Scheel calls on Nixon

Press, Volume CXIII, Issue 33276, 13 July 1973, Page 13

Scheel calls on Nixon

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) WASHINGTON, July 12. The West German Foreign Minister (Mr Walter Scheel) flew in overnight on a surprise visit to meet President Nixon today as part of what the White House has described as continuing close consultation between the United States and its European allies.

o Mr Scheel said in a brief in tatement on his arrival that iy e had come at United States id Mtation to discuss "various 'o Differences that are taking is lace." ' st H. will also confer with n be United States Secretary J * State (Mr William Rogers) » nd the Presidential adviser, ir Henry Kissinger. 5 ‘ His visit comes after the * uropean Security ConferJ* nee in Helsinki and coincides J 'ith a meeting of the Comr littee of 20 financial depu--1 ies who are seeking to find a out of international curj, ®cy crises. _ Mr Scheel was accompan[j sd by Mr Guido Brunner, j, ead of the West German jJ elegation to the Helsinki ty Difference. [v Since Mr Scheel accom- # anied Chancellor Willy ty {randt on his visit to the t- mted States two months in President Nixon has ti ' a "ed host to the Soviet ig emmunist Party leader, Mr in eonid Brezhnev, the eutschmark has risen to a of nearly 50 United rt fetes cents and the Unitedfetes has moved towards an; improvement in relations, ’’th West Germany’s southern neighbour, Czechoevakia. ______

In addition, the House of Representatives Foreign Relations Committee is holding hearings on proposals to reduce American troop strength in Europe, a move the Nixon Administration opposes. A conference on mutual reductions of both Western and Communist forces in Central Europe is to take place in Vienna later this year. The French Foreign Minister (Mr Michel Jobert) met President Nixon last week at the Western White House in San Clemente, California. Mr Scheel’s assertion that he had been invited by the United States differed slightly from the version given by Presidential press spokesman, Mr Gerald Warren, who said that the visit had been arranged by mutual consent.