Questioner
Prime Minister, on the question of the Afghanistan initiative, Is there any evidence that the Russians are very enthusiastic about this?
PM
I don't think we shall know until Lord Carrington gets there and discusses it with them. We have in the West and indeed the non-aligned countries continually and rightly condemned the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. It must never become acceptable. Now that being so, we felt it was time to have some initiative to try to end it. Lord Carrington 's been working on this for some time. He's discussed it with a number of other countries. Today we had it endorsed by the European Community, and the next step is to go and talk about it to the Russian Government. I hope very much that we shall get further with those talks. That we shall have a basis for a Soviet withdrawing from Afghanistan. If they do, then we could open a wholly new chapter in Soviet/Western relations and that would be a good thing. And I think the whole world would wish that to happen. A lot depends on the reactions from Soviet Russia.
Questioner
Did your meeting with President Mitterrand this morning reveal any differences of approach on the question of a Middle East initiative?
PM
I think the differences are rather more of words than of substance. I think that he doesn't like some words that appear in the Venice Declaration right at the beginning. They refer to a comprehensive settlement of the Middle Eastern position. And I think somehow he thought therefore that the Venice Declaration was aimed at solving all of the problems of the Middle East. I don't think we could do that in a short time. But if you go further on to the Venice Communique, it selects as central the problem between Israel and Palestine. And until we've got that one solved, we shall not really get very much further with a comprehensive Middle Eastern settlement. We were really concentrating on that. Mr. Mitterrand makes it very clear that he agrees with the general approach to the problems between Israel and Palestine, namely that Israel has a right to exist as a country [end p1] behind secure borders, and those borders must be defensible. And we all agree with that. Equally, that Israel must recognise the right to the Palestinian people. We were trying to get further with that—a step towards a comprehensive settlement in the Middle Eastern process. And I think he would agree with that, but he would put it that you must go one step at a time, whereas it appeared we were going for the full comprehensive settlement. In the end you won't get everything, but we can get some way.
Questioner
How did you get on? And are you at all worried as apparently some Governments have expressed some worry, about the fact that Mr. Mitterrand has a Cabinet with Communists in it?
PM
We got on very well together this morning. We were really only due to have talks at most for about 40 minutes, and they lasted over an hour which made us a little bit late for the Council meeting I'm afraid, but I thought it worth it. Because I thought it important that we and France have a good understanding and a good basis so that we can really cooperate in the future. I didn't discuss the inclusion of Communist Ministers with Mr. Mitterrand. I knew the reasons he'd given, and didn't think there was anything further to be gained from discussing it with him. He of course is completely in charge of what he does in his own country. If you ask me if I have worries about it, yes I have. Because I'm very concerned about the example it will give to other countries, and I think that that could be very adverse to Western interests. I would have preferred not to have had it, but in France it's totally a matter for him.
Questioner
Thank you very much.