N.A.T.O. talks should allow arms cuts

Press, 12 June 1987, Page 6

N.A.T.O. talks should allow arms cuts

NZPA-Reuter Reykjavik N.A.T.O. Foreign Ministers will open a critical session of talks today which are expected to clear the way for big cuts in nuclear arms in Europe. The two-day meeting of the Western alliance was likely to give the United States the go-ahead it wants to accept a Soviet offer to remove Europebased nuclear arms with a range between 500 and 5000 km, officials said. Despite ; an apparent united front on nuclear reduction, the consequences on conventional forces of; such a pullout are posing a large strain on individual alliance members,; particularly West Germany, the officials said. The United States Secretary; of State, Mr George Shultz, who arrived in Reykjavik last night direct from the Venice economic summit of seven major industrial democracies, said he expected a. decision on nuclear cutbacks from President Reagan by the start of next week.

“I’ll be able to report back on all the (N.A.T.0.)

views, then he will decide, I presume this week-end or Monday, and give his decision,” Mr Shultz told a television interviewer. The Reykjavik meeting is the climax v of eight weeks of intense speculation over whether the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation would go along with United States wishes for a major nuclear arms deal with the Soviet Union. Washington and Moscow are already negotiating a deal to rid Europe of Soviet SS-20 and N.A.T.O. cruise and Pershing*2 missiles, with ranges of 1000-5000 km. But the proposed scrapping of a shorterrange category Of missiles, giving the so-called “double zero option”, has run into opposition from the Bonn Government, which fears the nuclear reductions would leave it exposed to conventional attack. The West Germans last week reluctantly accepted “double zero", but diplomats said they feared problems if Bonn insisted on immediate follow-on talks to cut battlefield nuclear arms with a range under 500 km.