Shultz Asks Both Sides Not to Debate Arms in Media

Secretary of State George P. Shultz on Sunday called on the United States and the Soviet Union to stop debating arms control in the media and get down to serious--and secret--negotiations.

“We get somewhere in our relationship with the Soviets when we are able to have serious discussions that are relatively quiet and direct,” Shultz said. “It’s a sign of the lack of progress recently that all of the action has been through press statements.”

There is a place for public diplomacy, Shultz told reporters aboard his Air Force transport jet on the flight home from a 10-day tour of France, Turkey, Greece and Italy, “but it has to be more than that.”

He said U.S. and Soviet arms control negotiators should not engage in public debates over arms control when the Geneva talks, which are held in secret, resume.

Shultz said that Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev’s Saturday proposal for an urgent summit meeting in Western Europe with President Reagan to talk about ending nuclear testing was only the latest example of the substitution of public statements for diplomacy.

Gorbachev made his proposal in a televised speech.

U.S. Plays the Same Game

Shultz conceded that Washington has been playing the same game.

He said that when he delivered a letter from President Reagan to Soviet Premier Nikolai I. Ryzhkov earlier this month outlining the latest U.S. proposal on nuclear weapons testing, word of the plan had already been reported in both countries. The White House made the proposal public March 14, the day before Shultz met Ryzhkov during the funeral for assassinated Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme.

The Reagan plan called for the Soviets to send technicians to observe a U.S. nuclear test to demonstrate a new verification system.

“The way they (the Soviets) have handled the whole testing issue means that we (also) have had to take our positions publicly,” he said.

As for the substance of Gorbachev’s proposal, Shultz said that the United States is ready for a summit this year but that it will have to be in the United States, as Reagan and Gorbachev agreed during their Geneva summit last November.

Shultz left Rome after attending the outdoor Easter Mass celebrated by Pope John Paul II at St. Peter’s Basilica. The Shultz party was seated in the first row of a VIP section near the altar for the service conducted on a warm and sunny spring morning.

Shultz’s wife, Helena, a Roman Catholic, was one of a handful of worshipers out of the tens of thousands in attendance selected to receive communion from the Pope.

“I’m still on cloud 9,” she said shortly after the two-hour service.

Shultz met alone with the Pope for about 35 minutes Saturday. He said the conversation was “entirely substance” rather than small talk. But he declined to say what they discussed.

Shultz scored no diplomatic breakthroughs during the trip. In both Turkey and Greece, he talked about extension of the agreements permitting the United States to maintain military bases.

Turkish Demands on Aid, Trade

The Turks demanded more foreign aid and more trade concessions than Washington is prepared to grant. Nevertheless, U.S. officials said they are confident that the Ankara government ultimately will agree to a new pact.

In Greece, the situation is more difficult. Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou said in 1983 that the bases pact would not be extended beyond its current expiration date of Dec. 31, 1988. Shultz had hoped to obtain a commitment in principle to renew the agreement while leaving the details for later negotiations. However, Papandreou would not go that far, agreeing only to a new round of talks aimed at resolving the issue well before the end of 1988.

Much of the nuts-and-bolts diplomacy of the trip was overshadowed by the U.S.-Libya military confrontation in the Gulf of Sidra. Although he heard no outright support for Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi, officials in Turkey, Greece and Italy all questioned U.S. tactics and told Shultz they believe that Washington should have averted the clash.

“Obviously, we’d like to have full-score support,” Shultz said in assessing the comments of Turkey, Greece and Italy, all U.S. allies.

“I think it is interesting what is happening in people’s attitudes toward Libya,” he added. “Nobody argues that there are any particular merits to Libya or Kadafi any more. Everyone seems to agree that Kadafi is a problem. The only argument is what is the right tactic in handling him. I think people are moving in the direction of more action. We are the most active.”

Shultz said, however, that it is impossible to “ignore it (Libyan policy) and hope it will go away. You have to combat it. We are trying to persuade people of that.”