Kosygin in Norway

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32783, 7 December 1971, Page 17

Kosygin in Norway

OSLO, December 6.

The Soviet Prime Minister (Mr Kosygin) will have talks with Norwegian Government leaders today, having decided that the IndiaPakistan war does not require his undivided attention at the moment. The Russian leader indicated yesterday, before flying from Denmark to Oslo for the second half of his eightdav Scandinavian visit, that Moscow was not planning any immediate initiative outside the United Nations framework to resolve the conflict. He told a press conference in North Jutland: "We have been fully appraised of events in the Indian sub-con-tinent, . and I doubt whether external pressures will help the situation?* Although Mr Kosygin and the Social Democratic Prime Minister of Norway (Mr Bratteli) are expected to discuss the war,- their talks today and tomorrow are likely to be centred on European security. This was also the central theme in the Soviet Union leader’s exchanges with the Danish Prime Minister (Mr Krag). Denmark and Norway are

both members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NAT.O.), and observers in Moscow say that Mr Kosygin is anxious to enlist their support for a European security conference. Denmark declared her support, in a joint communique, yesterday, for the idea of an early start to multi-lateral preparatory

talks. • It has also been suggested that bv holding out the prospect of all-round economic co-operation in Europe, Mr Kosygin could play on domestic opposition to ' Norway joining the Common Market, an organisation upon which the Kremlin frowns.

Last week, the Russian magazine, "New Times,” teported that Mr Kosygin was likely to call ■ for Increased co-operation with Norway in the Arctic, along the lines of the agreement he signed with the Canadian Prime Minister (Mr Trudeau), in Ottawa last month. This mainly concerns the prevention of water pollution.

Before his talks with Mr Bratteli and other Norwegian Cabinet Ministers today, Mr Kosygin is due to lay wreaths On memorials for Norwegian and Russian soldiers who died in the Second World War.

Three, minor demonstrations were held by Jewish and civil rights groups yesterday, and further protests are planned during the visit. In Aalborg, Denmark, yes-

terday, Mr Kosygin dismissed as a myth the idea that Jews in the Soviet Union were being persecuted. "hi general, there is no Jewish problem in the Soviet Union. It has been artificially engendered in the West,” he told apress conference at the end.of his four-dav. visit to Denmark.

Under persistent questioning by Western journalists, he said: "There is absolutely no discrimination. No country in the West has conditions for Jews such as exist in the Soviet Union.” Danish Jewish and civil rights groups confronted Mr Kosygin with a series of demonstrations during his visit. They called oh the Russian authorities to allow 70,000 Jews who, they said, had applied for : exit visas to leave the country, and protested against the incarceration of dissident intellectuals in men-

tal ‘ hospitals. Mr, Kosygin told the reporters that a sizeable number of Jews who had left the Soviet Union for Israel were asking to be allowed to return,. He alleged that architects and other highly-educa-ted Jewish immigrants to Israel were being employed in restaurants and in other menial jobs. “Why not raise with the Israeli Government the question of their discrimination against Jews who want to return to the Soviet Union?” he asked.