U.S. Soviets Open Special SALT Meeting

The United States and the Soviet Union began special talks here Tuesday on the compliance record of the unratified SALT-two(cq) nuclear arms treaty, which President Reagan says he is prepared to abandon completely before the end of this year.

The meeting was requested by the Soviet Union.

A brief press statement issued by the United States Mission at the conclusion of morning and afternoon sessions said: “The United States has agreed to this session as a sign of our desire that the Soviet Union join us in establishing an interim framework of truly mutual restraint.”

Whether this elliptical phrasing can be interpreted as a hint of readiness on the part of the Reagan Administration to back off from its plans to dump the SALT-two treaty is an open question. But it is clear that this special meeting is part of the complex diplomatic maneuvering which is now going on between Washington and Moscow to get to another summit meeting between Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev.

The discussions between the two sides are expected to last until the end of the week, and according to the American Mission there will be no further press statement nor any press briefings on the closed-door talks. The aim of the talks is not to reach any conclusions or agreements, but simply to air grievances, and whether this will further the process of getting to a summit meeting remains to be seen.

Military officers are heading the two delegations--Gen. Vladimir Medvedev of the Soviet General Staff, and Air Force Gen. Richard C. Ellis, former commander of the U.S. Strategic Air Command.

This is the 31st session of a U.S.-U.S.S.R. Standing Consultative Commission, which was established under the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, the first superpower nuclear arms control agreement, as a form for regular exchanges on issues of compliance and interpretation of the arms agreements.

The commission normally meets twice yearly in Geneva for sessions that have lasted as long as two to three weeks. This special session was requested by the Soviets to discuss the American threat to abandon the 1979 treaty.

But there is never a fixed agenda for commission meetings and the American side will be using the session for a full re-run of its documentation of Soviet violations not only of the SALT II treaty but the ABM treaty as well.

In 1983, the Reagan Administration asked for a special meeting of the commission to discuss the construction of a huge new Soviet radar station at Krasnoyarsk in Siberia, which it judged to be in violation of the terms of the ABM treaty, but the Soviet side refused the meeting at that time. The Pentagon therefore was opposed to American acceptance of the Soviet request for this meeting.

Eventually it was overruled by the President who is under heavy domestic political pressure, as well as strong criticism from his NATO allies, over the possibility of abandoning the SALT II treaty while ostensibly seeking to advance the arms control process with another summit meeting.