KHRUSHCHEV PROPOSES SUMMIT TALKS

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29746, 13 February 1962, Page 13

KHRUSHCHEV PROPOSES SUMMIT TALKS

New Soviet Move On Disarmament

(NZP.A.-Reuter—Copyright)

WASHINGTON, February 12.

The Soviet Prime Minister, Mr Khrushchev, has proposed that the March 14,18-nation disarmament conference in Geneva should open at the summit level.

Diplomatic sources said last night that Mr Khrushchev had sent a letter to President Kennedy to this effect. They added that Mr Khrushchev’s move was in reply to the proposal made to him last week by President Kennedy and the British Prime Minister, Mr Macmillan, that the Foreign Ministers of the three major Powers should meet beforehand in Geneva in a supreme effort to break the deadlock on a nuclear test ban agreement.

The letter came on the heels of the dramatic ex- . change of Soviet and Amencan prisoners in Berlin on

Saturday. Mr Khrushchev was understood to have suggested that the disarmament principles agreed on by the United States and the Soviet Union during last autumn’s United Nations General Assembly could serve as a basis for the Geneva negotiations.

These principles covered the procedure for successive steps to control the arms race and start dismantling of the great Powers’ military establishments with the ultimate aim of general disarmament. In reply to the two Western leaders’ proposal that the three Foreign Ministers should meet, Mr Khrushchev was believed to have replied that the issues involved in trying to end the nuclear arms race were far too serious to turn over to “bureaucrats”—by which he meant the Foreign Ministers. Civil In Tone Diplomatic sources said that Mr Khrushchev’s letter was civil and devoid of hostile language. They said they understood that a similar letter had been sent to the other Western governments concerned and to all the other 17 countries represented on the disarmament body. The United States Secretary of State, Mr Dean Rusk, immediately called in the

ambassadors of Britain. France, Italy and Canada — the other Western Powers on the 18-nation disarmament committee —to inform them of the contents of Mr Khrushchev’s letter. The 18 nations to meet at Geneva are Britain, the United States, France, Italy and Canada on the Western side, Russia. Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Poland and Rumania on the Communist side and eight non-aligned nations Brazil, Burma. Ethiopia. India, Mexico, Nigeria, Sweden and the Uni’ed Arab Republic. In their joint proposal to Mr Khrushchev, delivered to the Soviet Foreign Office last Wednesday, President Kennedy and Mi Macmillan suggested that their Foreign Ministers together with the Soviet Foreign Minister, should meet in Geneva in advance of the general disarmament conference in ordei to take up the nuclear test ban issue

The suggestion was implied in then proposal that the 18nation meeting should open at the Foreign Minister level but they did suggest that this ktest attempt to reach a disarmament agreement should have the personal attention of Heads of Government United States and Western reaction to Mr Khrushchev’s

latest move was one of caution. One diplomatic source said: think it is too soon to say yet how the Western Powers

will react to Mr Khrushchev’s letter. All one can say is that it is being looked at and examined carefully.” There was no immediate comment either from the White House or the State Department. Diplomatic sources said that the Western Powers would need some time for consulta-

tion before any reply was made to the Soviet Prime Minister’s summit disarmament proposal. But the initial reaction was

that agreement with the idea was extremely unlikely. President Kennedy’s approach to summit meetings differs very little from the well-known policy followed by former President Eisenhower. This is that there must be concrete evidence beforehand that some useful results might be obtained. The attitude taken here In the last few days to the Soviet release of the U-2 pilot, Francis Powers, in exchange for Colonel Rudolf Abel, the Russian master spy, was that this was only a gesture which could improve the atmosphere.