_____ THE DEPUTY S ECRETARY OF STATE WASHINGTON Fe bruary 18 1977 MEMORANDUM FOR THE PRES I DENT FROM Warren Christopher 1 Panama Canal Negotiations Ambassador Bunker has informed u s that the Panama talks are off to a rocky start In the firs t two meetings Tuesday Ambassadors Bunker and Lin owitz outl ined our general approach and what they hoped to accomplish in these initial sessions On Wednesday a fter keeping the US de l egation waiting for 2-1 2 hours Jaime Arias a businessman and close f riend of Torrijos made a short but very tough and emotional speech restating their old uncompromising position Our negotiators re l i ed t h a t Arias' speech was unwarranted and reaffirmed that the y were there in good faith s eek ing a mutually advantageous treaty At that meeting the US n eqot i a tors also presented our full package and u rged the Pana manians to cons ide r it c a reful ly The Panamanians s a id that they would inform our negotiators today when the nex t meeting would be held but we have no wo r d as y e t · As an expression of the tough Panaman ian atti tude the Panamanian Foreign Minister cance led a scheduled meeting with visiting US Congressmen a nd the Panamani ans did not atte nd the dinner for the Congressmen to wh ich the y had been invited At a depa r t ure press conference two of the nin e Congressmen Dornan R Calif and Smith R I owa made intemperate statements calling Panama a one-ma n dictato rship and asserting that the U e J Panamanians do not want a treaty w GOS f t fl t-1 -7-00 NAAA DATE -o o k la 0 y MV' 1 I t t i DECLASSIFIED 01 S lgk H µ cl fi '- f - p«IUl'A llf_ I te f 17 k f • r f J f n trn j I - 2 - 2 South Korea Ambassador Sneide r d e livered your lette r to South Korean President Park Chun g Hee Februa ry 16 Presiden t Park expressed his appreciation or the letter and its straightforward manne r He reiterated that he would prefer no change in us f rce l evels for a considerable period of time but did not challenge your intention to withdraw ground troops gradually 0 On human rights President Park said he was aware of your strongly-held views on this matter and agreed with them He said however that the threat from the North required certain restrictions on people's rights Park's comments to our Ambassador do not constitute the formal reply you requested and we think such a reply should be pursued in a quiet way cJo Jt 1 3 Southern African Situation You have received a warm letter from Julius Nyerere the Pres ident of Tanzan i a tha nking you for Ambass ador Young ' s visit and reiterating his intention to strengthen friendly relations between our countries Nyerere has little new to suggest on Rhodesia except to r e ite rate his view that the only way to move forward in Rhodesia is to convene a meeting between the British and the nationalists The Nyerere recommen dation will be difficult to implement because the British are reluctant to negotiate a settlement with the nationalists alone since they would not be able to sell the outcome to Vorster and Smith 4 UNCTAD I gave a luncheon today for UNCTAD Secretary Gene ral Gamani Corea who has spent the last two days see ing key officials in State Treas ury and the World Bank Congressmen Zablocki Bingham and Fisher attende d The primary objective of Corea's visit was to promote the proposed Common Fund to finance the p urchas e of buf fer stocks to facilitate commodity agreements s ' - 3 - We told Corea that the new Administration is reviewi ng positions on all major North South issues including the Common Fund with an open mind that we had a sympathetic interest in moderating volatile prices harmful both to producers and consumers but that we question whether negotiating a Common Fund makes sense before it is known how many commodity arrangements are likely to be agreed upon