Missile offer rejected

Press, 24 September 1983, Page 10

Missile offer rejected

NZPA Moscow The Soviet Union yesterday dismissed the new United States proposal at the medium-range missile reduction talks as not advancing the negotiations and said it “strongly smells of the old, odious pseudo-zero option.”

A commentary by the official news agency Tass military analyst, Vladimir Bogachev, indicated that there were some positive aspects to the American move. But Mr Bogachev made it clear the superpowers had not resolved key issues, including their

dispute over whether to include the nuclear arsenals of Britain and France in the Geneva talks. President Ronald Reagan’s new proposal has not yet been made public and neither side will say whether it has been tabled. But it is understood in Geneva that the move was presented to the Soviet negotiators, and the first Soviet reaction was negative.

“The White House has circulated with great pomp in Washington President Ronald Reagan’s statement about ‘new initiatives’ at the talks on nuclear armaments

in Europe,” said Mr Bogachev.

“According to reports by well-informed observers . . . under any formulation of the new United States proposals, N.A.T.O. is to get an advantage of at least 200 delivery vehicles, including 162 nuclear missiles of the European members of the North Atlantic Alliance.”

Tass noted reports that the new American proposal included indications that the United States might not insist on matching the 108 Soviet missiles in Asia, but made it clear this did not go far enough.