Brandt to go to Moscow

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32707, 9 September 1971, Page 13

Brandt to go to Moscow

(N Z P.A.-Reuter—Copyrightl BONN, September 8. Chancellor Willy Brandt’s proposed visit to Moscow was hailed in Bonn today as an advance towards normalising Soviet-German relations.

Mr Brandt’s trip, announced yesterday, is expected to take place before the end of the month. The comparative suddenness of the visit and the fact that the Russians have not yet reciprocated to two earlier visits by a West German Chancellor—one by Mr Brandt—evoked some scepticism in the press, though papers generally supported the move. “It also expressed the relief Moscow, too, feels after the Berlin agreement signed last week,” the pro-Brandt independent newspaper, “Neue-Ruhr” of, Frankfurt, commented. The newspaper noted, however, that the more relations normalised, the more one had to see to it that they were balanced. “If there are to be visits then one is due first of all by the Soviet Prime Minister Mr (Alexei) Kosygin.” Meanwhile, Mr Kosygin has called for continuing improvement in his country’s relations with West Germany in a letter to Chancellor Willy Brandt made public in Moscow last night. Tass news agency revealed an exchange of letters between the two leaders shortly after it was announced in

Bonn that Mr Brandt would go to Moscow. There was no word on whether the Federal Chancellor would hold talks in Moscow or elsewhere. When Soviet leaders are holidaying on the Black Sea they sometimes receive foreign visitors there. Mr Kosygin’s and Mr Brandt’s letters both described the four-Power agreement on Berlin as an important step towards the easing of tension in Europe, Tass said. It should improve the atmosphere in West Berlin and eliminate complications and frictions in that area, the Soviet letter added.