Reagan Expects Accord at Stockholm Meeting

Amid growing signs of progress, President Reagan said Tuesday that he believes a new agreement on measures to build confidence between East and West can be achieved this year at the 35-nation European security conference, which resumes in Stockholm next week.

The conference, an outgrowth of the Helsinki accords of 1975, aims to reduce the risk of war across the Iron Curtain, rather than to limit arms. But a new agreement extending confidence-building measures and containing provisions for verification would have “important implications for the overall East-West relationship,” Reagan said.

Ambassador Robert L. Barry, the chief U.S. delegate to the conference, told reporters after meeting with Reagan that he thought an agreement could be “nailed down” before mid-July and could be presented to the reconvened Helsinki group at its November meeting in Vienna.

Could Improve Climate

Any new agreement would not directly affect the next summit meeting between the President and Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev, due later this year, Barry said. But it could improve the overall climate at the summit, he said, noting that the two leaders, in their first meeting last November, spurred progress by calling for a successful conclusion to the security conference.

Gorbachev provided further impetus toward an agreement when, as part of his broad statement on arms control last week, he suggested that one of the major stumbling blocks at the conference--the issue of notification of naval maneuvers--be put aside.

So far, the West has agreed to a statement that would prohibit the first use of force. For their part, the Soviets had wanted to set up a nuclear-free zone and then agree on a promise that neither side would be the first to use nuclear weapons in Europe. However, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization insisted that both sides pledge not to use any type of force.

The 1975 Helsinki accords, in addition to provisions on human rights and economic cooperation, provided that 20-day notice be given of military maneuvers by more than 25,000 men, if conducted within 250 miles of the border between NATO nations and the Warsaw Pact nations. Observers from the other side must be invited to attend such maneuvers, the accords said.

No Observer Exchange

These provisions have been generally obeyed, although in recent years observers have often not been exchanged and the Soviets, without notification, conducted a surprise exercise with 40,000 men on the Polish border in 1981, apparently to intimidate the Solidarity organization in that country.

Since the Stockholm meeting began in 1983, the two blocs have agreed to extend the notification area to include all of Europe from the Atlantic to the Ural Mountains, and to reduce the size of the military ground units subject to such notification. However, differences remain over the extent of reduction.

The Warsaw Pact also called for all significant naval and air exercises to be announced in advance, but the NATO position would only cover those movements associated with ground maneuvers. Gorbachev’s concession means that the naval issue can be put off until subsequent conferences, but aircraft operations remains an unresolved issue.