PEKING: China and the Soviet Union will hammer out details of their first summit meeting in 30 years when Soviet Foreign Minister Edward Shevardnadze arrives in Paking on Wednesday.
If all goes well, as diplomats here generally expects, then Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev will soon shade hands with China’s 84 year old Deng xiaoping and symbolically end a rift that has split the communist world for almost three decades.
A Soviet source said Shevardnadze’s three-day visit would cover the wording of a summit communique that would set out the principles of Sino Soviet relations for the future.
China has stressed that the unequal and anti-American alliance of the 1950s can never be repeated.
The two sides would also discuss confidence bailing measures along their border where, according to Western estimates, more than two million troops are stationed.
Fierce fighting erupted along their frontier during the 1960s but few incidents have been reported this decade.
In recent years, Border towns have reopened contact and trade is flourishing, lobbies laden with goods in winter crisscross frozen rivers were soldiers used to exchange fire.
Article extracted from this publication >> February 3, 1989
