Kremlin’s plea on N-talks

Press, 29 February 1984, Page 10

Kremlin’s plea on N-talks

NZPA-AP Moscow The Soviet Foreign Minister, Mr Andrei Gromyko, says that the Kremlin wants to resume talks on reducing nuclear arms in Europe if the discussions begin on the principle that neither Moscow nor Washington will upset “the existing parity” in such weapons. From a partial summary of the speech issued in English by the official news agency Tass, it was not clear if Mr Gromyko meant “the existing parity” to refer to the situation before the United States began installing new nuclear missiles in Western Europe, or to the existing situation with some of them in place. Western diplomats in Moscow said they were

waiting to see the full text of the speech before deciding whether it represented a hint that Moscow might agree to renew arms talks in Geneva despite the deployment of the American rockets. The partial summary did not include the usual Soviet demand that Washington and its N.A.T.O. allies cancel deployment of Ameri-can-built nuclear rockets and remove those already installed before the Geneva talks restart. “The U.S.S.R. stands for reaching agreements on the limitation and reduction of nuclear arms in accordance with the principle of equality and equal security,” said Mr Gromyko, who spoke at a voters’ meeting in the city of Minsk