Soviets Propose Ban on A-Arms : Would Scrap Weapons by End of Century

Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev on Wednesday unveiled a proposal to rid the world of nuclear weapons by the year 2000.

Gorbachev invited the United States to forget about its plans for space-based arms and join in a three-step program to scrap all nuclear arsenals, using the money saved for global development.

The Kremlin chief also announced that the ruling Politburo has approved a three-month extension of its unilateral moratorium on nuclear testing. The Soviet Union began the moratorium in August.

Talks to Resume

The sweeping proposal to do away with nuclear arms came on the eve of a new round of Soviet-American strategic arms control talks in Geneva that Gorbachev and President Reagan agreed at their summit meeting last November should be accelerated. They also agreed to seek a separate accord on intermediate-range weapons.

Gorbachev’s program was laid out in a long statement that was carried by Tass, the official news agency, and read over the main evening television news program.

” . . . We propose that we should enter the third millennium without nuclear weapons, on the basis of mutually acceptable and strictly verifiable agreements,” Gorbachev said. “If the United States Administration is indeed committed to the goal of complete elimination of nuclear weapons everywhere, as it has repeatedly stated, it is being offered a practical opportunity to begin this in practice.”

“Instead of wasting the next 10 to 15 years by developing new, extremely dangerous weapons in space . . . would it not be more sensible to start eliminating these arms and finally bring them down to zero?” he asked.

Gorbachev proposed a three-step program for achieving his goal:

In the first stage, he said, “Within the next five to eight years, the United States and the Soviet Union would reduce by one-half the nuclear arms that can reach each other’s territory and limit remaining nuclear warheads to 6,000 on each side,” conditioned on mutual renunciation of the development, testing or deployment of space-based weapons.

At the same time, the Soviet Union would eliminate its intermediate-range missiles aimed at Western Europe and the United States would remove its missiles in Europe aimed at the Soviet Union. Both sides would stop testing nuclear weapons.

In the second stage, beginning in 1990 and for five to seven years, nuclear powers other than the United States and the Soviet Union would freeze their nuclear arsenals and not base any nuclear weapons in other nations.

Once the 50% reduction in the U.S.-Soviet nuclear strategic arsenals is achieved, both powers would scrap tactical nuclear arms that have a range of up to 600 miles.

In addition, Gorbachev proposed, development of non-nuclear weapons based on new physics principles would be banned if their destructive power approached that of nuclear arms.

In the third and final stage, starting in 1995, all remaining nuclear weapons would be destroyed.

By the end of 1999, there would be no nuclear arms anywhere on earth, Gorbachev proposed.

Issue of Verification

Apparently responding to American concerns, the Soviet leader emphasized that his nation was prepared to accept on-site verification and unspecified “additional” measures to demonstrate compliance with disarmament pledges.

“It is absolutely clear to any unbiased person that if such a program is implemented, nobody would lose and everybody stands to gain,” he said of his plan. “The sooner this program is translated into practical deeds, the safer will be life on our planet.”

“It is time to abandon the thinking of the Stone Age, when the chief concern was to have a bigger stick or a heavier stone,” he added.

Gorbachev cautioned that his “disarmament for development” plan “is possible only if the U.S.S.R. and the U.S.A. mutually renounce the development, testing and deployment of space strike weapons.”

Instead of Reagan’s proposed Strategic Defense Initiative, or “Star Wars” program, he suggested, both superpowers should join in large-scale space exploration projects in the next decade.

The issue of space-based armaments has been the main stumbling block in the arms negotiations in Geneva.

The Kremlin chief proposed elimination of “such barbaric weapons of mass destruction as chemical weapons” by the end of the century, together with international on-site inspections to verify their non-use.

Gorbachev said he also favored an agreement on troop reductions in Europe, adding that the Soviet Union was prepared to accept “reasonable” verification measures.

He said the Soviet Union is extending its moratorium on nuclear tests, undertaken unilaterally last Aug. 6, for another three months in the hope that the United States would reconsider its refusal to join the test ban.

“The Soviet Union cannot display unilateral restraint with regard to nuclear tests indefinitely,” he said, “but the stakes are too high and the responsibility too great for us not to try every possibility of influencing the position of others through the force of example.”

By continuing to set off nuclear explosions, Gorbachev said, the United States is following a “futile and dangerous” policy of seeking military superiority.

Reagan and other U.S. officials have said the United States must continue underground nuclear explosions to catch up with Soviet advances in weaponry. The United States also has recalled that a previous moratorium ended when the Soviet union launched a major series of nuclear tests.

Promoting Arms Race

Gorbachev argued, however, that nuclear tests promote an arms race by allowing development of increasingly lethal weapons.

He made a strong appeal that money spent for defense should be diverted to Third World development, saying, “The pattern imposed by militarism--arms instead of development--should be replaced by the reverse order of things--disarmament for development.”

Overall, Gorbachev said, his new arms control proposals were designed to let the world reach the end of the 20th Century “under peaceful skies . . . without fear of nuclear or chemical annihilation.”