444. Telegram From the Embassy in Mexico to the Department of State1
18001. Dept please pass NSC for Aaron and Pastor. Subject: Deputy Assistant to President for National Security David Aaron’s Conversation with Ambassador Sergio Gonzalez Galvez, Director in Chief for International Organizations, Secretariat of Foreign Relations (SRE).
1. Following is a memorandum of the conversation which took place between Mr. Aaron and Amb. Gonzalez Galvez at the Mexican Secretariat of Foreign Relations (SRE) on October 26, 1978. The conversation covered a wide range of subjects including conventional arms control, Tlatelolco, Nicaragua, UN, OAS, nonaligned movement, Belize, and Mexican participation in peace keeping operations. Other participants are listed at end of telegram.
2. Mr. Aaron opened the meeting by speaking of President Carter’s interest in revitalizing the spirit of cooperation which had characterized the beginning of the Lopez Portillo-Carter Administrations. He said he would be reporting the results of his visit directly to the President and that he would welcome Gonzalez Galvez views on a wide range of international issues. He spoke of President Carter’s great interest in Mexican-U.S. relations and expressed the belief that the time was now ripe for increased emphasis on U.S.-Mexican cooperation.
3. Gonzalez Galvez began by recounting the history of Mexico’s recent efforts for international arms control.
[Omitted here is discussion unrelated to the Treaty of Tlatelolco.]
5. Tlatelolco
Gonzalez Galvez (GG) expressed thanks for the effective support the U.S. has given the Tlatelolco Treaty, support he knew had been especially effective with the Soviet Union and Argentina. He then said that in response to the U.S. request, Foreign Secretary Roel had spoken to Soviet Foreign Minister Gromyko asking that the Soviets not reiterate the statement they made upon signing the Treaty when they deposit their instrument of ratification. Gromyko had been noncommittal, saying only that the Soviets would seriously consider the Mexican request. Gonzalez Galvez said the Soviets gave no indication of when they would ratify. Mr. Aaron emphasized that reiteration of the Soviet statement would give the U.S. serious problems both because it would [Page 1107] cast doubt on the validity of the Treaty and lead to other reservations, and because it would seriously jeopardize U.S. ratification of Protocol I of the Treaty. He urged that the Mexicans continue to press the Soviets not to reiterate their statement. Mr. Pastor added that if the Soviet statement were repeated, a statement from Mexico supporting the U.S. position on nuclear transit might be necessary to ensure U.S. Senate ratification of Protocol I of the Treaty.
6. Gonzalez Galvez said Mexico strongly preferred not to have to make a statement re nuclear transit. He noted that his government has already declared that it would not permit nuclear transit on its territory and said that Panama had taken a similar position in a declaration made in 1968. We pointed out that notwithstanding any earlier Panamanian statement, the New Panama Canal treaties quite clearly do not prohibit nuclear transit, and that the new treaties superceded the 1968 Panama statement. GG accepted that point. He added that he had spoken to the Cubans on Tlatelolco.
[Omitted here is discussion unrelated to the Treaty of Tlatelolco.]
- Source: National Archives, RG 59, Central Foreign Policy Files, D780446–0175. Confidential; Immediate; Exdis.↩