Tuesday, January 29, 1991 The Battalion Page 5 Bush, Gorbachev suspend summit FREE SNEAK PREVIEW WASHINGTON (AP) — Presi dent Bush, troubled about a long trip to Moscow in the midst of the Persian Gulf war as well as bogged- down talks over a strategic arms re duction treaty, decided Monday to put off his scheduled Feb. 11-13 summit with Mikhail S. Gorbachev. The decision was “by mutual agreement” with the Kremlin, and the summit will be rescheduled in Moscow at “a later date in the first half of this year,” according to a joint statement of Secretary of State James A. Baker III and Soviet For eign Minister Alexander A. Bessmertnykh. Bush met with Bessmertnykh just prior to the announcement. It was Spade Phillips, P the first time that a scheduled U.S.- Soviet summit had been put off since the late Soviet leader Nikita Khrush chev canceled President Dwdght D. Eisenhower’s 1959 visit to Moscow in furious objection to U.S. spy fights over Soviet territory. But the postponement of the Bush-Gorbachev meeting “was a mutual decision so there is no disap pointment,” Bessmertnykh em phasized. Standing together in a White House driveway, Bessmertnykh first in Russian and then Baker in En glish read their joint statement. It said: “The gulf war makes it in appropriate for President Bush to be away Irom Washington. In addition, work on the START treaty will re quire some additional time. Both presidents look forward to setting an exact summit date as soon as it be comes feasible to do so.” Bush and senior administration officials have been hinting for weeks that he would forgo the Feb. 11-13 trip to register displeasure with the military crackdown on the indepen dence movement in Latvia and Lith uania. Asked whether that issue was in volved in the decision, Baker said “the statement speaks for itself.” However, he said “we have made our substantial concerns known” to the Soviets over the Baltics issue. by Matt Kowalski Tubularman TufiyLflfcwflN /Wwes AT THE KE