Afro-Asian Summit Faces Abandonment

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30897, 2 November 1965, Page 19

Afro-Asian Summit Faces Abandonment

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter —Copyright) ALGIERS, November 1. The much-vaunted Afro-Asian summit conference appeared abandoned today after agreement in principle among Foreign Ministers for adjournment. Conference spokesmen said that the Foreign Ministers had agreed on the adjournment after a 10-hour meeting which ended early today.

The question of postponing the summit, scheduled for next Friday, was originally posed by the threat of a Chinese boycott.

China stated it would not attend if the Soviet Union was represented.

Algeria, the host nation, did not want an official announcement of the adjournment until delegates had attended celebrations today marking the eleventh anniversary of the uprising against France. The Foreign Ministers had met last night to study a postponement resolution drafted by a special nine-nation conference sub-committee yesterday. The conference will probably end either tonight or tomorrow morning, depending on the time taken to decide the terms of the adjournment. The summit has already been postponed twice. Delegates are therefore likely to agree on an indefinite adjournment. The major blow came from China whose boycott decision split the Afro-Asian world over the issue. China’s stand had also helped dash a proposal for extending the list of particioating countries to include the Soviet Union, Malaysia and Singapore.