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Meeting With Prime Minister Michael Manley of Jamaica White House Statement Issued Following the Meeting.

December 16, 1977

Prime Minister Manley of Jamaica and President Carter met today for an hour and 15 minutes in the Cabinet Room and then proceeded to a working luncheon for an bout and a half. They discussed a wide range of subjects of mutual interest. Mr. Manley was invited to have lunch at the White House by Mrs. Carter during her visit to Kingston in May of this year, and the December 16 date was selected as the time most convenient to both the President and Prime Minister Manley.

The Prime Minister and President Carter discussed multilateral and bilateral issues during their meeting and luncheon. Jamaica, as Chairman of the Group of 77, plays an important role as spokesman for many developing countries. The Prime Minister and the President reviewed the general state of the North-South dialog, as well as several individual issues of importance including the assistance needs of developing countries and the negotiations on a common fund.

The two leaders also discussed certain bilateral issues, including our efforts to assist .Jamaica resolve its economic difficulties and Jamaica's contribution to a broader hemispheric commitment to human rights. Several important regional issues were discussed, including the question of Belize. Prime Minister Manley recently hosted a conference of seven Latin American and Caribbean leaders to discuss the future status of Belize, and the Prime Minister related some of the conclusions of that conference to the President, and they explored in general terms ways to ensure a peaceful and durable settlement to that problem. The two leaders also discussed the Panama Canal treaties and regional cooperation in the Caribbean.

The meeting was extremely cordial.

Attending on the Jamaican side were Prime Minister Manley, Mrs. Manley, P. J. Patterson, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Tourism; Alfred Rattray, Jamaican Ambassador; Richard Fletcher, Minister of State, Ministry of Finance; Keith Rodd, Member of Parliament; Owen .Jefferson, Director, Program Division, Ministry of Finance and Planning; Gordon Wells, Permanent Secretary, Office of the Prime Minister; E. Frank Francis, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Foreign Trade and Tourism; and Herbert Walker, Permanent Representative to the Jamaican Mission to the Specialized Agencies of the United Nations at Geneva.

Attending on the United States side were President Carter; Vice President Mondale; Secretary of State Cyrus Vance; Zbigniew Brzezinski, Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs; David Aaron, Deputy Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs; Terence A. Todman, Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs; Frederick Irving, American Ambassador to Jamaica; and Robert Pastor, National Security Council staff member. The following United States officials also attended the luncheon: Anthony M. Solomon, Under Secretary of the Treasury for Monetary Affairs, and Guy Erb, National Security Council staff member.

Note: The statement was made available by the White House Press Office. It was not issued in the form of a White House press release.

Jimmy Carter, Meeting With Prime Minister Michael Manley of Jamaica White House Statement Issued Following the Meeting. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/243024

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