NATO Ministers Formally Back Missile Pullout

The foreign ministers of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization on Friday formally endorsed the elimination from Europe of intermediate- and short-range nuclear missiles but warned that it may never be possible to achieve President Reagan’s oft-stated, long-range goal of freeing the world of all nuclear arms.

Secretary of State George P. Shultz said that as a result of the NATO action, “we have a blank that can now be filled in” during U.S. arms control negotiations with the Soviet Union.

Nevertheless, he said, much hard bargaining with Moscow is still ahead on verification and other details.

Final Communique

In the final communique of their two-day meeting here, the NATO foreign ministers urged U.S. negotiators to seek total elimination worldwide of medium-range nuclear missiles. This goes beyond the tentative Washington-Moscow agreement, which would permit each side to retain 100 warheads on its missiles deployed outside Europe.

Shultz said he shares the allied view “that all sides would be better off if the remaining 100 (intermediate) warheads were eliminated.” But he added that “we’ve come a long way to get to 100,” leaving little doubt that the United States would not sacrifice an agreement because of a dispute over the proposed residual force.

Britain’s Lord Carrington, the NATO secretary general, said the alliance did not make the elimination of the residual force a precondition for its approval of the removal of the missiles from Europe. If the Soviets balk at the “total zero” proposal, he said, the United States could conclude a treaty permitting retention of 100 warheads on each side without having to consult further with the allies.

The meeting papered over a U.S.-French disagreement that had blocked progress for a year on a new conventional arms control initiative. And France signaled its readiness to rejoin allied consultations on nuclear arms control after an absence of two decades.

Far-Reaching Talks

European members of NATO were shocked when Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev engaged in far-reaching arms control discussions at their meeting here last October. The tentative agreements that the two superpower leaders reached went far beyond anything the allies had ever discussed.

Although the United States may legally bargain with the Soviets without allied approval, the Reagan Administration has promised to consult fully with NATO members before going further in the arms talks. The NATO meeting here marked the final step in that process.

Reagan and Gorbachev agreed in October to remove from Europe intermediate weapons with a range of 1,000 to 3,000 miles. Later, the Soviet Union suggested total elimination of shorter-range systems capable of hitting targets 300 to 1,000 miles away. The NATO vote accepts both proposals.

On Friday, Reagan for the first time suggested a timetable for signing an agreement on these missiles.

“We hope to reach agreement with the Soviet Union before the end of 1987 which would drastically reduce and possibly eliminate a class of nuclear weapons that pose a threat to our friends and allies in Europe and Asia,” he said during a stop in Bonn on the way home from the economic summit in Venice.

The NATO foreign ministers rebuffed a West German call for immediate “follow-on” negotiations aimed at banning extremely short-range battlefield and tactical systems, which Bonn fears would be used only in West Germany in the event of war with the Soviet-led Warsaw Pact powers.

In the final communique, the allies seemed to rule out any further reductions in nuclear arms in Europe.

“We reaffirm,” the communique said, “that there is no alternative, as far as we can foresee, to the Alliance concept for the prevention of war--the strategy of deterrence, based on an appropriate mix of adequate and effective nuclear and conventional forces.” And it added that the presence of U.S. nuclear forces in Europe is “essential.”

Carrington said, “It is not now possible to talk about the denuclearization of Europe--if it ever will be.”

No Curbs on Aging Pershings

Although there was no mention in the communique, Shultz and Carrington both said NATO agreed that the United States would not even consider curbs on West Germany’s 72 aging Pershing 1A missiles or the missiles’ U.S.-controlled nuclear warheads. Shultz and Carrington said the missiles were not a proper subject for the Washington-Moscow talks, which cover only American and Soviet weapons systems.

Carrington dismissed as hypothetical a question about whether NATO would be willing to see an agreement go down the drain if the Soviet Union insisted on also dismantling the 72 West German-owned missiles.

On the subject of conventional arms control, which Carrington described as “infinitely more complex” than nuclear disarmament, NATO called for new negotiations among the 16 members of NATO and the seven members of the Warsaw Pact over reduction of conventional forces from the Atlantic to the Urals.

The decision to limit the talks to members of the two blocs was a concession to the United States, which did not want neutral or nonaligned nations to participate.