TALKS ON CAMBODIA Russia Will Not Join Britain

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30794, 5 July 1965, Page 13

TALKS ON CAMBODIA Russia Will Not Join Britain

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright)

MOSCOW, July 3.

Russia indicated today it would not join Britain in calling for an international conference on Cambodian neutrality.

It published a statement—handed last Wednesday to the British Ambassador, Sir Humphrey Trevelyan—declaring the Kremlin was ready to consider any proposals put forward by Cambodia. It did not actually reject the conference proposal but indicated that because Cambodia was no longer in favour of it, the Kremlin was not either.

In an obvious reference to the United States, it said although Moscow had invariably supported Cambodian calls for a conference, other parties to the 1954 Geneva agreement on IndoChina had not done so. Britain followed the same line as the United States until April this year, when it agreed to a Soviet proposal to call a conference. Britain and the Soviet Union are cochairman of the Geneva conference. The statement is the first official reaction to British acceptance of the proposal on April 26, although its tone came as no surprise to diplomats in Moscow. Cambodia has lost its enthusiasm for a conference since the British acceptance and Soviet enthusiasm has waned. The statement noted that official statements in Phnom

Penh, the Cambodian capital, indicated Cambodia was preparing a draft declaration on its neutrality and territorial integrity. Countries concerned could approve this declaration separately, the statement said. A Cambodian conference could have provided an opportunity for behind-the-scenes discussion on the crisis in neighbouring Vietnam.