The President's Trip to Europe Remarks on Arrival at Andrews Air Force Base, Md.

First of all, let me say that Rosalynn and I and Amy and all of us are very glad to be back here in the United States.

We've had a very long and, I think, productive and successful trip. Since I left this country a few days ago, I've had a chance to have extensive conversations with the leaders of nine different nations, not only the present heads of state but also, in some instances, the leaders of the opposition parties and those who will comprise the government in the present time and the future. We also met with the President of the European Community and had extensive discussions with the Pope at the Vatican.

In Yugoslavia we expressed our deep commitment to the integrity and the unity and the security of that country, which is now making good progress since the unfortunate death of President Tito. The new Government seems to be strong and firm, in control, dedicated. And of course, we gave our support to them and to the future stability and integrity of that great country.

In Italy we shared with Prime Minister Cossiga and President Pertini the common basis on which we predicate our own hopes for the future. The Italians did a superb job in preparing for the Venice conference, where I met with the leaders not only of Italy and the European Community but of Germany and France, Great Britain, Canada, and Japan.

I also was able to stop in the two new democracies, Spain and Portugal, both ancient countries, but new to the democratic process. I expressed to them the gratitude of our own Nation and our admiration for their rapid change into true democratic government, and was able to have fruitful discussions with them.

All of us were in a remarkable degree of harmony, understanding that we had had painful experiences in the 1970's, with rapidly changing economic and other circumstances, but that we face even greater challenges in the 1980's. All the leaders recognize that there must be some painful decisions made and that our people are strong enough and courageous enough and dedicated enough and united enough to make these decisions, even though they might involve some sacrifice on our part and some accommodation for the desires and needs of one another.

We recognize that we must break the relationship between economic growth in the future and our dependence on energy; in other words, to have more growth for less energy, through conservation and through the reduction, particularly, in the importation of oil. The one word that permeated all the discussions was oil. The smell of foreign oil has a profound impact on all our nations. Obviously our overdependence on foreign oil takes away our own basic security, the right that we have to make our own decisions.

The price of oil is crippling, not only to us, in bringing additional inflation but also unemployment; and for the less developed or poor countries, the new, rapidly increasing, excessive price of oil is particularly damaging to them and to their prospects. And oil politics is literally changing the interrelationship among nations, where we must stand united, cooperate whenever we can, and meet a common challenge to the security and the certainty of the future brought about by rapidly increasing, uncontrollable prices of oil, and excessive dependence by all of us on imports of oil.

Finally, we had extensive political discussions. We were united in our commitment, in our statements to the public, that a major threat to peace had been perpetrated by the Soviet Union in their unwarranted invasion and present occupation of Afghanistan. We expressed our admiration for the freedom-fighters in Afghanistan, who are struggling for national liberation from the occupying Soviet forces. This major threat, we all agree, must be resolved by the withdrawal of Soviet forces, total withdrawal. The recent token withdrawal has relatively little strategic significance unless it is permanent and is rapidly followed by step-by-step withdrawal of all Soviet forces.

And finally, all the nations expressed their commitment to us as rapidly as possible to encourage the Iranian Government to end the act of international terrorism which they have perpetrated against 53 innocent Americans, against our Nation, and against the rest of the world, indeed. This holding of innocent hostages is unacceptable. It violates every principle of international law and human decency. All the nations have committed themselves again to us that they would do everything in the world they could, through private, diplomatic channels and through their public statements and actions, to secure the rapid release of the American hostages.

Finally, we recognize that among democratic nations, free people, there are bound to be some differences. But the common understanding which we have and the agreements which we have reached show a remarkable degree of unity as we face present problems and prepare for the future.

The best thing about the trip is coming back home. We are glad to be back in the United States of America, the greatest nation, by far, on Earth.

Thank you very much.