Nixon and Sato to meet in January

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32776, 29 November 1971, Page 15

Nixon and Sato to meet in January

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright)

PALM DESERT (California), November 27. President Nixon will meet the Japanese Prime Minister (Mr Eisaku Sato) in San Clemente, California, on January 6 and January 7 for talks on the international situation and United States-Japanese relations, the Western White House announced today.

The Presidential Press Secretary (Mr Ronald Ziegler) said that the meeting was one of a series being undertaken by the President with allied leaders before his trips to Peking and Moscow next year.

The White House an-| nounced earlier this week that President Nixon would confer with! President Georges Pom-; pidou of France in the: Azores on December 13 and 14, and with the British Prime Minister: (Mr Edward Heath) in! Bermuda on December! 20 and December 21.

The White House called an early morning briefing for tomorrow amid rumours that it would announce a meeting between the President and the West German Chancellor: (Mr Willy Brandt), probably next month. Disclosure of the coming summit meeting with Mr Sato was made after the President flew to Palm Desert from his home in San Cle- 1

1 mente to dedicate a hospital ias a memorial to the late : President Eisenhower. Accompanying Mr Nixon lat the San Clemente talks ; will be the Secretary of State | (Mr William Rogers), the Treasury Secretary (Mr John i Connally), and Dr Henry Kis--1 singer, White House adviser ; on security affairs. All three i also will attend the meetings | that Mr Nixon will have with I President Pompidou and Mr I Heath.

The White House spokesman said that the Japanese Foreign Minister (Mr Takeo Fukuda) would come to San Clemente and indicated that the Finance Minister (Mr Mikio Mizuta) also would take part in the talks. The California summit meeting comes after a period of severely strained relations between Washington and Tokyo brought about by : President Nixon’s unexpected : overtures to China and the tough new international economic policies he announced on August 15 to protect the United States dollar. Mr Nixon’s economic moves—suspending the convertibility of the dollar into gold and imposing a 10 per cent import surtax—were aimed chiefly at forcing a revaluation of the Japanese yen and slowing down imports from Japan to America. The President’s announcement on July 15 that he intended to visit Peking was not communicated to Mr Sato in advance and it rocked the

Japanese Government, which had believed that the United States would hold consultation with it before making such a drastic change in foreign policy.

Of the allied leaders invited so far to confer with Mr Nixon, the Japanese leader is the only one so far to hold talks on United States territory.

Asked why Mr Sato was coming to the United States, while the President was to meet the French and British leaders on Atlantic islands, Mr Ziegler said merely that San Clemente was a mutually convenient location. Mr Ziegler said that the talks with Mr Sato—like those with President Pompidou and Mr Heath—would be strictly business, and social activities would be kept to a minimum. The President last met Mr Sato when the Japanese Prime Minister came to the White House in Washington on October 24, 1970, to a dinner marking the twentyfifth anniversary of the United Nations.

Mr Sato paid an official visit to Washington in November, 1969, when President Nixon agreed that the United States would return Okinawa to Japan in 1972. The Okinawa reversion treaty has been approved by the United States Senate and the Lower House of the Japanese Diet, and is awaiting action in the Upper House of the Diet.