Carter-Brezhnev bid to use S.A.L.T. as spur to wider talks

Press, 18 June 1979, Page 6

Carter-Brezhnev bid to use S.A.L.T. as spur to wider talks

International _____

NZPA-Reuter Vienna the United States and the Soviet Union will seek ways today < N.Z. time > to expand co-operation in disarmament, using their new Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty — S.A.L.T. II — as a spur for further negotiations.

President Carter will go to the Soviet Embassy for his third summit session with the Soviet President (Mr Leonid Brezhnev), hoping for broad agreement to reduce military confrontation in six key areas. At the start of the Vienna summit meeting on Saturday the leaders of the x orld’s biggest military powers agreed that everything possible must be done to prevent nuclear war. •’God will not forgive us if we fail,” the Kremlin chief said. Today (N.Z. time) the Presidents get down to serious discussion on how to

translate basic principles in'o legal means to preserve world peace, slacken the arms race, and reduce the risk of military' mis-1 calculation. United States officials said!

?»!•• Carter hoped to build on the second Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty he and Mr Brezhnev will sign tomorrow) (N. 7 time) bv moving forward gradually on the fol-1 lowing still-open questions: j S.A.L-T. Ill: Negotiation of an agreement to tighten missile controls still further, including possiblv tacticall shorter-range rockets based i in East and West Germany, i TroOp reductions: How to break a five-year deadlock in East-West negotiations, also in Vienna, on thinning I out North Atlantic Treaty l C rganisations and Warsaw i Pact forces stationed in Cen-; tral Europe. Nuclear tests: Extension of the 1963 test ban treaty to prohibit underground nuclear explosions, left uncovered w’hen the original agreement was concluded.

I Arms sales: How to slow idcwn world trade in coniventional arms. I Killer satellites: United I States-Soviet negotiations on jbanning the use of space vehicles to destroy other space [vehicles. I Indian Ocean: Reduction [of potentially menacing [naval deployments in an iarea critical to both superI Powers. i President Carter wants to I use the better atmosphere [generated by the first United I States-Soviet summit meetlit.g in more than four years to arrange regular consultations between officials at various levels. One possibility under consideration is for an exchange of visits between the American Defence Secretary (Mr Harold Brown) and his Soviet counterpart (Mr Dmitry Ustinov).

■ Mr Carter and Mr Brezhinev will also focus on important areas of concern to both Governments — the [Middle East, southern [Africa, and possibly China, officials have said. | Mr Drezhnev, who has accused the United States of playing a “China card” by strengthening ties with Peking, has said he is also willing to negotiate with China, a move that could affect sensitive super-PoWer relationships.

[ At a dinner on Saturday' ■ evening. President Brezhnev answered a call by President Carter for super-Power (restraint in the Third World ■by saying Moscow could not ■ be held responsible for Left(Wing revolutions. [ Sperking at a dinner given •by the American leader, Mr

Brezhneev said the Soviet Union supported liberation struggles but was against interfering in other countries’ domestic affairs. President Carter, speaking first at the dinner in the United States Ambassador’s residence, said Washington favoured pluralism among societies and more equality and economic opportunity for developing nations. “We believe in restraining ! conflicts that could undermine those goals.” he declared in a clear reference to accusations in the West that the Kretnlin has fomented such conflicts. “That we have the power to destroy other nations [does not mean we have a 'right or a need to control [their ” he added pointedly. President Brezhnev, in apparent response, dismissed what he called attempts to portray “the struggle of peoples for independence and social progress as Moscow’s intrigues and plots.” “Why pin on the Soviet Union the responsibility for the objective course of history and, what is more, use this as a pretext for worsening our relations?” he asked. The belief that the Soviet Union is helping Left-wing movements to power in Third World countries has sparked opposition among some American Congressmen to S.A.L.T. 11.

In his dinner toast, President Carter said the United States remained committed to human rights throughout the world. But he did not elaborate on this sensitive [issue which has caused friction in American-Soviet ! relation .