Allies Are United Behind President, Thatcher Asserts

British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher said Thursday that the Western alliance is united and “fully supportive” of President Reagan as he prepares for the Nov. 19-20 summit with Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev in Geneva.

“No effort by the Soviet Union will divide the alliance,” Thatcher said at a news conference after Reagan’s meeting with five allied leaders.

She said that the allied leaders expressed no reservations about Reagan’s address to the United Nations, in which he played down arms control and stressed his proposal for the superpowers to tackle global trouble spots. Arms control “is not being downgraded,” she said.

In her own address to the General Assembly earlier in the day, Thatcher focused on the performance of the United Nations, which she said has helped keep the peace and should not be dismissed as “a mere frothing of words.”

‘Court of Opinion’

“It has acted as a court of world opinion, and now no government can afford to neglect or ignore its views,” she declared

The British leader also praised U.N. specialized agencies for fighting disease and caring for children and refugees.

“In these ways, the United Nations has shown that it is a reality, not a sham; it is a force for action. . . ; it is a temple of peace, not just a tower of Babel,” she said. “For all its dangers, our world is safer and more orderly thanks to the United Nations.”

But she also criticized the world body for following double standards on occasion.

“South Africa is properly condemned for its degrading refusal of basic human rights to black people,” she said. “Yet where are the resolutions on the treatment of Soviet Jewry?”

The British leader also chastised the United Nations for letting politics intrude on technical agencies, such as the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. The United States has withdrawn from UNESCO and the British government has given notice that it intends to do so, too.

‘Only a Mirror’

Thatcher said that governments must not be unrealistic about what the 159-member body can accomplish.

“The United Nations is only a mirror held up to our own, uneven, untidy and divided world. If we do not like what we see, there’s no point in cursing the mirror. We had better start by reforming ourselves.”

Other heads of government speaking Thursday included those of China, India and New Zealand.

France was represented by Minister of External Relations Roland Dumas, who said in his speech that his government expects the United States and Soviet Union “to negotiate a reduction of their forces that will open the way to the process of nuclear disarmament which France could join when the time comes.”

“Until then, France will maintain the forces necessary for its security,” he said, referring to his country’s independent nuclear deterrent.

Chinese Premier Zhao Ziyang appealed to the two superpowers to use the Geneva summit “to take the lead in drastically reducing their nuclear armaments so as to create necessary conditions for the complete prohibition and thorough destruction of nuclear weapons.”

‘Spiraling Intensification’

“We are opposed to the arms race, be it conventional, nuclear, on ground or in outer space,” Zhao said in his speech. Neither “deterrence” nor “balance of terror” can ensure peace and instead have led to “spiraling intensification of the arms race,” he said.

Zhao expressed China’s hope that when Reagan and Gorbachev meet, “in conformity with the demands of the people of the world they will really abandon their attempt to seek military superiority and reach agreement through negotiations which is conducive to world peace and, furthermore, translate it into action.”

China has shown its commitment to reducing world tensions by “cutting the size of its military force by 1 million,” he said.

India’s Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, current chairman of the 101-member Nonaligned Movement, told delegates that the East-West confrontation is “the biggest threat to mankind.”

‘Preservation of Planet’

Speaking of the Reagan-Gorbachev summit, Gandhi said: “No chance for peace should be lost. All of us have a collective interest in the preservation of the planet. Constructive disarmament proposals must be earnestly examined.

“The Gorbachev-Reagan summit assumes special importance. The world hopes that they will not let this opportunity pass and that the meeting will be the start of a purposeful dialogue and of a process of pulling back from the brink.”

Prime Minister David Lange of New Zealand, whose government wants the South Pacific proclaimed a nuclear free zone, urged small nations to band together to put pressure on the superpowers to end the arms race.

“The United Nations does not have the power to stop that arms race but it can make an important contribution by reminding the nuclear powers of their responsibility,” he said.