MOSCOW: Warsaw Pact troops will be withdrawn from Czechoslovakia under an agreement between the Soviet and the Czechoslovak leaders here Czechoslovak diplomatic sources reported tonight [Aug 26]. The sources said the bilateral Soviet-Czechoslovak talks were still continuing to work out a communique which was expected to be issued later tonight or tomorrow.

Yugoslavia’s “Tanjug” news agency reported this morning that the agreement was reached yesterday but it could not be announced immediately because the occupation of Czechoslovakia had been a collective enterprise, and a delay was required to give the other Warsaw Pact States time to send representatives to Moscow.

Quoting French Radio correspondent in Moscow, the Paris Radio said today that the Soviet Union had agreed to free Czechoslovak political leaders to recognise the present Czechoslovakian leadership and to evacuate their troops and the troops of the other Warsaw Pact countries from Czechoslovakia.

On the other hand, Czechoslovakia was believed to have agreed to re-introduce censorship and to allow some Soviet troops to remain in their country to reinforce the watch on the West German border, he added.

Published in Dawn, August 27th, 2018