Shultz sees summit pledges on N-arms cuts

Press, 24 May 1988, Page 8

Shultz sees summit pledges on N-arms cuts

NZPA-Reuter Washington

The United States Secretary of State, George Shultz, says the superpowers will agree at their Moscow summit to continue working for nucleararms cuts, but a deal to halve arsenals of strategic weapons may be months away. Striking a positive tone ahead of the May 29-June 2 summit, Mr Shultz praised the Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, on Sunday for appearing determined to maintain the improved climate of United States-Soviet relations of the past three years. But Mr Shultz injected a note of caution into his remarks on American television, saying it was unclear whether Washington and Moscow could agree to roughly halve their strategic nuclear arsenals by the end of President Reagan’s term next January.

“It’s certainly possible. I feel certain that, at the Moscow summit, we will both want to agree to keep working on it hard. But whether it will actually happen or not, I don’t know. The issues are tough,” he said.

Mr Shultz said the summit’s atmosphere would be improved if the Senate ratified an accord banning medium-range missiles which Mr Reagan and Mr Gorbachev signed last December.

Conservative Republicans are waging a largelysymbolic fight to block the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces treaty.

Though eventual passage’ is not in serious doubt the Senate’s leading arms expert, the Democrat, Sam Nunn, of Georgia, said there was only a 60 per cent chance of approval before Mr Reagan met Mr Gorbachev. The official Soviet spokesman, Gennady Gerasimov, said it would be no tragedy if ratification was delayed. “We simply expect that if you promise, then you must deliver,” he told United States television from Moscow. Both American and Soviet officials say they want the summit to have substance even if it is unlikely that breakthroughs will come in arms control or solving regional conflicts. Senior United States officials say they hope the summit will bring progress on ending conflicts in southern Africa, and possibly Kampuchea, but they are less optimistic about the chances of movement on the Gulf war and the Middle-East crisis.

Mr Reagan and Mr Gorbachev will also devote part of their talks to human rights, a topic on which Moscow has shown increasing willingness to engage in debate with the United States as Mr Gorbachev has charted a course of domestic reform.

In other areas of summit discussion, bilateral accords are planned on aspects of nuclearweapons testing and on subjects including fisheries and transportation.