Meeting With Chancellor Helmut Schmidt of the Federal Republic of Germany White House Statement.

President Carter and Chancellor Helmut Schmidt of the Federal Republic of Germany held a 1-hour working breakfast at the White House this morning to review major international issues. Chancellor Schmidt is in Washington as head of his country's delegation to the summit meeting of the North Atlantic Alliance.

The President and the Chancellor reaffirmed their firm commitment to strengthening the deterrent ability of the North Atlantic Alliance on the basis of which they will continue efforts to improve East-West cooperation. The Chancellor gave the President an outline of his talks with Soviet President Brezhnev. They reviewed East-West relations generally and agreed to continue close consultations in this area.

President Carter outlined progress made to date on the negotiation of a SALT II agreement, emphasizing that the security interests of our NATO Allies will be covered in any agreement reached. The President and the Chancellor expressed the hope that the new Western initiative in the MBFR negotiations tabled last April will help to move those talks forward.

President Carter and Chancellor Schmidt also reviewed planning for the Economic Summit which will take place in Bonn on July 16 and 17. They agreed that the major world economic leaders must seek a coordinated, consistent approach to the problems of higher energy costs, high unemployment, inflation, depressed investment and payments imbalances. They agreed to strive for closer short- and medium-term coordination of economic policy and focus in depth on the long-term structural problems facing the world economy.

The President and the Chancellor welcomed this opportunity to exchange ideas personally on important issues and will continue their efforts, together with other countries, to synchronize approaches to common problems. Both looked forward especially to the President's forthcoming state visit to the Federal Republic and Berlin in mid-July, prior to the Economic Summit.