U.S. Ordering Drastic Cuts in Soviet U.N. Staff

The United States ordered the Soviet U.N. missions Friday to drastically cut their staffs over the next two years, saying they were unreasonably large and posed “a threat to U.S. national security.”

The cuts, which are to begin on Oct. 1, are to take place in four stages and reduce the number of Soviet diplomatic personnel at the United Nations by 38%, from 275 to 170 by April 1, 1988.

“The current size of the Soviet U.N. mission is not warranted by the staffing needs for official U.N. business,” the U.S. mission said in a note to correspondents. “Moreover, it poses a threat to U.S. national security.”

The U.S. mission said the Soviet contingents “are larger than the next two largest missions combined.” The United States has a staff of 126 at the United Nations and the Chinese have 116.

The note said: “The Soviet U.N. missions unfortunately have continued to engage in activities unrelated to U.N. business, including espionage.”

The U.S. mission did not say whether the reduction order was prompted by the uncovering of any new Soviet espionage activities here.

The note said Washington did not expect its action to have a negative impact on U.S.-Soviet relations.

“We look forward to continuing the efforts begun by President Reagan and General Secretary (Mikhail) Gorbachev in their Geneva meeting to build a more constructive foundation for U.S.-Soviet relations,” the American mission said.

There was no immediate Soviet reaction. One embassy official declined comment, saying he had not yet read the U.S. note.

U.N. spokesman Francois Giuliani said Secretary-General Javier Perez de Cuellar had no immediate comment on the reduction order, but had asked the U.N. legal counsel to see if it conforms with the Headquarters Agreement between the United Nations and the United States.

The U.S. note said its imposition of a ceiling on Soviet mission staff was “consistent with our obligations” under the Headquarters Agreement and international law.

Over the years, there have been repeated complaints of alleged Soviet spying under U.N. cover. Last year, the State Department, under congressional mandate, imposed controls on the travel of New York-based U.N. employees from the Soviet Union, Afghanistan, Cuba, Iran, Libya and Vietnam.

The restrictions, limiting travel to within a 25-mile radius of U.N. headquarters, affected about 500 U.N. staff members as of last Sept. 15. Such travel restrictions already were in effect for diplomats from those countries.

A report from the Senate Intelligence Committee said that about a fourth of the Soviets working in the U.N. Secretariat were intelligence agents using their employment as a front.

Former U.N. Undersecretary-General Arkady N. Shevchenko, who was the senior Soviet official at U.N. headquarters from 1973 until his defection 1978, estimated that a third of all Soviet bloc citizens at the world body were engaged in intelligence-gathering activities for their governments.

Asked if the Soviets might retaliate by cutting the number of U.S. diplomats in the Soviet Union, Bruce Ammerman, a State Department spokesman in Washington, said: “If the Soviets retaliate for these reductions in New York, we are prepared to reciprocate.”

But he also said: “We do not expect this will become an issue in bilateral relations,” and drew distinctions between diplomats accredited to the United Nations and those handling bilateral matters between the United States and the Soviet Union.

According to State Department figures, there are now 320 Soviet diplomats representing their country in the Washington embassy and in a consulate in New York. There are 228 U.S. diplomats in posts in Moscow and Leningrad.

The U.S. action was directed against all three U.N. missions of the Soviet Union. Under an Allied wartime agreement, the Soviet republics of the Ukraine and Byelorussia also were allotted U.N. seats. The new ceiling is 10 representatives for each of the republics--about what they now have, meaning that practically all of the cuts would have to be made from the main Soviet mission.

All operate out of the same building about 20 blocks from U.N. headquarters.

Ammerman said in Washington that the timetable would permit the Soviets to make the reductions through attrition. If they don’t do it voluntarily, he said, the Soviets will have difficulty getting visas for replacements.

“We will monitor Soviet compliance,” he said. “If they refuse to identify positions they wish to retain under the ceiling, we will only issue visas up to the permitted ceiling.”