THE USSR'S INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC SECURITY INITIATIVE.

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP92T00533R000100040027-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 21, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 8, 2008
• Sequence Number: 27
• Publication Date: September 30, 1986
• Content Type: REPORT

Approved For Release 2008/05/08: CIA-RDP92T00533R000100040027-8
The USSR's "International Economic Security Initiative."
Soviet Foreign Minister Shevardnadze's 23 September address to the
United Nations General Assembly included a strong pitch to establish a
new, comprehensive system of international security--the Soviet theme that
ties together all of Gorbachev's disparate disarmament and foreign policy
initiatives. Included in the Foreign Minister's speech is a call to
establish economic vehicles to channel assistance to Third World countries
and to develop a global scientific and technical cooperation program.
Both efforts presumably would be carried out under UN auspices. The
Soviets have formally introduced a proposal to this effect for
consideration at this years UNGA. Economic security, however, is only one
small element in the proposal--the reference to it is vague and debt is
the only area specifically mentioned.
The Soviets first broached their ideas about an economic security
initiative in general terms at the United Nations last year. On 17
December 1985 they achieved passage of a UNGA resolution requesting the
Secretary General to prepare a study on a system for international
economic security to present at the 42nd General Assembly in 1987. At
ECOSOC at Geneva in July they submitted a resolution calling upon the
Secretary General to identify in that study concrete problems and to
propose action-oriented recommendations for dealing with them. Qn v Svrta
cosponsored and most developing countries seemed unenthusiastic.
Soviet interest in pursuing a multilateral approach to global security
problems stems from ideas detailed in Secretary General Gorbachev's report
to the Party Congress last February. Unfortunately, the Foreign
Minister's UNGA statement sheds no additional light on the Soviet proposal
beyond what was offered last February. As outlined by Gorbachev, the
security initiative has four elements:
o A military sphere calling for renunciation by the nuclear
powers of either nuclear or conventional war,
a variety of arms control agreements, and a
mechanism to effect proportional, balanced reductions in
military budgets;
o A political framework for confidence building
measures and Helsinki type agreements to ban the use of
force in international relations, and drawing up effective
methods for preventing international terrorism;
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o A humanitarian component to provide a vehicle to combat
"apartheid and facism" as well as an apparent willingness
to resolve family and other human rights cases;
o An economic segment to establish a system of equal
economic security, remove economic blockages and handle
economic sanctions, and create vehicles to handle the
international debt problem. Included in this proposal is an
effort to draw up principles to govern the use of part of
the funds released from military budget reductions
to provide LDCs some economic relief.
None of these ideas are new. For the economic items, the Soviets
simply have resurrected outdated north-south themes--areas where Soviet
economic interests are small and the prospects for political visibility
are high. By weaving them together in one overall framework, however, the
Soviets are trying to create an illusion of newness and to lend
concreteness to what Gorbachev calls "new political thinking" embodied in
a series of proposals dating back to early 1986. The Shevardnadze speech
is the most recent opportunity for the Soviets to plug their proposed
security program. The regional and functional proposals that encompass
Moscow's program include:
o The 15 January plan for the elimination of nuclear weapons by
the year 2000;
o Shevardnadze's mid-January letter to the UN calling for a
worldwide congress on the problems of economic security,
subsequently reiterated in Gorbachev's party congress
speech;
o The April Soviet statement on the Asian-Pacific Region which
called for confidence building measures and a reduction
of naval activities in the Pacific, supplemented by the
Secretary General's Vladivostok proposal;
o The 11 June "Budapest" proposal for conventional disarmanent
in Europe;
o The 11 June letter to the UN Secretary General outlining a
Soviet plan for a new world space organization and a "star
peace" program;
o The Foreign Minister's 8 July letter to the UN proposing an
international conference on the Mediterranean and
negotiated withdrawal of the US and Soviet fleets.
CONFIDENTIAL
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It remains open how serious the Soviets are about pushing their
economic security initiative. Soviet officials privately have portrayed
the proposal as a responsible initial bid to move economic issues of -
concern to Moscow into the international arena.
30 September 1986
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