U.S. Not Responsive on Arms, Gorbachev Says

Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev said Monday that his government has not received a constructive answer from Washington to its proposal for a mutual reduction of 25% or more in Soviet and U.S. strategic nuclear weapons.

Gorbachev, replying to a message from French war veterans, accused U.S. negotiators of showing no desire to reach agreement at the arms control talks at Geneva. He said the Americans are engaged in a “reckless arms race” and are trying to extend it to space.

Nevertheless, he held out the possibility of future agreement, provided, he said, that the United States shows common sense and a desire to keep the peace. “Despite a complex and tense situation in the world and difficulties in the negotiations in Geneva, we remain soberly optimistic,” Gorbachev said.

Gorbachev mentioned the mutual-reduction offer April 26 in Warsaw at a ceremonial summit meeting at which the Warsaw Pact nations renewed their alliance for up to 30 more years. His wording implied that the proposal had been made before.

He said at the time: “We have already suggested that both sides reduce strategic offensive arms by one-quarter by way of an opening move. But we would have no objections to making deeper mutual cuts.”

Called an Old Idea

The next day, the United States dismissed the offer as containing an old idea that the Soviets themselves seem to have abandoned.

A U.S. spokesman said, “We are of course ready to examine seriously any concrete Soviet proposals for substantial balanced and stabilizing reductions in strategic forces. Contrary to the impression created by press accounts of General Secretary Gorbachev’s statement, however, the Soviet Union has made no proposals for reductions in strategic forces in the new Geneva negotiations, nor have the Soviets even gone so far as to resubmit their old proposals . . . “

Gorbachev’s comments Monday, reported by Tass, the official Soviet news agency, appeared to be his latest move in a spring “peace offensive” that began April 7 with a unilateral moratorium on deployment of Soviet medium-range missiles aimed at Western Europe.

The Reagan Administration also brushed off the moratorium as a propaganda maneuver designed to preserve a lopsided Soviet advantage in medium-range missiles. In return, the Kremlin said the White House explanation was “a gross lie.” Reagan Administration officials have said that no progress was made in the first round of talks at Geneva and accused the Soviet Union of backtracking on earlier positions.

The negotiations, which began March 12 and are in recess until May 30, were undertaken after a January conference between Secretary of State George P. Shultz and Foreign Minister Andrei A. Gromyko. The two will meet again, in Vienna, later this month.

Reply to French Veterans

Gorbachev was replying Monday to a message sent by a French association of veterans and victims of war. The message, dealing with the Geneva talks, was sent to President Reagan as well as Gorbachev.

“I can assure you,” Gorbachev said, “the Soviet Union came to Geneva with the firm intention to conduct constructive talks on preventing militarization of space, on radically reducing strategic nuclear weapons and intermediate-range weapons.”

He recalled that the Soviet Union had said in 1982 that it would not initiate the use of nuclear weapons and that in 1983 it announced a unilateral moratorium on deployment of anti-satellite weapons in space if other nations followed the same course.

“Both these pledges remain in effect at the present time,” Gorbachev said. “We also proposed that the U.S.S.R. and the U.S.A. reduce their strategic offensive arms by one-quarter and more, but the U.S. Administration gave no constructive reply to any of these initiatives.