President hails Reagan's epoch-making administration

President Eddie Fenech Adami yesterday heaped praise on former US President Ronald Reagan, who died last week and whose state funeral takes place in Washington DC today.

Speaking to The Times, Dr Fenech Adami said President Reagan had played a crucial role in defeating communism, bringing about the collapse of the Soviet Union and ending the Cold War.

He recalled with pride his first meeting as Prime Minister with President Reagan in July 1988. "We had a very long, interesting discussion. It was an important time both for Malta and for the world. One got the feeling that things were happening and the international situation was changing drastically. I remember saying that Mr Reagan's Presidency would be epoch-making and I think I was correct."

Dr Fenech Adami said President Reagan's greatest legacy was the role he played in bringing about the defeat of communism. "In the 1980 American presidential election Mr Reagan had warned voters to beware of what he called the 'Russian bear'. He did an excellent job in bringing the Cold War to an end. Mr Reagan always said that communism was a bad system which had to come to an end and he was proved right. His determination to defeat the Soviet Union paid off," he said.

President Fenech Adami said the fact that glasnost and perestroika were taking place in the Soviet Union in the 1980s and the fact that Mr Reagan and Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev had a good working relationship also contributed to the collapse of communism and the end of the Cold War.

Asked about President Reagan's domestic and economic policies and his conservative political revolution at home, Dr Fenech Adami said he still felt Mr Reagan's greatest legacy lay in international affairs.

"I did not share his supply-side economic policies although they did produce some concrete results for the American people. However, I have no doubt at all that Mr Reagan's greatest success was in his international policies," the President said.

He added: "Mrs Reagan wrote in Time magazine that her husband always believed that God has a plan for each of us. I believe that God's plan for President Reagan was to defeat communism".