Statement by the President Following a Meeting With the U.S. Representative to the NATO Council.

[Excerpt from the Press Secretary's news briefing] Mr. MOYERS. The President met this afternoon, following his weekly session with Secretary McNamara, Secretary Rusk, and Mr. Bundy, 1 with Mr. Harlan Cleveland, the recently appointed Ambassador to NATO. He asked Mr. Cleveland to concentrate especially on three tasks which are of "enduring importance to this country and to our partners in the Western Alliance."

Q. Is there a statement on this?

Q. Is this the statement that Secretary Rusk referred to ?

MR. MOYERS. That is correct.

Q. Bill, before you go ahead, is this a White House statement or a Presidential statement ?

MR. MOYERS. This is a Presidential statement. I'll put in the statement, and when it is the President's I'll quote it.

The first task, he told him, is to strengthen, of course, the North Atlantic alliance organization as an organization.

Now, let me read from the President's statement:

1 Robert S. McNamara, Secretary of Defense, Dean Rusk, Secretary of State, and McGeorge Bundy, Special Assistant to the President.

"This alliance is the centerpiece of the worldwide system we have been building for 20 years to protect the free world. NATO has succeeded in its deterrent role. A strong NATO remains essential if we are to reach a solid agreement with the Soviet Union that reflects the common interest of each of the allied nations in peace and security.

"Naturally, each member of NATO sees the alliance and the international organization that serves it from its own perspective. But this alliance of the West is bigger than any of its members. We must maintain its strength and we must continually update it to serve the common aspirations of all of US."

Q. Bill, is that a statement that the President made to Mr. Cleveland ?

MR. MOYERS. This is a statement that I'm making to you in the President's name.

Q. Is that the end of the quote?

MR. MOYERS. Yes. I'm paraphrasing now. The second task is to continue to develop NATO--the President wanted Mr. Cleveland to develop NATO as an instrument of political cooperation.

Now, as part of the President's statement, this is a direct quote:

"I have asked Ambassador Cleveland, working with his colleagues in the Department of State, to examine the ways in which all members can continue, within the North Atlantic alliance, to strengthen the process of political consultation on a wide variety of world issues."

The third task the President assigned to Mr. Cleveland was to work out improved ways of organizing our collective nuclear defense.

"This will be high on the agenda in the months ahead. I have asked Ambassador Cleveland to make clear to our friends in NATO the continuing desire of the United States to find more satisfactory means of dealing with this central problem.

"The partnership of Atlantic nations is not the only center of power in our world of diversity, but it is the most free and the most powerful. Our continuing purpose is to work with our friends to see that this power is managed responsibly in the larger service of freedom on every continent."