Czech P.M. In Moscow For Talks On Economy

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31781, 11 September 1968, Page 17

Czech P.M. In Moscow For Talks On Economy

(N. Z.P.A.-Reuter —Copyright) MOSCOW, September 10. The Czechoslovak Prime Minister (Mr Oldrich Cernik) arrived in Moscow today for talks on economic problems with Soviet leaders.

Mr Cernik, who was last in Moscow two weeks ago after the Soviet occupation of his country, was accompanied by the Deputy Prime Minister (Mr Frantisek Hamouz) and the Foreign Trade Minister (Mr Vaclav Vales).

The Czechoslovak delegation was met at the airport by the Soviet Prime Minister (Mr Alexei Kosygin) and other officials. Czechoslovak sources said the delegation was likely to stay for several days. Czechoslovak sources said the three Prague leaders would continue discussion of economic co-operation between Czechoslovakia and the Soviet Union begun earlier this year. The sources said the two sides would also probably talk over other economic problems which have arisen as a result of the move into Czechoslovakia by Soviet troops and units from East Germany, Hungary, Poland and Bulgaria. Mr Cernik flew in as the

Soviet press was stepping up attacks on Czechoslovak radio, television and newspapers for their reporting of the situation in Czechoslovakia since the occupation. Observers noted that Mr Hamouz had been criticised by name in the East German press since the invasion for taking too vague a stand on the meaning of normalisation in Czechoslovakia.

United Press International said the Moscow talks would probably centre on recent Russian refusals to accept rail shipments from Czechoslovakia—a reminder that without Russia as a trade customer, Czechoslovakia faced economic suffocation.

The reminder was interpreted as another lever in the Soviet attempt to make the Czechoslovak leadership toe the line of “normalisation.” The Russians have defined “normalisation” as the elimination of all counterrevolutionary and antisocialist elements in Czechoslovakia. N.Z.P.A.-Reuter said the talks were also expected to deal with compensation by the Soviet Union for damage during the invasion by Warsaw Pact troops on August 20.

In Paris, President de Gaulle condemned Soviet intervention in Czechoslovakia and said that the time was past when foreign domination could win support. France would continue to work for a detente in Europe, he said at a 75-minute press conference, his. seventeenth since taking office.

General de Gaulle attributed the root evil to the division of the world into two

blocs by the Yalta confer, ence of World War 11. “The events in Czechoslovakia must be condemned in our eyes because they are absurd in the context of European perspectives,” he said. “The armed intervention under cover of Socialist solidarity displays to our eyes the maintenance of the Eastern Bloc.”

He explained that for 10 years he had worked to end “the regime of the two blocs” and as part of this policy had progressively detached France from the military organisation of N.A.T.O. “The risk of Atlantic absorption also made us put off, to our great regret, the entry of Great Britain into the Common Market,” General de Gaulle said. France would continue to work for "detente, entente and co-operation.”