South Africa Agrees to Meet Europe Envoys

The South African government, reacting positively for the first time to the mounting international criticism of the partial state of emergency here, agreed Friday to receive a delegation of three foreign ministers from the European Community to discuss the country’s continuing civil unrest.

While giving no hint of compromise, Pretoria expressed its willingness after much tough talk in recent weeks to listen to the European Community’s call for an end to the state of emergency, which has established virtual martial law in dozens of black townships, and to review with the delegation from Italy, the Netherlands and Luxembourg its plans for future political, economic and social reforms.

Economic Ties Shaky

The South African move appeared to have been forced upon the minority white regime, however, by Pretoria’s growing international isolation, which has put in serious doubt its diplomatic relations as well as its economic ties with much of the West. In recent days, major trading partners and old friends have criticized its policy of racial segregation and its handling of the current unrest.

On Friday, Australia joined the United States, France and the nine Common Market nations in calling home their ambassadors for consultations over recent developments here. Spain and Portugal, scheduled to join the Common Market in January, voted with the other members to withdraw their ambassadors at a Thursday meeting in Helsinki.

Diplomats in Pretoria said that Canada, Brazil and perhaps Israel might join in withdrawing their ambassadors at least temporarily.

Denmark, which closed its embassy in Pretoria two decades ago, announced Friday that it is also closing its consulate general in Johannesburg.

All this has left South Africa’s foreign relations “at an all-time low,” as the weekly news magazine Financial Mail said Friday.

Although South Africa usually dismisses any criticism of its policies as “hypocritical cant,” in the words of one commentator this week, the combined actions of the United States, the European Community and other Western nations in withdrawing their ambassadors and moving to impose economic sanctions appear to have the government worried.

“The international community is trying to impress on the South African government the repugnance and moral revulsion with which it views apartheid and to bring home to this regime the gravity of the current situation,” a West European ambassador said as he prepared to leave for what he described as “quite possibly a very long spell at home.”

‘Few Pious Statements’

“Our countries, both within and outside of the European Community, can no longer content themselves with a few pious statements and no action,” a West European ambassador said as he prepared to leave for what he said might be a “long spell at home.”

After the visit here, expected shortly, of the three foreign ministers, the European Community is scheduled to meet and try to adopt a coordinated policy toward South Africa, perhaps including economic sanctions such as those imposed by France last week. Such sanctions are controversial within the community and have been resisted by Britain and West Germany.

If the United States imposes limited sanctions in September, as is now expected, a resolution may be introduced in the U.N. Security Council making the measures mandatory worldwide, according to well-informed diplomats here.

“What already is U.S. law would be impossible for the Reagan Administration to veto at the United Nations,” another European envoy said. “That would leave Britain alone in opposing sanctions, and it simply would not do so. South Africa might shrug off this measure or that, but it would be difficult to shrug off coordinated actions by virtually the whole international community.”

Pressure Acknowledged

South African officials acknowledge the pressure such moves are putting on their country, but they continue to assert that the government here will decide its course of action without foreign interference.

The quick agreement to meet with the three European Community ministers was “due to our consideration of our good relations with members of the community,” a Foreign Ministry official said, adding that it should not be “over-interpreted” as a willingness to compromise on “what we see as critical issues.”

White South Africans have been surprised, even stunned, by the tough Western response to the state of emergency and other actions by Pretoria over the past two months.

Accustomed to criticism that was rarely backed by any action, they all but ignored the recall six weeks ago of the American ambassador, Herman W. Nickel, in protest over South African raids on Botswana and Angola and its establishment of an autonomous government in Namibia, or South-West Africa, thwarting negotiations on its independence.

French Action Ridiculed

When France withdrew its ambassador last week and imposed economic sanctions, including a ban on new investment, the government here ridiculed the action.

Shares on the local stock market plummeted in value, however, and business confidence declined further with the prospect of economic sanctions.

And when the Security Council called for voluntary economic sanctions, Foreign Minister Roelof F. (Pik) Botha dismissed it as “invalid,” and President Pieter W. Botha threatened to deport hundreds of thousands of the 1.5 million foreign workers here from neighboring black countries and thus destabilize the whole region in retaliation for any sanctions imposed on this country.

“Nothing was getting through to these people until the European Community foreign ministers decided to recall all their ambassadors at once for consultations that quite clearly are intended to decide on policies that will have a greater impact here than past statements have,” a Western diplomat said in Pretoria. “They are right to be worried.”