Gromyko Vows to Fight Space Arms : Says U.S. Research Program Must Be Curbed if Negotiations Are to Succeed

Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei A. Gromyko said Sunday that no agreement on reducing nuclear weapons is possible unless the United States accepts limitations on space weapons.

Gromyko launched a strong attack on President Reagan’s plan to conduct research on a space-based system to defend the United States against enemy ballistic missiles--a system nicknamed “Star Wars.” He said the plan would put the Soviet Union at an unacceptable military disadvantage.

“This plan, frankly speaking, is an aggressive plan,” Gromyko said in an extraordinary television interview that was broadcast to the United States as well as throughout the Soviet Union. “We will fight to the end on this matter.”

He also warned that continued deployment of U.S. Pershing 2 and cruise missiles in Europe, under a North Atlantic Treaty Organization program, would jeopardize the new set of upcoming arms control negotiations agreed upon by Gromyko and Secretary of State George P. Shultz in Geneva last week. Pershing 2 and cruise missiles are intermediate-range weapons being installed to counter Soviet deployment of SS-20 missiles targeted on Western Europe.

‘Talks Would be Torpedoed’ In addition, Gromyko said, if the United States were to deploy space weapons while the negotiations are under way, “the talks would be torpedoed . . . . We made such a warning to the American representatives.”

The Reagan Administration has pointed out that deployment of space-based defenses is years away, awaiting the outcome of a $26-billion research study on whether they could even be developed. The Administration has vowed to go ahead with the research program but has said that deployment could be avoided through an agreement with the Soviets on banning weapons from space.

Gromyko suggested that it is absurd for the United States to insist that it only wishes to perform research on the system without making a decision to deploy any weapons.

“And who can guarantee that the line will be drawn after research has been completed?” he asked. “Will not there be people, scientists and others, who will say: ‘Sorry, we have spent so many billion dollars on research, but why waste all this money? Isn’t it better . . . to go to testing and deployment?’ Can this happen? It certainly can.”

The American argument that a space-based anti-missile defense is solely a defensive plan is an “insidious ruse,” Gromyko said. If the United States had such a shield against enemy missiles, he said, it could fire its own missiles without fear of retaliation.

If the Soviets were developing such a system, he said he asked U.S. officials at Geneva, would the United States accept Kremlin assurances in this respect?

The American response, Gromyko said, was: “Silence. Silence.” With a defensive shield against missiles, he asserted, the United States would have a first-strike capability.

“Could that not be used for pressure--for blackmail?” Gromyko asked. “Of course,” he said, answering his own question.

“This fits the line of the U.S. Administration, aimed at securing a position of world domination . . . enabling the United States to dictate its terms.”

Gromyko said that if an accord is reached on space weapons, the Soviet Union would be prepared to make “sharp reductions” in intercontinental ballistic missiles on the basis of equality and equal security.

“On the other hand, if there were no advancement on the issues of outer space, it would be superfluous to discuss the possibility of reducing strategic (intercontinental-range) armaments,” he added.

Gromyko said that negotiations resulting from last week’s Geneva agreement will not succeed unless there is “simultaneous and inter-related” progress on strategic missiles, intermediate-range missiles and space arms.

Gromyko, wearing a dark suit and tie, was questioned by four Soviet journalists for an hour and 50 minutes in a rare discussion of policy by a member of the ruling Politburo. The interview was broadcast to the United States in Russian, with simultaneous English translation.

Although some of the questioners mentioned arguments that have been raised by U.S. officials, Gromyko was not grilled in the style of U.S. television interview programs. No one, for example, asked him about the Soviet anti-satellite weapons system during the lengthy discussion of space warfare, although the Kremlin in the past has repeatedly demanded a moratorium on tests of the U.S. anti-satellite weapon that is being developed to balance the operational Soviet system.

Gromyko, the 75-year-old master of Kremlin foreign policy, praised the overall outcome at Geneva in the first detailed report on the talks that has been made to the Soviet people.

“On the whole, we evaluate the results of that meeting in a positive light,” he said. But he added that the discussions were “not easy at all” and sometimes became tense, although “we did not bang our fists on the table.”

Gromyko and Shultz agreed in Geneva to proceed with negotiations on limiting strategic, intermediate-range and space weapons. No time or place was set for the arms bargaining, with both points to be decided through diplomatic channels before Feb. 8.

According to Gromyko, the United States tried to block consideration of space weapons in the forthcoming talks but eventually yielded to Soviet insistence on this point.

“If one strives for a lasting peace, it is necessary to ensure that the arms race does not begin in space (after) it is stopped on Earth,” Gromyko said.”Outer space must be kept clean.”

Several times, Gromyko repeated a standard line, saying, “We did not abandon, nor are abandoning, the holy of holies in talks on nuclear armaments--the principle of equality and equal security.”

On other arms control issues, Gromyko made these points:

--Intermediate-range missiles. Continued deployment of U.S. missiles in Europe will make the situation “greatly complicated” and could call into question the need for new arms talks. The United States argues that the Soviet Union has been expanding its deployment of SS-20 missiles aimed at Western Europe, Gromyko said. Ignoring NATO’s purpose in countering the SS-20 buildup--to protect Europe--he added that while the SS-20s cannot reach the United States, the U.S. Pershing 2 and cruise missiles in Europe can reach the Soviet Union.

--Carrier-based planes. U.S. naval planes on aircraft carriers can each carry at least two nuclear bombs, Gromyko said, and this is an “exceptionally important question” that may become a major issue in the talks. While the negotiators have discussed planes on six carriers based near Europe, he said the Soviets may insist on counting all 14 carriers in the U.S. Navy, since they could be moved closer to the Soviet Union without a great deal of trouble.

--Linkage. Strategic weapons, intermediate-range weapons and space weapons must be considered as part of a complex package if arms reduction is to succeed, Gromyko said. “After all, what is the difference for someone if he dies from a bomb that will come from space or from a warhead launched by a strategic missile or by an intermediate-range missile?”

Although he directed much criticism at U.S. positions, Gromyko nevertheless expressed optimism from time to time.

“If there is a will, there is a way,” he said at one point. Later, he said that the forces working for peace are stronger than those working for war.

“There is reason to say that the American people do not want war, either,” he added.

Asked about the possible outcome of the forthcoming negotiations, he refused to make a prediction, saying that “not even 100 wise men” could give an answer.