‘New Hopes’ for Arms Talks Seen by Pravda

The authoritative Soviet newspaper Pravda said Tuesday that the Soviet Union and its allies look with “new hopes” to the U.S.-Soviet arms talks in Geneva next week.

The preliminary discussions between Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei A. Gromyko and Secretary of State George P. Shultz next Monday and Tuesday will be the first formal superpower consultations aimed at halting the arms race in more than a year.

“The new year gives rise to new hopes,” the Soviet Communist Party paper said in a commentary. “It is with such sentiments that peace-minded people in the world have received the news of new Soviet-American talks. The Soviet Union is willing to achieve mutually acceptable accords on all questions relating to nuclear and space armaments. We are ready to look for most radical solutions to all these problems.”

The term radical solutions was previously used by Soviet Politburo member Mikhail S. Gorbachev during his recent visit to Britain and by Soviet Premier Nikolai A. Tikhonov shortly afterward in Turkey.

The commentary said the East Bloc nations “declared for all to hear in the past year that no world problems, including the historical dispute between socialism and capitalism, can be solved militarily.

‘Most Important Tasks’

“The Soviet Union and its allies strive to solve, together with other states, most important tasks common to all mankind--those of preventing war, paving the way to disarmament, giving every country an opportunity to concentrate on its internal affairs and contribute to the solution of such global problems as hunger, disease and environmental protection,” Pravda said.

Soviet media frequently express the Kremlin’s desire to reach arms accords with Washington, but almost always blame the stalemate in negotiations on the United States and its North Atlantic Treaty Organization allies.

Nuclear-Free Moscow?

Meanwhile, in a statement telephoned to Western reporters in Moscow, the “Group to Establish Trust Between the U.S.A. and the U.S.S.R.” said, “Moscow should be proclaimed a nuclear-free zone as a symbolic gesture. It’s high time, since greater London is already that.” It also suggested that Western films on nuclear war, such as “The Day After,” should be shown on Soviet television.

Some state and municipal officials in Western countries have declared their areas “nuclear-free” in protest against the arms race, particularly the policies of NATO.

The Kremlin has an official peace campaign but does not tolerate independent anti-war groups.

The Group of Trust lost three key members in November--two were put on a plane to Vienna, and a third was drafted into the army--and now has fewer than a dozen activists. It has had minimal effect on the Soviet public but has won the sympathy of Western peace groups.