International Brezhnev calls for cuts, but Bonn firm on N-bomb

Press, 8 May 1978, Page 9

International Brezhnev calls for cuts, but Bonn firm on N-bomb

NZPA-Reuter ” Bonn Ihe Soviet Union and West Germany have agreed that the arms race should be ended, but have disagreed over the neutron bomb during President Leonid Brezhnev’s visit, which ended in Hamburg yesterday.

The Kremlin leader spent most of a 20-minute television speech on Saturday warning that mankind was in danger if the world stockpile of mass-destruction weapons was not reduced.

In a joint declaration, he ar.d the West German Chancellor (Mr Helmut Schmidt) called for international action to halt the East-West race which Mr Brezhnev said no-one could win.

But the document did not mention the neutron bomb, which Moscow will ask the United Nations to ban at a special disarmament session this month.

West Germany has agreed to have the bomb on its territory, but the United States has postponed production of the weapon and wants Warsaw Pact force reductions in Central Europe in return. But Mr Brezhnev made it clear in his talks in Bonn

that be rejected such a trade-off.

The eight-page document referred to a need for dis-

armament, force reductions in Central Europe, and continuing detente only in general terms.

The most valuable gain for the Soviet Union in the visit — Mr Brezhnev’s first for five years — was a 25year agreement under which West Germany will co-oper-ate in industry and commerce and provide long-term and medium-term credits. The 71-year-old Soviet leader said on television that he was fully satisfied with his trip to Bonn. Despite the official cordiality, the visit has aroused little public enthusiasm, exiled East European groups and others staging anti-So-viet demonstrations.

Apparently because of failing health, the Russian leader’s social engagements were kept to the minimum. At times he was seen to be unsteady on his feet.