Anti-Soviet alliance rejected by Carter

Press, 11 July 1980, Page 6

Anti-Soviet alliance rejected by Carter

NZPA-Reuter Tokyo President Carter said yesterday that China, the United States and Japan should co-operate in meeting Soviet military power, but ruled out any formal alliance that could threaten th Soviet Union. He called for a sharing by the three countries of “longrange strategic concerns toj minimise the threat of the Soviet military build-up.” I Fie spoke in a television interview before conferring with the Chinese Prime Minister (Mr Hua Guofeng) on world problems. The meeting was the first between the two. It took place the day after they attended a memorial service for the late Japanese Prime Minister. Masayoshi Ohira. The White House press secretary (Mr Jody Powell)!

said the 82-minute session was devoted chiefly to a discussion of Soviet military intervention in Afghanistan and the Soviet-backed takeover in Kampuchea by Vietnamese troops. President Carter and Mr Hi i had agreed that an exchange of visits they; originally intended to undertake this year should take place after the American Presidential election in November. I After the meeting Mr Carter left for Alaska. While President Carter voiced concern over Soviet intervention in Afghanistan and the situation in IndoChina, his interview remarks fell far short of suggestions made by China on countering Soviet power. The Chinese Vice-Premier (Mr Deng Xiaoping) had suggested during a visit to the United States last

year that China, the United States and Japan should form an alliance directed against Moscow. Mr Carter said yesterday that friendly' relations between China and the United States and between China and Japan were conducive to peace, stability and progress in Asia. “We also see it as a means by which we can share our long-range strategic concerns to minimise the threat of the Soviet military build-up, which is exemplified most vividly by their unwarranted invasion of Afghanistan and their support of the Vietnamese invasion of Kampuchea. "We believe that this new relationship, however, should not be used by either, our country or Japan, with China, against the Soviet Union,” he said.