‘Ball Is in West’s Court,’ Tass Says of Arms Talks

In the first Kremlin reaction to the announcement that U.S.-Soviet arms control talks will resume, the official Soviet press agency Tass said “the ball is now in the West’s court.”

Governments around the world today hailed the U.S.-Soviet agreement to hold sweeping new arms control negotiations as a move toward “a safer world,” but most warned that the historic superpower talks will be long and arduous.

The Tass commentary on Tuesday’s announcement after the talks in Geneva between Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei A. Gromyko and Secretary of State George P. Shultz echoed Soviet statements made before the meetings.

“We have plenty of good will and desire to cooperate on an honest and equitable basis,” Tass said of the future talks. “The ball is now in the West’s court.”

Tass said progress at the talks, for which a date is to be set within a month, depends on whether “a sober-minded attitude and realism will triumph.”

Tass said world reaction to the Geneva agreement is “convincing proof of the fact that the peaceable, constructive and realistic position of the U.S.S.R. is in deep consonance with the aspirations and hopes of the peoples.”

After 14 hours and 40 minutes of “talks about talks,” Shultz and Gromyko announced Tuesday in Geneva that the superpowers would discuss limiting space and nuclear weapons. (Story on Page 7.)

The date and site of the talks, the first to negotiate a U.S.-Soviet arms agreement since Moscow broke off the dialogue late in 1983, will be established within one month through diplomatic channels. Both sides have cautioned against an early accord, warning the talks will be difficult.

The Shultz-Gromyko talks were reported in virtually all Eastern Bloc newspapers, but only Czechoslovakia and Bulgaria immediately reacted to the agreement.

‘Attitudes Remain Different’

The Czechoslovak state news agency CTK, in a commentary today, blamed the United States for preventing arms negotiations from resuming earlier and warned that tough talks lie ahead.

“The first reaction in Geneva indicates that the meeting gave both sides the possibility to make clear their attitudes to the problems discussed, but these attitudes remain different, and new negotiations will apparently be long and complicated,” Czechoslovak radio told CTK.

“The Soviet Union has been ready for a constructive dialogue for a long time but efforts of one side are not enough,” it said.

British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, briefed in London by Robert C. McFarlane, President Reagan’s national security adviser, issued a statement hailing the agreement but warned that the negotiations “would undoubtedly be difficult and require patience and perseverance.”

“It’s a safer world (now) that those two men, Shultz and Gromyko, have reached an agreement,” said David Owen, an opposition leader in Britain’s Social Democrat Party and a former foreign secretary.

The government in West Germany, situated on the border between the opposing military alliances and particularly sensitive to superpower relations, heartily welcomed the upcoming arms negotiations.

“The West German government regards the results of the talks between the U.S. and Soviet foreign ministers in Geneva with great satisfaction and growing optimism,” chief government spokesman Peter Boenisch said.

Japanese Foreign Minister Shintaro Abe applauded the agreement as a possible step toward greater stability in Asia.