Thompson visits U.S.S.R.

MOSCOW (AP) – A delegation of Illinois businessmen, politicians and labor leaders headed by Gov. James R. Thompson arrived Monday for an eight-day visit to open what officials say will be the first U.S. state trade office in the Soviet Union.

The Illinois group arrived at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport and departed immediately for Leningrad, for four days of meetings with officials in the Soviet Union’s second-largest city.

Thompson is accompanied by James “Pate” Philip, the Republican leader in the Illinois Senate; Gene L. Hoffman, the assistant House minority leader in the state’s General Assembly; and several other elected officials.

The delegation is scheduled to open an Illinois trade office April 3 in the Moscow offices of Abbott Laboratories, which is based in North Chicago, Ill.

State officials hope to organize displays of goods produced in Illinois and to display Soviet products in the United States.

The governor brought officials from Illinois banks and several construction and engineering companies, and is also accompanied by James W. Bidwell, chairman of the Chicago Convention and Visitors Bureau, who is representing Chicago during talks with Soviet officials.

The Illinois group plans to return to Moscow on Friday for the start of talks with officials at the Ministry of Foreign Economic Relations. The delegation also is scheduled to attend the opening of an international economic seminar hosted by the New York-based Institute for East-West Security Studies.

The state of Illinois already has developed international trade offices in Belgium, Brazil, Tokyo, Hong Kong and most recently in China.

In addition to the official program, individual members of the delegation are pursuing their own projects.

Bidwell, who is also senior vice president of Merchandise Mart Properties, Inc., said he hopes to persuade Soviet officials to bring an exhibition of the lastest developments in Soviet architecture to Chicago.