U.S, Soviets OK Cultural Exchanges

The United States and the Soviet Union said Tuesday that they have signed 13 agreements for a variety of new exchange programs that will involve high school students, medical experts, sports teams and art exhibitions.

The announcement followed a week of high-level discussions on agreements that officials said would revitalize the types of exchanges that had grown rapidly until the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979.

Efforts to renew and increase the exchanges have been under way since the November summit meeting in Geneva, during which President Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev called for an expansion of contacts and cooperation between the two nations.

White House spokesman Larry Speakes called the new exchange agreements “an important step in fulfilling the commitments made by both leaders at Geneva.”

“Our delegation is quite satisfied with the outcome,” said Yuri B. Kashlev, chief of the Bureau of Cultural and Humanitarian Affairs in the Soviet Ministry of Foreign Affairs, who led the delegation of eight Soviet representatives.

Stephen H. Rhinesmith, coordinator of the U.S.-Soviet exchange initiative, said at a news conference that he has received more than 200 inquiries from private groups interested in participating.

Rhinesmith described the meetings last week between officials of the two countries as the “broadest series of discussions ever held between U.S. private sector organizations and the Soviet government to expand contact and cooperation in education, culture, health and sports between the United States and the Soviet Union.”

Speakes said the discussions, which involved 28 private U.S. organizations that will participate in the exchanges, “reflects the President’s conviction that the participation of the American private sector is essential to the success of these programs.”

Privately Funded

Under the agreements, the U.S. participation in the projects must be fully funded by private American organizations. The new programs include:

--The first exchange of 10 high school students from Phillips Academy in Andover, Mass., and the Physics-Mathematics Institute in Novosibirsk. Other projects will include exchanges of lecturers, language teachers, undergraduate students and expanded collaboration on textbooks for studying English and Russian as foreign languages.

--Increased cooperation in health care and medical science between the National Institutes of Health and the Soviet Ministry of Health.

--Collaboration on neurosurgery research between the New York Neurological Institute of Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center and the Burdenko Neurological Institute.

--An increase to 50 delegations of athletes to be exchanged annually in 1987 and 1988. This compares to 23 sports delegations exchanged in 1985 and 45 delegations in 1986.

--An exhibit of 62 Russian paintings dating from 1840 to 1910 at the Smithsonian Institution this fall and a reciprocal exhibit of American paintings from the same period in the Soviet Union next year.

--Plans to bring the Moiseyev Dance Ensemble and the Moscow State Symphony to the United States and to have the Manhattan String Quartet and the San Francisco Symphony tour the Soviet Union.

The talks involved 32 projects and led to 13 agreements. Although the U.S. and Soviet delegations were not able to work out details on the remaining 19 programs, the projects are considered “areas for continued development.”