Soviet leader rejects U.S. missile offer

Press, 25 November 1981, Page 8

Soviet leader rejects U.S. missile offer

NZPA-Reuter Bonn The West German Chancellor (Mr Helmut Schmidt) has expressed cautious hope that the United States and the Soviet Union can make progress towards reducing nuclear armaments in Europe at talks starting in Geneva on Monday. “Over-all it is quite clear that the Soviet side, like the Americans, seriously want to negotiate in Geneva on medium-range weapons,” he told a television interviewer after a day of talks with the Soviet President (Mr Leonid Brezhnev). ' - “I am sure that both the American and Soviet sides are ready, to move towards each other without at present stating clearly in which area, in which way, and when.” Mr Brezhnev . earlier dashed West German hopes of a positive reponse to President Ronald Reagan’s “zero option” offer to abandon the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation’s scheduled installation of new Pershing 2 and Cruise missiles in Europe in 1983 if Moscow agreed to scrap its medium-range nuclear missile force.

' Speaking at a banquet given by Mr Schmidt, the original champion of the “zero option,” he said the Soviet Union was really being asked to pursue unilateral disarmament, since the offer did not include marinebased missiles or N.A.T.O. rockets already sited in Europe. Mr Brezhnev said Mr Reagan’s proposal would give N.A.T.O. a two-to-one superiority in medium-range missile forces. “It is clear the Soviet Union will never agree to such a version,” he said. But Moscow's delegation would enter the United States-Soviet nuclear arms talks in Geneva with the intention of achieving positive results. Mr Brezhnev countered Mr Reagan’s offer by putting forward. proposals which Western observers said had been made in various forms by Moscow before. He said. the Soviet Union was ready to freeze the number of its medium-range missiles at their existing level during the Geneva talks.

If the United States agreed to that, it would go further by unilaterally reducing part of its missile force based in Eastern Europe as a good will gesture. Although Mr Brezhnev described this as. “a new, essential element in our position,” Western experts noted that the missiles could still hit targets in West Europe from their truck-trailer platforms if they were moved outside European areas of the Soviet Union. Mr Schmidt expressed acepticism in his- television interview that the offer was new, saying that Mr Brezhnev had put forward a different combination of ideas which had already figured in public discussion. But he emphasised that the Soviet Union had made it very clear that it was prepared to reduce its missile force. “It has linked this with terms and conditions which must be examined more closely,” Mr Schmidt said. Mr Brezhnev has allotted 40 minutes each to talks with the leaders of Bonn’s political parties. • His prickliest guest may

be the opposition strongman, Franz-Josef Strauss, just back from a visit to Peking where Chinese leaders continue to accuse the Soviet Union of a lust from international domination and expansion. Dr Strauss, Minister President of Bavaria and a strong advocate of closer ties with China, ridiculed Western hopes of achieving the “zero option” at the Geneva talks. He said on Monday that it was nonsense to believe the Soviet Union would give way. He said that eight years of talks in Vienna on the much less significant issue of EastWest troop cuts had made not “one millimetre of progress.” 'Earlier yesterday Mr Schmidt told Mr Brezhnev that West Germany would deploy new American nuclear missiles in 1983 if the. Soviet Union did not remove its medium-range missiles. A Bonn spokesman said Mr Schmidt had made it clear the weapons would be deployed unless agreement was reached at next week’s talks in Geneva.