S.A.L.T. ACCORD Mood of optimism in Washington

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32613, 22 May 1971, Page 17

S.A.L.T. ACCORD Mood of optimism in Washington

(N Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) : f WASHINGTON, May 21. What is regarded as a very important advance in United States-Soviet Union negotiations has led to a new mood of optimism that the world’s two superPowers may soon curb the nuclear arms race. President Nixon is now reported to believe! that an interim arms limitation agreement is possible by the end of this year because of the Soviet Union’s sudden willingness to limit some offensive weapons as well as defensive systems.

Today, Mr Nixon will meet the members of the United States negotiating team, led by Mr Gerard Smith, before they fly to Vienna to begin intensive negotiations with the Russians on precisely which weapons will be covered, and on the terms of the possible agreement.

American officials believe the Soviet Union leaders to be as keen as they themselves are to slow the arms race, with its massive finan- ' cial drain, and that the worst stumbling block to a limitation pact has been removed. This was the basic difference over the types of weapons that would be covered in any agreement emerging from the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks in Vienna.

The Soviet Union, which is well ahead of the United States in her anti-ballistic missile defences, had been insisting that the two countries should begin by negotiating an agreement covering defensive missiles only.

Now the two countries have agreed that while they will concentrate on a pact to

restrict defensive missil's, they will, also agree simultaneously to limit some offensive weapons’. Despite the advance, Mr Nixon’s request for money to continue work on America’s anti-ballistic missile system, Safeguard, was approved last night by the House of Representatives’ Armed Services Committee. The panel made no reduction in die SUSIO74m sought by the Nixon Administration to begin the construction of a 1 third Safeguard complex in Missouri, and to prepare for a fourth site, possibly to protect Washington. According to the Secretary of Defence (Mr Laird), the Soviet Union already has 64 anti-ballistic missiles in place around Moscow, and is going ahead wtih the further deployment of new offensive and defensive missiles.

The United States still has a marked superiority in her offensive nuclear weapons, which total 4600, compared

with the Russians 2000, but Washington remains very concerned about recent Soviet Union efforts to deploy an entirely new missile, perhaps an improved version of the 25-megaton 5.5.9.