TIME: Almanac 1993/TIME Almanac 1993.iso/time/030491/0304001.000

Text File | 1992-08-28 | 1.4 KB | 36 lines

                                                                                WORLD, Page 57

World Notes

DIPLOMACY

Arms Pact Sleight of Hand



    With the Soviets apparently reverting to their old
treaty-cheating ways, negotiations on a pact covering
conventional forces in Europe broke down in Vienna last week.
Just three months after George Bush and Mikhail Gorbachev
signed a CFE agreement, U.S. officials apparently felt that the
Soviets have been giving them highly suspect estimates of
weapons in the treaty region and decided to postpone further
formal meetings until March 21. In secret documents, the
Soviets assert that they have only 21,000 tanks in Europe; the
U.S. says the real number is 42,000. The U.S. expected a tally
of 58,000 armored combat vehicles, but the Soviets counted only
28,000. The Soviets say they have only 13,000 pieces of
artillery in the area; the U.S. says 52,000. Negotiators
complain that the Soviets also plan to transfer 20,000 men and
4,000 weapons to the naval infantry, which is not covered by
the pact.

    The Soviets argue that these weapons were all moved out of
the treaty area under unilateral cutbacks announced earlier by
Gorbachev, but Congress is unlikely to be swayed.
Administration officials conclude that the CFE pact, once
virtually assured of Senate ratification, cannot be submitted
for a vote until the ambiguities are cleared up.