Shultz Downbeat About Talks : Couldn’t Narrow Gap on Nuclear Weapons, He Says

Secretary of State George P. Shultz, winding up 14 hours of “vigorous discussions” with Mikhail S. Gorbachev and other Soviet officials, said today that he was unable to narrow the differences between the two sides on ways to curb nuclear weapons.

Shultz gave a downbeat assessment of his two-day visit and of the chances for a successful summit meeting between President Reagan and Gorbachev in Geneva on Nov. 19-20.

“Basically we have a lot to do,” Shultz told reporters at a news conference. In reference to the summit meeting, he said “life doesn’t end in the middle of November.”

Shultz said he discussed Reagan’s latest proposal to set limits on a number of categories of nuclear arms with Gorbachev and Foreign Minister Eduard A. Shevardnadze but found that “there was no narrowing with respect to the nuclear and space talks.”

The Soviets have made blocking Reagan’s research into a futuristic anti-missile defense system their chief goal in the ongoing Geneva weapons negotiations.

Shultz said both sides agree that arms control “is a subject of central importance” at the Geneva summit. But he added, “This is not the only issue,” saying he had discussed both regional conflicts and human rights during his Moscow talks.

Reagan has proposed that the two superpowers sponsor negotiations to end conflicts in five Marxist-ruled nations: Afghanistan, Angola, Nicaragua, Ethiopia and Cambodia.

Shultz said there were “some positive developments” in his talks with Soviet leaders.

But asked to characterize the tone of the meetings, Shultz said there was a “vigorous discussion,” and he twice used “frank” to describe the sessions, once speaking of frank arguments.

In diplomatic parlance, this is a way of saying the two sides had considerable disagreement.

“It was far from a shouting match, the discussions were straightforward, always quite cordial, and I think they reflected our desire to use the time well,” Shultz said.

“We have done a good job on agreeing how the (summit) meeting is to be set up and what topics will be discussed,” he said.

He said his nearly four hours with Gorbachev in the Kremlin today were “quite cordial.”

But when pressed to give examples of any agreements, he could not give any that Reagan and Gorbachev might be able to conclude.

Shultz said that “the meeting will take place,” that further work will be done in the remaining two weeks and that Reagan and Gorbachev “are likely to be very well prepared.”