Wilson Flies To Moscow For Talks With Kosygin

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31583, 22 January 1968, Page 11

Wilson Flies To Moscow For Talks With Kosygin

(N.Z P.A.-Reuter —Copyright) LONDON, January 21. The British Prime Minister (Mr Harold Wilson) will sound out Soviet thinking on the chances of Vietnam peace talks when he flies to Moscow tomorrow, a fortnight before he meets President Johnson in Washington.

Mr Wilson will spend three days in the Russian capital having talks with the Soviet Prime Minister (Mr Alexei Kosygin).

The British leader’s talks in Moscow and Washington come at a time when the United States Administration is trying to find out whether North Vietnam really wants negotiations for a genuine settlement.

The testing began when the North Vietnamese Foreign Minister (Mr Nguyen Duy Trinh) said recently that Hanoi would talk with the United States if Anlerica unconditionally stopped its

bombing raids on the north. President Johnson, in his State of the Union message last Wednesday, reaffirmed that he was willing to stop the bombing provided talks began promptly with reasonable hopes that they would be productive. The President also insisted that the Communists must not take advantage of any American bombing pause to build ' up their own forces. Mr Wilson has no new proposals of his own to put forward in Moscow, but observers in London think that his visit might be helpful in clarifying Soviet attitudes, especially as he is due to meet President Johnson on February 8 and 9. SPECIAL ROLE Britain has a special role to play as co-chairman, with the Soviet Union, of the 1954 Geneva Conference on IndoChina and the 1962 conference on Laotian neutrality, and Mr Wilson is thought likely also (o discuss latest developments in Cambodia and Laos. Britain wants the International Control Commission in Cambodia, consisting of India, Poland and Canada, to be strengthened to help safeguard Cambodia’s frontiers and neutrality. The Communists have opposed moves to reinforce the commission, claiming that the agreement of the 1954 Geneva Conference powers was j needed, and not just a majority vote of the commis-i sion’s members. On the Middle East, Mr Wilson will test Mr Kosygin's views about the chances of a settlement being made through the United Nations peace envoy (Mr Gunnar Jarring) and about the question of any limitation of arms supplies to the region. The British Prime Minister will also discuss the next steps towards the Anglo-Soviet friendship treaty first mooted by Mr Kosygin during his

visit to London last February. During the last year AngloSoviet relations have improved—a “hot line” has been installed between London and Moscow; settlement has been reached on pre-1939 financial claims; and on Friday a technological agreement was signed between the two countries.