Carter outlines bold new foreign policy for U.S.

Press, 24 May 1977, Page 8

Carter outlines bold new foreign policy for U.S.

NZPA South Bend (Indiana) President Carter said yesterday that “this may be the most propitious time for a genuine settlement” in the Middle East.

“To let this opportunity pass could mean disaster not only for the Middle East but perhaps for the international political and economic order as well,” the “New York Times” reported him as saying.

The warning came in an important address in which he called for a new and broad American foreign policy, more responsive to humanitarian problems other than war and peace, and better adapted to an era in which United States decisions are no longer influenced by grave concern for Soviet expansion. In a speech at a graduation ceremony at Notre Dame University in South Bend, Indiana, Mr Carter said: “We are now free of that inordinate fear of communism which once led us to embrace any dictator who joined our fear. “This approach has failed — with Vietnam the best example of its intellectual and moral poverty.” The speech was described by a White House spokesman as “conceptual” in nature and designed to demonstrate that “we are not witnessing the decline of the West.” In it the President said that America would have a foreign policy that was democratic, “that is based on our fundamental values, and that used power and influence for humane purposes.” He said he had quiet confidence in the democratic system, and cited "democracv’s great successes” in India, Portugal, Greece, and

Spain. These, he said, “show that our confidence is not misplaced.” President Carter said that United States policy should be based on “close co-oper-ation among the industrial democracies of the world . . . because together we can help to shape a more decent life for all.” And, in the context of a strong defence, capability, the United States must seek to improve relations with the Soviet Union and China. “Even if we cannot heal ideological divisions, we must reach accommodations that reduce the risk of war,” he said. President Carter took up a huge theme — the decreasing importance of the monolithic divisions of the world into Western and Soviet! blocs. He cited the United! Nations, the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, and the World Bank as ingredients of an international system which has worked well for a quarter of a century. But, “that system could not last forever unchanged,” he said. “Historical trends have weakened its foundation. The unifying threat of conflict with the Soviet Union has become less intensive — even though the competition has become more extensive.” Dressed in cap and gown and wearing the purple and gold cowl symbolic of the honorary degree awarded him by the school, President Carter told the more than 13,000 people attending the ceremonies that “the world today is in the midst of the most profound and rapid transformation in its entire history.” With the rapid disappearance of colonialism, the blossoming of nationalism in nearly 100 young nations, and the wider dissemination of knowledge around the world, the burden of traditional constraints on the human population had lessened, he said. Consequently, he said, more people “have become determined to achieve social Justice” and it was to that

reality that the United States and other world powers should address themselves. “We can no longer separate the traditional issues of war and peace from the new global questions of justice, equity, and human rights,” he said. "We can no longer have a policy solely for the industrial nations as the foundation of global stability, but we must respond to the new i reality of a politically awak-l ening world,” he declared. | Now the policy must be to close the gap between rich (and poor nations and to “en-l I courage all countries to rise 'above narrow national interjests” and work to resolve the i formidable problems facing the world. I Among these President ! Carter listed the threat of nuclear war, racial hatred, the arms race, environmental damage, hunger, and disease. "It is a new world, but i America should not fear it.' It is a new world, and we should help to shape it It is a new world that calls for a new American foreign policy, a policy based on constant decency in its values and on optimism in its historical vision.” The ceremony itself provided the compatible setting for the President’s reiteration of his emphasis on universal human rights. Three Roman Catholic clergymen prominent for their protests against persecution and repression in their countries — Chile, Rhodesia, and South Korea, received honorary degrees. In addition to outlining the broad dimensions of foreign policy he espouses for the United States, Mr Carter used the occasion to address himself to specfic areas of tension around the world. He affirmed the constancy of his views on the Middle East, regardless of changes in Israel’s Government, by jaying that the United States expected Israel and its neighbours to “continue to be bound by United Nations resolutions 242 and 338, which they have previously ac-

jcepted,” and which vaguely 'endorse Israeli withdrawal from unspecified occupied lands. Mr Carter said that United (States was committed “to a peaceful resolution of the crisis in southern Africa” and promised co-operation with European allies and African States "to shape a congenial international framework for the rapid and progressive transformation of southern I African society and to help protect it from unwarranted |outside interference.” ■ In a brief reference, the President criticised the Soviet (Union and Cuba for the pres'ence of Cuban military men ,in Angola. He said: “We hope |to persuade the Soviet Union ithat one country cannot im'pose its own social system :upon another, either through (direct military intervention or (through the use of the client state’s military force as with .the Cuban intervention in (Angola.” ! He also reassured China that the United States planned to involve it in the formulation of its global policies. China is "a key force for global peace,” he said. “We wish to co-operate (closely with the creative (Chinese people on the problems that confront all mankind. We hope to find a formula which can bridge some of the difficulties that still separate us.”