Shevardnadze, Shultz Prepare Summit Topics

Secretary of State George P. Shultz held his first formal meeting Wednesday with new Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard A. Shevardnadze and described their session as “a good first step” toward a productive U.S.-Soviet summit conference in November.

In a three-hour meeting that participants said was free of much of the usual acrimony, Shultz and Shevardnadze established an outline of the topics that President Reagan and Soviet Communist Party leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev will discuss at their scheduled summit in Geneva.

The two sides agreed that the summit would cover the stalemated nuclear arms control talks in Geneva as well as regional and bilateral problems, including U.S. demands for a Soviet troop withdrawal from Afghanistan.

‘Restoration of Fabric’

Anatoly F. Dobrynin, Moscow’s longtime ambassador to the United States and a spokesman for the Soviet delegation, said his country hopes that the summit talks can bring about a “restoration of the fabric” of U.S.-Soviet detente after about 10 years of tension.

U.S. officials said neither country signaled a change in basic policy during the meeting, and Shultz said “very deep differences” remain between the superpowers. But the atmosphere of the talks was said to be much more cordial with Shevardnadze as the Soviet representative than it had been in the final years of the tenure of Andrei A. Gromyko, who gave up the Foreign Ministry post to become Soviet president.

A senior U.S. official said he found Shevardnadze to be “a likable man,” a phrase seldom used to describe Gromyko, although Shultz said he had enjoyed “a good working relationship” with the former foreign minister.

Dobrynin and other Soviet officials assigned to brief reporters were consistently upbeat, occasionally cracking jokes and quietly turning away questions on topics such as human rights which earlier might have produced angry tirades.

Anniversary of Accords

Shultz and Shevardnadze were here heading their respective delegations to a conference marking the 10th anniversary of the Helsinki accords on security and human rights in Europe. In speeches to the conference Tuesday, they traded accusations, each charging that the other superpower had violated the accords.

The sharpness of those accusations seemed forgotten Wednesday. Shultz described their meeting as “a worthwhile and important three hours.”

“We were discussing the issues . . . that will come up at the November meeting in Geneva,” Shultz said. “I think that this meeting can well be called a good first step in getting ready to make that (summit) meeting a genuinely productive one between our two leaders.”

He and Shevardnadze will confer again in New York in September while they attend a session of the U.N. General Assembly. Shevardnadze will then probably go to Washington for meetings with Shultz and President Reagan, a U.S. official said.

Dobrynin said the Nov. 19-21 summit “will be one of the most complex meetings because in recent years tension has mounted in relations between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. . . . A considerable part of the fabric, woven creatively in the past, happened to be destroyed. . . . We know that to destroy is easier than to create. . . . We hope the summit meeting will mark a restoration of the fabric but we must wait and see.”

Shultz spoke briefly to reporters as he emerged from the residence of the U.S. ambassador to Finland, Keith F. Nyborg, where the meeting was held. Later, several American participants discussed the meeting on the understanding they would not be identified by name.

Shevardnadze made no public statement, but he assigned Dobrynin and Foreign Ministry spokesman Vladimir B. Lomeiko to hold an on-the-record press conference.

A high-ranking U.S. official said that U.S.-Soviet negotiations already under way could produce agreements on such topics as cultural exchanges, consulates and civil aviation, which Reagan and Gorbachev could sign at the summit. However, he said the U.S. side will not fix any “artificial deadlines” requiring progress on arms control talks or other negotiations in time for the summit.

Simultaneous Translations

In a departure from previous U.S.-Soviet meetings, Shultz and Shevardnadze used simultaneous translations instead of following the time-consuming practice of having a speaker pause after a few words to wait for them to be translated into the other language before continuing. Shultz was euphoric about the change.

“We were able to accomplish in three hours what would otherwise have taken us six,” he said.

The United States had suggested simultaneous translations in the past, but Gromyko had always refused.

Importance Discounted

There was no way to tell if Shevardnadze’s appointment was responsible for the change in mood or if the Soviets warmed up the atmosphere for other reasons. The high-ranking U.S. official discounted the importance of the change in foreign ministers.

“Personalities can help or hinder somewhat in getting some place but what you really have to look at are the underlying issues,” the official said. “You shouldn’t get too carried away with personalities.”