Mitterrand Backs U.S. on Soviet Talks

Supporting the United States and Britain, French President Francois Mitterrand today rejected immediate negotiations with the Soviet Union to reduce or eliminate short-range nuclear weapons in Europe.

Mitterrand, who meets with President Bush in Kennebunkport, Me., on Saturday, said the NATO allies should wait and see whether concrete progress can be achieved at the Vienna talks on balancing conventional forces.

His statement gave backing to Washington and London, which have fought calls by West Germany and other NATO allies for talks with Moscow on short-range nuclear forces, or SNF.

Mitterrand’s statement was the first unequivocal one by France--the only other power besides the Soviet Union and the United States that has land-based SNF missiles--since a crisis erupted within NATO over the need for SNF talks.

‘Not Time for Zero Option’

“This is not the time for another zero option; far from it,” Mitterrand said at a news conference before leaving for a visit to Canada and the United States.

He said the NATO summit at the end of this month should first of all determine the real extent to which the Soviet Union has modernized its SNF forces.

After stressing that France is not a member of NATO’s integrated military command structure and therefore “not involved in the debate,” Mitterrand in effect threw his weight behind allies opposed to early negotiations.

West Germany, which would bear the brunt of any nuclear exchange in an East-West war, has been pressing its partners for speedy talks between Washington and Moscow to reduce or eradicate SNF weapons.

‘Advocate of Negotiation’

The United States, backed by Britain, strongly opposes such talks on grounds that they could remove a vital rung from the West’s ladder of deterrence and open the way for the denuclearization of Europe.

“I am an advocate of negotiation in all circumstances, with our close or distant partners, with those who are our friends and those who are not,” Mitterrand said.

He likened the current debate within NATO to the 1983 controversy over U.S. deployment of intermediate-range nuclear missiles in Europe, particularly in West Germany.

Despite intense domestic pressure on the Bonn government, the missiles were deployed and remained in place for five years while Washington and Moscow negotiated a “zero option” accord in Geneva to scrap them entirely.