'NONUSE OF FORCE' OFFERED TO NATO

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP86B00420R000200310026-8
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: October 21, 2009
• Sequence Number: 26
• Publication Date: March 23, 1984
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Approved For Release 2009/10/22 : CIA-RDP86B0042OR000200310026-8
nutruar ur ruim '
OFFERED TO NATO
Moscow Is Reported Testing
Willingness of the Alliance
to Agree on Statement
By JOHN VINOCUR
special to The Newyork Timer
BRUSSELS, March 22 - Western
diplomats attending the East-West se-
curity conference in Stockholm say the
Soviet Union is sending signals about
how the Soviet-American negotiations
on nuclear arms could resume.
According to one of the diplomats,
discussions with Soviet officials have
produced "evidence of a link" between
Soviet interest in a statement renounc-
ing the use of force and a resumption of
the talks on limiting strategic and
medium-range nuclear missiles, which
broke up late last year.
The diplomat said it would be up to
West to decide whether to test "a num-
ber of fairly explicit hints" received
from the Russians. The Soviet sugges-
tion is that if the United States, as
leader of the North Atlantic Treaty Or-
anization, were to say publicly that it
would consider a statement on nonuse
of force, then this would provide "a
favorable element" toward restarting
the arms talks.
The diplomats reporting on tyre
development were among delegates
who briefed Atlantic alliance officials
here this week on progress at the Stock-
holm conference. The first phase of the
conference, which began in January
ended last Friday. It is scheduled to re-
sume in Maya
U.S. Appears to Be Opposed
A delegate who discussed the signals
said they came in a statement made by
the Soviet delegate, Oleg A. Grinevsky,
at a closed session of. the conference,
and then in private talks with Mr.
Grinevsky. The Soviet diplomat has
served in the Foreign Ministry's Mid-
dle East and International. Organiza-
tions departments. .
The United States considers that I
there is no reason to offer the Soviet
Union a face-saving gesture since it
was Moscow that chose to break off the
arms talks last year in protest against
the deployment of new American medi-
um-range missiles in Western Europe.
This position was re-emphasized on
Tuesday by Jeane J. Kirkpatrick, the
United States delegate to the United
Nations, in a television interview in
Vienna.
American officials have said pri-
vately. that injecting a nonaggression
pledge into the Stockholm conference
- whose mandate is limiting the risk of
military confrontation in Europe by
specific, binding measures - would
offer a false message to public opinion
at time when the Soviet military inter-
vention in Afghanistan continues. Such
a statement. in the view of some NATO
they feel would undermine the doctrine
of nuclear deterrence.
Statement Termed Superfluous
Other Western officials say that the
nonaggression declaration sought by
the Russians is superfluous since re-
nunciation-of--force engagements are
already -contained in the United Na-
tions Charter, in the Final -Act of the
1975 Helsinki conference and in NATO
documents.
But some Western governments have
suggested a willingness to consider
such a statement. Foreign Minister
Hans-Dietrich Genscher of West Ger-
many, referring to an Atlantic alliance
declaration that it would never use
force except in self-defense, said in a
speech in Stockholm in January that
"it could serve the cause of confidence.
building if all participants were ready
to make an equally comprehensive
pledge."
A West German official here said
Bonn would have no trouble with a
statement renouncing force if the War-
saw Pact countries agreed to NATO de-
mands for greater "transparency" be-
tween the blocs, such as advance noti-
fication of troop movements and the
posting of observers at all maneuvers.
A West German representative sug-
gested that the United States might
wish to see how the Russians would
react in relation to the arms reduction i
talks if the Reagan Administration-in-
dicated its readiness to discuss a force-
renunciation statement under certain
conditions.
Improvement in Climateen Issue
One analysis here is that the Soviet
Union, after its warnings of the world's
being endangered by the Western mis-
sile deployment, could not return to the
arms talks without being able to say
that the international climate had*
changed. If this is the case, the argu-
ment runs, then Western willingness to
discuss the Soviet Union's nonuse-of-
force concept could provide the face-
saving change needed by Moscow.
James E. Goodby, the United States'
delegate in Stockholm, described the
issue at a news conference here as a
possible "factor for later discussion".
But he added, "I don't think anyone
would want to offer it upon a plate."
So far, the Warsaw Pact countries
have not offered an formal proposal in
Stockholm to match the specific confi-
dence-building measures called for by
the NATO countries.
The eight neutral and nonaligned na-
tions attending the meeting have made
a proposal that calls for more detailed
exchange of information on military
movements that could lead to a state-
ment on force renunciation.
If these proposals are accepted, the
neutral countries' document says,
"they thereby create conditions for
considering a reaffirmation, in appro-
priate ways and forms, of the commit-
ment to the peaceful settlement of dis-
putes, undertaken in the United Na-
tions Charter and the Final Act."
Approved For Release 2009/10/22 : CIA-RDP86B0042OR000200310026-8