Office of the Historian

162. Telegram 12888 From the Embassy in the Soviet Union to the Department of State1

Moscow, September 10, 1975, 1640Z.

12888. Subject: Soviet Disarmament Initiatives in the UNGA.

1. During a break in the PNE negotiations today Morokhov and Timerbayev informed me that the Soviet disarmament initiative at the upcoming UNGA session will be a proposal for a “complete and universal” nuclear weapons test ban. Timerbayev promised to give us the text of the proposal September 11.

2. Timerbayev did mention several of the principal provisions which the proposal will contain. It will enter into force only when all nuclear powers agree to it; it will be without time limit; and it will employ the “TTBT precedent” on PNEs—that is, it will not address the subject other than to state that negotiations on an agreement regulating PNEs will follow.

3. We will pass the full text by cable as soon as we have it.

Stoessel

  1. Summary: Ambassador Stoessel reported that during a break in the PNE negotiations the Soviet delegates had informed him that the Soviet Union intended to present a proposal for a nuclear weapons test ban at the upcoming United Nations General Assembly session.

    Source: National Archives, RG 59, Central Foreign Policy File, D750313–0568. Confidential; Immediate. Repeated for information to the Mission in Geneva and Immediate to USUN. For the text of the draft Soviet proposal, see Document 163.

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