Several European Nations Applaud Soviet Missile Offer

Several Western European nations on Sunday welcomed the surprise Soviet offer of a separate deal to eliminate medium-range nuclear missiles in Europe, saying it was the long-awaited breakthrough to an agreement.

West German Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher said it removed “the main obstacle” to an accord. Lord Carrington, the secretary general of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, called the proposal “a substantial step forward.”

The Danish Foreign Ministry said it was “a good and positive signal” and Belgian Foreign Minister Leo Tindemans said his reaction was to “rejoice.”

Major Policy Shift

The Kremlin’s proposal, made Saturday by Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev, marked a major policy shift. Gorbachev said the Soviet Union was dropping its insistence that an agreement on medium-range missiles be linked to a deal limiting testing of the U.S. Strategic Defense Initiative, a space-based defense system commonly called “Star Wars.”

Soviet and U.S. arms control negotiators in Geneva scheduled a special session for today to discuss Gorbachev’s proposal that an accord on medium-range missiles be reached “without delay.”

The governments of Britain, the Netherlands and Italy were among those that refrained from quick assessments, saying they wanted time to study the Soviet offer.

The French Foreign Ministry said Gorbachev’s offer was “in no way a surprise. During the Soviet-American discussions in Geneva, a separate agreement on medium-range missiles had been foreseen.” It repeated France’s belief that reductions in nuclear arms must be accompanied by cuts in conventional and chemical armaments.

Senators Welcome Offer

Sens. Claiborne Pell, (D-R.I.), and Richard G. Lugar, (R-Ind.), and U.S. Asst. Secretary of Defense Richard N. Perle, all in Geneva to observe the arms talks, welcomed the offer.

“I think it is a constructive step that should open the way to concluding the remaining issues leading ultimately to a treaty,” Perle said.

Perle and Lugar said they believe one reason for the Soviet move was the hope it would increase opposition in Western Europe to the so-called “broad interpretation” of the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty that would allow “Star Wars” testing.

West Germany’s Genscher said the Soviet leadership recognized the issue of medium-range missiles could not be linked to East-West disputes over the SDI program.

Obstacle Removed

“By separating medium-range missiles from other disarmament issues, Gorbachev has removed the main obstacle to an agreement on reducing and destroying all Soviet and American medium-range missiles” in Europe, Genscher said.

“It is reasonable to hope a breakthrough on the question of medium-range missiles will have a positive effect on negotiations over other (disarmament) issues,” he added.

NATO’s Carrington said he had repeatedly asserted it was “artificial and unreasonable” for Gorbachev to insist on a link between “Star Wars” and medium-range missiles. “The apparent recognition of this marks a substantial step forward,” he said.

Since NATO’s decision in December, 1979, to deploy 572 medium-range U.S. cruise and Pershing-2 nuclear missiles in five European nations, the alliance repeatedly has said it would be willing to dismantle the rockets if the Soviets agreed to destroy their intermediate SS-20 missiles.

Meanwhile, Gen. Bernard W. Rogers, the departing American commander-in-chief of NATO, warned against abolishing medium-range nuclear missiles in Europe without making progress on other East-West disarmament issues--a warning echoed elsewhere.

Rogers, who retires in June, said if the West agrees to scrap medium-range rockets, it must also reach agreements with the Soviets on short-range missiles and conventional troops, areas in which Moscow holds numerical advantages.

“Otherwise, our policy of deterrence becomes unbelievable,” he said in an interview slated for publication today in the West German newspaper Die Welt.