Foreign Relations of the United States, 1977–1980, Volume XXII, Southeast Asia and the Pacific

211. Letter From Indonesian President Suharto to President Carter¹

Jakarta, March 9, 1979

Your Excellency,

I avail myself of this opportune moment to extend to Your Excellency my warmest best wishes and to share with Your Excellency some thoughts on a question which for some time has figured prominently on the agenda of the current North-South dialogue.

As Your Excellency are aware, the Negotiating Conference on a Common Fund in the framework of the Integrated Programme for Commodities will reconvene in Geneva from the twelfth to the sixteenth of March 1979.²

The aim of this resumed session of the Conference, just as the preceding one held in November of last year,³ is to reach agreement on some fundamental elements of the Common Fund which would serve as a basis for the elaboration of the complete Articles of Agreement of this new institution.

As is known, the last Conference failed to yield full agreement between the developing and the developed countries, although informally important progress has been achieved on several of the major issues. This progress was made possible due to the increasing willingness on both sides to abandon the rigid positions previously held and to work towards a compromise, without sacrificing the fundamental objectives and basic principles which have always inspired the idea of establishing a Common Fund.

In these efforts towards conciliaton between the two sides, Indonesia and the other members of the ASEAN have, I believe, contributed their substantial share, and the progress so far achieved in moving the divergent positions closer to each other is a matter of gratification indeed. Nevertheless, it must be realized that some fundamental differences in the respective positions remain, differences not simply of a technical nature, but indeed concerning matters of principle and conceptual approach. The document containing the “Conclusions by the President” on the outcome of the last session of the Conference in Geneva clearly reflects those differences.

In all candour I should observe that at present the point has almost been reached where any further concessions by the developing countries will inevitably result in the sacrifice of basic principles without which a Common Fund can not be expected to function as a key instrument in attaining the agreed objectives of the Integrated Programme for Commodities.⁴

I realize that especially for the United States, and perhaps also for one or two other advanced industrialized countries, there are still some aspects which appear difficult to accept based on certain technical considerations. This fact has undeniably been one of the major factors preventing the emergence of an early agreement.

If all sides are convinced of the fundamental interests which are at stake in the mutually satisfactory solution of this issue, then I believe, all of us would come to the conclusion that the proposals put forward by the President of the Conference in his Conclusions indeed represent a fair starting point from which to continue our further negotiations.

For, if this minimal starting point were to be reduced again, to the detriment of the interests of the developing countries, we would surely never be able to achieve agreement while at the same time it would make it impossible for Indonesia and the ASEAN to continue to work towards a compromise that would be equitable and fair to all sides.

Similarly, with regard to the current negotiations in UNCTAD to arrive at an international agreement on natural rubber,⁵ it is primarily the United States Delegation which appears to have continuing doubts and misgivings about some of its principal elements, particularly the question of a floor-price.

I would therefore like to express the hope that the Government of the United States at the forthcoming negotiations could take an even more positive and forward looking stand so as to enable early agreement to materialize on these questions, in the interest of all countries, developed and developing, raw material producers and consumers alike.

Such a stand would be fully consonant with the pledge made at the Second United States-ASEAN dialogue held last year to pursue actively the Common Fund negotiations to a successful early conclusion and to play a constructive role in negotiations to conclude agreements on individual commodities.⁶

Please, accept Your Excellency the renewed assurances of my sentiments of friendship and highest esteem.

Soeharto⁷
President of the Republic of Indonesia.

1. Source: Carter Library, National Security Affairs, Staff Material, Far East, Platt Chron File, Box 66, 3/20–31/79. No classification marking. Printed from an unofficial translation.
2. Negotiations on the Common Fund, held in Geneva March 12–20, resulted in agreement on a framework for the fund. Documentation on the U.S. position on the Common Fund is in Foreign Relations, 1977–1980, vol. III, Foreign Economic Policy.
3. The negotiations on the Common Fund took place in Geneva November 14–30, 1978.
4. Adopted on May 30, 1976, in UNCTAD Resolution 93(IV).
5. The UN Natural Rubber Conference held several sessions in Geneva during 1979, culminating in agreement in October on the text of the International Rubber Agreement. Documentation on the U.S. position on various commodities, including rubber, is in Foreign Relations, 1977–1980, vol. III, Foreign Economic Policy.
6. See footnote 4, Document 209.
7. Printed from a copy that bears this typed signature and an indication that Suharto signed the letter.