Mr Kirk denies report of visit to U.S.

Press, Volume CXIII, Issue 33254, 18 June 1973, Page 1

Mr Kirk denies report of visit to U.S.

(By BRUCE KOHN, N.Z.P.A. staff correspondent)

WASHINGTON, June 17.

The Prime Minister (Mr Kirk) tonight denied that he would meet President Nixon in the near future, but a White House spokesman claimed that arrangements for the meeting were continuing.

The assistant presidential press secretary, Mr Gerald Warren, said arrangements for the two leaders to meet were being made.

He said that the meeting would be separate from that arranged between President Nixon and the Australian Prime Minister, Mr Whitlam.

Mr Warren said he believed the meeting could take place before or after Mr Kirk attended the Commonwealth heads of Government conference in Ottawa in early August. In a statement to the N.Z.P.A. in Wellington, Mr Kirk said: “I have not had or sought, or have any intention of seeking, an invitation to visit the United States or meet President Nixon, in conjunction with the visit to Canada.” Mr Kirk said he would travel direct to the Ottawa conference and had no plans to visit any other country on the way home. But Mr Warren insisted that arrangements for a meeting between Mr Kirk and the President were continuing when the Prime Minister’s statement was referred to him early this morning (Washington time). Mr Whitlam today confirmed a White House announcement that he and the President would meet during the Australian leader’s trip to Ottawa.

The first indication that; talks involving the President and Mr Whitlam and Mr

Nixon and the New Zealand leader was volunteered by the White House on Saturday afternoon.

It followed days of questioning of White House officials by newsmen. In the background had been strong suggestions that diplomatic attempts to ease the strain between Mr Whitlam and the President would be helped if a meeting between the two could be set up within the context of Anzus summit talks. Visits coincide At that time neither Mr Warren nor other White House officials would say in response to questioning a likely venue of date for the Kirk and Whitlam meetings with the President, But it was said they were aware the travel itineries of Mr Kirk and Mi* Whitlam coincided. Mr Warren’s statement that the Kirk-Nixon meeting would be separate from that arranged between the President and the Australian Prime Minister, appeared to indicate that any thought of an Anzus summit had been dropped. Mr Kirk earlier described the N.Z.-P.A. report from Washington which quoted a White House spokesman as saying the meeting would take place next month as “obviously the result of idle

and uninformed speculation.”

The Prime Minister said the report bore no relationship “to either fact or reality.”

He said that because the New Zealand Parliament was sitting he intended to leave New Zealand as late as possible and go direct to Ottawa for the Prime Ministers’ conference. Mr Kirk said that he had received no suggestion from any quarter about a summit A.N.Z.U.S. conference and added: “Nor would I expect to receive any such invitation a matter of five weeks or so before such a council meeting were held, “The position is that the New Zealand Government issued an invitation for the A.N.Z.U.S. Council to meet in Wellington this year at Foreign Ministers’ level. "This invitation was acceptable to both Canberra and Washington and the only discussions in which New Zealand has been involved revolved around the council meeting in Wellington later this year. “In the light of this it is clear there is no substance to this story.” The Washington report said no firm date had been set for the meeting but White House officials said it would probably be held at the Western White House in San Clemente, or in Hawaii.