Bush Digs In Heels on East-West Negotiations on Short-Range Arms

President Bush dug in his heels today and reaffirmed his opposition to East-West negotiations on short-range nuclear arms, a posture that could deepen a rift in the NATO alliance.

Bush made his position clear to visiting Norwegian Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland “in the strongest terms,” White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater said in briefing reporters on their meeting in Washington.

“We believe we have to deal with conventional weapons first and then we’ll address the SNF (short-range nuclear forces) issue,” Fitzwater said.

“The President pointed out (to Brundtland) in the strongest terms that he feels this course is the right one,” he added.

The White House official suggested that the United States is not eager to compromise. He said a failure to work out a common position prior to or at this month’s NATO summit would not weaken the Western alliance.

“We’ll continue to discuss it, but we’re very firm in our position,” he said.

Brundtland, who has generally been supportive of West German demands for talks on short-range weapons, predicted the alliance would reach a compromise before its May 29-30 summit in Brussels.

Kohl Opens Rift

West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, who opened the rift in the alliance by urging NATO to accept a Soviet proposal for talks on reducing nuclear missiles with a range of less than 300 miles, said Tuesday that he sees grounds for compromise.

Brundtland, talking to reporters after a one-hour meeting with Bush, suggested a route to compromise was language linking progress on conventional arms cuts to nuclear talks.

But Fitzwater said the United States is not willing to embrace that approach and is ready for a “spirited debate” at the NATO summit.

Washington and London say SNF talks might lead to the elimination of all nuclear missiles from Europe and would leave the Continent vulnerable to the Warsaw Pact’s overwhelming advantage in conventional arms.

They have also been pushing Kohl, without success, to agree to modernize short-range Lance missiles based in that country.

Fitzwater said the Administration opposes the elimination of nuclear weapons from Europe because that would “make Soviet conventional power the decisive arbiter of European security.”

He also rejected the criticism of former Ronald Reagan Administration arms negotiator Paul Nitze that Bush’s position is a mistake.

Nitze, who headed the team that concluded the INF treaty that banned medium-range nuclear weapons, told The New York Times that the U.S. stance is politically untenable for many European governments including Kohl’s because of public pressure for disarmament.