Soviets See Negative Effects in U.S. Chemical Arms Production

The Soviet government said Thursday that the U.S. decision to resume production of chemical weapons will have a negative effect on relations between the two countries.

The Pentagon announced earlier in the day that the United States has ended an 18-year moratorium on producing chemical weapons and is resuming the manufacture of deadly nerve gas for use in 155-millimeter artillery shells. Future chemical weapons will be intended for use in bombs.

“I am not in a position to give an expert opinion of the military aspect of the program,” Soviet Foreign Ministry spokesman Gennady I. Gerasimov told reporters. “However, its political impact on the process of confidence-building between the Soviet Union and the U.S. can be only negative.”

In a reference to last week’s U.S.-Soviet summit, Gerasimov told reporters: “Today the Soviet side is putting a legitimate question to the U.S. Administration: Isn’t the starting of the production of binary chemical weapons at variance with what was stated a week ago in Washington?”

Binary chemical weapons consist of inert substances stored in separate canisters. When combined, they create a deadly poison.

Meanwhile, in Geneva, U.S. and Soviet negotiators adjourned talks aimed at banning production and deployment of chemical weapons. The talks opened on Nov. 30 and ran parallel to a broader, 40-nation conference in Geneva to find a formula for eliminating chemical weapons worldwide. The discussions are to resume in January.

The United States stopped making chemical weapons in 1969. The 1986 defense bill passed by Congress allowed the resumption of manufacturing upon certification by the President that such weapons were needed. President Reagan signed the certification Oct. 16 and, after the required 60-day waiting period, production began Tuesday, the Pentagon said.

The U.S. government has said the new binary weapons are needed to replace its aging store of chemical arms and to match the Soviet threat in this field.

The Soviet Union has declared that it has stopped production of chemical weapons and is building a facility where such weapons can be destroyed or disarmed.

Air Force Maj. Randy Morger, a Pentagon spokesman, said canisters are being filled with a chemical known as DF at an Army ammunition plant at Shreveport, La. He said that artillery shells containing an alcohol solution will be produced and stored at an Army depot near Salt Lake City.

When the two elements are joined in an artillery shell or a bomb and exploded, Morger said, they will combine to form a deadly nerve gas called GB.