Agreement On Aim Of Arms Talks

Press, Volume C, Issue 29625, 22 September 1961, Page 11

Agreement On Aim Of Arms Talks

(N -Z.P.A.-Reutei—Copyright) NEW YORK, September 21. The United States and the Soviet Union have told the United Nations that they can not agree on how to resume general disarmament talks or who should take part in them. But, they said, they had reached agreement on a set of aims for any future disarmament conference. The two Powers filed a joint declaration of principles to guide disarmament negotiations and affirmed that all States should “seek a settlement of all disputes by peaceful means.”

The statement yesterday was held in diplomatic circles as a major breakthrough, removing a first obstacle to resumed EastWest negotiations. The declaration came after weeks of discussion in New York, Moscow and Washington. The question of disarmament would be referred to the current United Nations General Assembly session. Terms Of Declaration Yesterday’s declaration said: 1. The goal of negotiations was to achieve agreement on a programme which would ensure that disarmament was general and complete, war was no longer an instrument for settling international problems, and such disarmament was accompanied by the establishment of reliable procedures for the peaceful settlement of disputes in accordance with the principles of the United Nations Charter.

2. A programme for general and complete disarmament should ensure that States would have at their disposal only those nonnuclear armaments, forces, facilities and establishments necessary to maintain internal order and security and that States should “support and provide agreed manpower for a U.N. peaceforce.”

3. The programme should contain necessary provisions for disbanding armed forces, dismantling military establishments and the cessation of the production of armaments. as well as their liquidation or conversion to peaceful uses.

Also, all stockpiles of nuclear, chemical, bacteriological and other weapons of mass destruction should be eliminated and production stopped. All means of delivering weapons of mass destruction should be elimin-

ated and organisations and institutions designed to organise the military effort of States abolished.

Military training should end. All military training institutions should close and there should be no military expenditures. 4. The programme should be implemented “in an agreed sequence, by stages until it is completed, with each measure and stage carried out within specified time limits.” Subsequent stages should follow verification that all measures in the previous stage had been implemented. Military Advantage

5. All measures should be balanced so that at no stage of implementation could any State or group of States gain military advantage.

6. "All disarmament measures should be implemented from beginning to end under such strict and effective international control as would provide firm assurance that all parties are honouring their obligations.” To implement control and inspection, an international disarmament organisation, including all parties to the agreement, should be created within the framework of the United Nations. This organisation and its inspectors should be assured unrestricted access without veto to all places as necessary for the purposes of effective verification.

7. Progress in disarmament should be accompanied by measures to strengthen peace-making institutions. Necessary measures should

be taken, including the obligation of States to place at the United Nations disposal agreed man-power for an international peace force to be equipped with agreed types of armament.

“Arrangements for the use of this force should ensure that the United Nations can effectively deter or suppress any threat or use of arms in violation of the purposes and principles of the United Nations.” the declaration said.