Kremlin ignores Indian call for Geneva meet

Moscow: An Indian call for a new Geneva conference to try to solve the Vietnam problem appeared here today to have failed to gain the backing of the Kremlin.

The proposal, made by the Indian Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi, in Delhi last week and repeated by her at a rally here today, was ignored by the Soviet Premier, Alexei Kosygin, in his speech of reply.

Instead, Kosygin denounced United States’ actions in Vietnam as “barbarism on an international scale” and claimed the war was bringing the United States into international isolation.

Gandhi arrived here on Tuesday after consultations with two other NonAligned leaders — President Nasser of the United Arab Republic and President Tito of Yugoslavia.

Both leaders were reported to have given qualified support to her idea for a recalling of the 1954 Geneva conference on IndoChina of which Russia and Britain are co- chairmen.

But her three long sessions of talks with Kosygin over the past two days seem to have failed to change the Soviet stand of outright support for the demand of Hanoi for complete US withdrawal from South Vietnam before negotiations can begin.

She asked that the Soviet Union and Britain, as cochairmen of the 1954 Geneva conference which set the oft- broken rules for peace in the Vietnam area, immediately summon another session.

Kosygin is reported to have told Gandhi that the Soviet Union appreciated her gesture but it was not possible for this country to act. Any initiative for peace conference must come from Hanoi, Kosygin reportedly explained.