N.A.T.O. Ministers’ Talks

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30933, 14 December 1965, Page 21

N.A.T.O. Ministers’ Talks

t.V Z.P.A. -Reuter— Copyright) PARIS, Dec. 13. Four foreign ministers will meet tonight to prepare for the three-day meeting of N.A.T.O.’s Ministerial Council with three question marks hanging over the future of the 15-nation alliance. The four Foreign Ministers —Mr Dean Rusk of the United States, Mr Michael Stewart. of Britain. Mr Maurice Couve de Murville, of France, and Dr. Gerhard Schroeder, of West Germany —will confer over dinner. Well-informed sources said Mr Stewart and Mr Couve de Murville would report on their recent Moscow talks with Soviet leaders on the . nuclear non - dissemination problem, the Vietnam conflict and other key world issues. Mr Stewart and Mr Rusk were expected to discuss the Vietnam conflict and the continued refusal of North Vietnam to enter into unconditional peace negotiations. Mr Stewart would also: ' discuss latest developments: in the Rhodesia independence crisis. Presidential Elections The questions are the impact on NAT.O.’s future policies of the second round of the French Presidential election on December 19. nuclear sharing within the alliance and the prospects of an East-West treaty to prevent the spread of nuclear ’ weapons. President de Gaulle has strongly opposed N.A.T.O. nuclear integration, while Wpst Germany has been pressing (or a greater say in the shaping of NAT.O.'I nuclear policy. But the sources doubted if

anything surprising or farreaching would come from the consultations pending the outcome of the French Presidential election and the separate talks President

Johnson is having with the British Prime Minister, Mr Harold Wilson, and the West German Chancellor, Dr. Ludwig Erhard, in Washington later this week.