Soviets Propose International Panel for On-Site Inspections of All Space Launches

The Soviet Union Tuesday called on the 40-nation Geneva Disarmament Conference to establish an international committee that would make on-site inspections of all space launches to guard against deployment of space-based weapons.

The chief Soviet delegate to the conference, Yuri K. Nazarkin, said such a committee would be given to the power to inspect “all objects designed to be launched and stationed in outer space.”

Nazarkin made the proposal in a speech to the U.N. conference. He did not provide details of the suggestion.

Aimed at ‘Star Wars’

Western delegates said the proposal was aimed in large measure at the U.S. Strategic Defense Initiative, known as “Star Wars,” which seeks to create a space-based missile defense.

U.S. officials questioned the seriousness of the proposal, saying it is similar to past Soviet suggestions for a U.N. agency to keep weapons out of space.

The United States maintains that Moscow has carried out research on space weapons for many years and that the SDI program is aimed partly at countering those efforts. Moscow denies having a space weapons research program.

“Some of the terms are new, but they really haven’t gone very far in regard to (inspection of) missiles which are also weapons,” U.S. delegate Thomas Barthelemy said.

A Question of Sincerity

“We are asking them to demonstrate they are really serious by showing some glasnost (openness) in respect to the Soviet space program,” he said. So far, he said, Soviet space launchings have mainly been conducted in secrecy.

Barthelemy also noted that France as far back as 1978 proposed international monitoring of space satellites but that Moscow showed little enthusiasm.

American negotiators in past arms talks have pressed the Soviet Union to accept on-site inspections under new treaties as the only way to ensure cheating. Until now, the Kremlin reserved the right to refuse on-site inspections on national security grounds.