Gorbachev Seeks 15-Nation Summit on Arms, Economy

Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev today proposed that leaders of the 15 nations on the U.N. Security Council meet to discuss how money saved from disarmament could be spent on economic development.

The Kremlin chief made the suggestion in a message read by Soviet Deputy Foreign Minister Vladimir F. Petrovsky to the 140-nation International Conference on the Relationship Between Disarmament and Development.

The United States is boycotting the conference, which opened Monday, arguing that poor countries have no automatic claim on more aid funds that result from savings achieved in defense spending through arms limitation accords.

“It would be useful to discuss in principle the problems of disarmament and development at a special meeting of top leaders of member states of the U.N. Security Council,” Gorbachev said in the message.

Petrovsky did not say when the council summit meeting should be held.

The Soviet leader also proposed that the United Nations create an international fund into which member states would place money saved through disarmament. The money would be given to developing countries.

Refers to U.S. Boycott

Gorbachev referred to the U.S. boycott of the conference, saying: “Obstacles erected by the opponents of disarmament on the road towards the conference have confirmed once again the interdependence of disarmament and development and the urgency of the task.”

The Soviet Union strongly supported the convening of the current U.N. conference, which was proposed by President Francois Mitterrand of France in 1983, but critics have remarked that Soviet aid for developing countries has been small and highly selective.

Gorbachev also repeated the Soviet government’s accusation that the United States and West Germany are blocking progress on arms control by insisting on retaining 72 Pershing 1-A rockets stationed in West Germany and armed with American warheads. Moscow insists that the missiles be liquidated as part of a proposed treaty eliminating all U.S. and Soviet medium-range rockets.