Shevardnadze on Arms Cuts
| UNITED NATIONS, N.Y.
THE following are excerpts from Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze's speech Tuesday to the UN General Assembly: We welcome the proposal concerning chemical weapons put forward yesterday by President Bush.
Generally consistent with the well-known initiatives of the Soviet leadership, it indicates to us that we share the desire to rid mankind of those barbaric weapons.
The Soviet Union is ready, together with the United States, to go further and assume mutual obligations prior to the conclusion of a multilateral convention....
I think that there is no need to say how beneficial that would be for the overall climate in the world.
If NATO countries agree to start talks on tactical nuclear weapons, the USSR will respond by further unilateral cuts in its tactical nuclear weapons in Europe.
The problem of missile proliferation is also ripe for multilateral discussions....
No one in the world can as yet bid a farewell to arms. But we can abandon, once and for all - and do it now, the practice of unconstrained and uncontrolled international weapons transfers.
The USSR is ready to reinstate its moratorium on all nuclear explosions any day and hour, if the United States reciprocates.
