Brezhnev likely to concede little at Bonn

Press, 23 November 1981, Page 8

Brezhnev likely to concede little at Bonn

NZPA-Reuter Bonn The Soviet leader. Leonid Brezhnev, was to arrive in Bonn today for much-her-alded talks with Chancellor Helmut Schmidt on nuclear missile curbs amid few signs that the visit would produce any concessions from Moscow.

West Germany’s earlier optimism over the talks has been dispelled by Soviet reaction to President Ronald Reagan’s proposal that the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation would abandon plans to station new Pershing 2 and Cruise missiles in Europe if the Soviet Union scfapped. its medium-range nuclear missile force. . This is the .‘‘zero option” espoused for months by West Germany, one of the countries which N.A.T.O. says is threatened by the SS family of missiles deployed by Moscow. ■.

But the Soviet Union has

denounced angrily Mr Reagan's proposal as propaganda for the gullible. : Diplomatic sources ih Bonn said that in view of Moscow’s reaction the only apparent hope of a newinitiative emerging from Mr Brezhnev’s talks stemmed from a Bulgarian report that he would bring with him “new concrete foreign policy proposals” aimed soley at preventing a nuclear catastrophe. Mr Schmidt has said that he sees himself as an “interpreter” seeking to ensure that the mutually-distrustful super-Powers learned to understand one another.

He would aim to persuade Mr Brezhnev and Mr Reagan to meet next year so -that each would discover that the other “was not a warmonger.” ,

Mr Schmidt’s talks with Mr Brezhnev will be spread over two days, .the Soviet

leader leaving on W'edneday. Mr Schmidt has said he will raise the subject of ethnic Germans who wished to leave the Soviet Union and resettle in West Germany. The West German Red Cross has mentioned 100,000 applicants and Mr Schmidt said he could hardly believe that a nation with a population of 250 million would miss a few thousand people.

The West Germans have also had to take extraordinary measures to prevent Mr Brezhnev from seeing any of the 11 demonstrations that will take, place during his visit. Bonn refused to ban the rallies, as Moscow had demanded, but has agreed to keep them a good distance from the Soviet delegation. „'

The West German authorites, hoping to prevent antiKremlin incidents, have curbed also the movements of many foreign exiles dur-

ing the visit

Official sources said the move, restricting some exiles to their homes and workplaces, mainly involved Afghans and Russians.

In Moscow, the Soviet news agency, Tass, yesterday condemned Western calls for an arms “zero option,” making its statement in a commentary which seemed to be aimed chiefly at Mr Schmidt.

It said this was a “mockery of common sense” and would condemn arms cuts talks in Geneva this month to failure.

The Communist Party newspaper, “Pravda,” yesterday accused the United States of juggling with figures in claiming Moscow had a six-fold advantage in nuclear strength in Europe.

4 - The Soviet news media appear to be making an unusual effort to convince the Soviet public of Moscow’s arguments against the latest Western arms proposals.