No New Arms Offers, Soviet Envoy Says

U.S.-Soviet arms talks resumed Thursday after a nine-week break with the chief Soviet negotiator saying his side plans no new proposals and that it is up to the United States to move the talks forward.

“I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t hope that we can negotiate,” Viktor P. Karpov, who heads the Soviet negotiating team, told reporters at the Soviet Mission.

But he said the proposals already made by the Soviets at the 14-month-old talks have opened the way for agreement in all three areas under discussion: medium-range nuclear missiles, long-range forces and new technologies in space.

“We don’t feel there are new proposals needed from our side,” Karpov said. “It is for our partners now to make steps.”

Appeal From Reagan

Earlier, President Reagan said in Washington that the Soviets should “negotiate seriously” in Geneva and respond to U.S. proposals.

Both sides made new proposals during the last round, which ended March 4. Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev called for an end to all nuclear weapons by the year 2000, beginning with a 50% cut in both sides’ nuclear arsenals and an interim agreement on medium-range nuclear weapons.

The United States has said the Soviet proposal contains some positive elements but overall is unacceptable. Reagan countered with a proposal to eliminate medium-range weapons by the end of the decade.

The fifth round of talks opened with a two-hour meeting of all three principal negotiators from each side and their aides at the Soviet Mission.

Karpov used the session to announce a shuffling of the Soviet team following the departure of Yuli A. Kvitsinsky, who headed the space and defense group and is now ambassador to Bonn.

Karpov said he will replace Kvitsinsky, meaning he will face U.S. chief delegate Max M. Kampelman across the negotiating table at least once a week.

Alexei A. Obukhov, who formerly headed the medium-range group, takes over long-range talks facing the new U.S. negotiator, Ronald F. Lehman. Lehman replaces John Tower, former senator from Texas, who resigned after the last round.

Lem A. Masterkov, formerly Obukhov’s deputy, takes over the medium-range talks facing Maynard W. Glitman.

Hoping for New Vigor

Kampelman said he hopes the changes will reinvigorate the talks.

The two sides have agreed in principle to the idea of an interim agreement on medium-range nuclear forces and to 50% cuts in strategic nuclear forces. But they disagree on how to achieve those goals.

The negotiators face the same stumbling blocks that plagued them in the previous round, including Soviet mobile missiles based in Asia, the British and French national nuclear forces and U.S. “Star Wars” research into a space-based missile defense system.