Chinese Threat Worsens Tashkent Deadlock

Press, Volume CV, Issue 30954, 10 January 1966, Page 11

Chinese Threat Worsens Tashkent Deadlock

(N.Z.P.A. Reuter—Copyright)

TASHKENT, January 9.

A tough Chinese warning to India threatened to bring a new menacing element into the Tashkent conference last night, as Indian-Pakistani summit talks reached a point of a virtual deadlock.

News of a Peking Note warning of “grave consequences” over alleged border intrusions was disclosed just as Indian and Pakistani spokesmen admitted they were still “far apart” after a six-day effort to make peace.

The Note was handed over in Peking three days ago and a copy delivered to the Indian

Premier, Mr Lal Bahadur Shastri last night. The Tashkent meeting appeared to have ground to a point where only major concessions by one side or the other could save it. A Pakistani spokesman said they were achieving only “inches of progress.” China’s dramatic intervention presented India with the danger of tension on two fronts: possible trouble on the long Chinese-Indian border and the risk of a new flare-up of tension with Pakistan.

Diplomatic observers immediately wondered if the Chinese had moved at a strategic moment to try to wreck the Soviet-sponsored conference which brought the President of Pakistan, Field Marshal Mohammad Ayub Khan, and Mr Shastri together to talk peace on Soviet territory. “Very Odd”

Indian spokesmen were reluctant to connect the Note with a sudden deep-freeze in the talks with Pakistan, but they said the timing was “very odd” and the coincidence had to be noted. The new crisis followed an agenda deadlock settled by Soviet mediation .only 36 hours before. Only on Friday night there were high hopes of a break-through.

But the new impasse seemed even more threatening, and there were hints the In-

dian delegation might bei thinking of going back to New Delhi.

The Pakistan information secretary, Mr Altaf Gauhar, said President Ayub had turned down the idea of a no-war agreement, unless the Kashmir dispute could be settled honourably or some machinery to solve it could be devised. Russians, suddenly gloomy after a week of optimism, began to talk of serious difficulties in the Tashkent talks. They said the deadlock resulted from Pakistan’s demand that whatever document was issued after the conference should include a promise that Kashmir would be discussed in the future. There was no clue whether

I the Soviet Prime Minister, Mr j Alexei Kosygin, the neutral | go-between, could act swiftly

as he did on Thursday to get some semblance of agreement. Apparently in a bid to create a better atmosphere, he took Mr Shastri and President Ayub to the theatre last night to watch the relaxing dancing of “Swan Lake." After the performance, Mr Shastri told reporters he planned to meet again with President Ayub today. The Chinese Note, latest in a series levelled at New Delhi since border fighting in 1962, complained about Indian provocations along the northern frontier, and accused Mr Shastri's Government of a frenzied attempt to create tension.