French government officials said today the Middle East would not be a major topic of discussion between President Georges Pompidou and Soviet leader Leonid I Brezhnev who arrived here yesterday for two days of talks.
The problem of Soviet Jews who wish to leave the USSR has not even been considered as a possible topic. A French official said the talks will center around international political and economic affairs and not on internal problems in the Soviet Union.
Parisian Jews will march through the center of the city on Tuesday and participate in a hunger strike for the duration of Brezhnev’s visit in an attempt to get Pompidou to bring up the topic with the Soviet leader, according to the Defense Committee for Soviet Jews which organized both protests.
Government officials said, however, that Pompidou would not be pressured into taking up the topic.
Government sources said Pompidou and his Foreign Minister Michel Jobert, are primarily concerned with off-setting some of the deals made last week between Brezhnev and Nixon which the French government fears consolidated the supremacy of Moscow and Washington in the world-political structure.
Specifically, the two leaders will discuss the importance of the Common Market to world trade and the general strength of Europe both politically and economically, a Foreign Ministry official said.
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