Christopher Urges Russians to Attend Meeting on Bosnia

Secretary of State Warren Christopher on Saturday urged Moscow to reconsider its decision to boycott a meeting on Bosnia in Geneva on Monday, but U.S. officials insisted that the talks will be held whether Russia is there or not.

Christopher made his appeal in a telephone call to Russia Foreign Minister Yevgeny M. Primakov.

His effort to avoid a break between the United States and Russia underlines Washington’s determination to apply maximum diplomatic pressure on Bosnia-Herzegovina’s factions to persuade them to stop violating important provisions of the peace accord brokered in Dayton, Ohio, last fall.

Russia announced Friday that it could see no purpose to the Geneva meeting of mid-level representatives of the five-nation Contact Group on Bosnia because the group’s foreign ministers are already scheduled to meet next Saturday in Moscow.

In addition to the United States and Russia, the group includes Britain, Germany and France.

State Department spokesman Nicholas Burns said Christopher sought to assure Primakov that the Geneva meeting would help to prepare the groundwork for the Moscow session and would do nothing to overshadow it.

“Clearly we would like the Russians to be there,” Burns said. “If the Russians decide not to be there, the meeting will go forward anyway.”

Burns said Primakov did not reply at once to Christopher’s plea, saying, in effect, “We’ll get back to you.”

Meanwhile, the Clinton administration struggled to repair its plan to equip and train the government military forces.

Washington was rebuffed by its allies Friday at a pledging conference in Ankara, Turkey.

Turkey offered $2 million to go along with $100 million previously promised by the United States, leaving the program far short of the goal of $800 million.

Burns said the United States still hopes to get funds from several Muslim countries that refused to contribute Friday. But he said the administration has no plans to increase its own contribution.

Christopher was in Brussels to confer with Javier Solana, secretary-general of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and the group’s military commander, U.S. Gen. George A. Joulwan.