'Soviet hint of new missiles for Cuba’

Press, 24 February 1978, Page 5

'Soviet hint of new missiles for Cuba’

NZPA Washington Soviet arms negotiators have hinted that Russia might station nuclear missiles in Cuba again if the United States supplies Cruise missiles to North Atlantic Treaty Organisation countries, an American Congressman, Charles Wilson, has said in Washington. Mr Wilson said he learned of the veiled threat when he spoke with the chief Soviet negotiator (Mr Vladimir Semyenov) and other Soviet officials during a visit to the strategic arms limitation talks in Geneva last December.

“They indicated that if we deployed the Cruise missile in Germany or Britain or wherever else among N.A.T.O. they might be inclined to put some missiles again in Cuba,” Mr Wilson told a meeting of the American Security Council. “They would have this 'right if we did the same I thing in Western Europe,” said Mr Wilson, a member of the House of Representatives Armed Services Committee. “So there are great problems, and I see a breakdown in the treaties.”

Emplacement of Soviet missiles in Cuba would be a violation of the United States-Soviet understanding that ended the Cuban missile crisis in the autumn of 1962. Under that accord, to which both Governments still adhere, the Soviet Union agreed to withdraw offensive weaponry from Cuba. The United States pledged in return not to invade Cuba in an effort to overthrow the Government of President Fidel Castro. The United States intelligence sources have said jthat the Soviet Union has

started deploying its fourth advanced land-based missile capable of hitting the United States.

The SSI6 is the lightest of the four new types of Soviet intercontinental ballistic missiles placed in firing position since late 1974. They are replacing older and less accurate weapons.

The most recent American 1.C.8.M., the Minuteman HI, was deployed between 1970 and 1975. The American Defence Secretary (Mr Harold Brown) "and Pentagon research chief (Mr William Perry) said that the Russians were developing a still newer generation of four missiles, with flight-testing expected to begin at any time.

On the American side, President Jimmy Carter has slowed development of the M X, the only new United States land-based intercontinental missile in sight.

In Moscow, the Soviet Union has told the West that it would be senseless and hopeless to try to frighten the communist

world with Cruise missiles and neutron bombs because its scientists could match any weapons of an enemy. Speaking at a Kremlin rally marking the 60th anniversary of the formation of the Soviet armed forces, the Defence Minister (Mr Dmitry Ustinov), without specifying the target of his remarks, said that no-one should take Soviet “love of peace” for weakness.

The Defence Minister’s remarks echoed a recent warning by President Leonid Brezhnev himself that the Soviet Union would not stand idle if the United States developed and deployed neutron warheads, which the Soviet Union describes as barbaric weapons. But the 69-year-old Mr Ustinov, who holds the military rank of marshal, said the Soviet Union did not want to compete in weapon development but wished to reduce armaments and military confrontation. President Brezhnev, in a clear response to charges by Western political and military leaders that the armies of the Russian-led Warsaw Pact were a threat to the non-communist world, he said all the Soviet Union’s military efforts were aimed at boosting its defences.