Foreign Relations of the United States, 1981–1988, Volume XXIV, North Africa

201. Letter From Secretary of Defense Weinberger to Secretary of State Haig¹

Washington, March 17, 1982

Dear Al:

(S) Thank you for your very helpful letter of February 22 with regard to future en route access to Moroccan facilities.² Considerable engineering work remains to be done before we can define the total military construction program at Sidi Slimane. Nevertheless, I feel that we should proceed with negotiations without delay. Specifically,

— We are prepared to pursue with the Moroccans an access agreement for both Sidi Slimane and Mohammed V. We are prepared to make up to $3 million in DoD funds available in FY 82 to begin improvements to Sidi Slimane or Mohammed V. The Air Force will serve as executive agent for the improvement effort.

— We propose that a team be dispatched to Morocco as soon as possible to open negotiations for an access accord.

— We also propose that facilities access be an agenda item for the April JMC, so that our plans can be carefully explained to the Moroccans.³

— We should then strive to complete negotiations urgently, so that, as suggested in your letter, final agreement on access could be reached in May during Hassan’s meeting with the President. (Formal signature and, if desired, announcement, could take place during the visit or soon after.)

(S) I believe that these actions, coupled with the expanded program of security assistance we plan to initiate in FY 83, will maintain the momentum generated by your discussions with King Hassan,⁴ and will be supportive of Defense interests. This course of action will also allow us more time for longer-term JCS basing plans to be completed, and will give us the benefit of the results of negotiations with other countries (e.g., Spain, Portugal, Egypt). It will also permit us to phase the improvements into our military construction planning while maintaining Congressional support and avoiding major reprogramming actions.

(U) I solicit your support and suggest that you designate someone on your staff to serve as point of contact with my Assistant Secretary Bing West to develop firm plans for implementation of this course of action.

Sincerely,

Cap

1. Source: Reagan Library, Executive Secretariat, NSC Country File, Africa, Morocco (12/23/1981–11/19/1982). Secret. Copies were sent to Jones and Clark.
2. Not found.
3. See Document 203.
4. See Document 199.