Europe ponders missile to meet Soviet threat

Press, 22 January 1979, Page 9

Europe ponders missile to meet Soviet threat

■ NZPA Washington; The leaders of the United) States, Britain, France, and West Germany are considering development of a new) I intermediate-range nuclear) missile that would be based) )in Central Europe and be icapable of striking the So- ; viet Union, Carter AdminisI tration officials have said. They said that the missile [ would be developed by the (United States. The four 'Western leaders view it, the ' officials say, as a possible : response to a new generation of Soviet nuclear ;missiles and bombers that are directed against Western (Europe and are not limited iby existing agreements. The matter was discussed at the summit meeting in I Guadeloupe earlier this (month ’y President Carter, I the British Prime Minister ((Mr James Callaghan), President Valery Giscard Id’Estaing of France, and ! Chancellor Helmut Schmidt iof West Germany. But, the 1 Administration officials say, (the leaders made no firm i decision on the missile question.

11 The four leaders con- ) eluded, however, that a new 1[ Soviet intermediate-range ( 'weapon known as the SS2OI (posed an unaccepiable secur-■ I ity threat to the West.) (Accordingly, a senior j Administration official says, i II they agreed that the North! Atlantic Treaty Organisation “should explore very active-! ly” its options for counter-) ing the Soviet missile, in- ; eluding the deployment of a ; similar weapon in Western • Europe in the 1980 s. ■ The discussions at Guade- ; loupe were said to have ■ underlined what the official called “the bewildering t array” of technical and poli--1 tical questions that must be I resolved before a final deci-; sion is made. I Officials in Washington 1 say that a consensus was growing within the Adminis- , tration and the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation that the United States would i probably have to add a longl range nuclear missile to the : arsenal of shorter-range ones > now deployed in Western) Europe if it was to maintain 1 nuclear deterrence on the Continent over the coming, decade.