Top Soviet Arms Negotiator Hints at Flexibility

Chief Soviet arms negotiator Viktor P. Karpov dropped a hint of flexibility here Tuesday when he told an impromptu news conference that the new Soviet proposals for deep cuts in nuclear weapons linked to curtailment of the American “Star Wars” space defense program “can be the basis for further discussion and decisions.”

“We see our task as the Soviet delegation to do everything we can so that the meeting between President Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev will be successful,” Karpov said. “We introduced proposals, and we don’t have any positive response up till now. So what we need for progress is that the American side change the attitude toward the discussions and take a stand that will allow both delegations to work together, having in mind the same aim of preparing concrete practical results.”

Meanwhile, the chief American negotiator, Max M. Kampelman, is returning to Washington today for consultations on the new Soviet proposals with Secretary of State George P. Shultz and the chief U.S. adviser on arms control negotiations, Paul H. Nitze.

Despite the generally negative reaction in Washington to the Soviet proposals, Kampelman has promised that they will be “studied with great interest.”

Karpov’s unusual open meeting with newsmen was a mixture of toughness and reasonableness--a mirror of the new Soviet style since Gorbachev’s accession to power in the Soviet Union seven months ago.

Newsmen who had gathered at the gates of the Soviet delegation compound in Geneva to await the arrival of Kampelman and the U.S. negotiating team for a second plenary meeting on the Soviet proposals were surprised to be invited up to the front portico of the building.

Karpov then appeared, smiling and amiable, allowing himself nearly 10 minutes or so before Kampelman was due to arrive.

Although confidentiality is supposed to be the strict rule of the Geneva talks, this was not one of the brief encounters with one of the delegation leaders to which the reporters had been accustomed.

Asked about the American view reported from Washington that the new Soviet proposals are “unbalanced and stacked against the U.S.,” the Soviet delegate replied:

“It’s as balanced as I’m standing on my feet; it stands on its feet. It covers all three areas of the discussions and it is well balanced. There was an agreement on Jan. 8 that we should consider the questions entrusted to us (intercontinental nuclear weapons, intermediate-range missiles, space-based defensive systems) in the context of their interrelationship. So our proposal takes this basis and this very premise.”

‘Reasonable Stand’

He then added an almost throwaway hint that the Soviet proposals “can be the basis for further discussion and decisions” when he was asked if the Soviet Union was taking a tough opening position for a protracted negotiation. Karpov simply replied, “We are taking a reasonable stand.”

Asked whether there had been any movement in the Soviet position on the question of research for the “Star Wars” outer space defense program, he responded:

“No move out from our positions. From the very start we spoke of such kind of research that is leading up to the development of space track weapons. So we don’t speak about basic research, basic science, what is up here in the minds of scientists. We speak about those developments in the process of developing space weapons that are coming out of laboratories and already into the field of tests and exercises. . . .”

The American delegation, abiding strictly by the rules of confidentiality, had no comment on Karpov’s remarks or the 90-minute plenary session that followed.