We’ve kept promises about missile launchers—Gorbachev

Press, 14 December 1985, Page 10

We’ve kept promises about missile launchers—Gorbachev

NZPA-AP Moscow The Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, said yesterday that the Soviet Union had kept its promise and dismantled launchers for SS2O missiles withdrawn from the European part of the country. The official news agency, Tass, said that Mr Gorbachev had made the statement in a meeting with Louis Mermaz, chairman of the French National Assembly. Mr Gorbachev was quoted as saying that during his visit to France from October 2-5 he had announced that the Soviet Union "had removed the SS2O missiles, additionally deployed earlier on in the European zone, from stand-by alert, while stationary structures for the missiles would be dismantled in the following two months.”

“The U.S.S.R. has kept its promise — the dismantling has been completed,” he was quoted as saying. Tass did not report more details.

Mr Gorbachev said in a speech to French Parlia-

mentarians on October 3 that the Soviet Union had had 243 triple-headed SS2O missiles in its European zone, west of the Ural Mountains in June 1984, when it began deploying extra SS2Os in response to N.A.T.O.’s deployment of Pershing 2 and cruise missiles in Western Europe. Mr Gorbachev said in Paris that these additional whose number he did not disclose, “have been withdrawn from standready and the stationary installations that house these missiles will be dismantled within the next two months”. Mr Gorbachev’s announcement in Paris was part of a speech in which he revealed a range of Soviet arms control proposals, including a 50 per cent cut in super-Power arsenals of strategic nuclear weapons if the United States stopped research into space weapons. © In Brussels N.A.T.O. Foreign Ministers told the American Secretary of State, Mr George Shultz, yesterday that Western pub-

lie opinion would expect first concrete results on arms control from the next United States-Soviet summit conference next (northern) summer.

The Ministers applauded President Reagan’s handling of his Geneva meeting last month with Mr Gorbachev and said it raised expectations of real progress on disarmament. The West German Foreign Minister, Mr HansDietrich ' Genscher, said after the first day of the annual autumn (northern) autumn N.A.T.O. council meeting, “both sides are aware that they cannot conclude the next summit just like they ended the first one. There has to be more. “One cannot simply say for a second time that the atmosphere was good,” he said. • Other European officials said that their ministers had pointed to public hopes of progress, particularly on the issue of medium-range nuclear missiles in Europe, where Mr Gorbachev appeared prepared to seek an early interim agreement.