Returning today from a three-week tour of Europe’s capitals. Foreign Minister Golda Meir reported that it was far easier on this trip to explain Israel’s position in relation to Middle East developments than during previous contacts with Western leaders.
Among the men with whom she conferred on this trip were: French Premier Charles de Gaulle and his Foreign Minister Maurice Couve de Murville; Italian Premier Amintore Fanfani, and British Foreign Secretary Selwyn Lloyd.
Two major factors made it easier to explain Israel’s stake, she said: Israel’s stability in a restless area and her military and socio-economic strength. Problems which even a year ago seemed unexplainable to foreign statesmen are now readily accepted. From this experience, she said, she had deduced that Israel must increase both her economic and military strength and the stronger and more stable she becomes the more obvious this will be to the world.
Mrs. Meir was met at the airport by diplomats, officials of the Foreign Ministry and government leaders. She went to Jerusalem for a meeting of the Cabinet to present her detailed report.
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