European arms talks resume

Press, 14 January 1982, Page 6

European arms talks resume

NZPA-Reuter Geneva American and Soviet delegates have resumed talks on curbing medium-range nuclear missiles in Europe, after a warning from Washington that Soviet actions in Poland could damage prospects of progress.

The chief negotiators. Paul Nitze and Yuli Kvitsinsky, greeted each other with smiles and a cordial handshake outside the American mission as the tenman Soviet delegation arrived for the first session of the new year. The session lasted just over two hours and another was scheduled at the Soviet mission on Friday.

The talks, which started in November, had been adjourned over the Christmas and New Year holiday season.

The American mission, in its daily bulletin, publicised Alexander Haig's comment at a Brussels news conference that the United States intended to carry on the Geneva talks despite the Government crack-down in Poland.

But Mr Haig was quoted as adding that “the Soviets will bear responsibility if what they are doing with respect to Poland damages

the prospects for success in arms control negotiations.”

In Moscow, the Soviet Union charged yesterday that the United States might be planning to use the Polish crisis to wreck the talks.

A commentary on the talks by the official news agency.'Tass, renewed accusations that Washington was not taking the negotiations seriously and only agreed to them in the first place to placate its West European allies.

“There are good reasons to think that by artificially whipping up hysteria over the events in Poland. Washington is preparing the ground for torpedoing the Soviet-American talks on nuclear arms in Europe,” Tass said.

In Peking. China repeated its view that the talks were destined to be prolonged and fruitless.

“The fact that Europe today is dotted with missiles may be traced to the series of talks held in the past 10 years or more at Soviet suggestion." the agency said.

"While these talks were going on. the Soviet Union managed to overcome its backwardness and gradually catch up with the United States in nuclear arms."