John Major's Letter to Mikhail Gorbachev

Summits > 1991 G7 London Summit

Prime Minister John Major's Letter to President Gorbachev

London, 16 July 1991

10 Downing Street
London SW1A 2AA

The Prime Minister
16 July 1991

His Excellency Mr. M. S. Gorbachev

Dear Mr. President,

I am sorry that my Economic Summit duties prevent me from welcoming you and Mrs. Gorbacheva this evening; but I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for the letter which Mr Primakov delivered on 12 July.

I am most grateful to you for setting out your approach to economic change in this letter. It will help us all in our discussions tomorrow. I share your objective of working together to integrate the Soviet Union, with its rich human and natural resources, more closely into the world economic system. I am sure that this will be a guiding principle for tomorrow's meeting. The importance you and we attach to it is evident from our joint decision to hold an unprecedented meeting between the Soviet Union and the participants in the Economic Summit. We must now look to move forward, and through frank and private discussion to extend the partnership you have developed with these and other Western countries over the past six momentous years.

I look forward to seeing you at Lancaster House tomorrow, and to our further meetings in Downing Street on the following day.

Yours ever,
John Major

Source: Released by the Prime Minister's Office at the London Economic Summit, 16 July 1991.

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