U.S. urges Spain to let fighter jets stay

Press, 17 March 1987, Page 8

U.S. urges Spain to let fighter jets stay

NZPA-Reuter Madrid The United States Defence Secretary, Caspar Weinberger, said he would press the Spanish Government to allow 72 American Fl 6 fighter jets to remain in the country for Atlantic alliance defence.

"From our point of view, they are a vital part of N.A.T.O.’s defences. They are urgently needed,” he told reporters who flew to Spain with him from Washington. Mr Weinberger arrived only hours after a protest march from Madrid to the nearby Torrejon air base where the Fl 6s are

stationed, which ended with clashes between mounted police and demonstrators urging an end to the American military presence.

There were no reports of arrests or injuries in the disturbances, which erupted after the bulk of the marchers had dispersed peacefully.

But the turnout for the march — 100,000 according to Leftist and pacifist groups who organised the protest, and 15,000 according to the police — reflected the strength of popular feeling against the presence of American forces in Spain.

A sharp cut in the United States military presence at four Spanish bases was a condition of the referendum a year ago in which Spaniards voted to stay in the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation.

But nine months of negotiation between the Reagan Administration and the Socialist Government in Madrid have so far failed to produce agreement and Spain is threatening not to renew a 34-year-old defence pact which expires next year.

Senior American officials travelling with Mr Weinberger said he did not plan to present any new proposals on the bases issue when he meets the Defence Minister, Narcis Serra, and the Prime Minister, Felipe Gonzalez, after paying a courtesy call on King Juan Carlos.

Mr Weinberger said the negotiations on the bases, which resume in Washington on April 2, were not stalemated.

“I will not be doing any negotiating but the matter is certain to come up,” he said.

The Defence Secretary said Spanish pressure for removal of the Fl6s from their highly-visible home at Torrejon was a central question and that Wash-

ington was willing to move the advanced fighters somewhere else in Spain — perhaps to the Moron base near Seville already used by United States forces.

But he said Spain had not indicated that it would accept such a compromise, which was put forward during the last round of negotiations in Madrid at the start of this month.

The other Spanish bases used by the Americans are at Saragossa, where the United States Air Force trains pilots, and at Rota, the home of vital naval installations for the Sixth Fleet.