Bush: I Don’t Expect NATO ‘Bombshell’ : But Alliance Leaders Will Amend Policy on Nuclear Weapons

President Bush said today that NATO leaders will make changes in the alliance’s nuclear weapons policy but that “I don’t happen to believe it’s (of) bombshell dimension.”

Bush, preparing for this week’s meeting of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in London, said he wanted to talk with Defense Secretary Dick Cheney and Colin L. Powell, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, about the current NATO policy on nuclear weapons.

The Washington Post and the New York Times reported today that Bush is proposing a NATO policy of using nuclear weapons only as a last resort. Current policy is that such warheads could be used first if an enemy were gaining the upper hand in conventional warfare.

Bush talked with reporters as he stood outside his seaside vacation home with a coterie of advisers who flew up from Washington.

Asked if he expected changes in NATO policy to come from the meeting of the 16-member alliance, he said:

“What I expect is a . . . document that is unanimously agreed to that will set the course for the future. As conditions have changed, NATO will change. . . . Some will call it dramatic policy changes and others won’t.”

“There will be some changes, but I don’t happen to believe it’s bombshell dimension,” Bush said.

Bush said his Administration had been in close contact with the allies in advance of the London summit. He said “we’ve got broad general agreement” on the issues, but indicated differences remain in some areas.

“There’s still some work to be done,” he said.

Joining Bush on a blustery Maine morning at his family compound were Secretary of State James A. Baker III, Vice President Dan Quayle, Cheney, Powell, White House Chief of Staff John H. Sununu, National Security Adviser Brent Scowcroft, Treasury Secretary Nicholas F. Brady and others.

U.S. officials said earlier that the Administration is ready to look toward eventual withdrawal of about 1,400 nuclear-tipped artillery shells from Western Europe. Bush will attend the NATO meeting on Thursday and Friday.

The officials said the Administration will consider eliminating U.S. nuclear stockpiles, including the artillery shells now deployed in West Germany, but only if the Soviets withdraw their troops completely from foreign soil in Europe. The shells have a range of about 18 miles.