‘Accord will not split U.S. from Europe’

Press, 2 October 1987, Page 6

‘Accord will not split U.S. from Europe’

NZPA-Reuter Paris The Vice-President of the United States, George Bush, on a 24-hour visit to Paris, has told French Prime Minister, Jacques Chirac, that any arms accord with the Soviet Union would in no way harm west European security.

“I assured him that there will be nothing in these arms-control talks that would decouple the United States from Europe,” Mr Bush told reporters on Wednesday after an hour of talks with? Mr Chirac at the Prime Minister’s office. The most senior United States official to visit Paris since Mr Chirac’s Rightist coalition took office in March, 1986, Mr Bush briefed Mr Chirac on the outline agreement reached by the United States and the Soviet Union earlier this month to ban intermediate-range nuclear weapons.

Mr Chirac expressed reservations about the accord during a visit last week-end to Cairo, where he told reporters that it was more important to reduce conventional and chemical weapons. After his meeting with Mr Bush, Mr Chirac said the agreement was “a good accord as a first step in the right direction.” Asked by a French reporter whether it was wise to ban intermediate nuclear weapons before securing an agreement to cut conventional forces, Mr Bush replied: "We are very serious about conventional force

negotiations ... The next step has to be conventional forces so the United States will not leave any country here without support We’ve got to get the conventional forces down, we’ve got to get them in balance.” Mr Bush said, however, that a conventional forces agreement was not a precondition for an accord on strategic long-range nuclear missiles, but that it would have to precede any accord on short-range nuclear arms. Mr Chirac said they had also discussed the Gulf War and hoped Iran and Iraq would "come to their senses."

He said he had also briefed Mr Bush on the recent visits to Paris by the Angolan President, Jose Eduardo and the Mozambican President, Joaquim Chissano. Mr Chirac and Mr Bush, are both leading contenders .for Presidential . elections next year. Mr Bush will today meet the Foreign Minister, Jean-Bernard Raimond, Defence Minister, Andre Giraud, and the Socialist President, Francois Mitterrand, before flying to London on the fifth leg of a ten-day European tour.