-PRIME MAINISTER
FOR MEDIA THURSDAY,' 19 NOVEMBER, -1981
PRESIDENT REAGAN'S PEACE PLAN
Last night, President Reagan issued an invitation to all nations
to join in the quest for peace, security and freedom across
the globe. I welcome this invitation.
Successive Australian Governments have worked hard to secure
balanced and verifiable arms control measures and for an improved
nuclear non-proliferation regime which would prevent both the
spread of nuclear weapons and their qualitative improvement.
In what is probably the most important statement on peace to hlave
been made in recent years, President Reagan has proposed a
comprehensive four-point plan which, if implemented, would secure
global peace and prosperity. These four points are: first,
the United States to cancel its deployment of Pershing II and
cruise missiles if the Soviet Union dismantles its vast stock
of SS-20, SS-4 and SS-5 missiles; second, the superpowers to
engage in Strategic Arms Reduction Talks, which the President
has termed START; third, lower levels of conventional forces
in Europe;. fourth, measures to reduce the risks of surprise
attack and the chance of war arising out of uncertainty or
miscalculation. The programme is as bold as it is comprehensive. For
President Reagan has not started from any misconception about
relative armament levels between East and West. The picture he
paints of the growth of Soviet military power over recent years
is indeed sombre. Such growth cannot but reflect on the
intentions of the Soviet Union. Taking advantage of Western
restraint, the Soviets have built up massive nuclear as well as
conventional forces, which they can project not only in Europe
but in other regions as well.
Despite the provocation inherent in this situation of Soviet
armed strength, President Reagan is proposing mutual Soviet
and Western measures which would reverse present trends in arms
deployment. This is statesmanship of the highest order.
Thus the four point programme proposes not simply the limitation
( th-e of the SALT process) of nuclear systems but rather the
reduction of each sides' holdings of these weapons. / 2
2
I join with President Reagan as all responsible world
leaders will in calling on the Soviet Union to match this
boldness of vision. The Soviet Union must play its part in
reducing the risks of war, in -improving the prospects for peace
and in creating the climate for the advancement of individual
rights and economic prosperity.
It is clear that President Reagan's four point plan cannot be
implemented unless both the United States and the Soviet Union
negotiate together. President Reagan has again drawn attention
to the fact that a secure and pacific world demands that arms
levels not be reduced unilaterally. Success can only come if
the Soviet Union will share the United States' commrnitment.
The concept of peace enshrined in President Reagan's statement
transcends the mere absence of war. Rather it envisages a
flowering of economic growth and prosperity and the development
of individual liberty in a world at peace.
Last month, inf Melbourne, leaders of forty-one nations meeting
under the Commonwealth banner confirmed a Common belief in
just such principles of international relations for the
realisation of which President Reagan's statement gives even
more hope. President Reagan's invitation is a challenge to
the Soviet Union which, if accepted, will provide the basis
for a consensus which hitherto seemed beyond grasp.
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