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all-purpose words "take into account". It was possible that he might identify a new Soviet initiative in a different arms control area as sufficient reason to resume compliance. The closer the prospect of a Summit, the greater the pressure on the President (and indeed Mr Gorbachev) to compromise. We should work to help bring about such a compromise. Mme Renouard asked whether we had any information on the new Soviet proposals on the definition of research in the SDI context. The Secretary of State said that the Russians appeared to have put their proposals back into the bottle. But Kampeleman who had recently been in London clearly had instructions to explore the Soviet position carefully.
The Secretary of State drew attention to Mr Gorbachev's use of the word "proportionate" in describing possible Soviet reductions against British or French reductions of the day before in Hungary. Analysis of what he had said tended to suggest that he was really talking about equivalent reductions rather than proportionate reductions.
West/West
The Secretary of State said that West/West relations might well be a good subject for the Foreign Ministers' informal weekend under the UK Presidency. The more coherent the European pillar of the Alliance, the more we needed to work to avoid a Transatlantic split. The United States had understandable fears that Europe would take up positions in the Alliance from which they would be excluded. Instead of twelve against one, we should seek one plus one. For instance, on the chemical weapons initiative we should be careful not to provoke suggestions publicly of a split with the United States.
Monsieur Raimond said that he was all in favour of the maximum contact with the United States. But political cooperation was still a fragile process, especially when conducted by Ambassadors with strict and limiting instructions. It was useful to the Alliance generally and useful to the United States that Europe should be seen to have a position not always wholly aligned with that of the United States. To give one example, he had spoken to both the Jordanians and Iraqis recently about whether or not a European initiative would be useful. The Jordanians had said the time was not yet right, but the Iraqis had said that they were worried about evidence of the United States' lack of concern or knowledge of the situation. It would be useful if the EC could make a further declaration which would prevent the Palestinians from becoming too discouraged. In areas like this it could be useful to the United States if the European position appeared a little different, but we needed to be very careful how this was done.
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/South Africa