Wednesday, June 7, 1972

Russ: Mideast, Viet Goals Same

MOSCOW (AP) --Soviet Communist Party Chief Leonid I. Brezhnev Monday described the recent summit talks with President Nixon as constructive but declared that Soviet positions on two crucial points of conflict, Vietnam and the Middle East, remain unchanged.

Speaking at a Kremlin banquet given in honor of Yugoslav President Josip Broz Tito, who had just received the highest Soviet honor, an Order of Lenin, Brezhnev said the various agreements signed with the United States are "concrete steps toward stronger peace."

But he added, "the foreign policy of the Soviet Union has been, is and will be a socialist, class and internationalist, one.

"Invariable is our support and assistance to the peoples of Vietnam and other countries of Indochina fighting for their freedom and independence against imperialist aggressors.

"Invariable is our support and assistance to the friendly Arab states in their struggle for elimination of the consequences of the Israeli aggression, for liberation of their lands from occupationsists, for freedom and social progress."

Brezhnev said the past 18 months have seen a number of changes for the better in relations between Communist and capitalist states. He noted particularly Soviet relations with France and Soviet and Polish treaties with West Germany.

"We are champions of relaxation of international tension," Brezhnev said. "We are champions of lasting peace and that is why we come out against acts of aggression, against any attempts to suppress liberation struggles of the people, against interference in their affairs and violation of their rights."

Tito arrived in Moscow earlier in the day for a week-long visit that elaborately ends the lingering traces of Tito's expulsion from the Communist movement in 1948.






"Russ: Mideast, Viet Goals Same", by (AP), published in the Pacific Stars and Stripes Wednesday, June 7, 1972 and reprinted from European and Pacific Stars and Stripes, a Department of Defense publication copyright, 2002 European and Pacific Stars and Stripes.
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