ABSTRACT
The American position was that while such a treaty remained a long-term goal of the United States, nuclear testing would be required as long as nuclear weapons played such an important role in the strategy of deterrence of the USA and North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Concerning the disposal of the missiles, and warheads to be reduced by the treaty, Iulii M. Vorontsov made it clear that the Soviet Union would insist on their physical destruction. The Soviet position was that all discussion of shorter-range missiles should be deferred to follow-on negotiations, although Mikhail Gorbachev had promised that the 50 or so SS-12 missiles placed in GOR and Czechoslovakia would be brought back to Union of Soviet Socialist Republics once an intermediate range nuclear forces (INF) treaty were signed. Gorbachev said that the Soviet Union would agree to include in any treaty on INF missiles an obligation to eliminate its shorter-range Euromissiles "within a relatively short and clearly defined time frame".
