Test-Ban Talks Near Failure

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30059, 18 February 1963, Page 11

Test-Ban Talks Near Failure

(N.z. Press Association—Copyright) GENEVA, February 16, The nuclear test ban negotiations today teetered on the brink of failure after four years and a half of diplomatic effort. The United States and the Soviet Union each offered concessions, but they remained divided on the basic problem of on-site inspections of suspicious earth tremors, the Associated Press reported.

The news agency said it was difficult to see how a treaty halting nuclear tests now could be drafted that would be acceptable to the United States and to the Soviet Union. A United States disarmament negotiator, Mr William C. Foster, failed today to get the Soviet Union to agree to

resuming the nuclear test ban talks they broke off earlier this month, according to reliable sources Mr Foster met with the Soviet First Deputy Foreign Minister (Mr Vassili Kuznetsov) today to set procedure for next week’s sessions of the 17-nation Disarmament Conference, of which they are co-chairmen. A spokesman said they agreed the talks should continue, with all 17 nations taking part. But the sources said Mr Kuznetsov again blocked Mr Foster’s attempt to get the smaller meetings going again among the three nuclear Powers here—the United States, Britain, and Russia. The key to the deadlock appeared to be the unwillingness of the Soviet Union to make concessions and the attempts to get further concessions from the West, United Press International reported. The Soviet Union claims that by accepting on-site inspections, even in small numbers, It has come a long way toward the West's position. But the three inspections suggested by the Russians each year are not considered adequate by the West. The West insists on at least eight. The original Western demand was for 20 inspections a year.