Soviets Agree to Separate Missile Talks : Nitze Calls Offer on Medium-Range Arms Favorable Omen

The Soviet Union, in an apparent shift of strategy at the Geneva arms talks, has proposed a separate deal on U.S. and Soviet medium-range nuclear weapons, a senior U.S. official said today.

Paul H. Nitze, chief adviser to President Reagan on arms control, said this is a “favorable development” that gives hope for success at the meeting Nov. 19-20 between Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev.

Nitze did not say precisely when the Soviet offer was put on the table in Geneva and he did not reveal details in the proposal.

At a news conference at NATO headquarters, Nitze said the Soviets were willing to seek an agreement limiting medium-range nuclear weapons without linking it to progress in the related areas of long-range nuclear forces and defensive and space systems.

He said this represented a significant change in the Soviet approach to the Geneva talks.

‘A Movement Forward’

“Up to a few weeks ago the Soviet position had been one of firm and absolute linkage” between medium-range, long-range and space weapons, Nitze said.

“Their willingness to consider an agreement separately from the other two--even though it might be just an interim agreement--we felt is a movement forward on the Soviet side,” he said.

Nitze was in Brussels to brief NATO ambassadors on two days of talks in Moscow between Kremlin leaders and an American team led by Secretary of State George P. Shultz, Nitze and other senior officials.

As recently as last month, Nitze had said it was not clear whether the Soviets would be willing to pursue a separate agreement on medium-range nuclear forces.

The Soviets walked out of negotiations on these weapons in November, 1983, after the North Atlantic Treaty Organization began deploying new U.S.-made medium-range nuclear missiles in Western Europe.

A Volatile Issue

“They had presented the idea informally prior to Moscow, and they have presented it now formally in Geneva, and it was part of the Moscow discussions,” Nitze said.

The European members of NATO would be expected to welcome the pursuit of a separate U.S.-Soviet agreement on medium-range missiles, since the deployment of U.S. cruise and Pershing 2 missiles is a volatile public issue.