The President's Trip to London, Newcastle, and Geneva Remarks on Departure From the White House.

I was planning to say that when Cy Vance and I go to Europe, along with other distinguished representatives of our Government, to work with our friends and allies there, and leave the Vice President and others here, that I would feel much better about Europe for the next 5 days than I will the United States. [Laughter] But since he made such a beautiful speech, I will have to drop my frivolous remarks and say that I don't believe that there has ever been a President and Vice President who have been bound together more closely with a common philosophical commitment, with a common belief and confidence in the quality of the American people, and a sharing of every possible problem and its potential solution. And I'm very grateful for the continuing support and advice that I get from the Vice President, who is in almost every way an equal partner with me.

This is an important trip. It's the only trip that I have planned this entire year outside of our country. We have a great undertaking to bind ourselves closer together with our friends and allies in Japan and Canada and in Europe, as we face common tasks and common challenges.

The economic discussions will be designed to put the people of the world back to work, to discourage a rampant robbing of people by inflation, to share the proper and fair use of raw materials and other supplies that come from the less developed countries, and to share with those less-fortunate nations the bounties that God has given the world.

We will have long discussions about close political interrelationships, consultations with our closest allies and friends. We'll be dealing with problems that concern NATO, the defense of Europe, the relationships between the East and the West, among close friends and potential adversaries whom we hope to be our close friends in the future.

I'll be having bilateral private consultations with more than a dozen leaders of foreign countries. I feel well briefed and well prepared. And my own hope is that I can well and truly represent what the American people would like to see their President do in discussing world problems with other world leaders.

We will be pursuing our long-range goals for world peace, for nuclear disarmament, for holding down the sale of conventional weapons, for preventing the spread of the capability for nuclear explosives among nations that don't share it, for a discussion about the proper uses of energy and the sharing of world trade with others, for loans and direct aid to the less-developed countries, and the establishment of basic mechanisms by which these discussions can continue, not just at the summit level on special occasions but on a continual day-by-day interrelationship.

All these things are our hopes for this meeting at the summit with six other nations, on discussions of Berlin with three other nations, our discussions with our NATO allies, and a special meeting that I shall have with President Asad from Syria in Geneva.

I feel good about the prospects for success, and I believe that I will come back after this 5-day trip with a major step having been made forward in dealing with the world's problems with the other leaders of our closest friends.

I want to thank the ones who have come out this afternoon--this morning to see me off. I will try to do a good job for you. And I think when I come back, we will have had a successful trip.

Thank you very much.