51. Telegram From the Department of State to the Embassy in Saudi Arabia1
72746. Subject: Tactics for Forthcoming Prepcon and Consumer/Producer Conference.
1. At earliest opportunity and prior to departure Saudi delegation for Prepcon, you should meet with Oil Minister Yamani to convey our views and to discuss what we see as contributing to a successful conference.2
[Page 172]2. First express our pleasure that Yamani will continue as Minister of Petroleum under King Khalid and ask if Prince Saud is still scheduled to represent SAG at the Prepcon. Because of the very special relationship between our two countries, our position as the world’s largest oil importer, and Saudi Arabia’s position as a producer with considerable discretional ability to swing its production up or down, we believe we will jointly benefit through close consultation and cooperation. We are well aware that Saudi Arabia will play a very significant role and we want to maintain close contact with the Saudi delegation in Paris.
3. You should mention to Yamani that we are also well aware of Saudi interest in making a producer/consumer conference a success. We assume the Saudis (like ourselves) do not want to see the conference degenerate into polemics or end up in a producer-consumer confrontation. We feel this is even more important now with the new leadership in the Kingdom following Faisal’s assassination. As Yamani knows, we have been reluctant to go along with any producer/consumer conference until both sides were very well prepared because we thought it would fail otherwise. If the Prepcon and a future conference are to succeed, much will depend on whether we can agree on an agenda both sides can live with.
4. As Yamani knows from his last meetings with the Secretary in Riyadh,3 we intend the American approach to be cooperative. The Secretary in his latest press conference on March 26 said: “We believe that the consumer-producer conference is being conducted in the interests of both sides for the common benefit, for the interest of a developing and thriving world economy, which is in the interest of producers as well as consumers and should not be tied to the situation in the Middle East. Therefore, we are proceeding with our preparations for the consumer-producer conference, and progress is being made in that direction, and we find it essentially on schedule.”4
5. You should tell Yamani that we think we are close on basic approaches to the conference: We agree that (A) we should keep the representation limited to a relatively few key countries; (B) we both have obligations toward the MSAs, including promotion of the production of fertilizers; (C) stable economic conditions in the Western world are needed to allow Saudi Arabia to pursue its goal of rapid economic development in the next decades and for the West to fend off Communism/radicalism; (D) measures for conservation and the search for alternative sources of petroleum must be accelerated; (E) we must work within and not outside of existing international monetary mechanisms; [Page 173] and (F) whatever the causes of the present energy problem it can be turned into an opportunity for producer/consumer collaboration. We do not want to use a conference to assess blame on any particular parties because this would be unproductive and could lead to a confrontation. Rather, we want to look to the future on how, through close bilateral cooperation, we can bring about general cooperation between producers and consumers.
6. As we see it, Prepcon is beginning of a process which will give us a better basis for relating to each other on issues of mutual concern. To avoid misunderstandings, we would like to set forth to Yamani our hopes for the Prepcon which we hope Saudis could support: (A) an agenda which covers recycling, industrialization of producer economies, aid to LDCs, inward investment, and pricing and security of supply; (B) recognition of need for dialogue on other raw materials but maintaining focus of this conference on energy and leaving other commodities for discussion in more appropriate forums such as forthcoming UNGA Special Session; (C) holding participation in producer/consumer conference to manageable proportions so that it does not deteriorate into a circus; (D) a neutral site for future conference; and (E) agreeing in principle that conference should be held as soon as practicable but leaving actual date open to ensure that we are all adequately prepared.
- Source: National Archives, RG 59, Central Foreign Policy Files, D750111–0881. Secret; Immediate. Drafted by Dickman, cleared in EB and S/P and by Robinson and Hormats, and approved by Sidney Sober (NEA).↩
- On April 2, Akins reported that he had met with Yamani before receiving the instructions contained in this telegram, but that “many of the points were, however, discussed with the Minister.” Yamani informed him that Prince Saud would not attend Prepcon and had not yet decided who would go to the meeting. Yamani stated that Saudi Arabia “would like to cooperate with the United States,” but was “not sure how close or overt this cooperation should be.” Regardless, he assured Akins that Saudi Arabia would “oppose any dramatic moves on the part of the OPEC radicals,” and that “above all Saudi Arabia wishes to avoid confrontation” between the producers and the consumers. Because Akins had met with Yamani before the latter left for Beirut and Europe, he prepared a paper summarizing this telegram and left it with Yamani’s office, which assured the Ambassador that Yamani would receive it before his departure. (Telegram 2391 from Jidda, April 2; ibid., D750115–0559)↩
- See Document 41.↩
- The text of Kissinger’s press conference is in Department of State Bulletin, April 14, 1975, pp. 461–470.↩