Baker Will Visit Czechoslovakia to Signal Support
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WASHINGTON — Secretary of State James A. Baker III will visit Czechoslovakia next month to signal growing U.S. support for the new government’s shift from communism to democracy, officials disclosed Friday.
Baker, who is going to Moscow on Feb. 4 for talks with Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard A. Shevardnadze, also is considering stops in Romania and Bulgaria, the U.S. officials said.
The Bush Administration is in the midst of working out a program to lower U.S. tariffs so Czechoslovakia can boost its trade with the United States.
Baker will meet with Shevardnadze Feb. 6-7 to discuss, among other topics, arms control and the civil war in Afghanistan.
Baker likely will go to Prague on Feb. 8 or 9, depending on other undecided travel plans, said the officials, who demanded anonymity. He will wind up in Ottawa for the Feb. 12-13 conference with North Atlantic Treaty Organization and Warsaw Pact foreign ministers on the U.S. “open skies” proposal.
That proposal would allow unarmed aircraft to fly over other countries’ territories in search of suspected military activity.
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