283. Memorandum From the President’s Assistant for National Security Affairs (Brzezinski) to Secretary of State Vance1

SUBJECT

  • Disputed Islands Negotiations—Tuvalu

The Department of State is authorized to proceed with negotiations for a treaty with Tuvalu which renounces all United States claims to four islands in the Tuvalu chain. In return for ceding our claims, the negotiators should seek:

—assurances of nondiscriminatory treatment by the Tuvalu Government toward U.S. vessels fishing in their waters.

—access to Tuvaluan waters for non-U.S. fishing vessels which supply the U.S.-owned tuna canneries on American Samoa.

—general assurances that Tuvalu will not make its territory available, for military purposes, to powers unfriendly to the United States.

—sympathetic consideration by the Government of Tuvalu to such requests as the U.S. might make for use of or access to the islands for military purposes, during time of emergency or international crisis.2

Zbigniew Brzezinski
  1. Source: Carter Library, National Security Affairs, Brzezinski Material, Agency File, Box 18, State, 4–6/78. Confidential.
  2. The U.S.-Tuvalu Treaty of Friendship, after undergoing multiple text revisions, was eventually signed on February 7, 1979, after taking into account the reservations of the New Zealand Government. (35 UST 2087; TIAS 10776) The negotiations were reported in telegram 266859 to Canberra, October 21; telegram 6152 from Wellington, November 9; telegram 8038 to Suva, January 11, 1979; telegram 8171 to Wellington, January 11, 1979; and telegram 447 from Suva, February 8, 1979. (National Archives, RG 59, Central Foreign Policy File, D780432–0448, D780465–1075, D790014–1041, D790062–1091, and D790063–0671)