Arms deal complimented

Press, 22 September 1987, Page 6

Arms deal complimented

The super-Power leaders, Mr Reagan and Mr Gorbachev, deserve compliments and encouragement for their agreement to destroy 1000 short-range and mediumrange missiles, says the secretary of the New Zealand Nuclear-Free Zone Committee, Mr Larry Ross. “Even though this is only 3 per cent of the world’s nuclear missiles It is a start on the long road out of the nuclear wilderness,” he said. The Soviet Union and the United States were

allies in World War II against fascism and Nazism. They must become allies again against mutually suicidal weapons which threatened all humanity, he said. “Our planet faces massive environmental and resource problems, numerous conflicts and flashpoints, a new spaceweapons race and proliferation of nuclear weapons to new States such as Israel.

"The common interest of the super-Powers lies in reducing immediate risks of mutual annihila-

tion while giving urgent attention to the world’s real critical problems,” Mr Ross said. “The importance of the non-nuclear States such as New Zealand in giving a lead to the nuclear States cannot be over-estimated. New Zealand nuclear-free zone legislation is internationally recognised as a magnificent contribution to arms control. There is no doubt that New Zealand’s rejection of a nuclear defence as suicidal has acted as a catalyst to the arms control efforts of other States,” he said.