1988 Democratic National Convention : NATO Chief Sees No Risk in U.S. Election

BRUSSELS — NATO Secretary-General Manfred Woerner said Tuesday he believes that either U.S. presidential candidate would support Western Alliance defense policies.

“I don’t want to comment on an American election,” he said in an interview at the headquarters of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, “but I think whoever is elected will be loyal and faithful to this alliance.”

Both Vice President George Bush and Massachusetts Gov. Michael S. Dukakis have indicated support for NATO--but they have sometimes expressed reservations about how much of the “burden” the U.S. shoulders in the alliance.

Woerner, the 53-year-old former West German defense minister who took office July 1, said he did not believe either candidate “could neglect this alliance--if the U.S. wants to remain a world power, protect its own freedom and keep world peace and stability.”

“Both candidates are well aware of that,” he added.

‘Burden-Sharing’ View

On the sensitive subject of burden-sharing, the NATO chief executive said the question was a “very, very serious one for a long time to come,” and “not just an issue at election time that fades away.”

“It deserves intensive study,” he added. He acknowledged that Americans had a point in wanting a more equitable distribution of the defense-readiness costs, but said there is more to burden-sharing than just the money contributed by NATO’s 16 member nations.

“You can’t look at the burden only in financial terms,” he said.

European nations contribute much by playing host to foreign soldiers, by putting up with maneuvers on their lands and highways, and by accepting--over West Germany alone--70,000 low-altitude flights annually.

“These represent a lot of burden,” he declared.

The United States, he said, should look, too, at the “role, risks, and responsibilities” undertaken by NATO’s European members.

Notes Common Interest

“We are all in the same boat,” he added. “It is in our common interest to maintain our defense and deterrence posture.”

Woerner said he welcomed the recent overtures from Moscow and the Warsaw Pact countries toward reducing the remaining conventional arms in Europe, but he declared that many of the proposals made by the East Bloc nations--particularly by Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev--came first from the West.

He said the “core” of the security problem in Europe is imbalance in conventional arms in favor of East over West.

Basically, he said, NATO consists of a defense force, while the Soviet Bloc has a preponderance of offensive weapons--artillery, tanks and other armor units.

Any conventional arms reductions would have to correct this imbalance, he said.

Woerner said that while he was encouraged by Gorbachev’s statements, he wanted to see them put forward as concrete proposals at the current arms talks in Vienna, so that “we could get rapidly down to the negotiating table.”

Woerner said NATO experts were working hard to come up with a comprehensive formula for reducing conventional weapons that could be ready by the time serious negotiations begin. As for NATO’s future, Woerner said: “The political landscape is changing rapidly,” and therefore “some changes” in policy would be needed.