Soviet SALT Call Gets U.S. Tentative OK

The United States on Monday tentatively accepted a Soviet request for a special meeting of a U.S.-Soviet arms control commission next week to discuss President Reagan’s decision to abandon the second strategic arms limitation treaty, U.S. officials said.

The United States accepted the Soviet call for a July 22 meeting of the Standing Consultative Commission in Geneva, but on the condition that the United States could raise other issues as well at the session, the officials said. Those issues, they said, involve alleged Soviet violations of the 1979 SALT II agreement and the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.

But, because the commission meetings take place without formal agenda--allowing each side to raise whatever issues it wishes--the condition attached to the U.S. acceptance appeared primarily to serve as notification to the Soviets of U.S. intentions to raise other issues, officials said. If Moscow refuses, however, the meeting will not occur, one official said.

Reagan announced in May that the United States no longer would be bound by the 1979 arms pact, which never was ratified by the U.S. Senate, in part because of Soviet violations. That decision was met with widespread criticism on domestic and international fronts.

Moscow Gets Reply

White House spokesman Edward P. Djerejian confirmed Monday that the United States has sent its reply to Moscow’s request for a special meeting of the Standing Consultative Commission, but he declined to say what the decision was. “We will withhold any further comment until this process is completed,” he said.

However, officials said privately, the White House made its decision largely along the lines of a majority recommendation within the Administration--by the State Department, the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency and a senior arms control adviser, Ambassador Edward L. Rowny--that the Soviet proposal be accepted.

The White House chose even to accept the date the Soviets suggested, rather than delay the meeting a week or two, as some advisers had proposed.

Rowny and the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency had urged that U.S. charges of Soviet cheating be put on the agenda. But the State Department considered such a move confrontational and unnecessary because the commission’s informal operations already allow such issues to be raised, officials said. The commission was created to hear complaints about violations and to set up rules for compliance with the various arms control agreements.

Pentagon the Loser

The clear loser in the White House decision was the Pentagon, which urged rejection of the Soviet proposal because Moscow had rejected a similar request for a special commission meeting made by the United States in 1983. That meeting was requested to discuss construction of a huge anti-missile radar facility at Krasnoyarsk in Siberia, which the United States contends is an apparent violation of the ABM treaty.

The Krasnoyarsk radar complaints, as well as U.S. charges of violations of the 1979 arms agreement, have been raised in the regular, semiannual meetings of the commission. The Soviets have rejected all charges.

The Administration, however, believes that renewed publicity on these issues can help it justify Reagan’s decision to stop abiding by the 1979 pact.