East-West Ties Improved, NATO Ministers Say

NATO’s foreign ministers pronounced the climate of East-West relations much improved Friday, but U.S. Secretary of State George P. Shultz cautioned the European members not to expect too much from the second superpower summit planned for next summer.

“Encouraging developments have taken place in East-West relations since our meeting in Lisbon in June,” the ministers said in a communique issued after a two-day meeting at the North Atlantic Treaty Organization headquarters.

“We hope that this will lead to improved relations, more extensive contacts, including regular high-level meetings and broad cooperation on the full range of East-West questions,” the communique said.

NATO Secretary General Lord Carrington said last month’s Geneva meeting between President Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev “brought much needed fresh air to East-West relations. We now need to keep up the momentum.”

European sources said most of the European foreign ministers told Shultz that public opinion in their countries demands concrete results on arms control from the next U.S.-Soviet summit scheduled to be held in the United States next year.

Need to be ‘Realistic’

But, at a news conference, Shultz said: “We will work for that; I realize people want that, we all want it. I believe also people want us to be realistic.”

“We have to strike the right balance between having realistic expectations and having aspirations that are appropriate to the subject,” Shultz said. “The United States will be making every effort to find a good agreement if there is one there to be found.”

European members of the 16-nation alliance usually exhibit a more optimistic view of East-West relations than the Reagan Administration, whose members are far more skeptical of Soviet objectives. Some earlier NATO foreign ministers’ meetings produced some heated arguments on the issue of Soviet intentions.

Sources familiar with the latest meeting said there were no similar disputes this time.

Although the meeting was unusually harmonious, there were a few discordant notes. At his news conference, Shultz warned Greece that the United States will not spend any money on improvements to its bases in Greece until the Athens government agrees to allow the bases to remain after 1988, when the current agreement expires. He urged Athens to make up its mind soon whether to renew the agreement.

“It is one thing to have negotiations when both sides agree the bases will be maintained and the discussion is about terms,” he said. “It is another thing to have negotiations about whether the bases will exist at all.”

France Blocked Endorsement

When the foreign ministers last met in Portugal in June, France blocked U.S. calls for endorsement of the U.S. “Star Wars” missile defense research program. This time, Shultz made no similar request. The final communique said nothing about the program Washington calls the Strategic Defense Initiative, although Carrington insisted there was “no significance” to the omission.

Shultz said he received “very good” backing for the missile defense program. He said allied nations “are deciding if they want to participate in the program, but there is no controversy over U.S. research.”

Late Friday, Shultz flew from Brussels to Bonn for talks with West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl. Although some West German industries have expressed interest in the Strategic Defense Initiative, the Bonn government has not yet reached a decision on participation. A parliamentary vote is expected early next year.

Both Carrington and Shultz said there is no evidence to confirm Gorbachev’s claim that the Soviet Union has dismantled the launchers for its SS-20 missiles in the European part of the Soviet Union. Moscow said the missiles were withdrawn from standby alert two months ago.

Gorbachev said Thursday the Soviets have destroyed the launchers for all of the three-warhead intermediate-range missiles that were deployed since June, 1984. If true, that would reduce the Soviets’ European deployment to 243 missiles.