Icy Relations Beginning to Thaw as Siberians Visit With Alaskans
The first high-ranking Soviet delegation from Siberia to travel east across the Bering Strait to the United States was scheduled to reach Alaska today for a 2 1/2-day visit.
The visa-free trip by Soviet officials from the Magadan region “will make history,” said Alaska Gov. Steve Cowper, “because that region of the Soviet Far East has traditionally been among the most restricted in the Soviet Union.”
The trip is a direct response to a June 13 Alaska Airlines Friendship Flight that brought 83 people--Alaska Eskimos, journalists, businessmen and federal, state and city officials--from Nome, Alaska, to Provideniya, a Soviet port 230 miles from Nome across the Bering Strait.
Ease Tensions
Cowper invited the Soviets to pay a return visit in a July 6 letter, saying: “We have an opportunity to ease the vestiges of U.S.-Soviet tensions by exercising a vigorous effort to open the door between Alaska and the Soviet Far East.”
A State Department official, who helped arrange the trip but who asked to be unidentified, said he believes that this is the first official Soviet delegation to enter the United States traveling from Siberia to Alaska.
The official in the Office of Soviet Affairs noted that the Soviets are being allowed to enter the United States without visas.
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