics. And I was shown some days ago that small document that has been handed out by Soviet activists in Moscow giving their view of what the Olympics mean and how they're going to exploit it amongst their own people. The Soviets themselves have made it perfectly plain that they regard the Olympic games being held in Moscow as a great social and political event, not at that moment speaking about a great sporting event which is what it was meant to be. And they've also made it perfectly plain, in their own writings and documents, that they would regard the rewarding of the games to Moscow as a mark of approval of Soviet foreign policy.

Now, against the background of their own statements and against the background of their invasion of Afghanistan, how can free peoples' representatives go to Moscow and, no matter what they themselves might say, allow the Soviets to say of them that their presence there is a mark of approval of Soviet foreign policy? Because that's plainly in the current circumstances what the Soviet Union would in fact be saying.

Mr. President, I welcome very much the discussions that we've been able to have; they've been extraordinarily useful to me. They have given me much, if it was needed, much greater confidence that the United States, together with allies in Europe, is determined to do what must be done to preserve all those things which the people of the United States and the people of Australia hold most dear.

THE PRESIDENT. Thank you very much.