Gorbachev lists steps to tension

Press, 18 March 1988, Page 9

Gorbachev lists steps to tension

NZPA-Reuter . 1 . ! I Belgrade The Russian leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, on Wednesday announced! proposals to reduce tensions in the Mediterranean, which he described as “one of the most explosive regions in the world.”

Addressing the ’Yugoslav Parliament on the third day of an official visit to Belgrade, Mr Gorbachev also acknowledged that "unfounded accusations” by Josef Stalin against the Yugoslav leader, Josip Broz Tito, in 1948 had inflicted great damage. Mr Gorbachev, the first Soviet leader to address the Belgrade assembly, spoke about his remarks at Yugoslav concerns, notably accusing N.A.T.O. of seeking to build up arms on its southern flank to' compensate for the treaty to scrap medium-range missiles. I "Today the Mediterranean is one of the most explosive regions of the world, an intricate knot of conflicting I interests abounding in . huge military arsenals i which are continuing to’ grow," Mr Gorbachev said. He said he wanted to supplement previous

Soviet ideas for reducing military [tensions in the area with three proposals:— • The number of Soviet and United States ships and the naval potential of the two countries should be frozen from July 1 this year and ceilings set'l on their levels thereafter. • ThelSoviet Union and the United States could give each other advance warning I on any movements, of warships and naval exercises, and could invite observers to the manoeuvres. • Mediterranean and other interested countries could di-aft measures to ensure the security of “intensive [shipping, especially in international straits”, with full Soviet support. | Moscow said last year it woulcl withdraw its naval forces from the Mediterranean if the United States did 'the same, but the proposal brought no :

i i positive response from Washington. Mr Gorbachev said the; offer was still valid. | “For. us the Mediterranean is no remote, out-of-trie-way area,” he said. i "It is close to our southern borders and is crossed by ;the only sea route linking our southern ports Witti the world’s oceans. Naturally we are interested in j routes of peace rather than those of* war passing here.” | Mr Gorbachev began his ■ 45-minute! speech by paying tribute to Tito's partisans who liberated Belgrade alongside Soviet troops during World War Two. Mr Gorbachev’s remarks were his strongest public admission that Stalin had be'en wrong when he expelled Yugoslavia from the world communist movement for ideological heresy in 1948 and branded Tito as a traitor and a' fascist.