 Ladies and gentlemen, the President of the United States and Mrs. Reagan. Ladies and gentlemen, the national anthems of the French Republic and the United States of America. Mr. President, Madame Eteronde, Mr. Foreign Minister and distinguished guests, Nancy and I are pleased and honored to greet you and Madame Eteronde. We welcome you as the head of estate who has demonstrated courage and decisiveness in the face of international challenges that test the character of Western leadership. We welcome you also as the representative of the French people for whom all Americans share a special affection. We look out over the White House grounds and we see evidence that the bond between us is deep and has stood the test of time. There in the distance is the Jefferson Memorial, a tribute to America's third president, a founder of our republic, an intellectual whose ideas were profoundly influenced by his exposure to French philosophy and culture. It is not mere coincidence that this giant of American freedom was one of our first representatives to France. Mr. President, millions of people throughout the world admire and respect your country's historic legacy. Today, under your leadership, France continues to be a major contributor to world stability and peace. In this cause, we stand together as two peoples who cherish liberty and two peoples committed to humane and civilized values. Ours is not an easy task. As you have astutely noted, quote, peace like liberty is never given and the pursuit of both is a continual one. In Lebanon, we Americans are proud that we're part of a peacekeeping force working together at great risk to restore peace and stability to that troubled land. We will always remember that in this gallant humanitarian effort, we stood shoulder to shoulder with your brave countrymen. Our nation's two great world powers have responsibilities far beyond our own borders. Your influence is a force for good in the Middle East. You have drawn a line against aggression in Chad and you've extended assistance to other African nations seeking to preserve their security and better the lives of their peoples. These are but a few examples of the constructive global rule that France is playing. Mr. President, the American people applaud you and the people of France for your diligence and your courage. President Mitterrand, you come here fresh from a European Community Summit meeting in Brussels. At this meeting and elsewhere, you exerted your leadership as an advocate of greater European unity. I am most eager to discuss with you our bilateral concerns and also those economic, social and political issues of significance to Europe as a whole. America continues to support a strong and united Europe. The European democracies are through the North Atlantic Alliance anchoring the mutual defense of our common freedom. Today, as in years past, our own liberty relies heavily on the goodwill and shared sense of purpose among those people in the world who enjoy freedom. Victor Hugo's words still ring true. It is through fraternity, he said, that liberty is saved. Clearly, Mr. President, if those who love liberty stand together, strong and resolve, freedom will not only survive, it will prevail. Symbolic of our friendship this summer, America will greet the first contingent of French experts coming to New York to aid in the restoration of the Statue of Liberty. This year, we will begin celebrating the centennial of that Lady of Light. That magnificent gift of beacon of liberty for all mankind is a lasting reminder of that precious heritage that we, the French and American people share. Mr. President, I am pleased that your visit will include travel to parts of America that, as presidents of France, you have not yet been able to visit. You've already seen a good part of our East Coast, especially the Tidewater section of Virginia, which you visited during the celebration of the French and American Alliance at Yorktown, and again when we met with Summit colleagues at Williamsburg. This week, you will go further south to the dynamic city of Atlanta, later north to Pittsburgh. Then you will also journey to America's heartland, the Midwest, the farm country for a first-hand look at American agriculture. And you will travel to the American West Coast and visit our home state of California. There, innovations in energy and electronics spurred by tax incentives that reward personal initiative and risk-taking are paving the road to the 21st century in a new era of high technology. It's comforting to know that no matter what changes technology brings to our way of living, the goodwill between our peoples will remain solid and lasting. America is delighted that you have set this week aside to be with us as a friend. During your visit to Washington, Nancy and I look forward to deepening our personal relationship with you and Madam Mediranta and with your colleagues. We offer you a warm welcome and our best wishes for a rewarding and memorable visit. This is the one from the Aliez-en-France landing in two months. We will say that the chance is good. I see a symbolic conjunction. You said earlier that there is no chance in the history of the peoples and only of the destinies and ours, on so many points and common. Also, my first thought goes to the Aliez-en-France Americans, armed brothers who, from Yorktown to Beirut, put their blood on them. History shows that these sacrifices were never vain because they did not aim for conquest or the will of power, but the defense of freedom. In spite of all this, the peoples do not know enough, which sometimes leaves room for uncertainties. After being entertained with you, Mr. President, I will therefore consecrate five to six days to travel your country. I would like to say again that since I was 38, I have learned to know, but also to understand its dynamism, its diversity, its culture and its modernity. My ambition is also to introduce you to the citizens of the United States. Yes, through our talks, through our conversations that will speak of the world and of us, what France is. A country of tradition, but also power, economy and technology, revolving around the future. A France that prepares itself with determination to a new world that will bring forth the next few years. Finally, a France that is bound and constant, who intends to bring forth an original contribution to the search for peace and to the pursuit of development, pursuit or reprise. Because the relations between France and the United States are not only one that will make the celebration of the past glorious. The major concern in 1984 is that of the European security and relations between the East and the West, which must be added to the North-South relationship that we will have to maintain. At this point, the firmness and clarity of the directions that I have given to the French diplomacy are known by your hands and by your administration. Our loyalty to our friends is flawless. And we remain ourselves organized around this fundamental notion called the balance of forces in the world and in Europe. Firmness and determination are essential, but they are bound together with the maintenance of the dialogue, and particularly with the dialogue with the East. Because the independent forces are sure of themselves as they remain faithful to the great past that you are talking about right now. Sure of these citizens, France can and wants to open up to discussion with all and above all. But other tasks await us are necessary to this balance of the world. Certainly, the reliance of the American economy, the presence of its diplomacy, creates favorable conditions for reprisals in all directions, while the perilous graph continues to weigh on international financial systems. They may have been conjured, but they will never be enough. And yet, the essential thing remains to be done, consolidated and still fragile, to bring back the misery that remains today in so many regions of the world the true root of the war. Let us keep indifference and let our enemies, the countries of the Third World, not of any other universe than the one they propose, the end and the worth of living. Yes, they have another future. It depends on them and on us. You see it and you know it. And we will talk about it. A lot of things remain to be done together. We will never be done. And our friendship has little chance to remain inactive. Mr. President, Madam, I am happy, indeed, to be in front of this house and in this city in front of these places that evoke such resonance for us to meet you again. We will never stop to exchange, to communicate our impressions and our projects. This journey the link of fraternity between our peoples would be the safest guarantee of faster progress to finally reach this region where freedom lives, that we imagine and to which we are on the way. How to end this first allocution? Otherwise, by addressing all those who surround us here and everywhere in this vast country on my best greetings to the great American people. Mr. President, Madam, ladies and gentlemen, my visit today is taking place between two anniversaries, that of the Treaties of Versailles in Paris last September and the anniversary of the Allied landings in Normandy in two months' time. Now, I may say that this is perhaps a case where chance has been on our side, but I think that there is more than this. There is something symbolic and in fact there is no such thing as chance in the history of peoples of the world. There is, however, something that is called destiny and our destiny is indeed a common destiny. And so I think it is natural that our thoughts should go to the Americans and the French, brothers-in-arms, who from Yorktown all the way through the ages to Beirut have in fact shed their blood together. And history shows that these sacrifices have never been made in vain because their purpose was not to conquer nor to achieve power but to defend freedom. Despite all this, perhaps our two peoples do not yet know each other well enough. And so there is sometimes, shall we say, room for certain uncertainties. Now, after having had conversations with yourself, Mr. President, I will and I'll be, I'll have the opportunity of spending five days travelling through the country in order to see again places that I've learnt to know in the last 38 years, first visit to this country but also to get a better understanding of the dynamic qualities of the country, the great diversity of the United States, its culture and its modernness. But my ambition is also to show you during my visits and during our conversations on world affairs and the affairs that concern our two countries, I want you to see the true picture of France, France which is alright, a country of tradition, a country of economic and technological power that is looking towards the future and France that is preparing herself with determination for the world of the future that the next few years are going to bring to us. France which is a constant ally that can be counted upon and which intends to bring her own original contribution to the quest for peace and the pursuit or the resumption of development. Because relations between our two countries obviously cannot only be a matter of celebrating our glorious past and our main concern in 1984 must surely be the question of security in Europe and relations between the east and the west and also between the north and south which we'll be talking about. And here the firm and clear orientations that I have given to French diplomacy are known to yourself and to your administration and to our friends throughout the world and based on the basic idea of unfailing loyalty to our friends and the concept of the balance of forces worldwide and in Europe. Firmness and determination are indispensable qualities but they must go together with keeping the dialogue open particularly with the eastern bloc. Now France is strong, independent and sure of herself and therefore is willing and prepared and determined to dialogue with everyone on all subjects and France sure of her own citizens is, as I say, open within her means to discussion on all matters while being always loyal to her friends. But there are other important tasks that we have to tackle jointly and which are essential for the balance of the and the equilibrium of the world. Now it is true, we recognize that they upturn the economic the economic circumstances in the United States and the presence of American diplomacy worldwide all this creates favorable conditions for a recovery of world affairs in all sense of the term. And it is true that the serious dangers that were threatening the international financial system last year have been able to be met but our efforts must never be relinquished in such areas and yet despite all this that we have achieved I think the main task is still ahead of us. To consolidate what has been achieved which is still fragile we must push back the frontiers of poverty which remain in so many regions of the world the true, the genuine roots of war and we must guard ourselves against too much indifference, any indifference towards the third world in particular we must remember that the third world is in the same universe although in difficult conditions has asked