Interviewer
What relationship did you have with President Mitterrand at this conference? It seems to me there is an area of disagreement over north-south dialogue where he wants a meeting of the rich and the poor and you do not. Is that fair?
Prime Minister
I do not think we think that a meeting called a north-south dialogue would be very useful at all. We had one in 1981 in Canc&uacu;n, it did not have any result because in the end you have to go back to the big financial institutions.
But there is I think a 1990 meeting in Paris of the poorest nations and that in some way could go to meet President Mitterrand's concern. [end p1]
Interviewer
But there is not feeling between you at the end of this meeting that you do not get on?
Prime Minister
On the contrary. Fran&cced;ois MitterrandHe went out of his way to be exceptionally courteous, kind and generous and as you know at the end of his summing up of the Communique at the conference said yes there were other views from the French one about the origin of human rights which was very kind and very generous of him.
Interviewer
And now to the business of the meeting as opposed to the dialogue. Do you think the steps taken here on drugs are going to be significant?
Prime Minister
Yes, I think they are. As you know, we have already taken quite a lot of steps in trying to get at the money which drug peddlers get because if we could stop that we might stop a lot of the trade. We passed a special act and a number of other countries have and we are each giving the other facilities to trace the money.
What we are now concerned with is to see that we are making as much effort as we can, and we are going to involve the international institutions, in laundering the money because if we can trace these flows and stop them then it will help to stop the drugs. [end p2]
Interviewer
Moving abroad into politics, did you get satisfaction about the stance of the other six on their attitude to China and of course this is very important to the people of Hong Kong?
Prime Minister
Yes we did. We have a very strong communique about China. We are still really rather shocked and appalled at what happened, as indeed is the whole world, and it is not just going to go away quickly. We also recognise that if we feel like that, the people of Hong Kong are quite naturally very shaken about what happened and about their own future. And therefore other countries here said that it is important that the international community gives support to Hong Kong.
Yes, it is important. It is important for the present and future prosperity of Hong Kong and the more prosperous and stable she is, the more likely that China will be to value her continuance in the same way as she is now.
Interviewer
Some parts of Summits are planned, some are not. What about Mr Gorbachev's letter, was it a surprise and if it was a surprise, was it a pleasant one? [end p3]
Prime Minister
Mr Gorbachev's letter was a surprise, it came in during the middle of a session when we were discussing international debt. President Mitterrand told us immediately and gave us a general account of what it contained. I do not think it has anything new in it except the newness was that Mr Gorbachev wrote and that he too knows that to get the economy right and to get greater prosperity everyone has in fact to cooperate and President Mitterrand will in fact be replying to that letter.
Interviewer
Finally, the communique says in its formality that the world economy is doing quite well but the main bugbear is still inflation. Is that your view and what are we going to do about it?
Prime Minister
That is correct, it is, because if inflation goes on rising and you do not take the steps to stop it then soon your growth will stop and your unemployment will rise. So as you know we have taken steps in our country and it is generally recognised that you have in fact to get inflation on a downward course. [end p4]
The other second thing we are concerned about is a tendency to protectionism in many countries. If that happens world trade goes down and world prosperity goes down so we have to attempt all of us to keep open markets.