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- NATION, Page 29American NotesHUMAN RIGHTSLet's Meet In Moscow
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- There was more proof last week of a new era of cooperation
- and trust in U.S.-Soviet relations. The State Department
- disclosed that President Reagan has approved U.S. participation
- in a controversial human-rights conference to be held in Moscow
- in 1991. The White House had long resisted taking part in the
- 35-nation forum because of suspicions that the Soviets would
- turn it into a high-profile propaganda show designed to
- embarrass the U.S. on a number of issues, including its
- policies in Central America. Secretary of State George Shultz
- urged both Reagan and President-elect Bush to accept the
- invitation, arguing that under Mikhail Gorbachev the Soviets are
- steadily improving their human-rights record by releasing
- political prisoners, allowing greater Jewish emigration, and
- ending the jamming of Western radio broadcasts. By joining the
- session, the Administration hopes to win Soviet agreement to
- close out a conference on European security and cooperation in
- Vienna, providing Reagan with a final foreign policy victory.
- That would, in turn, allow Bush to begin substantive new talks
- aimed at reducing NATO and Warsaw Pact conventional forces.
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