Malik Will Explain To Russia

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31154, 2 September 1966, Page 11

Malik Will Explain To Russia

(N Z.P.A.-Reuter—^Copyright> DJAKARTA, Sept. 1. The Indonesian Foreign Minister, Mr Adam Malik, will leave for Moscow tomorrow with the task of explaining his Government’s anti-Commun-ist purges to the . Soviet Union—lndonesia’s largest creditor. Mr Malik, who is expected I in Moscow next Tuesday i after stopping in New Delhi for talks with Indian leadI ers, will not only seek postponement of repaying Indonesia's large debts. I He will also tell the Kremlin leaders that he urgently needs more cash to revive the country’s exhausted economy. The official Antara news agency said that Indonesia’s debt to the Soviet Union totalled 1000 million dollars. Several hundred millions of this is in the form of miliItary aid—warships, jet aircraft and arms. ‘Most Important’ Mr Malik has already said he considers the Russian debt to be the most important. “If we can come to an arrangement with the Soviet Union.” he said recently, “it will make things much easier with the other Socialist countries.” After Moscow. Mr Malik is to visit Warsaw. Prague and Belgrade, and then Cairo, Algiers and Karachi. He is expected to discuss with Socialist leaders the possibility of an Eastern bloc consortium, along the lines of the Tokyo club—a consort-

ium of Indonesia’s creditors set up to seek ways of easing its heavy economic burden. Observers believe that the Soviet Union might see an Eastern consortium as a means to counterbalance the influence of the United States and Britain in the Tokyo club. Trade Talks Also leaving for trade and economic talks tomorrow is Sultan Hamengku Buwono,

Presidium Minister for Economy and Development.

He will visit Holland, Brittain and West Germany, accompanied by the Finance Minister, Dr. Frans Seda, and the Trade Minister, MajorGeneral Ashari. The Sultan is scheduled to visit New York on his way home. He is expected to discuss Indonesia’s return to the International Monetary Fund.