Russia-China talks fail

Press, 2 March 1977, Page 8

Russia-China talks fail

By FOX BUTTERFIELD of the “New York Times” News

Service, through NZPA Hong Kong Russia’s chief representative at the border talks between China and the Soviet Union left Peking on Monday after a three-month effort to achieve progress in the long-deadlocked negotiations apparently failed. The envoy, Mr Leonid Ilyichev, a Deputy Foreign Minister, had arrived in Peking last November as part of a Russian attempt to test China’s attitude after the death of Mao Tse-tung and the arrest of four senior Leftists, including Mao’s widow, Chiang Ching. Mr Ilyichev was sec off at Peking Airport by his Chinese counterpart, Mr Yu Chan, also a Deputy Foreign Minister. The two men smiled and shook hands warmly, in keeping with a tradition .that diplomats in Peking have long dismissed as a polite charade. Neither side has disclosed any details of the talks, which had been in abeyance for 18 months until Mr Ilyichev’s return in November. But there had been no indications of progress, and his departure had been rumoured for several days. Since Mao’s death, China has explicitly reaffirmed its polic; of hostility and suspicion toward the Soviet Union, and China’s propaganda attacks on Moscow

’ have continued without let- ; up.

China has demanded that ; Moscow withdraw its forces . from disputed border areas as . a precondition for serious y negotiations. J Peking has also insisted t tha. Moscow recognise that ( vast tracts of land occupied . by Russia in tsarist times were obtained illegally by soj called unequal treaties. , China has not actually t demanded that most of the . land be returned to it, but 1 Russia has refused to recog- , ni. Peking’s claim. j The border talks had begun . in 1969 after armed clashes . between Russian and Chinese ’ troops along the Ussuri River . frontier. There are believed ' to be 800,000 to one million Russian troops stationed in | the frontier area. [ But there is no indication . about a rapprochement in party-to-party relations which are much more important in ' Chinese practice. Peking insists that party relations have been broken since the 19605. ' Ironically, Mr Ilyichev left . Peking on the fifth anniver- . sary of the signing of the Shanghai communique between President Richard Nixon and the late Prime Minister, Chou En-lai, in 1972. This break-through in the long frozen relations between ■ China and the United States . had been made possible by the growing conflict between 1 Peking and Moscow.