MOSCOW TALKS

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32603, 11 May 1971, Page 24

MOSCOW TALKS

Invitation to France

(N Z P A.’Reuter-Copyright) MOSCOW. May 9. I One or more Soviet Union leaders would visit France in October or November, it was announced at the end of the three-day visit to Moscow by the French Foreign Minister (Mr Maurice Schumann). During his visit to the Russian capital last October, Mr Pompidou invited the First Secretary of the Communist Party (Mr Leonid Brezhnev), the Prime Minister (Mr Alexei Kosygin) and President Podgomy, to France.

If Mr Brezhnev were to go to Paris, it would be his first journey outside the Communist world since he took over as party chief in 1964. A communique said that Mr Schumann’s talks in Moscow covered international affairs. including European problems. Among these were the four-Power talks on Berlin now being held, and the question of more active preparation of a European security conference —a Warsaw Pact proposal which has French support

Both Governments favoured a conference of the five nuclear Powers, including China, as recently proposed by Mr Brezhnev at the Soviet Union Communist Party congress, the statement said adding that Mr Schumann and the Soviet Union Foreign Minister (Mr Andrei Gromyko) also examined the situations in the Middle East and South-East Asia. “The talks disclosed broad similarity of views on many points, and showed the interest of both sides in negotiated solutions to conflicts, and the elimination of the sources of tension which could endanger peace,” the statement said.