Bush meets peace head

Press, 11 February 1983, Page 6

Bush meets peace head

NZPA London The American Vice-Presi-dent, Mr George Bush, flies home today after a sevennation European tour which was intended to cement a united Western stand on curbing Europe’s nuclear arms. He ended his 11-day trip in Britain, where yesterday he and the Prime Minister, Mrs Margaret Thatcher, held talks and were then joined by the Foreign Secretary, Mr Francis Pym, and the Defence Secretary, Mr Michael Heseltine, for a 90-minute working dinner. They had discussed the Soviet-American talks in Geneva on curbing mediumrange missiles in Europe, officials said. The American position, like that of Britain’s, remains that the ideal outcome of the talks is the “zero option”, which entails Moscow’s removing all its missiles aimed at West Europe, and N.A.T.O. in return scrapping plans to deploy 572 cruise and Pershing missiles

from this year. But Mr Bush yesterday signalled a new flexibility when, borrowing a phrase from a statement last week by Mrs Thatcher and the West German Chancellor, Dr Helmut Kohl, he said that the “zero option” was “not a take it or leave it” offer. President Ronald Reagan, he said, was willing to explore any reasonable Soviet offer in Geneva. In London, Mr Bush came face to face with the leader of. Britain’s growing antinuclear peace movement in a dramatic encounter. Mr Bush was asked by Monsignor Bruce Kent, secretary of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, why the United States had voted in the United Nations General Assembly against a nuclear freeze. “We believe in deterrence ...” Mr Bush said. “We have children. Do you think we don’t want peace? Do you think we don’t care about nuclear war?”

Outside the Guildhall in London’s financial district, about 300 anti-nuclear demonstrators jeered and chanted “Bush out” as he arrived to address the Royal Institute of International Affairs. In Washington yesterday Mr Reagan appealed to the Soviet Union to match what he called his own good faith in negotiations to reduce nuclear and conventional arms. He said in a message to Congress that his goal was to reach agreements producing international security and stability and to deter aggression against the United States and its allies. Mr Reagan’s letter, which accompanied the annual report, of the United States Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, said: “We are encouraged by the serious and businesslike conduct of these negotiations so far. “Although much hard bargaining lies ahead, I am determined to bargain in good faith until our objec-

fives can be realised. We urge on our Soviet negotiating partners equal seriousness of purpose." Mr Reagan said that this good faith applied to the separate negotiations on the limitation of strategic arsenals, the removal of medium-range nuclear missiles from Europe, on which he had made proposals himself, and the reduction of conventional armaments.