VISIT OF DR MERTES ON 12/13 SEPTEMBER
STEERING BRIEF
Introduction
DSR 11C
earlier this your
Lat
1. Discussions with the Germans at Minister of State level in
London and Bonn on the Community, Defence, Africa and Latin
America had to be postponed, first because of the German
elections on 6 March and then because of ours on 9 June. The
FRG Foreign Minister, Herr Genscher (FDP) has two deputies:
Dr Mertes, a former diplomat and member of Chancellor Kohl's
CDU and Herr Moellemann from Herr Genscher's Liberal FDP, the
junior coalition partner. Mertes and Moellemann do not divide
up subjects as in the FCO. Dr Mertes is in effect Herr
Genscher's deputy across the board and the senior political
representative in the Foreign Ministry of the CDU, the
dominant party in the governing CDU/CSU/FDP coalition.
Dr Mertes' main expertise and personal interest lie in the
fields of arms control, defence and security, and East/West
relations, particularly the German question.
UK/FRG Relations
2. Relations with the Germans are extensive and excellent.
Indeed the FRG is the second most important western country for
us after the US. A recent Gallup Poll (summary attached)
and welcome suggests that increasingly the British people recognise this
fact
A.W.C. Lid. 11:82. 56-3683. 200m.
Meanwhile officials are preparing a review of relations as
(Cattached envisaged in the statement by the Prime Minister and Chancellor
^
Schmidt at the conclusion of their summit in November 1981.
The bilateral summit this autumn (we have two a year with the
Germans) has been fixed for 9 November and the Prime Minister
/will
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