Secretary of State Dean Rusk and British Foreign Secretary R.A. Butler today asked France to stop sharing nuclear secrets with non-atomic powers. France and Israel have a 10-year-old agreement for cooperation in nuclear research. The two countries have collaborated closely in this and similar scientific fields.
Secretary Rusk and Mr. Butler had a private meeting with Maurice Couve de Murville, the French Foreign Minister, at the Hague, where the three diplomats are attending the current NATO Ministerial Conference. The American and British diplomats asked the French official to begin negotiations on the matter.
French sources here told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that, despite strong Anglo-American pressure, France has not yielded. According to those sources, the French Minister told his Western colleagues that the matter was one which could be settled only by President Charles de Gaulle. It was indicated that, for the time being, France was sharing nuclear research with Israel and planned to open negotiations with its partners in the European Economic Community for possible collaboration in such research in the future.
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