U.S. Says Soviets ‘Backtracked’ at Arms Talks

Blaming the Soviet Union for a lack of progress at the Geneva arms control talks, a senior Reagan Administration official charged Tuesday that Moscow has made “no constructive move” at the negotiations and has even “backtracked in many instances” on earlier proposals to limit offensive nuclear weapons.

The official complained that the Soviets also indicated they would not discuss U.S. proposals on offensive weapons “until we agree with their position” to ban research and deployment on space-based defenses, the Administration’s Strategic Defense Initiative, nicknamed “Star Wars.”

The American charges--which parallel Soviet accusations that the United States is blocking progress at the talks--were made after arms control negotiators Max M. Kampelman, John Tower and Maynard W. Glitman briefed President Reagan on the opening round of the talks, which recessed last week.

No Progress Reported

Before attending that briefing, Secretary of State George P. Shultz had said “nothing substantively, particularly significant took place” at the negotiations, the first after a 15-month lapse. At this point, he said, the talks may simply be “settling down,” but “as I look at it, the Soviet Union has been engaged in a process to see if there are things they can get from us without bargaining.”

According to the senior Administration official, who spoke on condition that he not be identified, Moscow’s strategy at the talks is to exert maximum public pressure and to force Washington into arms concessions--particularly on space-defense research--without making any concessions of its own.

The Reagan Administration apparently will now mount its own publicity effort as a countermeasure. Senior arms control expert Paul H. Nitze will deliver a speech today at the National Press Club detailing the U.S. complaints against the Soviets.

The Administration did not expect Moscow to move forward in the first round of talks but was surprised by the retreat from previous Soviet positions, the senior official said.

The talks began March 12 after an agreement was made in January to set up three negotiating forums: offensive intercontinental-range nuclear weapons, offensive intermediate-range nuclear weapons and “space arms.” The agreement stated that the U.S.-Soviet goal was “preventing an arms race in space” and reducing nuclear arms on Earth, adding that all questions on the issues would be “considered and resolved in their interrelationship.”

Gorbachev’s Accusation

Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev told a Kremlin meeting April 23--the day the talks recessed--that the United States “does not seek an agreement with the Soviet Union” and violates the January agreement “on the interconnection of the three subjects.”

U.S. officials were angered by Gorbachev’s remarks. The U.S. view is that each forum should proceed at its own pace.

At a Warsaw Pact meeting last weekend, Gorbachev also said the Soviets have offered to “reduce strategic offensive arms by one quarter.” However, the senior Administration official flatly denied that the Soviets had made such a proposal at the recently recessed Geneva talks and instead suggested that Gorbachev might have been referring to such an offer made by Moscow in previous arms talks, which ended in late 1983 with a Soviet walkout.

Nonetheless, the Administration official said Tuesday, the Soviets have refused to say whether the proposal still stands or to describe the current Soviet position.

Moreover, he said, the Soviets appeared to backtrack from an earlier call for limits on cruise missiles with ranges of more than 375 miles. They now are demanding a ban on all winged, jet-powered weapons, he said.

The Soviets also appear to be withdrawing from previous positions on intermediate-range weapons, the official said. For example, the Soviets offered before the 1983 walkout to freeze the number of such missiles in Asia, he said, but now have announced that Asian weapons limits are not part of the current negotiations.

The overall effect, the official said, is that the Soviets are “holding progress on offensive arms hostage” to a ban on space-based defense research.