U.S. gives breakdown of arms ‘imbalance’

Press, 21 November 1981, Page 8

U.S. gives breakdown of arms ‘imbalance’

NZPA-Reuter Washington The United States has launched a diplomatic offensive to back President Ronald Reagans assertion that the Soviet Union has a six-to-one edge in mediumrange nuclear forces in Europe. Tass, the Soviet news agency, said Mr Reagan's figure's were “absolutely fantastic” and repeated an assertion by the Soviet President (Mr Leonid Brezhnev) that an approximate balance existed. A State Department spokesman, Dean Fischer, told reporters: “We do not feel that a balance exists.” Soviet and American negotiators will meet in Geneva on November 30 to discuss limiting theatre nuclear weapons in Europe. The first critical hurdle they face is defining what tyoe of weapons should be discussed. Mr Fischer said that wnen Moscow listed us own nuclear weaoon> it excluded

several types comparable to the American systems. He said it was accurate to compare 560 American nuclear systems with at least 3725 Soviet ones. A breakdown provided by Mr Fischer included socalled forward based systems — American pianes based in Europe — which Washington considers to be part of its strategic forces but Moscow insists be included in the talks. A senior Administration official said later that these forces might be included in talks on strategic arms that will begin early next year. The 560 American nuclear systems included FBIII bombers based in the United States, Fills based in Britain, Phantom fighterbomoers, mostly in West Germany, and carrier-based aircraft. The list of what the spokesman said were comparable Soviet systems included the 600 Soviet SS missiles that Mr Reagan said

should be destroved in return for dropping deployment of 572 Pershing 2 and Cruise missiles in Western Europe. Mr Reagans proposals have won a favourable response from America's North Atlantic Treaty Organisation allies who met in Brussels yesterday to plan the alliance s strategy for the Geneva talks. But Mr Reagan was disappointed by what he believed to be Soviet misunderstanding of his call, the White House said yesterday. “It was disappointing," a White House press secretary, Larry Speakes, said wnen asked for Mr Reagan’s view of the Tass article. “It was a very quick analysis, including some misinterpretations ot tne speech.” Tass had alleged that the United States wanted an arms race, and maybe even war. The Defence Secretary (Mr Caspar Weinberger) said he did not know' if the Soviet

Union would agree to bargain on the basis of Mr Reagan’s proposal. But he said if they would take the trouble to analyse it they would see it could enormously benefit them as well as the' United States by freeing part of their huge arms budget to help their troubled economy. The British Defence Secretary (Mr Peter Blakeri said from London that Moscow’s reaction to Mr Reagan’s offer was not good but he did not think the Soviet Government had flatly turned it down. He noted the reaction had come from Tass, not from the Kremlin, and said the true Soviet response would be seen when the talks began. Paul Warnke, the chief arms negotiator under President Carter, said Moscow had previously indicated willingness to reduce ns SS2O missiles, so the debate was over numbers and not over principles.