83. Telegram From the Department of State to the Mission to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development1
221442. Subject: Letter to IEA Chairman Davignon. Please deliver the following message from the Secretary to IEA Chairman Davignon:
Begin text of letter: Dear Viscomte Davignon: Over the next few months, we face a series of critical tests for our cooperation in energy. On the one hand, we must meet our December 1 deadline for adoption by the IEA of a serious and comprehensive program for our continuing cooperation. At the same time, we must maintain the closest coordination within the IEA as we move forward with a dialogue with the producer countries, assuring the Agency remains the principal forum for all aspects of our energy relationships.
The adoption of a long term program is critical to the continued vitality of the IEA. Unless we demonstrate our solidarity and our determination to take the difficult decisions necessary to reduce dependence on imported oil, we risk that the IEA will not be taken seriously either by our own publics or by the producers. I realize that the difficulties experienced here in this country in establishing an energy program have made progress difficult in the IEA. However, with the recent action on decontrol of our oil prices,2 I am confident that we are beginning to move domestically, and we must now push vigorously for rapid action within the IEA.
As we prepare for the dialogue, we must give particular attention to the role of the IEA and ensure that industrialized country positions are fully coordinated.
In our view, the IEA must play a major role in the overall diplomatic activity related to the dialogue. It should also continue to serve as the principal forum for the coordination of our substantive positions on all energy and energy-related issues, with the two OECD ad hoc groups providing a similar function for the commissions on raw materials and development. With regard to the fourth commission, we believe that the IEA, through its ad hoc group on financial and investment issues, should serve as the primary point of coordination on all financial ques [Page 285] tions directly related to energy. The OECD’s temporary working party under Mr. Van Ypersele3 should coordinate all other financial issues.
We must also begin to consider how best to organize the overall industrialized country coordination. We will probably need a group comprised of the chairmen of the OECD ad hoc groups, yourself as the representative of the IEA, and appropriate representation from the industrialized countries in the group of 27. This group might be linked to the XCSS.
Tom Enders will continue to have direct responsibility for the U.S. role in the IEA and all aspects of IEA activity. He will keep me closely and directly informed on all developments. We want to continue to work closely with you. I understand that you tentatively plan to visit Washington in October. If my schedule permits, I would very much like to see you during your visit. Sincerely, Henry A. Kissinger. End text of letter.
- Source: Ford Library, National Security Adviser, Presidential Country Files for Europe and Canada, Box 4, France—State Department Telegrams from SECSTATE–NODIS (4). Confidential; Immediate; Nodis. Drafted by Bosworth, cleared by Katz and in EUR/RPE, and approved by Kissinger.↩
- Ford allowed the Emergency Petroleum Allocation Act, which authorized controls over the price of oil, to expire at midnight on August 31.↩
- Jacques van Ypersele de Strihou of the Belgian Finance Ministry.↩