Kohl Steps Up Support for Reagan’s ‘Star Wars’ Plan

With a delegation of visiting Soviet officials sitting in the observers’ gallery, Chancellor Helmut Kohl told the West German Parliament on Thursday that President Reagan’s controversial Strategic Defense Initiative is in the security interests of the entire Western world and “politically necessary” to pressure Moscow on arms control.

Using language more supportive of the initiative both in tone and content than previously, Kohl gave full West German backing to the U.S. space research program in principle and said he will accept the American offer of consultations on the project.

However, as previously, Kohl stopped short of committing West Germany to the broader U.S. offer to its allies of direct participation in the research project. “The government will have to decide on participation in the U.S. research project in the foreseeable future,” Kohl said.

Heated 3-Hour Debate

Kohl’s remarks came at the beginning of an often-heated three-hour parliamentary debate on Reagan’s initiative, commonly called “Star Wars.” The debate in many ways reflected the divisions that so deeply split West Germany during the 1983 debate on Pershing 2 missile deployment.

They also came one day after Norway became the first member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization to specifically reject participation in the research program.

In his speech, Kohl listed several key issues that would decide eventual West German participation in the project. These included what he termed “a fair partnership” with the United States, a free exchange of technology and “influence on the entire project.”

Principal Attractions

West German officials have repeatedly stated that the two principal attractions of participating in the Strategic Defense Initiative research program are the potential of a technological windfall and a greater ability to exert some control over the program.

Kohl also repeated his call for a joint Western European position on “Star Wars,” alluding specifically to possible cooperation with France. Both France and West Germany believe that European influence on the project can best be achieved through joint action.

Western Europeans have expressed concern that the research program, with its total cost of $26 billion, could develop an unstoppable momentum toward development and deployment regardless of its results.

They are also afraid that the resulting U.S. space defense technology might be suitable to counter longer-range intercontinental missiles but not the medium-range missiles with shorter flying times that threaten Western Europe.

Political Impact Great

Still, European leaders including Kohl believe that the proposal’s political impact has been important in pressuring Moscow to return to the Geneva negotiating table and could bring significant concessions in arms reduction.

Opposition Social Democrats and Greens both called on the government Thursday to join Norway in rejecting participation in the research program.

The junior member of Kohl’s ruling coalition, the Free Democrats, endorsed a broader search for alternatives to “Star Wars.”

“We must join together with our allies to consider whether and how new technological developments can contribute to our better security,” Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher, a Free Democrat, told Parliament.

The 12-member delegation from the Supreme Soviet, in Bonn as part of a parliamentary exchange program, followed the debate without emotion through simultaneous translation.