Arms Team Off for Geneva With New Flexibility

President Reagan sent U.S. negotiators back to Geneva on Friday to resume arms control talks with their Soviet counterparts, saying the Americans have “unprecedented authority for give and take” in seeking cuts in strategic and intermediate-range nuclear weapons.

The third round of negotiations is to begin next Thursday after scarcely a hint of movement in two previous sessions and with pressure mounting in advance of the November summit between Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev.

The President met with negotiators Max M. Kampelman, chief of the delegation, former Sen. John Tower (R-Texas) and Maynard W. Glitman, a career diplomat, for about 30 minutes Friday. Reagan later issued a statement saying progress in the new round of talks should provide “additional stimulus” for the summit.

“I am hopeful that we may indeed be able to move forward in this round,” the President said. “Soviet leaders have recently given public indications that they may be considering significant nuclear reductions, and we have encouraged them to translate their expression into concrete proposals at the negotiating table in Geneva.”

A delegation of U.S. senators recently met with Gorbachev in Moscow and reported that the Soviet leader had told them he is ready to make deep reductions in nuclear weapons arsenals and may not oppose basic U.S. research on space-based defensive weapons, the “Star Wars” program.

Friday’s meeting came just hours before the United States’ first test of an anti-satellite weapon against a target in space, a development denounced by the Soviet Union as the beginning of a new spurt in the arms race.

Apparently because of the anti-satellite, or ASAT, test and the approaching summit, the Administration took unusual care in its public statements concerning resumption of the arms reduction negotiations.

Closed-Door Session

A House Armed Services subcommittee closed its doors Thursday afternoon when Kampelman, Tower and Glitman attended to discuss the Geneva negotiations, and the envoys left the White House on Friday without seeing reporters. In addition to being delegation chief, Kampelman heads the U.S. team dealing with space weapons. Tower heads the unit on strategic, or long-range, weapons and Glitman is the delegate for intermediate-range missiles.

Reagan’s carefully worded statement was couched in general terms, expressing hope for movement in the talks after two long and unproductive sessions.

“Now is the time for both sides to move forward,” he said. “Concrete Soviet proposals would get the talks moving and would make a positive contribution to the intensified U.S.-Soviet dialogue which has been under way in recent months.”

The White House remained steadfast not only on the ASAT test but also on another subject on which the Soviet Union has raised vociferous objections--U.S. research on the “Star Wars” missile defense system.

White House spokesman Larry Speakes repeated the Administration position that U.S. testing of the ASAT weapon could spur the Soviets to negotiate seriously at Geneva. And he repeated a declaration that “Star Wars” is not a bargaining chip to be traded for Soviet concessions at the talks.

Need for Agreement Stressed

Meanwhile, at a news conference, Paul C. Warnke, chief arms control negotiator during the Jimmy Carter Administration, said the current talks have reached an impasse and “probably the only way progress can be made” is for Reagan and Gorbachev to reach an agreement on basic arms control issues at their summit.

The key to a breakthrough, Warnke said, could be a U.S. agreement to curb testing and deployment, but not research, on its “Star Wars” program in exchange for Soviet cuts in their offensive missile launchers and warheads.

Robert E. Osgood, who until July was deputy director of the State Department’s Policy Planning Council staff, told another press briefing that a significant arms control agreement “has never been more difficult to achieve.”

Osgood, now a professor of foreign policy at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies, said that progress is unlikely as long as Reagan holds fast to his refusal to consider restraints on “Star Wars” research.