Vienna talks on troop levels adjourned

Press, 18 December 1976, Page 8

Vienna talks on troop levels adjourned

NZPA-Reuter Vienna The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation said on Thursday that the Soviet Union bloc has maintained a strong military advantage in Europe despite three years of East-West negotiations and troop reductions.

N.A.T.O. governments said there was almost no change in Warsaw Pact manpower deployments, and Communist ground armies in Central Europe still outnumbered N.A.T.O. by more than 150,000 men. Western officials said new N.A.T.O. statistics tabled at the 19-nation Vienna conference on troop reductions justified demands for a common ceiling for both alliances, with the Communists making bigger cuts- to offset present disparities. The N.A.T.O. figures were presented, but not made public, as the deadlocked conference adjourned for a six-week Christmas recess. Both groups claimed that the other side was responsible for the failure to reach agreement on a programme to cut back forces.

A N.A.T.O. spokesman said the latest figures showed slight increases by both sides since the West submitted a breakdown in November, 1973, showing

that the Warsaw Pact deployed about 925,000 ground troops in Central Europe compared with 777,000 N.A.T.O. troops.

The Warsaw Pact of seven countries refused to disclose manpower figures tor 24 years but last summer it tabled a breakdown showing only 805,000 Communist ground forces in the central area.

This has been vigorously disputed by N.A.T.O. A Western spokesman said N.A.T.O. estimates as at last January 1 showed that the disparity in ground manpower in the area in favour of the East is somewhat larger than 150,000 men. The Netherland’s chief delegate, Mr Willem de Vos van Steenwijk, told a press conference that puolished figures giving N.A.T.O ,’s ground force strength as 800,000 were too high, and estimates of about 925,000 on the Communist side were too low.

The figures were computed in mid-1975 by the Londonbased International Institute for Strategic Studies, and are regarded as broadly accurate. Mr de Vos said the N.A.T.O. ground force total remained in the region of 770,000 men, as it was in 1973.