NATO allies agree to hold military summits
BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) - The
United States and its 15 Western al
lies agreed Thursday to hold NATO
and East-West summits this year to
reach a treaty reducing troops, tanks,
artillery and other non-nuclear arms.
The decision was announced after
Secretary of State James Baker III
briefed NATO foreign ministers on a
new U.S. nuclear missile cutback and
on the need to adapt the alliance to a
lessened Soviet military threat.
NATO Secretary-General Manfred
Woemer reported the alliance’s con
sensus to have a summit in London in
early summer and an East-West summit
in Paris by year’s end.
“NATO is preparing for the fu
ture,’’ he said. “The Atlantic alliance
is taking advantage of the historic
opportunity to move from confronta
tion to cooperation.”
The sole sour note was an accusa
tion by Woemer, the former West
German defense minister, that the
Soviets were “foot-dragging” in
negotiations to reduce troops, tanks,
artillery apd other non-nuclear forces.
Baker stressed that holding the 35
nation summit depends on complet
ing the Conventional Forces in Eu
rope (CFE) treaty.
“Unless we conclude a CFE agree
ment, we should postpone a CSCE
summit,” he told reporters.
The CSCE, or Conference on
Security and Cooperation in Europe,
includes all the nations of Europe
except Albania, along with the United
States and Canada.
Baker said the negotiations to limit
Soviet troops in Europe to 195,000
and U.S. forces to 225,000 “have not
proceeded as rapidly as we would
have thought.”
He said he would have a better
grasp of the situation after meeting
with Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard
lessening Easi-West tensions by pro
moting human rights and reducing
military frictions. Now, with NATO’s
military mission rapidly diminishing,
the United Slates and its allies seek to
expand the role of the 35-nation or
ganization.
“We need a more ambitious agenda
for the CSCE,” Baker said.
He appealed to the Soviets to speed
up the negotiations on a treaty and
said he was confident Soviet Presi
dent Mikhail Gorbachev “will over
come this period” of slow progress.
The main obstacles to a treaty are
disputes over limiting airplanes and
helicopters and how to monitor cut
backs.
Woemer said the allies agreed that
a unified Germany would be a mem
ber of the NATO alliance and have no
chemical or nuclear weapons. In a
concession to Moscow, he said, So
viet troops could remain in what is
now East Germany for a number of
years.
“We have no intention of shifting
the balance to the detriment of the
Soviet Union,” he said.
Gorbachev reiterated only last week
his opposition to NATO membership
for a unified Germany, and Shevard
nadze said last month the new Ger
many should be “nonaligned” or
possibly belong to both NATO and
the Warsaw Pact.
Shevardnadze in Bonn today and
Saturday, and again in the Soviet Union
in two weeks.
He also announced, as President
Bush did in Washington, that the United
States would shelve plans to deploy
more powerful Lance short-range
nuclear missiles in West Germany
and would not upgrade nuclear artil
lery shells in Europe.
In addition, he offered to acceler
ate negotiations with the Soviets to
make cuts in the current stockpile of
1,600 missiles with ranges of up to
300 miles once the CFE treaty is
wrapped up.
In 1975, the CSCE set a course for
--- ■
Bush abandons plans for new missiles
WASHINGTON (AP) - Presi
dent Bush scrapped plans Thurs
day for newer and more powerful
battlefield nuclear weapons in
Europe and called for a NATO
summit to rewrite political and
militar) strategy for “a new era in
history.”
“As democracy comes to East
ern Europe and Soviet troops re
turn home, there is less need for
nuclear systems of the shortest
range,” Bush said.
His decision, canceling mod
ernization of the Lance missile,
amounted to a recognition of po
litical realities both in Europe and
in Congress.
West Germany, where most of
the new weapons would be based,
had fiercely opposed the deploy
ment since the warheads would be
targeted on their countrymen in
East Germany.
Congress, doubt ing that the new
missiles would ever be installed,
had balked at Bush’s request for
SI 12 million for modernization.
Bush made his announcement
at a wide-ranging news conference
during which he also said * ‘I some
times do worry” thatmilitary hard
liners in the Soviet Union might
oust President Mikhail Gorbachev
and try to reverse democratic re
forms in Eastern Europe.
It was Bush’s most direct state
ment ever about Gorbachev’s grip
on power.
Bush said Gorbachev is under
‘‘extraordinary pressure” at home
because of unrest over Lithuania’s
drive for independence and the ailing
Soviet economy.
As for weapons in Europe, the
cancellation of modernization plans
has been in the works for months
following the collapse of the Ber
lin Wall and the sweep of democ
racy throughout Eastern Europe.
“The revolutionary changes
transforming Europe are moving
us from the postwar era to a new
era in history beyond containment”
of Warsaw Pact forces, Bush said.
He said the 16-member NATO
alliance should meet in late June or
early July “to launch a wide-rang
ing NATO strategy review for the
transformed Europe of the 1990s.”
The president is to meet with Gor
bachev in Washington May 30
June 3.
Specifically, Bush announced
he was dropping plans to deploy a
more powerful short-range Lance
missile to replace launchers for
700 aging warheads, based mostly
in West Germany.
All of the new weapons would
have been targeted on East Ger
many, which is moving toward a
swift merger with West Germany.
The new missiles would have had a
range of about 250 miles, com
pared with about 75 miles for the
existing Lance.
Bush also said he was canceling
further modernization of U.S. nu
clear artillery shells in Europe.
West German Foreign Minister
Hans-Dietrich Genscher welcomed
Bush’s announcement, saying,
‘ ‘This shows the alliance takes into
account the changed conditions in
their full totality.”
Genscher was in Brussels, Bel
gium, where Secretary of State
James Baker III was briefing fel
low NATO foreign ministers on
the U.S. move.
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