West offers moral support to anti-Vietnam coalition

Vietnam, whose forces overthrew the Khmer Rouge government in Kampuchea (Cambodia) in early 1979, denounced efforts by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations to promote a coalition of Kampuchean resistance groups.

US Undersecretary of State Walter Stoessel said the US would not provide military assistance to the coalition's resistance forces, but he welcomed the coalition's formation. Likewise, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, and the European Community offered only moral and political support to the coalition. The Vietnamese said problems concerning Kampuchean sovereignty must be solved by the Kampuchean people themselves.