Rusk & Gromyko End Talks

Press, Volume C, Issue 29633, 2 October 1961, Page 11

Rusk & Gromyko End Talks

fN.Z. Press Association—Copy ng Ml NEW YORK, October 1. The United States Secretary of State (Mr Dean Rusk) and the Soviet Foreign Minister (Mr Andrei Gromyko) concluded their New York talks on the Berlin crisis yesterday without agreement to start formal negotiations but with an understanding they would meet again in Washington this week.

Both men reported after a four hours and a half meeting that the discussions had been "useful.” A United States spokesman said Mr Gromyko probably would see President Kennedy as well as Mr Rusk when he visited Washington. The day for his Washington trip is yet to be fixed. The plan for continuing the talks in Washington softened the fact that • in about 13 hours of meetings. Mr Rusk and Mr Gromyko had failed to arrive at a' formula for detailed negotiations on a Berlin compromise settlement, the Associated Press said. Western officials hoped that an acceptable basis for an East-West Foreign Ministers' conference might be developed this week, A.P. said. West Determined In the course of the meetings, which began 11 days ago, Mr Rusk sought to impress on Mr Gromyko that he Western Powers were determined to defend their Berlin position, to keep their forces in Berlin, and to preserve their rights of access to the city even if that means using force, the news agency reported. Some Western authorities now believed ’hat the Soviet Prime Minister (Mr

Khrushchev) was beginning to understand that if he pushed his Berlin demands too far he might precipitate a major war, A.P. reported. At the same time, Mr Rusk was understood to have emphasised to Mr Gromyko that the United States and its] allies were interested in a compromise settlement if a suitable formula for negotiations could be found. The United States Secretary and the British Foreigr Secretary (Lord Home) were thinking in terms of an East-West Foreign Ministers’ meeting in November or December, A.P. said. Mr Khrushchev has said be would sign a peace treaty with East Germany late this year to give East Germany sovereign control of West Berlin’s supply lines from West Germany. Mr» Khrushchev claimed that once the treaty was in effect, the Western Powers must accept the fact that they must negotiate new agreements with East Germany on access to West Berlin, 110 miles inside East German territory. Mr Rusk was understood <o have -emphasised to Mr Gromyko that the Western Powers had no intention of negotiating with East Germany on their rights to maintain troops in West Berlin.