France ‘will keep independent force’

Press, 19 February 1983, Page 9

France ‘will keep independent force’

NZPA-Reuter Moscow The French External Relations Minister, Mr Claude Cheysson, told the Soviet Union yesterday that his country would not agree to its nuclear forces being counted in arms control talks between Moscow and Washington. Speaking after a first round of talks on the Middle East, Mr Cheysson said that France supported SovietAmerican talks in Geneva on limited medium-range

nuclear arsenals. “A happy outcome of these negotiations would be an important step in the right direction,” he said. But he added that France could not accept that its security be imperilled or become dependent on others, even if they were allies. Mr Cheysson quoted President Francois Mitterrand as saying that France’s nuclear forces would remain independent and could not be counted in the Geneva talks. Mr Cheysson’s remarks

amounted to a rebuff to Soviet insistence that French and British nuclear forces targeted against the Soviet Union be taken into account in Geneva.

Mr Cheysson said that his Government’s position did not mean that France would never take part in talks.

But Paris would only do so once the two main nuclear powers had reduced the “gigantic” dimensions of their nuclear arsenals first.