U.S. to spell out N-missile treaty terms

Press, 5 March 1987, Page 10

U.S. to spell out N-missile treaty terms

NZPA-Reuter Geneva The United States will present a draft treaty to the Soviet Union today calling for big cuts in medium-range nuclear missiles, responding to a similar Kremlin initiative and forcing the pace at arms negotiations.

“To seize this new opportunity, I have instructed our negotiators to begin presentation of our draft Intermediate Range Nuclear Force treaty text at Geneva, said the United States President, Ronald Reagan, yesterday.

Mr Reagan said that the American draft treaty followed a formula agreed with the Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, during their summit meeting in Iceland on October 11-12.

He gave no details of the proposal but a United States Arms Control and Disarmament Agency fact sheet issued in January outlined the American position on medium-range missiles at the summit meeting.

This included elimination of American and Soviet medium-range missiles in Europe by 1991, with the phased reduction to 100 warheads on each side by 1991, these warheads to be based on United States territory, including Alaska, and in Soviet Asia. This is close to the outline of a new Soviet proposal made by Mr Gorbachev when he

changed Kremlin policy on a medium-range missile accord last week-end. Mr Gorbachev said super-Power mediumrange missiles in Europe should be eliminated within five years, and warheads oytside the region reduced to 100 each in the same period.

Soviet negotiators! formally presented the new offer at the Geneva arms talks on Monday.

One shift in the Gorbachev initiative was to drop demands made at the Reykjavik summit that a medium-range pact be linked to cuts in longrange missiles and limits on the American “star wars” missile defence scheme. Another shift was to drop previous demands that a separate mediumrange accord be contingent on freezing British and French nuclear forces at present levels — about 162 atomic warhead launchers. Both offers would eliminate 243 triple-warhead Soviet SS-20 missiles deployed in Europe since 1977, and 316 single-war-head United States Persh-ing-2 and cruise missiles stationed in N.A.T.O. countries since 1983. American and Soviet spokesmen declined to comment on the latest move, but traditionally the American draft would be presented to a special joint plenary session at the United States diplomatic mission.

The United States chief negotiator, Max Kampelman, backed by a 20strong team, should read the proposed draft treaty into the formal negotiating record during the session.

Mr Kampelman and the chief Soviet negotiator, Yuly Vorontsov, had agreed already to extend the medium-range talks past their scheduled recess today to pursue the new Russian initiative.

Mr Reagan said he would call Mr Kampelman and the other United States negotiators home later this week for consultations and they would then return to Geneva for detailed negotiations.

• The Soviet Union is prepared to significantly reduce its numbers of medium-range SS-20 missiles in East Asia, the Soviet Foreign Minister, Mr Eduard Shevardnadze, said yesterday. Mr Shevardnadze, who is on a visit to Australia, told reporters in Canberra that the Soviet Union was prepared to limit its SS-20 missiles in Asia to 33. (Western defence experts have estimated there are about 170 of these missiles east of the Ural mountains.) He did not detail what American concessions the Soviet Union wanted for cutting its missile arsenal in Asia, just saying the Soviet Union favoured eliminating nuclear weapons in Asia “on a mutual basis.”