ABSTRACT
In the opening address to the twenty-eighth annual conference of the IISS in Kyoto, the Foreign Minister, Mr Tadashi Kuranari, described Japanese views on the nature of the Soviet SS-20 threat in Asia and the requirements for a credible American nuclear strategy and arms-control policy. Excerpts from this speech are reprinted in this chapter. In the Asia-Pacific region the reaction on the part of the free-world countries at the early stage of the SS-20 deployment was not as acute as in Western Europe. The main reason was that the Soviet deployment of this weapon system in this region was thought to have been initiated with China as the primary preoccupation. In relation to Japan’s security, the deployment of the SS-20 does constitute an additional threat, if they do not take into consideration the functioning of the extended US nuclear deterrence.
