235. Letter From President Carter to Pakistani Prime Minister Bhutto 1
I was deeply pleased by your New Year’s greeting, and by your kind wishes for my Presidency.2 I also welcome your sharing your thoughts with me, both about Pakistan and its relations with the United States, and about other matters important to both our countries.
Your perspective on the course of relations between our two countries was of great interest to me. The friendship between Pakistan and the United States has been deep and enduring. As I said often before I took office, I will work to strengthen our relations with nations which [Page 581] have traditionally been our friends and allies. Whatever difficulties and misunderstandings there may have been in the past, I want to work directly with you to strengthen the close ties between the United States and Pakistan.
The United States has a deep interest in the future of South Asia. We hope that each nation there can live in peace with its neighbors, secure in its own integrity, and able to provide for the well-being of its people. I share the admiration of the American people for what Pakistan, under your leadership, has achieved in recent years, both in seeking improved relations with your neighbors in South Asia, and in providing new hope in the lives of your people. We also share your concern that no power should obtain a position of dominance in the region.
I would welcome hearing from you further about the security problems of Pakistan, and about your own efforts to improve relations with other South Asian countries. Your perspective will be invaluable as we decide on our own course of action.
There is one subject on which I would like to have a continuing confidential dialogue with you in order to take advantage of your extensive personal experience: that is the relationship between the United States and the People’s Republic of China.
I feel strongly that the United States and China have important parallel concerns; our common interest in the security of Pakistan is an important example. I also believe that there is an increasing agenda of global problems of interdependence that can only be solved with the active cooperation of the People’s Republic.
I have already had a positive meeting with Ambassador Huang Chen.3 I stressed my Administration’s commitment to the principles of the Shanghai Communique,4 and my desire to normalize relations with Peking. I believe we can complete the process of normalization in a way that will enable both countries to remain true to their national principles.
I would welcome your own assessment of developments in China, and recommendations of the best way for the United States to proceed. I will treat these in strict confidence.
I am also deeply concerned to develop a more viable basis for relations with the Soviet Union. In future SALT talks, we will make a number of new proposals. We will also seek meaningful reductions of [Page 582] the levels of nuclear arms, in order to bring the arms race to a halt and demonstrate our commitment to non-nuclear states to reduce the importance of these weapons in international relations. We will also try to make progress with the Russians in other areas of arms control.
At the same time, I have already made it clear to the Soviet leaders the importance we attach to basic human rights; not just in the Soviet Union, but also in other nations, beginning with the United States.
I am also personally concerned about the possible spread of nuclear weapons. This question clearly affects Pakistan. In creating a strategy for non-proliferation—in close cooperation with other nations—I want to have Pakistan’s interests clearly in mind, and would welcome hearing from you on this subject.
My Administration is committed to promoting peace. It is equally committed to reaching out to nations in the developing world, particularly those facing the more critical needs in seeking to make possible new lives for their people. We will work closely with both industrialized and developing nations—including Pakistan—so that all will be able to play a full part in the global economy, and to gather increasing benefits from it. My Administration will place first priority in its efforts to assist developing countries on the needs of those nations and peoples most seriously affected by economic problems, including the precipitous rise in the price of energy.
I am looking forward to the next ministerial meeting of the Conference on International Economic Cooperation. At that time, the United States will want to be responsive to developing country needs, and will negotiate seriously on problems of debt and commodity earnings. At the same time, we have critical concerns about the world supply and price of energy, on which we need the cooperation of both oil-producing and other developing countries. Your thoughts on these issues will be of help to me.
I believe that at heart, the basic task facing our two countries, together, is about people—about our shared desire to enable each individual, each family, to develop to the full range of human possibility. I know that both our nations are committed to making real that age-old dream of mankind.
I look forward to hearing from you again.
Sincerely,
- Source: Carter Library, National Security Affairs, Brzezinski Material, President’s Correspondence with Foreign Leaders File, Box 15, Pakistan: Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, 11/76–5/77. No classification marking. In the upper right-hand corner of the letter, an unknown hand wrote: “Handed to Amb Yaqub Khan 4:10 pm 3/4 by David Aaron.”↩
- Telegram 32769 to Islamabad, February 13, transmitted the text of Bhutto’s congratulatory message to Carter after his inauguration as President of the United States. In the message, Bhutto expressed his hope for a continuation of close U.S.-Pakistani relations. (National Archives, RG 59, Central Foreign Policy File, D770051–0597)↩
- On February 8, Carter met with Huang Chen, the Chief of the People’s Republic of China’s Liaison Office in the United States. See Foreign Relations, 1977–1980, vol. XIII, China, Document 5.↩
- See footnote 11, Document 90.↩