Algeria Still Wants Summit

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30782, 21 June 1965, Page 13

Algeria Still Wants Summit

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright)

NEW YORK, June 20.

The Afro-Asian summit conference

will be held as planned later this month, in spite of the Algerian coup, the Secre-tary-General of the United Nations, U Thant, was informed officially today.

Mr Hadj ben Abdelkaber Azzout, the Charge d’Affaires in the absence of Mr Tewfik Bouatoura, the permanent representative of Algeria, conveyed the message and said the SecretaryGeneral had reaffirmed his intention to attend the conference.

The foreign ministers of 50 Afro-Asian countries are scheduled to begin meetings on June 24 and the heads of their Governments are to meet in a summit conference on June 29. In a 15-minute visit to the Secretary-General, Mr Azzout assured him that the ousting of President Ben B la did not foreshadow any change in foreign policy or domestic objectives.

The Algerian delegate said after his meeting with the Secretary-General that he was acting on instructions from the foreign minister, Mr Abdel Aziz Bouteflika, who had retained his post under the new regime. He said he had been instructed to report that the revolutionary council which had seized power with Colo-

nel Boumedienne, the chief of the armed forces, at its head would pursue “the same objectives in domestic and foreign policy.” In spite of the assurance given by the Algerian delegates, there was a feeling in United Nations circles that even if the Government did not change its mind about holding the conference, some of the countries expected to attend might find it inexpedient to do so under the circumstances.

The Chinese Prime Minister, Mr Chou En-lai, who flew into Cairo yesterday morning, and the President of the United Arab Republic, Colonel Nasser, were presumed to be making the Algerian military coup a prime topic of the first round of talks. The Chinese ambassador in Cairo ordered a Soviet-built Ilyushin 18 airliner carrying a 45-man Chinese delegation to Algiers to turn back in midflight yesterday when he heard of the Algerian coup. Superficially both Chinese and Egyptian delegations went ahead with plans to attend the conference and Mr Chou met with President Nasser at his home last night to discuss key issues. The question of Malaysian and Soviet participation was expected to be one of the main topics.