N.A.T.O. looks to Moscow for harmony

Press, 10 December 1982, Page 8

N.A.T.O. looks to Moscow for harmony

NZPA-Reuter Brussels N.A.T.O. Foreign Ministers are assessing the chances of improved relations with Moscow after the recent change of leadership in the Kremlin. The American Secretary of State. Mr George Shultz, will seek to rally the allies around a common position consisting of firmness, awareness of Soviet behaviour and readiness to respond to any positive Soviet mover, said diplomats. The West is looking for possible signs of openings on Afghanistan, Poland, arms control, and the level of defence spending, they said. Ministers of the 16-mem-ber alliance are expected to devote much time to the arms control issue, particularly United States-Soviet negotiations in Geneva on curbing medium-range nuclear weapons in Europe. A State Department spokesman. John Hughes, said that Mr Shultz, in talks with several N.A.T.O. Foreign Ministers, found that there was still good, strong will to move ahead with N.A.T.O.’s decision to deploy 572 Pershing II and cruise missiles in Western Europe if

there was no agreement at Geneva. A vote by the House of Representatives to deny funding for the new intercontinental MX missile should have little impact on N.A.T.O.’s missiles deployment. said the N.A.T.O. Secretary-General, Dr Joseph Luns. Mr Hughes said that the MX issue was not raised in Mr Shultz’s bilateral talks with the Foreign Ministers of Greece, Portugal and Belgium. N.A.T.O. officials had expressed fears that the antiMX vote in Washington could provide new arguments to European anti-nuclear campaigners by giving them an opportunity to accuse the Americans of refusing new missiles on their territory while asking Europeans to accept the Pershing II and cruise missiles. Washington has strongly criticised a vote by the Danish Parliament to suspend payments for the planned deployment of the missiles, saying any action that gave Moscow false hope of weakening N.A.T.O. resolve to deploy the missiles would re-

duce prospects for an arms limitation agreement in Geneva. “The action by the Danish Parliament is unfortunate." said the White House deputy press secretary, Mr Larry Speakes. “It is also . unfortunate when an ally falls short in supporting those who already are bearing a greater burden to maintain the deterrence that benefits all,” he added. Dr Luns, replying to calls for no first use of nuclear weapons, said: "It is essential to the credibility of N.A.T.O.’s defensive strategy that the nature of its reply to armed aggression should remain incalculable and include the possible use of nuclear weapons." He said that this element of uncertainty had enabled N.A.T.O. to preserve peace in Europe for a third of a century. “Analyses which neglect or misrepresent these facts gratuitously assist Soviet attempts ‘to play upon fears of a nuclear war as part of Moscow’s campaign to block the implementation of the N.A.T.O. modernisation plan,” he said.