Nixon To Seek Backing By N.A.T.O. During Tour

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31908, 8 February 1969, Page 13

Nixon To Seek Backing By N.A.T.O. During Tour

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter —Copyright) WASHINGTON, Feb. 7.

President Nixon was today reported planning to enlist Western Alliance Support for step-by-step contacts with Russia, leading hopefully to a United StatesSoviet summit conference to relax global tensions.

the President, who starts a whirlwind eight-day tour of five European nations on February 23, wanted to ensure that North Atlantic Treaty Organisation leaders were solidly behind him, before he launched into preliminary talks with Russia.

The President was reported

to be planning his European tai tour later this month—but the problem of protecting him from young radical demonstrators was also raised, mission with the firm conviction that N.A.T.O. in one form or another, must continue indefinitely. Administration advisers helping the President plan his trip were said to believe European leaders wanted assurance on the degree of United Stated willingness to consult early enough and seriously enough about the new expected strategic missiles negotiations with the Russians. The President intends to start exploratory contacts with Moscow soon after he returns home on March 2. Mr Nixon is due to go first to Brussels for talks with N.A.T.O. officials and Belgian leaders. The decision made it unnecessary for him to choose between the rival claims of Paris and London as a first port of call. From Brussels he will go to London for about 36 hours, then to Bonn, a quick visit to West Berlin, an overnight halt in Rome, slightly more than 48 hours in Paris, and then back to Rome for a brief meeting with Pope Paul VI. As a gesture towards President de Gaulle, whose relations with the former Johnson Administration plummetted close to freezing point, he is staying slightly longer in Paris than in London. President Nixon said there was no possibility of seeing representatives of the Viet Cong’s National Liberation front while in Paris. He did not rule out a meeting at some later stage, if Mr Henry Cabot Lodge, chief United States peace negotiator at the Vietnam peace talks, recommended it. Western European capitals today welcomed President Richard Nixon’s an-

nouncement that he would make a week-long ContinenIn Moscow, observers said the Kremlin was likely to take as cautious a view of a possible summit meeting with Mr Nixon as the President himself expressed when making his announcement. The Soviet Union is keen to improve its relations with the United States, but Moscow’s leaders would probably prefer to wait for the general trend of the new President’s foreign policies to appear before showing particular interest in a summit meeting. Bonn welcomed the opportunity the visit would give of discussing some burning issues in West Germany, but officials expected that it would bring a new wave of anti-American protests. American officials in West Berlin—renowned for its unruly students—were particularly concerned about his brief call there. Left-wing students in the city said they intended to demonstrate against the President and “United States imperialism.” In the West German capital, the main topic in President Nixon’s talks with Chancellor Kurt-Georg Kiesinger is expected to be Bonn’s continued concern over signing the nuclear nonproliferation treaty. In Paris, Mr Nixon will be the first United States leader to have full-scale talks with General de Gaulle for almost eight years. Informed sources expected the Middle East to be a main subject for discussion between the two men, both of whom appear anxious to improve recently chilly FranceAmerican relations.

In Rome, the Italian government interpreted the an-

nouheement as a sign that Mr Nixon wanted to talk to European leaders before formulating his foreign policy.

A United Press international report from the Vatican City said officials welcomed President Nixon’s announcement today that he would meet Pope Paul during his European tour.. They said world peace would be the major subject of the talks.

The meeting will be the sixth between a pope and an American President, and will be Mr Nixon’s fourth audience with Paul VI. They previously met in 1963,1966 and 1967, when Mr Nixon \Vas a private citizen. Vatican sources said Vietnam would be a prime topic of the discussions.

Meanwhile in Cairo, N.Z.P.A.-Reuter said a leading Egyptian editor today forecast that changes in United States policy under President Nixon, giving less backing to Israel, would undoubtedly affect the course of the Middle East crisis, but would not be the decisive factor in settling it A New York Times News Service report from Cairo said Israeli officials expressed pleasure tonight over the President’s “deliberation” in responding to France’s bid for four-Power talks on the Middle East crisis. Commenting on his “fivepoint plan” as expressed at his press conference this morning, an Israeli official said the President appeared to be “charting his course carefully.” The Israelis welcomed what they considered to be Mr Nixon’s apparent rejection of an imposed solution, his vigorous backing for the Jarring mission and the sidetracking of a recent Soviet proposal for Middle East peace.