Kremlin Recalls Top Negotiators From Stockholm Security Talks

The Soviet Union has recalled its two top negotiators at the European security conference here for urgent consultations 11 days before the end of the 35-nation talks, Soviet delegates said Monday.

Western diplomats expressed confidence that Soviet Ambassador Oleg A. Grinevsky and his military adviser, Gen. Viktor Tatarnikov, would return with permission to make the final concessions needed to secure an agreement at the talks.

But Warsaw Pact delegates took a pessimistic view, saying Moscow has gone as far as it could at the 2 1/2-year-old conference but has obtained no matching concessions from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

Grinevsky and Tatarnikov, who serves on the Soviet general staff, flew back to Moscow over the weekend. Soviet delegates said they have no information on when they might return. The Stockholm talks are due to end on Sept. 19.

“The situation in our view is extremely serious, not to say critical,” one Soviet delegate said. “We are very dissatisfied with what has been happening over the last few weeks. We have made one concession after another and obtained nothing in return.”

The NATO optimism had been fueled by remarks from Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard A. Shevardnadze, who was quoted as saying Moscow was willing to give neutral countries a role in monitoring compliance with any agreement reached in Stockholm.

Swiss delegates said Shevardnadze told visiting Swiss Foreign Minister Pierre Aubert over the weekend that Moscow would agree to the use of planes from neutral nations for conducting aerial inspections of troop movements, as proposed by NATO.

The Soviet Union originally wanted such inspections carried out with planes and crews provided by the host country, but NATO delegations objected.