Indochina's Communists seek talks with neighbors

January 28, 1981

Foreign ministers of the three Communist Indochinese countries began a meeting in Ho Chi Minh City Tuesday with a call for talks with their non-Communist neighbors. The three, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos, are at odds with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and China, mainly over the issue of Cambodia, where Vietnam keeps an occupation army.

China backs anti-Vietnamese guerrillas loyal to the ousted Khmer Rouge government, but has suggested that ASEAN, the US, and other interested parties help set up a new armed fo rce.