NATO Issues Vague Pledge to Review Defense Formula

North Atlantic Treaty Organization foreign ministers agreed Friday to review the financial structure of the alliance in order to “share equitably the risks, burdens and responsibilities” of defense.

The vague pledge, set out in a statement issued after a two-day meeting, acknowledged a U.S. demand for a larger European contribution but stopped short of assigning specific dollar targets.

Nevertheless it seemed to paper over a growing dispute between the United States and the European and Canadian members of the alliance.

Secretary of State George P. Shultz and other U.S. officials had warned the Europeans that Congress was becoming increasingly impatient with the contributions of NATO’s 15 other members. They said Congress might reduce the U.S. contribution unless other nations increase theirs.

Programs Must Continue

Asked at a press conference after the meeting if he was satisfied with the imprecise promise of increased European defense efforts, Shultz replied: “I’m not satisfied that anybody is pulling their weight satisfactorily. I think what we have to do is sort of jack each other up.”

Britain’s Lord Carrington, who will retire at the end of this month after a five-year term as NATO secretary general, said the objective is to make sure that all member governments realize they must continue their military programs regardless of the East-West thaw reflected by the recent U.S.-Soviet summit meeting in Moscow.

“Despite a very welcome reduction in tension, there has been no reduction at all in (Soviet production of) arms,” Carrington said.

Carrington said Congress may not be aware of some European contributions to the alliance that do not appear in the budget. He cited as an example Norway’s effort to maintain the population base in frigid northern Norway, along the border with the Soviet Union. He said this contributes to the Western defense but does not show up as a military expenditure.

“The United States does not fully understand how much Europe is doing,” Carrington said.

The meeting was harmonious from start to finish, in sharp contrast to disputatious earlier meetings of the North Atlantic Council, as the gathering of foreign ministers is officially known.

Shultz did take an oblique swipe at Spain for asking the United States to remove 72 F-16 fighter planes from the Torrejon Air Base near Madrid. He praised Italy as a “real ally” for offering to provide a base for the planes.

Disappointed With Spain

He said the United States was disappointed that Spain asked for removal of the aircraft. He said it would have been a mistake to withdraw the planes from Europe without trading that move for matching reductions in Soviet military strength.

He said that with the possibility of early East-West talks on reducing conventional arms levels, the alliance should remember that “you can’t sell it if you give it away.”

The foreign ministers endorsed U.S. calls for continued pressure on the Soviet Union to improve its human rights performance.

In the final statement, the ministers called for the West to insist on “significant progress on human rights and human contacts” as part of the conference on security and cooperation in Europe that is going on in Vienna.

Carrington said the ministers also agreed that a successful conclusion to the conference, including a satisfactory statement on human rights, is a precondition for a fresh start on conventional arms limitation talks.