France Urges Soviet Action on Emigration Cases

French President Francois Mitterrand disclosed Thursday that France has asked Soviet authorities to speed up emigration permission in 20 cases involving individuals with claims to French citizenship or other ties to France.

In addition, the French have handed the Soviets a list of about 400 other individuals in support of their applications to leave the Soviet Union.

At a news conference at the end of a four-day state visit to Moscow and more than 17 hours of meetings and social engagements with Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev, Mitterrand was asked about prospects for a summit meeting between Gorbachev and President Reagan, whom the French leader visited just before coming to Moscow.

Summit Wanted

Mitterrand replied that “both sides want a summit--that is the reality on both sides.” But he added:

“A summit, yes, but with broad substance. I am not in a position to say when or whether it will take place, but I do think it will take place. Diplomacy has quite a lot to do.”

To another question, he said that the Strategic Defense Initiative, the “Star Wars” space-based missile defense program, is a major obstacle to a summit but that he felt the path toward agreement on the issue had been “somewhat cleared.”

He reiterated France’s objections to Reagan’s declared intention to abandon compliance with the terms of the unratified second strategic arms limitation agreement, saying, “If we are talking about disarmament, let’s begin by not destroying what already exists.”

Alliance Emphasized

Despite such disagreement, however, several times in the news conference Mitterrand went out of his way to emphasize that “France is part of an alliance and remains with its allies while taking independent actions for France.”

At a dinner for Mitterrand on Monday, Gorbachev had urged Europe “to speak out more definitely and confidently on its own behalf.” A longstanding goal of Soviet foreign policy is to persuade European nations in the Western alliance to adopt policies more independent of the United States.

Although Mitterrand said that the human rights issues had been part of his discussions with Gorbachev, the lists of specific cases were handled by French Foreign Minister Jean-Bernard Raimond, a former ambassador to Moscow, in meetings with Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard A. Shevardnadze. French officials declined to disclose any of the names or details of cases on their two lists, or to say what the response had been.

Quiet Diplomacy

French delegation sources said they had not asked for, or expected, any immediate response from the Soviets, but they did have indications that the 20 specific cases on which they requested action would now be dealt with soon. In general, the French as well as other European governments prefer quiet diplomacy instead of publicity in these matters.

However, on his last visit to Moscow in 1984 when Konstantin U. Chernenko was the Soviet leader, Mitterrand startled his Soviet hosts by mentioning the name of the country’s most prominent dissident, Andrei D. Sakharov, in a speech at a Kremlin banquet.

On this visit he took a more low-key approach. He told the news conference that the fact that he had seen Sakharov’s wife, Yelena Bonner, when she was in Paris two months ago showed that his 1984 statement on Sakharov’s behalf is still valid. But, he said, the question in dealing with such matters is to find the best way to proceed.