NEW DELHI, Jan 16, Reuter: Nguyen Van Linh will visit India next week and hold talks with Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi expected to center on efforts for a Kampuchean settlement, Indian Officials said on Monday.
They said three rounds of talks were scheduled between Gandhi and Linh, the Secretary-general of the Vietnamese Communist Party. Linh is also expected to travel to Agra and Calcutta during a six day visit.
India is one of the few non-Soviet Bloc countries to recognize the Heng Samrin government installed in Phnom Penh by Vietnamese Troops nine years ago.
That recognition and recent Indian attempts to get the nonaligned movement involved in Kampuchean peace efforts have irritated Southeast Asian nations opposed to Heng Samrin.
Southeast Asian diplomats say there is no need for Indian involvement in peace efforts that have gained momentum in recent months.
Last week that foreign Minister Siddhi Sawetsila, whose country supports forces fighting
Phnom Penh, visited Hanoi for unusually cordial talks.
On Sunday, Vietnamese Deputy Foreign Minister Dinh Nho Liem arrived in Peking for the first talks with China in nine years. Peking supports the Khmer Rouge Government ousted in the December 1979 Vietnamese invasion of Kampuchea.
The Indian Officials said Minister of State for external affairs Natwar Singh, in Paris last week for an International conference on chemical weapons, held talks with former Kampuchean leader Norodom Sihanouk.
They would give no details of those talks or Singh’s meeting there with Indonesian Foreign Minister Ali Alatas, whose country has been the main link between Hanoi and noncommunist southeast Asian countries.
The officials said Linh would arrive on January 23 and have a first round of talks with Gandhi the same day. The Vietnamese leader would be the Chief Guest at India’s republic day celebrations on January 26. He was scheduled to return to Hanoi on January 29.
Article extracted from this publication >> January 20, 1989
