Office of the Historian

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

Washington, January 9, 1979

SUBJECT

  • Disputed Islands Negotiations—Gilbert Islands

The President has approved the proposal of the Department of State to enter into negotiations at the end of January with the United Kingdom and the Gilbertese authorities concerning disputed islands in the Gilberts chain. (C)

During these negotiations, U.S. negotiators shall seek:

[Page 938]

(a) Acceptance by the Government of the Gilberts of the substance of the 1970 US-UK agreement. (C)

(b) A commitment by the Gilbert Islands that they will give us a veto should any third party wish to use former U.S. military installations on Gilberts territory for military purposes. (C)

(c) Agreement that the Government of the Gilberts will give sympathetic consideration to requests by the United States for use of Canton, Enderbury, and Hull after November 1980. The modalities for possible use should be kept open. (C)

(d) A commitment to give non-discriminatory treatment to U.S. fishing vessels and to the non-U.S. fishing vessels that supply American canneries in Pago Pago. (C)

(e) An expression of intent to cooperate in conservation, management, utilization, and exploitation of fishery resources. (C)

(f) Willingness to consider arrangements that would permit access by non-US owned fishing vessels that supply canneries in Pago Pago. (C)

(g) Agreement to cooperate in scientific research, especially in marine research on Canton and Christmas Islands.2 (C)

Zbigniew Brzezinski3
  1. Source: Carter Library, National Security Affairs, Staff Material, Far East, Platt Chron File, Box 66, 1/1–22/79. Confidential.↩
  2. Representatives of the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Gilbert Islands met on several occasions after January 1979 to negotiate the resolution of claims to the disputed islands before the independence of Kiribati, as the Gilberts were called after independence, on July 12, 1979. The U.S.-Kiribati Treaty of Friendship was signed on September 20, 1979. (35 UST 2095; TIAS 10777) The negotiations were reported in telegram 293655 to London, November 18; telegram 27690 to all East Asian and Pacific diplomatic posts, February 2, 1979; telegram 103449 to Suva, April 24, 1979; and telegram 111751 to Canberra and Suva, May 2, 1979; and telegram 195630 to Port Louis, July 27, 1979. (National Archives, RG 59, Central Foreign Policy File, D780476–0039, D790050–1279, D790188–0903, D790201–0797, and D790343–0182)↩
  3. Aaron signed for Brzezinski above Brzezinski’s typed signature.↩