Gromyko expected to continue pressure on N.A.T.O. plan

Press, 6 December 1979, Page 9

Gromyko expected to continue pressure on N.A.T.O. plan

I NZPA-Reuter East Berlin The Soviet Foreign Minister (Mr Andrei Gromyko) has arrived in East Berlin to head a Warsaw Pact conference expected to make a last-ditch appeal to the West to postpone plans to modernise its nuclear defences. The Soviet Minister arrived one day before the start of a withdrawal of 20.000 troops and 1000 tanks from Soviet forces stationed in East Germany, reinforcing expectations that he will use the occasion to make an important foreign policy speech directed at Western leaders. The Soviet President (Mr Leonid Brezhnev) announced in October that he would withdraw the men and equip.ment w’ithin 12 months tc underline Moscow’s statec commitment to detente, anc

n to prove it posed no military threat to the West. The conference of Foreign • I Ministers from the seveno nation communist alliance ■- will urge the North Atlantii a Treaty Organisation >o fore :t go production of nearly 60(> i- nuclear missiles capable ol reaching Soviet territory ■- from Western Europe, e N.A.T.O. will vote on the •f missiles at a conference of s Ministers in Brussels on d December 12. g In Warsaw, the Polish e Communist Party daily, - “Trybuna Ludu.” said yesteri day that West Germany had ;. again become one of the r main anti-detente forces by d favouring the deployment of d new nuclear missiles in Wes- >- tern Europe. o West German sources say d the article was the strongest d attack in Poland for a long

■ time on the Federal Republic., x hose Social Democratic i 4 nancellor (Mr Helmut - J chmidt) has been generally ‘ i garded in Poland as favour- ; e>le to better relations with < immunist Eastern Europe. f in Bonn, the West German I Foreign Minister (Mr Hans1 letrich Genscher), attacked tn arms pronouncements by • the official Soviet press, and f said yesterday that East-West i disarmament debase should not focus solely on mediumi range nuclear missiles. . The Foreign Ministry • issued a statement by Mr I Genscher after the Soviet : Communist Party daily. ■i“ Pravda.” accused him of f distorting Moscow’s position - on arms to ensure that new United States medium-range ■ ruclear rockets capable of t striking Soviet territorv were z deployed in Western Europe.

“The current discussion on the medium-range issue; .o.iould not divert our gaze rom the importance of other arms control negotiations,’ 1 ne said Mr Genscher said West Germany hoped for speedi progress in the Vienna East-' West troop-cut talks for Centra! Europe. But he cautioned against establishing what he icall a Central Europe arms ! control zone with a special •status. In Rome, after several weeks deliberation, the Italian Government has announced its approval of N.A.T.O.'s plan to modernise Western Europe's nuclear missile system. The American-backed plans foresee the installation of United States-made Pershing ; 2 and Cruise missiles on . Italian soil.