De Gaulle To Visit Moscow

Press, Volume CV, Issue 30958, 14 January 1966, Page 9

De Gaulle To Visit Moscow

(N.Z. Press Association —Copyright) PARIS, January 13. President de Gaulle will visit Moscow some time this year, the Soviet Ambassador to France, Mr Valerin Zorin, has announced. No time has yet been set, however.

Mr Zorin made the announcement after an hour’s meeting with General de Gaulle at the Elysee Palace. The general has had a standing invitation to visit Moscow since the Paris visit in 1960 by the then Soviet Prime Minister, Mr Khrushchev. The invitation was repeated several times and again in April by the visiting Soviet Foreign Minister, Mr Andrei Gromyko. On each occasion, General de Gaulle accepted the invitation in principle, but never set a date.

The decision appeared to be part of his effort th create a new image for himself in Europe. BOYCOTT ENDS

Only yesterday, he and his new Government pledged themselves to end France’s seven-month-old boycott of the European Common Market and to continue working for European unity. Mr Zorin told reporters as he left the Elysee Palace that his talk with the general was cordial and that, although no date had been set, it would be announced later.

The French pledge to work toward European unity came after the first meeting of the 26-member Cabinet since the general began his second seven-year term as President.

The new Minister of Information, Mr Yvon Bourges, told reporters after the meeting in the Elysee Palace that “the French Government intends to continue working for the union of Europe.” He said that the Foreign Minister, Mr Couve de Murville, will head the French delegation to the Luxembourg Common Market talks on January 17-18. The meeting has been called to try to end the deadlock which has blocked the working of the six-nation community since France began boycotting Common Market talks nearly seven months ago.