Reagan backs reforms

Press, 4 June 1988, Page 10

Reagan backs reforms

NZPA-Reuter London

President Ronald Reagan, fresh from criticising the Soviet record on human rights, has urged the West to encourage Mikhail Gorbachev’s reforms, aimed at changing the face of Soviet communist society. Mr Reagan, in a 24hour London stopover, reported to his British Government hosts that Mr Gorbachev’s plans to overhaul the Soviet Union’s Stalinist legacy offered Russians the prospect of “a new way of life.” The President also told the British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, he would not be rushed into signing a strategic arms treaty.

halving super-Powers’ arsenals of long-range weapons, before leaving office, British officials said.

Shortly before resuming his homeward journey, he will publicly review the five-day Moscow summit and survey future East-West relations in a major address that may be his farewell speech to Europe. White House officials said the 30-minute address in London’s cen-turies-old Guildhall would be a report aimed at Europe of his talks in the Kremlin, where he irritated the Soviet leader by criticising Moscow’s human rights record. The Russians said this a political gambit that ignored reforms under way since the Soviet leader, Mr Gorbachev, launched his reform initiative.