President Firm on ‘Star Wars’ Tests : Won’t Trade Them for Weapons Cuts in Talks With Soviets, He Declares

President Reagan, speaking only two days before U.S.-Soviet arms control talks are to resume in Geneva, Tuesday flatly ruled out trading away research and testing of his “Star Wars” anti-missile defense system in exchange for reductions in offensive nuclear weapons.

“This is too important to the world to have us be willing to trade that off for a different number of nuclear missiles when there’re already more than enough to blow both countries out of the world,” Reagan said in defending his controversial space-based defense plan.

And the President, looking ahead to his November meeting with Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev, not only ruled out “Star Wars” as a bargaining chip but said the summit should be used to explore ways to “place more emphasis on defensive weapons rather than destructive weapons” in the superpowers’ strategic arsenals.

In the maneuvering over arms control thus far, the Soviets have indicated that they would be willing to consider reductions of 30% to 40% in nuclear weapons delivery systems--such as missiles and bombers--if the United States would halt research and testing programs on “Star Wars.”

First Since June

Reagan, speaking at his first full-scale news conference since June, rejected suggestions that the “Star Wars” plan, known formally as the Strategic Defense Initiative or SDI, could be construed as an offensive weapons system that would inevitably spur Moscow to match the U.S. effort. Instead, as he has before, the President portrayed SDI as a shield that could banish the threat of nuclear holocaust.

Implying that such a defensive shield could enhance--not undermine--arms control agreements, Reagan drew a parallel with the worldwide agreement after World War I to ban the use of chemical weapons:

“We outlawed poison gas in 1925,” the President said, “but everyone kept their gas mask. I think of this (“Star Wars”) weapon as kind of the gas mask.”

Administration officials earlier had indicated that there might be some room to include the “Star Wars” program in negotiations at the summit in Geneva on Nov. 19-20. But Tuesday night, Reagan said research and testing of any weapon that might be developed would not violate any treaty, and that only deployment of such a weapon would be subject to negotiation.

The President, answering a series of questions on U.S.-Soviet relations, said he hopes that the summit meeting will be more than a “get-acquainted” session and will lead to better relations with Moscow.

Asked whether progress at the summit depends upon the two leaders’ liking each other, Reagan smiled and said, “I wasn’t going to give him a friendship ring or anything.”

But he quickly added:

“It isn’t necessary that we love or even like each other. It’s only necessary that we are willing to recognize that for the good of the people we represent on this side of the ocean and over there that everyone will be better off if we can come to some decisions about the threat of war.

‘Great Responsibility’

“We’re the only two nations in the world I believe that can start a world war, and we’re the only two that can prevent it, and I think that’s a great responsibility to all of mankind and we’d better take it seriously.”

Pressed on why the United States has played down expectations for the summit, while the Soviets have emphasized the importance of the meeting, Reagan said he had been worried that the Soviets were building it up to the point people would be expecting “a miracle.”

“But I don’t mind saying right now,” he said, “we take this summit very seriously, and we’re going to try to get into real discussions that we would hope lead to a change in the relationship between the two countries--not that we’ll learn to love each other. We won’t--but a change in which we can remove this threat of possible war or nuclear attack from between us. . . . “

Reagan said, “It worries me a little bit” that the Soviets “go out of their way to raise expectations in view of summits in the past and what has come of them.”

But when asked if he expects concrete results or simply to get acquainted with Gorbachev, Reagan said: “This has got to be more than get acquainted.”

Defending last Friday’s successful test of an anti-satellite weapon against a target in space, he noted that the Soviets have “already deployed an anti-satellite” system that “can knock down satellites.”

“We couldn’t stand by and allow them to have a monopoly on the ability to shoot down satellites when we are so dependent on them for communication, even weather and so forth,” Reagan said. Moscow’s system, tested more than a decade ago, is considered much more cumbersome and less sophisticated than that under development by the United States.

Asked whether the anti-satellite weapon test could have waited until after the summit conference, he said: “No, I don’t think so. We’re playing catch-up. We’re behind. This was on the schedule. It wasn’t done either because of, or with the summit in mind at all.”

On the subject of the next round of arms control talks, Reagan said he had not sent U.S. negotiators back to Geneva with any new proposals “because they have a great flexibility.”

He said the United States has presented “at least six different ways” to reduce the superpowers’ arsenals “and we’re willing to meet whatever their specific problems (are) with regard” to the nation’s different weapons and arms strategies.

‘Just Been There’

“So far, they have not made a single comment or proposed a different number. They have just been there. I don’t know how much more flexible we can be,” Reagan said.

The President also defended the economic sanctions he ordered against South Africa last week as even-handed, noting that the program has drawn fire from both white leaders and black activists.

“When you’re standing up against a cellophane wall and you’re getting shot at from both sides, you must be doing something right,” Reagan said.