Gromyko to get special landing privileges

Press, 27 July 1984, Page 7

Gromyko to get special landing privileges

NZPA-AP Washington The Reagan Administration is moving to give the Soviet Foreign Minister, Mr Andrei Gromyko, special landing privileges, making a meeting with the American Secretary of State, Mr George Shultz, “likely” this autumn. A White House official said that special flight and landing privileges would be accorded the Soviet airliner expected to fly Mr Gromyko from Moscow for the opening session of the United Nations General Assembly in September. The official said that the special arrangements were

designed to avoid a repeat of Mr Gromyko’s angry refusal to attend last year’s United Nations session in New York. Mr Gromyko cancelled his plans after international protests, led by the United States, against the shooting down of a Korean Air Lines Boeing 747 jumbo jet over Soviet territory, killing all 269 persons on board. And the State Department said yesterday that President Ronald Reagan had decided to lift a four-year-old ban on Soviet fishing in United States waters as a

gesture towards Moscow. Soviet boats would be allowed to take 50,000 tonnes of fish a year from America’s 200 nautical mile exclusive economic zone, “effective in the near future.” “This decision is consistent with the President’s policy of promoting a constructive dialogue with the Soviet Union and facilitating non-strategic trade exchanges,” it said. The Soviet Union would be required to take “additional steps ... to meet the needs of U.S. fishermen” but it did not elaborate.