147. Letter From President Reagan to Romanian President Ceausescu1
I am writing in response to your letter of September 182 in which you set forth Romanian views on arms control matters and your Government’s intention to reduce unilaterally military expenditures by the end of this year. I welcome your thoughts on these important issues.
My Government and the American people join in your desire to build a safer world. My recent talks in Reykjavik with General Secretary Gorbachev made significant progress in many areas of arms reduction and international security.3 The American Government is now intensely engaged in a broad effort to consolidate and build upon the gains registered in Iceland. However, the Soviet Union’s insistence that any and all progress in arms reduction be tied to limitations on the Strategic Defense Initiative is an unfortunate roadblock. It represents retrogression from the General Secretary’s agreement at the Geneva Summit to move forward in areas of common ground.4 In this regard, we appreciate your support of a step-by-step approach which does not unnecessarily tie an agreement on intermediate nuclear forces to our strategic defense research program.
With respect to the issues of defense budgets and conventional forces in Europe, to which your September 18 letter refers, the United States continues to be in the forefront of efforts at the United Nations to develop a system of standardized reporting of national military budgets. Romania’s recent contribution of military data to the United Nations reporting system is most welcome.
Our two Governments have worked hard to move forward in this area, but progress has been hindered by the lack of cooperation from key nations, including the Soviet Union. We continue to believe a reporting system, designed to create an accurate and meaningful data base, would tremendously improve understanding of defense spending throughout the world. Actual reduction of military expenditures is an attractive and laudable concept. Accomplishing this goal, however, while preserving stability and international security will require [Page 399] more openness on the part of many nations concerning their military spending.
Regarding the June 11 “Budapest” Appeal,5 dealing with proposed reductions in troops and armaments in the whole of Europe, I draw your attention to the NATO Ministers’ Halifax Statement of May 30.6 That document reaffirms a commitment to the goal of peace, freedom and security for the peoples of Europe, from the Atlantic to the Urals. It declares anew NATO’s objective to strengthen stability and security in the whole of Europe. The formula presented includes increased openness and the establishment of a verifiable, comprehensive and stable balance of conventional forces at lower levels.
To achieve their objective, NATO Ministers have mandated a high-level task force on conventional arms control. The task force has been instructed not only to build on the Western proposals at the Stockholm Conference on Disarmament in Europe, and the Mutual and Balanced Force Reductions negotiations in Vienna. It is also to take account of Eastern statements expressing readiness to pursue conventional force reductions from the Atlantic to the Urals. A final report will be submitted to Ministers at their next meeting in December. Its ultimate aim is pointing the way toward radically improved East-West relations in which more confidence, greater openness and increased security will benefit all.
We welcome this dialogue between our nations and look forward to working with you at the United Nations, the Vienna Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe Follow-Up Meeting7 and wherever the crucial issues of peace, freedom and security are put on the table.
Sincerely,
- Source: Reagan Library, Paula J. Dobriansky Files, Romania—Correspondence (10). No classification marking.↩
- See Document 145.↩
- Documentation on the Reykjavik Summit is printed in Foreign Relations, 1981–1988, vol. V, Soviet Union, March 1985-October 1986, Documents 301–309.↩
- See footnote 2, Document 139.↩
- See footnote 2, Document 145.↩
- For the text of the Halifax statement, see Department of State Bulletin, August 1986, p. 53.↩
- November 4, 1986–Junaury 19, 1989.↩