UN General Assembly
1982

to the United Nations study on disarmament and development. 77. Our follow-up discussions during this session of the General Assembly must necessarily be addressed to a broad range of issues. At this time, however, I should like to make a few observations regarding nuclear and conventional weapons. Priority must be assigned to questions related to nuclear disarmament. The prevention of both a further vertical nuclear arms build-up and a horizontal proliferation of such weapons is one of the greatest challenges facing the community of nations today, and there is a clear link between these two tasks. 78. In this connection, the negotiations between the United States and the Soviet Union at Geneva on strategic nuclear weapons—the strategic arms reduc¬tion talks—and intermediate-range nuclear forces are of particular significance. It is our hope and goal that the talks will lead to substantial reductions in strategic nuclear weapons on both sides. With regard to the intermediate-range nuclear force negotiations, Norway supports, as a first step, the total elimination of American and Soviet land-based intermediate- range missiles.