MEXICO CITY -- President Miguel de la Madrid said Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev will visit the country next year at the invitation of the Mexican government.
De la Madrid was asked in an interview taped Monday with a U.S. television journalist to confirm unofficial reports that the Soviet leader would visit Mexican in 1987.
'That's correct,' de la Madrid said. 'It has been announced on the invitation of the Mexican government. Two Mexican presidents have visited the Soviet Union, and I think it is time these visits were reciprocated.'
The transcript of the interview was released Thursday in Washington, D.C. and Mexico City.
Former Presidents Luis Echeverria and Jose Lopez Portillo both visited the Soviet Union during their administrations in the 1970s.
De la Madrid made his comments about the visit of Gorbachev in an interview to be broadcast this weekend on the program 'One on One' with host John McLaughlin.
Diplomatic sources have said Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze will visit Mexico in September to make arrangements for the trip, the first ever by the top Soviet leader to Mexico.
In April, the Mexican newspaper La Jornada said Gorbachev would also visit Cuba, Nicaragua and possibly Brazil, Argentina or Peru as part of a Soviet initiative to widen relations with the region.
