ARMS: Soviets Hint Easing of Geneva Arms Stance : Soviets Hint Flexibility at Arms Talks in Geneva

The Soviet Union has hinted for the first time at possible new flexibility in its positions at the Geneva arms talks but has presented no formal proposals yet to back up a series of informal suggestions, U.S. officials said Tuesday.

In recent weeks, Soviet delegates at Geneva have told American negotiators that they might be willing to make unspecified percentage reductions in their large land-based missiles in exchange for similar cuts in U.S. nuclear weapons, officials said.

And the Soviets have hinted that they may drop their demand for a total ban on research into space-based defenses against missiles--a position they had already conceded was untenable.

“These might be the first signs of motion on their side,” a senior U.S. official said. “But we’re waiting to see if they’re backed up with official statements. The signals aren’t clear yet.”

Still, the Soviet suggestions, offered in informal meetings on the fringes of the Geneva talks, contrasted with Moscow’s steadfast refusal during an earlier round this spring to discuss any move forward from previous positions, officials said.

The suggestions came at about the same time the two nations agreed that Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev would meet with President Reagan in Geneva in November and may have been intended to probe the possibility of quick movement in the talks before the summit meeting, they said.

The arms control talks have been under way since March 12 but have been deadlocked over Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative, nicknamed “Star Wars,” the $26-billion research program to develop a shield against ballistic missiles. Soviet leaders had said previously that no agreement on strategic nuclear weapons or medium-range nuclear forces would be possible unless the United States abandoned the space defense research.

Several weeks ago, Soviet officials in Geneva obliquely suggested to U.S. negotiators that they were considering modifying that demand to allow research, but no development or testing of actual devices, Administration officials said.

U.S. officials have said they expected such a move, since both sides acknowledge that enforcing a ban on laboratory research would be impossible. Still, they warned that there has been no official Soviet confirmation of the suggestions.

‘Wishful Thinking’

State Department spokesman Robert M. Smalley said that reports of such a shift were “based more on wishful thinking than reality.”

“These casual statements can turn into something real, but not always,” cautioned the senior official. “It’s a typical Soviet tactic to come in with a maximum, non-negotiable position. They knew, as we did, that this was a non-starter from the beginning. The question was when they would get off it. But that question is still open.

“Even if they do move, it will mean they’re no longer being impossible--just difficult,” he added.

In the strategic arms talks, Soviet delegates have suggested an approach that would balance percentage cuts in the weapons each side considers to be the other’s most dangerous, officials said. Such an arrangement might reduce the Soviets’ large, land-based missiles and the United States’ highly accurate cruise missiles by similar percentages, for example.

Those hints appeared to be a more flexible version of a formal Soviet proposal to reduce the number of strategic nuclear launchers by 25% on each side. Arms control adviser Paul H. Nitze rejected that proposal last month because, he said, it would allow the Soviets simply to add more nuclear warheads to a smaller number of missiles. The Soviet Union has more large missiles capable of carrying multiple warheads than does the United States.

Separate Sessions

The Geneva talks entered the final week of their second round Tuesday with separate sessions on space and defense weapons and medium-range nuclear forces. Officials said a third round is scheduled to begin this fall.

Since the Reagan-Gorbachev summit was announced, the two countries have continued sparring in public statements, but with more civility than before.

As recently as two weeks ago, Gorbachev warned publicly that he might “reassess” Soviet participation in the arms talks unless the United States showed more flexibility, and the State Department responded with a tough statement charging, “It is the Soviet Union, and not the United States, that is marking time in the negotiations.”