9
ISSLF.S
would appear then that, judging by every-In ensuring these tnieresis, Washington intends to to rely on force. Generally speaking, this is
Tly illustrated in ihe Asia-Pacific region. This
on force is expressed there in the build-up of (he. miliury presence. Il rests on ihead Ihelher facitiiies. Theifl remind you. extends around ihe entire perimeterf Asia. There ateuchin the region. To this one should probably add ail the second largest grouping of US general purposemaking up the unified command in Ihe Pacific ytaronly to Ihe West Europeanstationed in Asia and ihe water* of the Pacific Onan. These forces, it should be pointed out, arc (Hrrmely sizable.
UaoriaMv| Yes. more than SOO.OOfl men.faiaMc part of this contingent isaccoumed for by ihe Oi. Seventh Fleet.hould noie that iu haa ire concentrated mainly near tbe Far Eastern(Jour country. This naval grouping includes upmnfiipt- Among themultipurpose aircrafttaxuclear-powered submarines, somehips have batnoae cruise missile launchers on board. Inl naval armada, ihereombat aircraft. Onof all this, (he United States hasatxlerabie pan of its strategic offensivehe hoftc Ocean zone. These include, in panicular, nuclear tMtred submarines of the Ohio class.
fYtocnyapin' By and large, then, il should be admitted ta ihe process of miliiarization in the Asia and Pacific apon is. alas, building up atangerous speed. At mt ume lime as stepping up its military presence in this nienuve zone, the United Siaies is trying io ensure ihat states, too, build up their military muscle. It ao io be acknowledged thai many of the region'saave essemially already been drawn inio the arms act. How can one fail to concur with Ihe conclusion of Lgt nutgaime AFR1QUE-ASIE which has written ihaithe facadearefree uopicat paradise,wk Ocean conceals what is one of the most mtlita-"Mwnes of the world? There, for all io sec. isilitary presence.
All of this seems rather strange, to put ita time when the process of disarmament talkshould recall thai the Unitedo the other countries of theictheir naval forceson of cow Washington stubbornly resists any proposals on limning sutes' naval activity. Is this
aE *hcn'inf0'a processa strengthening of mutual trust isnd when ihe genuine prerequisites for a
n8creaIcd?lab,c
if the arms race continues on ihe
'thai there can be but one answer to thai
[Andrianov] Our country believes that Ihe risk ofconfrontation ai sea is jusi as great as on land. And it is for Ihis very reason lhal (he Soviet Union is insistently calling for ulks on naval forces to be staned. Thisajor, truly global problem, tbe solution lo which is dictated and stubbornly demanded by our far from simple times.
elieve it is quiie simply imperative lhat it be solved. It is on the basis of this that Ihe Soviet Union has put forward its initiatives. They arc widely known, and were set oul by Mikhail Sergeyevichin his speeches in Vladivostok and Krasnoyarsk, Murmansk, and Belgrade. These proposals are anpan of the package program to ensure pan-Asian security. The way to this is clear: Reduce the level of miliury confrontation, extend confidence-buildingio the region, and develop broad international cooperation among the countries of the Asia-Pacific region. Only these routes are able to ensure genuine peace, stability, and mutually beneficial cooperation among the states of Asia and the Pacific Ocean.
(Agayanis) We ate coming lo Ihe end of our meeting at ihe Round tabic. It's participants. Boris Andrianov and Gennadiy Vedenyapin. as well as program presenter, Nikolay Agayanis. lhank you for your attention, esteemed comrade listeners. Goodbye and all the very best.
'NewThipklng' on Krasnoyarsk Welcomed
oscow IZVESTIYA inVovoscow Eiening
[Slanisiav Kondrashov "Polilical Observer'sHundreds of Millions. Have They Been Wasted?")
(Text) At ihe Supreme Soviet last week describing our foreign policy, which is imbued with the new thinking. E. A. Shevardnadie also cited, for comparison's sake as itew examples of the old, pre-pcrcstroyka foreign policy and old thinking.
Afghanistan is one of them, ihe most sirident which, though no longer spilling ihe blood of our soldiers, is still fresh in our memory and confronts us with the acute need to realize and master all its lessons. By no means the whole truth has been lold and analyzed as yei. Bui people are wailing for it. especially from the Supreme Soviet and it* Committee for International Affairs, which has received instructions to this effect.
The second example ismaller scale, but it is also strident. It is the affair with (he Krasnoyarsk radar siaiion, built in violation (ihe minister officially admitted ihis for the first time) of2 Soviet-American ABM Treaty. The "unfinished project" the size of an Egyptian pyramid will be totally dismantled and pulled down. However, it mightood thing to preserve il io our memory and historyatter-day monument, dating partially also from Ihe pereitroyka period, of the matcnallyand politically damaging diktat
!
i
issues
19g-
our own miliiary-indusirial complex and of lhepulling ilihc politicalThisase where acccommodlttng our own military complex made It easier for lhe oiher, Ihe US. military-industrial complex to step up Ihc arms race. Apart from everything else, il is yet another example of mismanagemcni and wastefulness You may say that it is not the biggest such example, involvinghundreds of millions of rubles Not the tens of billions of rubles which,. Shevardnadze's estimate, were spent on the creation of the infrastructure of military confronta-non on the Soviet-Chinese border which,ore sensible policy, could have been avoided However, on tbe other haocl. even hundreds of millions of rubles don't grow on trees. They should not be wasted where tens of millions of people live below the poverty line But the fact is that they have beennd thai is why people live as they do...
The official admission that the construction of Ihcradar stationwlalton of the AHM Treaty evoked lively comment in the West and among officials and journalists. It was rated as unprecedented, is yel another dramatic step along Ihe road of pcresuoyka which opened up much that is unprecenled for people boih in our country and abroad. Al the same lime Western reactions, naiurally. note lhal the firm stand maintained on this issue by President Reagan, who has now moved out of the White House, and by his(as well as the current administration) has been vindicated,s now shared by Moscow, too. There is also malicious glee on the pan of conservative de-meats which continue to vosce mistrust Here is lhe viewpoint of THE WALL STREET JOURNALsomething interestingappening III theceridors of power Seeking new agreeew loans, and access to the civilized world, the Soviet Government has admitted the existence of the problem of confidence This is why. after TO years, ii is admitting patent facts io the hope that it will be Irustcd on everything else. Thisnothe newspaper then goes on lo demand (hai (he Soviet Union admit thai ihe outbreak of anlhrax in Sverdlovsk9 was caused not by contaminated meat bui by an incident in the production of biological weapons in violation2 Convention banning biological. scientists, having mei Soviet colleagues last yeat, agreed with (he Soviet version ot whai actually happened. This however failsonvince THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, lis logic is based on the biblical saying: Having lied once, you cannot etpeel people to believe you...
So. in the West, our minister's frankness has been appteoaied and commented on in difienmi ways. Yet in our country there has been silence on this sensaiion of Ihe firstra writing this both as criiiosm aod self-criticism, and alto as an example of the power of ihe inertia of the past (of the old thinking, if you like! among ourselves, among us winers on intcrutional topics. As far asre concerned the ancieni Ijhoos base not losi
(heir force and lhe concept of sensitive topicsf (hese taboos are being removed "fromthe sensitive topics arc touched on in public ai ik,Soviet. However, in my opinion they are it.tibeing touched on. sketched in broad lerms. The,ill not being fully revealed, and no elTon is beingdtg deep, down to ihe spot where Ihc foumain offrom Ihe-
Let us turn to the ministers words; "We studied the' issue of this stationhe leadershiphe country did not learn the whole truthhe end we became convinced lhat this station -ji where it should not have bees*.'*
Ii is true (hai this affair dragged onong time. The current admission was reached in stages, asyself was present more than once during specialists' disputes, when Americans claiming thai ihe Krasnoyarsk radar nationion of lhe treatyould be used asa missile allack early warning facility, which would make il pan ofmissile defense system of lhe country's lerniory banned under ihe trealy; while our specialists, rejecting Ihenterpretation, claimed thai the station's sole purposewas io track artificial earth satellites and oiher space.-objecis. Our specialists among themselves, and inwiih people on "ourometimes doubted ihc cogency of ihis argumeni. but Ihey acied in accordance with one of the unshakable bastions of lhe old thinking and misconceived patriotism In ihe interests of one's country it is possible to deny the truth even if it can br seen plainly (after all. this truth,aidse size of an Egyptian pyramid) by US spy satellite* Itthought possible and necessary io deny this truthhis denial played mio the hands of Ihe US. cssimj-sai of ihe arms race aad "stir -an
Alio* me to recall thai ihe construction of theradar station always served as Presarleoirump card when, wiih referenceoviet vioUi-jns* the ABM Treaty, he pul forwaid and subsunuxed ha astronomically expensive "strategic defense mniauvt. projects Thiserfcci example of ihe fact lhat.ramped, suspicious, totally iransparenl and moreo-fl
mg
ens or arv exi
in poi it
I.SiDiC
or other introduc ruinous
Siape by stage Moscow has moved loward rerN"ha: the US concerns were justified Inhree US. Congressmen were for the fir* "T. admit ted to the -unfinished project" nearhen construction was officially put on 'o> the proposal triat the radar sUiiO"] '
placed under the aegis of the USSR Academy of (removing ii from under the aegis ofefense)iew to turning it into an aaW^gg cenicr for spacet the recriii w_ AmericantP""^
49
ISSUES
d ihc tfihe ly. In buili
our decision to dismantle lhe object ofand. togeihef with (he rephrasing ol our moce on the ABM treaty, ihu teemsave improved thefor achieving an agreementperceni oils in straiepc offensive arms. Finally, (here. Shevatd-uck's statement to the Supreme Sonet.
Let as. ooce again, return to the Question of whether the tuodrcds of millions of rubles spent on the giganirc radar ,yiioo werestation which, incidentally, will be more difficult and cipcntiveismantle than lhe Bitermcdiaw- and shorter-range missiles, of which we ibo had considerably more than the Americans, were toill answer this question is follows: They will have been wasted if we do not lake the trouble to getbe bottom of this sad story. What the minister said was nol enough, butide-ranging speech it was hardly reasonable to expecto nol know whether it would bc expedient io setew commission.it is essential that details are published regarding both the cost of and the responsibility for this project and regarding the way something like ibis could happen at all. Incidentally, informed people say lhat the ill-fated construction begant the beginning of that year rather than the end, which was when Soviet forces were sent to Afghanisian. What is more, ihey also claim thai the foreign minister has alreadyeputies* written question asking for details.
Original document.
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