Kremlin rejects dialogue

Press, 13 June 1984, Page 10

Kremlin rejects dialogue

NZPA-Reuter Moscow The Kremlin yesterday rejected a call by a Western economic summit for dialogue with the Soviet Union. Leonid Zamyatin, head of the Communist Party’s international information department, said Moscow had studied calls by President Reagan in the Irish Parliament a week ago as well as the week-end declaration on East-West rela-

tions at the London summit. “Nothing, there is nothing new in this (London) declaration,” he said. “They talk about negotiations without pre-conditions but the conditions are already there in the form of missiles already stationed.” The Kremlin blames the deployment of cruise and Pershing-2 missiles in Western Europe which began last December for the freeze in relations and the

Soviet walkout from arms talks. Moscow says it will return to negotiations only if the missiles are withdrawn.

Mr Zamyatin said any talks under present conditions would effectively be "discussing how to increase the U.S. military potential in Western Europe.” Mr Zamyatin also indicated that the Kremlin believed President Reagan’s policy toward the Soviet

Union was unaffected by the U.S. presidential election campaign. “It’s not a matter of elections, it’s a matter of (his) policy,” Mr Zamyatin said. His comments appeared to confirm a growing view among Western diplomats in Moscow that the Kremlin may be preparing for a long freeze with the United States, possibly until the end of a second Reagan term in 1988.