STAFF NOTES: WESTERN EUROPE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP86T00608R000500040008-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: T
• Document Page Count: 13
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: November 17, 2004
• Sequence Number: 8
• Publication Date: May 6, 1975
• Content Type: REPORT

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Belgian and French Officials To Discuss
Defense Cooperation . . .
Portuguese Socialists and Communists Announce
Tentative Reconciliation . . . . . . . .
biay Day Bombing in Spain Causes Concern . . . . 8
Signs of Growing Tension between France
and Somalia 10
May 6, 1975
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Belgian and French Officials To Discuss
Defense Cooperation
Belgian Prime Minister Tindemans plans
to test the: French government's willingness
to cooperate more closely in promoting ? a
European armaments industry when he visits
Paris on May 9. Tindemans evidently hopes
that France's desire to sell the Mirage
F-1/E to Belgium will enable him to prod
Paris into joining the Eurogroup in NATO
and to make a general commitment to cooper-
ate with other European countries in purchasing
and producing weapons systems.
Even if President Giscard were inclined
t:: favor such a step, however, domestic
pressure are likely to make it extremely
difficult for him to establish overt ties
with NATO's military structure.
Brussels ffiz'st used this tactic last
June when Belgian officials suggested if
France joined the hurogroup, the Belgians
might select the Mirage as a replacement for
aaia F-104.
Although Frenc.::-k officials appear to have
written off any chances of selling the
Mirage to the other three nations in the
consortium--the Netherlands, 'Norway and
Denmark--Giscard apparently still hopes
to swing a deal with the Belgians.
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The meeting between Giscard and Tindemans
will almost certainly pre;7ant the consortium
from holding to its plan to sign an agreement
with the US by May 15 to purchase the
F-16. The four defense ministers who will
attend the Eurogroup meeting tn Brussels tomorrow
may use the occasion to request a one-
month extension.
A final agreement probably will not
be reac:hed until after Tindemans and Dutch
Prime Minister den Uyl visit Washington
later this spring. Norwegian officials,
however, are disturbed about thesis delays
and have warred that Oslo might be forced
to withdraw from the consortium if a decision
is not reached before the summer recess.
The Belgians, meanwhile, have been
pushing in the Western European union for
a common armaments policy. In the absence
of a structure within the European Communities
competent to discuss defense matters. and
with France not a member of NATO's "Eurogroup,
Belgium has long t,vocated utilizing the
West European Union as a forum. Under
Pompidou, the French also made some initiatives
to revive WEU's role. The WEU initiatives
never got off the ground, however, because
of the fears of the British and other
NATO members that such moves might
weaken the Eurogroup.
Belgium's new approaches, apparently
carried out largely in London among the
representatives to WEU's permanent council,
are aimed at integrating Europe's armament
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industries. Brussels may want the WEU
members to make a recommendation to the
EC, which would then assign intagration
of the defense industries a priority within
the community's nascent industrial policy.
Ithe B%lgians wish to in-
tegrate e means of production and not, as in
the Eurogroup, to harmonize the policies of the
customer countries. The initial Belgian goal is
a revi'ral of WEU's Standing Armaments Committee
to draw up a list of existing armaments indus-
tries in Europe.
Brussels' soundings have been immediately
directed at gauging sentiment for a formal
debate at the WEU Council meeting in London on
May 20.
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Portuguese Socialists and Communists Announce
Tentative Reconci iation
Tensions between the Portuguese Socialist
and Communist parties appear to have subsided
for the moment following an agreement by party
leaders to cooperate in Portugal's coalition
government and to defend the reforms made
since the military assumed power last year.
Representatives of the two parties,
including Socialist leader Mario Soares and
Communist chief Alvaro Cunhal, met on Monday
at Communist Party headquarters to discuss
their differences. The joint communique does
not call for the formation of an alliance
between the two parties, but the agreement
should put an end to the increasingly heated
exchanges between the parties since the April
25 election. The communique states that meetings
between the two parties will continue "with
a view to deepening the exchange of views
on problems of common interest."
Both Cunhal and Snares have recognized
the need for cooperation between the two parties,
but previous attempts to paper over their
differences have broken down when they found
themselves on cpposing sides of policy issues.
Cunhal told reporters that he hoped that progress
toward greater cooperation could be made in
future talks.
The Communists' desire for closer cooperation
with the Socialists probably reflects the
fear of some party members that they have
lost some of their influence with the Armed
Forces Movement, particularly since the elections
showed the Socialists, not the Communists,
to be the party of the "people." The Communists
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may also face widening rifts within party
ranks between older Moscow-oriented leaders
and younger members who prefer to operate
along the lines of the more nationalistic
West European,Communist parties.
There have been indications in recent
days that Socialist leader Snares would also
welcome a cessation of hostilities, and would
prefer to follow a softer line toward both
the Communists and the Armed Forces Movement.
He has been forced to take a harder stance,
however, by party militants who fear that
if the Socialists do not press their advantage
now, they will lose the benefit of their electoral
victory.
The agreement between the two parties
was probably strongly encouraged by the Armed
Forces Movement which has repeatedly emphasized
the importance of unified support for its
policies.
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May Day Bombing in Spain Causes Concern
The explosion of a booby-trapped
car outside the Madrid stadium where
General Franco was attending a rally last
week may presage a rash of anti-regime
violence. Despite tight security measures,
the bomb-laden car was able to be placed
in a heavily guarded location without
arousing suspicion. If the bomb had exploded
half an hour earlier when Franco and his
party and masses of people were entering
the stadium, there would have been injuries
and perhaps even loss of life.
The explosion does not appear to
be the work of professionals, such as
the Basque terrorist organization ETA.
This group has been accused of the assassination
of Prime Minister Carrero Blanco who was
blown up in his car in December 1973. Although
it is not clear that the May Day bombing was
an assassination attempt, at the least it
served as an anti-regime protest.
Although demonstrations on this May
Day and the succeeding weekend were less violent
than in recent years, they did include another
automobile explbsion near Bilbao as well
as several fire bombings of business and
government establishments in Barcelona
and Pamplona. There was one accidental
death in Vigo when a policeman attempting
to break up a small extremist demonstration
accidentally short an onlooker. Police
also broke up a ceremony at the grave
of the founder of the Spanish Socialist
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Workers' Party and arrested 60 participants.
Although the stadium bombing was
downplayed by Spanish security officers,
there is growing concern over the increasing
use of explosives for terrorist purposes.
Any further incidents could result in
a sharp crackdown by the security ces.
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Signs of Growing Tension between trance
an Somaria
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Somalia has traditional claims to the area,
including the port of Djibouti, because ethnic
Somalis make up a large part of the population.
President Siad has made it clear that he considers
the French presence there intolerable. During a
visit to Paris last autumn, Siad asked French
President Giscard to grant the Territory's inde-
pendence. In reply Giscard referred to the 1967
referendum in which 67 percent of t.a Territory's
37,000 voters voiced a desire to remain French.
More recently, Siad has had some success in
enlisting at least the moral support of Arab leaders.
During the Arab League Council meeting in late
April, Arab leaders passed a unanimous resolution
urging independence for the Territory and formed
a ministerial committee to make contacts with
France.
In early February, Siad stepped up his polemics
against the French, claiming that people in the
French territory were being "massacred, deported and
shot" to prevent the expression of a popular desire
for freedom.
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France has a strong interest in maintaining
its territorial presence and limited political
influence in the Indian Ocean area. In addition
to sharing a common desire with its Western
allies to secure the oil-supply route around
Africa from the Persian Gulf, Paris has also
shown growing concern that the Indian Ocean not
be left in sole control of the US and the USSR.
The pe:?t of Djibouti will also increase in
economic importance once the Suez canal reopens.
Djibouti is the only major French base
remaining in the Indian Ocean area. The military
The French are demonstrating their firm
commitment to remain in Djibouti; French forces
stationed in the port were strengthened last
summer and security precautions along the Somali
border have become stringent. One of the most
serious problems facing the French forces in the
Territory of the Afars and Issas is the infil-
tration of Somalis who cross the border illegally
with the intention of obtaining French citizenship
and, later, helping to influence French withdrawal.
Somalis are also attracted to Djibouti by the
relatively better prospects of employment and
higher living conditions. If not strictly controlled,
they could soon outnumber the pro-French Afars
who cooperate with the French to control local
affairs.
In a further exhibition of French commitment
to the Territory, the French secretary of state
for overseas territories visited Djibouti two
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weeks ago--amidst heavy security precautions.
In a major speech, he emphasized French concern
for the people of the Territory. An official
of the US embassy in Addis Ababa, who also
happened to be visiting in Djibouti, noted that
French concern rxts also being expressed more
materialistically in the form of new public
works projects in and around the city.
The growing tension in Djibouti was also
apparent during the French official's visit.
The mayor of the city suffered several broken
bones trying to calm a violet pro-Somali street
demonstration.
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