Russia Discusses China With U.S.

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31224, 23 November 1966, Page 21

Russia Discusses China With U.S.

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) WASHINGTON, November 22. The Soviet Union has become so concerned over increasing tensions in its relations with China that it has taken steps to bolster their frontier and to discuss the problem with Washington, says the “New York Times.”

The Russian Foreign Minister, Mr Andrei Gromyko, in talks with United States officials, has repeatedly stressed his nation’s concern over a China armed with a growing arsenal of nuclear weapons, says the newspaper. Mr Gromyko met President Johnson and the Secretary of State, Mr Dean Rusk, in Washington and New York last month.

According to some senior American officials, the Russians have transferred special intelligence units and equipment to the border to monitor Chinese tests of missiles and nuclear warheads. These units were said to have focused previously on United States military activities.

The Russians are also reported to have moved additional troops, both border guards and regular army divisions, to the frontier area within recent months. The border build-up is said not to be of a size that would suggest preparation for initiating or countering a massive military thrust. Not Worth It Mr Gromyko was said to feel that none of the border disputes was worth a war, but tha* in a period of continuing ill-will between the two countries, there was always the danger that neither would be willing to back off from a

small border clash and that such clashes could escalate and lead to a nuclear explosion.

The discussions between Mr Gromyko and the American officials were said to have ranged over a wide spectrum of world problems but to have returned often to the Chinese question. ‘Quite Fundamental’ One official, with access to the details of the conversations, described them as the “most direct, honest, objective and non-ideological in several years.” “Mr Gromyko made clear that the break with China is quite fundamental,” he said, “and that Russia is now more interested than ever in settling other outstanding issues.” This includes the question of a treaty banning the spread of nuclear weapons, officials said, but “unfortunately” does not extend to the war in Vietnam.

The Soviet Foreign Minister also “gave some indications” of increased chances for a separate but related agreement with the United States.

This, another informant said, would close certain facilities producing fissionable material for the output of nuclear weapons and provide international policing periodically to verify the shutdown. During the talks Mr Gromyko was reported to have implied that, as friction continued to increase between the Soviet Union and China, a aonfrontation might develop.

Mr Gromyko was said to have indicated concern that the Chinese leadership might be tempted to launch an atomic attack. While the Soviet Union has no doubt about being able to maintain a vast superiority of nuclear weapons over the Chinese, a factor that should be enough to deter any logical leadership group from initiating a nuclear strike, the account goes, the Russians are not at all sure that Peking will always be guided by rationality in such matters. Earlier Reports Specialists in Soviet and Chinese affairs at the State Department and the Pentagon say the latest evidence of concern is not inconsistent with a pattern of tensions that have been mounting for some years along the ChineseSoviet border.

They point to earlier reports of troops movements on both sides of the line and of numerous incidents, some involving the exchange of rifle fire. Experts on China here are agreed that, for now at least, China is as eager as the Soviet Union to avoid a serious armed clash along the border.

“But the Chinese have always been ultra-sensitive about their borders,” one analyst noted.