182. National Security Decision Directive 2561

INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE SEVENTH NST NEGOTIATING ROUND (S)

The attached instructions2 provide guidance for the seventh round of the Nuclear and Space Talks (NST) which begins on January 15, 1987, in Geneva. They provide guidance for the Negotiating Group to use in building on the proposals made during my meeting with General Secretary Gorbachev in Reykjavik, Iceland. (S)

Ronald Reagan

Attachment

Draft Telegram From the Department of State to the Delegation to the Nuclear and Space Talks in Geneva 3

Subject: (S) Overall instructions for Round VII of US/Soviet Nuclear and Space Arms Talks Ref: (a) Presidential letter to US negotiators for December 2–5 meeting with Soviet counterparts;4 (b) State 336325;5 (c) State 330271;6 (d) State 2916347

1. Secret–Entire text.

2. Following is guidance for US delegation for the seventh round of negotiations with the Soviet Union beginning on January 15, 1987. Guidance from previous rounds and special December meeting remain [Page 798] in effect, except as modified below. Specific guidance for each of the three negotiating groups is being provided septel.

3. Principal objectives for Round VII include:

—Continue to seek prompt and forthcoming Soviet responses to new US proposals as set forth in applicable instructions for US delegation and each of the negotiating groups, and presented in Round VI and at December limited composition meetings. US del should emphasize, as appropriate, that new proposals represent US efforts to build on areas of convergence and reach agreement based on Reykjavik, to respond to expressed Soviet concerns, to lay out our ultimate goal and to identify practical near-term steps to achieve those objectives.

—Continue to seek Soviet agreement to the text of documents reflected in the specific instructions to the three negotiating groups for Round VII.

—Reject Soviet attempts to hold progress in one negotiating forum hostage to progress in another, while, at the same time, making clear those areas where, in the US view, substantive interrelationships exist. In particular, delegation should continue to rebut Soviet efforts to mischaracterize the understandings reached at Reykjavik, to link progress in INF to progress in other areas, or to portray SDI as an obstacle to arms control.

—In countering possible Soviet allegations that the US agreed to eliminate strategic offensive arms in ten years and Soviet insistence on resolution of this issue as a threshold matter, point out that achieving 50 percent reductions in START and significant INF reductions as agreed in Reykjavik are vital first steps in a process leading to the elimination of offensive ballistic missiles and are areas where considerable common ground exists and, thus, should be focus of current negotiations.

4. In elaborating on US proposals, delegation should make clear that measures for effective verification conforming to the three principles agreed at Reykjavik must be addressed and agreed concurrently with negotiations on reductions and limitations.

5. If Soviets raise other, non-NST arms control issues, delegation should respond that these issues should be pursued in the appropriate fora, not NST. If Soviets specifically link nuclear testing and NST, delegation should respond as per para 5 of Ref C.

6. The delegation should continue to emphasize the need for compliance with existing arms control agreements, noting obstacles place in the path of achieving arms reductions by Soviet noncompliance. If Soviets raise matter of US exceeding SALT limits, delegation should underscore that US policy decisions on the SALT I interim agreement and SALT II in large part resulted from Soviet noncompliance with [Page 799] these agreements. The delegation should stress that these agreements are behind us, both as a matter of legal obligation and as a matter of policy commitment. The US has made a standing offer of establishment of a new interim framework of mutual restraint for strategic offensive weapons. Our focus, however, should be on progress in NST toward early agreement on radical and stabilizing reductions in the offensive nuclear arsenals of both the United States and the Soviet Union.

Attachment

Draft Telegram From the Department of State to the Delegation to the Nuclear and Space Talks in Geneva 8

Subject: (S) Instructions for START Negotiating Group. References: (a) 86 State 330273;9 (b) 86 State 290210;10 (c) 86 State 138816;11 (d) 86 State 54773;12 (e) 86 State 12554;13 (f) 85 State 288129;14 (g) 85 State 162424;15 (h) 85 State 7268416

1. Secret–Entire text.

2. Following is guidance for the U.S. Negotiating Group on Strategic Offensive Arms for Round VII. Except as modified below, previous instructions remain unchanged.

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3. Overall objective. The negotiating group’s objective remains an equitable, verifiable, and stabilizing agreement deeply reducing strategic offensive arms. The negotiating group’s chief objective for Round VII is to seek agreement to a basic framework, including numerical sublimits. To aid that process, the negotiating group should seek Soviet agreement in Round VII to key elements of an agreement for reductions in strategic offensive arms, as detailed below, based on the areas mutually agreed to during the Reykjavik meeting and the additional U.S. elements tabled during Round VI.

4. Key elements of an agreement. The Negotiating Group is authorized to table early in Round VII the following U.S. proposal for key elements of an agreement.

Begin text of key elements:

Key elements of an agreement for Reductions in strategic offensive arms

Reductions

The sides shall reduce their strategic offensive arms as follows:

1600 SNDVs/composition of forces

—The sides shall reduce the aggregate number of deployed ICBMs, deployed SLBMs and heavy bombers to a level not to exceed 1600. There shall be constraints on non-deployed ICBMs and SLBMs.

6000 warheads

—The sides shall reduce the aggregate number of warheads on deployed ICBMs, deployed SLBMs and heavy bombers to a level not to exceed 6000. For the purposes of counting warheads pursuant to this limit, each heavy bomber carrying gravity bombs or short-range attack missiles shall count as one warhead and each long-range ALCM carried by a heavy bomber shall count as one warhead.

Sublimits

—There shall be sublimits not to exceed 4800 ballistic missile warheads, 3300 ICBM warheads, and 1650 warheads on permitted ICBMs, except those on silo-based light and medium ICBMs with six or fewer warheads.

Mobile ICBMs

—Mobile ICBMs shall be banned.

Throw-weight reductions

—Strategic ballistic missile throw-weight shall be reduced by 50 percent from the highest of the two sides’ levels. This throw-weight reduction shall be codified through direct or indirect limits.

Verification

—The sides in the course of negotiating a treaty to codify the above reductions and limitations shall concurrently negotiate measures which [Page 801] permit effective verification of compliance with the obligations assumed. Specific verification measures shall include, inter alia:

(1) An exchange of comprehensive and accurate data, both prior to reductions and thereafter,

(2) On-site observation of elimination down to agreed levels,

(3) Effective monitoring of the remaining inventories and associated facilities, including on-site inspection, and,

(4) Non-interference with NTM and other agreed measures.

Schedule of Reductions

—These reductions will be carried out in a phased manner and completed by the end of 1991.

SLCMs

—The sides shall find a mutually acceptable solution to the question of limiting deployment of long-range, nuclear-armed SLCMs. When such a solution is found, it will not involve counting long-range, nuclear-armed SLCMs within the 6000 warhead and 1600 SNDV limits.

End text of key elements.

5. In presenting during Round VII the key elements proposal as a document for agreement, U.S. negotiator should stress the importance the U.S. places on the negotiation of appropriate sublimits and state that agreement on the three U.S.-proposed sublimits, could help resolve some of the most important remaining differences between the sides. The U.S. negotiator should emphasize that, in the past, the Soviet proposal would have effectively included sublimits in two of the three categories proposed by the United States. The negotiator should also state that, as previously proposed, the U.S. prefers sublimits of 4500, 3000 and 1500. However, if the Soviet Union is prepared to accept the U.S. approach of these three categories of sublimits, the United States is prepared to accept the higher numbers of 4800, 3300 and 1650 as tabled on October 22 and contained in the key elements document, in an effort to split the difference between the preferred U.S. sublimits and the previously proposed Soviet percentage sublimits that would be applicable to ballistic missile warheads. These higher sublimits therefore represent, together with 1600 SNDVs and 6000 warheads, a numerical framework on which final agreement should be reached. The negotiating group should present rationale for the U.S. key elements proposal by reiterating the justification for its proposals presented in previous rounds, particularly those in favor of the three U.S. warhead sublimits, as well as arguments against the elements of the Soviet approach that do not provide for an equitable outcome. The negotiating group should vigorously reject as untrue any Soviet assertions that the U.S. agreed at Reykjavik to discard the U.S. proposed sublimits or that the U.S. agreed to eliminate all strategic offensive weapons by 1996.

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6. Heavy ICBM sublimits. Should the Soviets raise their proposal for a 50-percent reduction in heavy ICBMs as an acceptable alternative to the U.S. package of sublimits, the U.S. negotiating group should respond by stating that the Soviet willingness to reduce heavy ICBMs is a welcome step that helps to create additional common ground and addresses some of the concerns represented in the U.S.-proposed 1650 sublimit. However, it does not address the question of sublimits on total ballistic missile and ICBM warheads and only partially takes into account U.S. concerns represented in the third U.S. proposed sublimit. The Soviet proposal for a 50-percent reduction in heavy ICBMs therefore cannot substitute for the three U.S.-proposed sublimits.

7. Heavy ICBM modernization. On the question of heavy ICBM modernization, the negotiating group may reiterate that the U.S. position is that the sides shall establish constraints that ban the development, production, flight-testing or deployment of new or modernized versions of heavy ICBMs as well as prohibit production and additional deployments of existing types of heavy ICBMs.

8. Strategic arms reductions in second five years. If the Soviets raise this issue of the U.S. defense and space proposal for the elimination of all offensive ballistic missiles by 1996, the Negotiating Group should state that the START group should give the highest priority to the necessary first step in a process leading to the elimination of offensive ballistic missiles—that is, the reductions in strategic offensive arms to 6000 warheads on 1600 SNDVs in the first five years, which is an area where considerable common ground exists.

9. Mobile ICBMs. The Negotiating Group should avoid discussing recent U.S. decisions concerning the future of the U.S. land-based missile forces except to state that the U.S. government still proposes a ban on mobile ICBMs due to verification difficulties and the military implications of such difficulties. The Negotiating Group should make clear to the Soviets our willingness to listen to their proposals on mobile ICBM verification while noting that their proposals to date have been inadequate. Until agreement on offensive reductions is reached and implemented, the U.S. is free to develop and deploy ICBMs in mobile basing modes.

10. START verification regime. The U.S. negotiator may, at his discretion, address the issue of a START verification regime. Recalling the verification principles agreed at Reykjavik, the Negotiating Group should note that these elements are also relevant to START and present the following as elements of a verification regime for START (FYI: these elements are not necessarily inclusive of all verification provisions a START agreement would require):

—An exchange of comprehensive and accurate data both prior to reductions and thereafter;

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—On-site observation of elimination down to agreed levels (negotiating group should probe for rationale for the exclusion of this element from the Soviet November 7 proposals);

—Effective monitoring of remaining inventories and associated facilities, including on-site inspection;

—Interference with agreed measures or with national technical means of verification will be prohibited, as will concealment measures which impede verification of compliance with the provisions of the agreement

—The encryption of telemetry on systems subject to the provisions of the agreement will be prohibited; and,

—On board engineering test measurements shall be made, and all such measurements shall be broadcast using unencrypted telemetry, during each test flight or training flight of an ICBM or SLBM.

  1. Source: National Security Council, National Security Council Institutional Files, SR Box 094, NSDD 256. Secret. Carlucci distributed the decision directive to Bush, Shultz, Weinberger, Herrington, Casey, Crowe, and Adelman, under cover of a January 14 memorandum: “The President has approved the attached National Security Decision Directive providing guidance for the seventh round of negotiations in the Nuclear and Space Talks.” (Ibid.)
  2. Attached but not printed are draft telegrams transmitting instructions for the INF and Defense and Space negotiating groups.
  3. Secret. Sent as telegram 13120 to NST Geneva, January 15. (Department of State, Central Foreign Policy File, D87010)
  4. Not found.
  5. See Attachment 5, Document 169.
  6. See Attachment 1, Document 169.
  7. See footnote 3, Document 169.
  8. Secret. Sent as telegram 13118 to NST Geneva, January 15, 1987. (Department of State, Central Foreign Policy File, D870036–0371)
  9. See Attachment 2, Document 169.
  10. See footnote 6, Document 169.
  11. In telegram 138816 to NST Geneva, May 2, 1986, the Department transmitted instructions to the START negotiating group. (Department of State, Central Foreign Policy File, D860341–0846)
  12. In telegram 54773 to NST Geneva, February 22, 1986, the Department transmitted instructions to the START negotiating group. (Department of State, Central Foreign Policy File, D860431–0640)
  13. In telegram 12554 to NST Geneva, January 15, 1986, the Department transmitted instructions to the START negotiating group. (Department of State, Central Foreign Policy File, D860034–0235)
  14. In telegram 288129 to NST Geneva, September 19, 1985, the Department transmitted overall guidance to the Delegation to the Nuclear and Space Arms Talks. (Department of State, Central Foreign Policy File, D850665–0241)
  15. In telegram 162424 to NST Geneva, May 29, 1985, the Department transmitted overall guidance to the Delegation to the Nuclear and Space Arms Talks. (Department of State, Central Foreign Policy File, D850371–0061)
  16. In telegram 72684 to NST Geneva, March 10, 1985, the Department transmitted instructions to the START negotiating group. (Department of State, Central Foreign Policy File, D850194–0129)