Kremlin Hints of Cambodia Settlement : Moscow, Hanoi ‘Noises’ Signal a Political Deal, U.S. Aide Says

“Noises” from Moscow and Hanoi in recent months indicate that the Communist allies realize the Cambodian stalemate cannot be solved militarily, a top State Department official said here Monday.

“They are talking in terms of no longer seeking a military settlement to the situation,” Gaston Sigur, assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, told a press conference. “It has to be a political settlement.”

Sigur suggested that talks scheduled for Wednesday in Paris between Cambodian resistance leader Prince Norodom Sihanouk and Premier Hun Sen of the Vietnamese-backed government in Phnom Penh could be useful in moving toward a settlement. The Phnom Penh regime has held power in the Cambodian capital for nine years with the support of a Vietnamese occupation army now estimated at 140,000.

Hopeful ‘Noises’

But, Sigur said, there have been signs of change in recent months. “Look at the noises that are coming out of Moscow perhaps, and out of Hanoi itself. . . . They are talking in terms of trying to open windows and open doors.”

There are signs, he said, without being specific, that both Moscow and Hanoi “may be getting tired of this situation.” Asked whether President Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev discussed Cambodia at their Washington summit last month, the State Department official confirmed that the issue was raised, but he declined even to characterize the discussion.

Sigur said he hesitated to suggest that the “noises” will lead to any sudden breakthrough. But he called the Sihanouk initiative “commendable” as a possible route to a solution.

Meanwhile, Sihanouk’s son and military leaders of the two other resistance groups declared here that they would press the guerrilla war in Cambodia in an effort to force Vietnam to join Cambodian factions in talks about a political settlement.

Sigur’s stop here was the first on a swing through Southeast Asia, with others scheduled in Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and the Philippines. It coincided with a parade of congressional visitors to Thailand and Vietnam over the past two weeks.

The largest group, numbering 13, arrived Sunday. It was led by Rep. Charles B. Rangel (D-N.Y.), chairman of the House select committee on narcotics abuse and control. Rangel’s delegation, which leaves this morning for Burma, Malaysia and Singapore, met here with top Thai political and drug enforcement officials as well as U.S. narcotics agents.

Thailand is a main outlet for Golden Triangle heroin, which is grown and refined in the Thai-Burmese-Laotian border area. It is also the home of a booming marijuana trade.

Three other delegations focused on U.S. contacts with Vietnam. Rep. Chester G. Atkins (D-Mass.), who spent three days in Vietnam and two in Laos, pointed out before leaving for Hanoi that Indochinese refugees--as they achieve citizenship and reach voting age--are becoming a factor in American political life.

The congressman, whose district is centered in Concord, said one city in his constituency is home to 18,000 Southeast Asians, most of them Cambodians. More than 800,000 Indochinese refugees are living in the United States, the majority in California.

On Sunday, on his return to Bangkok, Atkins, a member of the House Foreign Affairs subcommittee on Asian and Pacific affairs, told a press conference he was struck by “the new openness” of the Vietnamese leadership.

“It would appear that there is a major campaign under way to sell a new Vietnam,” he noted, adding that “there is no way at this point to tell whether they are . . . presenting genuine change.”

More Contact Urged

The congressman suggested, however, that the United States should take advantage of the apparent change in the climate of U.S.-Vietnamese relations to push for more contact through cultural exchanges.

He supported the private effort, branded strictly unofficial by Washington, to provide humanitarian aid to Vietnamese civilians wounded in the Vietnam War or suffering from what he said were ill effects from defoliants used by American forces.

The aid, which would be primarily in the form of prosthetics, was endorsed by Gen. John W. Vessey Jr., President Reagan’s personal envoy, in talks in Hanoi last August aimed at reviving the stalled process of resolving the cases of more than 1,700 U.S. servicemen listed as missing in the war.

Hanoi and Washington have no diplomatic relations, and the Reagan Administration rejects normal ties at least until Vietnam withdraws its occupying troops from neighboring Cambodia.