Interview on Soviet Television
INTERVIEWER: Your negotiations with Mikhail Gorbachev are now over. . . . what are your conclusions and your assessment of the result of those negotiations and discussions?
PRIME MINISTER: First, I am immensely grateful to Mr. Gorbachev for having given so much time. We had talks lasting seven hours and then at dinner another two hours. I do not think there has ever been such a thorough discussion between two leaders, and when he came to London, we learned to discuss very openly and frankly. That is good. You know, sometimes when you are talking to leaders, you get rather stilted or formal discussion--we do not, and they are all therefore done in a very friendly atmosphere.
I think I have a much better idea now of his hopes and this tremendous challenge for the Soviet people under your restructuring and the new open society. We wish you well in this great endeavour, and we hope it will be very successful. We also talked about all the regional problems because, really, foreign affairs, you know, affect us at home now--they are not something that happens out there in the world--and is something that makes a difference to our lives in the home.
Of course, we spent a long time on arms control. We both want, above all, peace, because that matters more than anything else, but we want peace with the right to live our own way of life within secure borders. So it is not
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