China Warming Up to Soviets, India, Vietnam

China indicated Thursday that recent diplomatic developments are bringing rapid improvement to its previously tense relations with the Soviet Union, India and Vietnam.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Li Zhaoxing lauded planned Soviet troop withdrawals from Mongolia, announced that Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi will make a five-day visit to China beginning Dec. 19 and said progress is being made toward a settlement in Cambodia, which is the main issue straining relations between Beijing and Hanoi.

Preparations for a summit meeting during the first half of 1989 between Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev and Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping are moving forward, Li added. The meeting is expected to take place in Beijing.

China’s once-amicable relations with the Soviet Union and India deteriorated nearly three decades ago, while ties with Vietnam soured in the late 1970s. China and India fought a border war in 1962, China and the Soviet Union clashed along their border in 1969 and China briefly invaded Vietnam in 1979 after Hanoi sent troops into Cambodia.

Gorbachev announced Wednesday at the United Nations that the Soviet Union will unilaterally withdraw 10% of its forces from Eastern Europe and an unspecified number of its troops in Mongolia, which are estimated by Western sources to number about 50,000.

“This is a positive development, and we welcome it,” Li said Thursday at his weekly news conference in Beijing.

Gandhi’s visit--which will be the first to China by an Indian prime minister since his grandfather, Jawaharlal Nehru, visited Beijing in 1954--”will bring a positive impact on the relations between China and India,” Li said.

He said Gandhi will exchange views with Chinese leaders on bilateral relations and “international issues of mutual interest.”

China’s conflict with Vietnam has hinged on the question of Cambodia, meanwhile. About 120,000 Vietnamese troops help keep the Phnom Penh government in power, while China backs a resistance coalition. Cambodia was a key topic of talks in Moscow earlier this month between Chinese Foreign Minister Qian Qichen and Soviet leaders.

Li said the issue of Soviet troops stationed in Mongolia and along the Sino-Soviet border also was raised during Qian’s visit to Moscow.

“The Soviet side indicated that the process of the withdrawal of its troops from Mongolia will be continued and that the troops it stationed in border areas will be reduced to a level commensurate with the normal standards of good relations,” Li said.

“The two sides held that it will be possible for a summit meeting to materialize in the first half of 1989,” he added. “Preparations for the meeting have already been started.”