Mr Taiboys to join talks on Indo-China

Press, 9 June 1980, Page 13

Mr Taiboys to join talks on Indo-China

■’ NZPA Hong Kong i Formal talks to be held by the Minister of Foreign ■ Affairs (Mr Taiboys) in Kuala Lumpur at the end of the month may signal a fresh approach to solving the Indo-China problem. Among the Government leaders Mr Taiboys is due to meet there will be the American Secretary of State (Mr Edmund Muskie), the Australian For-' eign Minister (Mr Andrew Peacock) and the five A.S.E.A.N. Foreign Ministers. Also oh hand will be the Canadian Minister of External Affairs and the Japanese Foreign Minister. Ail will be present in the Malaysian capital for a continuation of what A.S.E.A.N. diplomats term jhe “dialogue” with Pacific countries. The main item of business will be the continuing instability in IndoChina. Discussion is expected to centre on alternative strategies to diplomatic support of the Pol Pot Khmer Rouge regime ousted by the Vietnamesebacked regime of the Phnom Penh leader, Heng Samrin.

Asian diplomatic sources say there is a growing belief among the five A.S.E.A.N. countries — Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines — that a fresh concerted effort must be made to break the deadlock on movement towards a political solution. Possibilities to be canvassed may include backing for a third-force political movement as an alternative to the Khmer Rouge or Heng Samrin group. The biggest problem in this is the lack of a dominant leader around which support mav be rallied. The name of the former Cambodian leader, Prince Norodom Sihanouk, continues to be mentioned in this context. But doubts surround his acceptability to China and Vietnam as leader of an independent and neutral Kampuchea. Other items on the agenda may include Thai proposals for a United Nation s-policed buffer zone along the ThaiKampuchean border the handling of refugees, and latest assessments of Vietnamese intentions.