UNEXPECTED BUCHAREST VISIT BY BREZHNEV

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31057, 12 May 1966, Page 19

UNEXPECTED BUCHAREST VISIT BY BREZHNEV

(N.Z.P.A. Reuter —Copyright) MOSCOW, May 11. The talks the Soviet Communist Party chief, Leonid Brezhnev, will have with Rumanian leaders in Bucharest could have a bearing on the Sino-Soviet ideological dispute and the war in Vietnam, diplomats in Moscow said today.

Mr Brezhnev left Moscow for the Rumanian capital of Bucharest by air yesterday amid signs of urgency, barely two hours after the Prime Minister, Alexei Kosygin, flew out on an official visit to Egypt. Diplomats speculate that Mr Brezhnev’s trip is connected in some way with an expected visit to Bucharest of the Chinese Prime Minister, Chou En-lai. Mr Brezhnev plans to stayonly three days in Bucharest, and, as it seems unlikely that Mr Chou will arrive in Rumania before next Wednesday, a meeting of the two bitter adversaries in the ideological battle would be highly improbable. Mr Brezhnev’s trip follows a pattern he seems to prefer—sudden journeys to meet Eastern bloc leaders whenever urgent problems arise. Moscow observers said he may be anxious to put the Soviet case in Bucharest to forestall a possible anti-Soviet offensive by Mr Chou. Rumanian Interest The ideological dispute between the two countries has been increasing in recent weeks with a series of violent Chinese attacks. Suggestions that Mr Brezhnev’s visit may be linked in

some way with a possible search for a solution in Vietnam are also being made as a result of recent Rumanian interest in Vietnam. General Emil Bodnaras, Rumania’s first Deputy Prime Minister and a top figure in the Bucharest Communist

- leadership, arrived unexpectedly in North Vietnam last ; week. A few days earlier, the Rumanian Prime Minister. lon Gheorghe Maurer, went on an ; unprecedented trip to Switzerland, where his stay in Geneva coincided with a trip there by

Mr Averill Harriman, President Johnson’s roving envoy. July Talks Mr Harriman had talks with the International Red Cross about United States prisoners in Vietnam. Mr Maurer also talked with the Red Cross. Bucharest is also the venue for an important Soviet bloc military and economic meeting in July, when Mr Brezhnev and other bloc leaders are expected to attend a top-level conference of the Warsaw Pact countries and Comecon. the Communist economic grouping.