Security Pact Still Elusive in Stockholm : 2 Points Unresolved as 35-Nation Meeting Enters Its Final Day

As it enters its final session today, the 35-nation conference on avoiding accidental war in Europe hangs in the balance as weary delegates struggle to bridge an East-West deadlock over two crucial points that will determine ultimate success or failure.

The two points are the size of military maneuvers in Europe that would be open to mandatory observation by all 35 countries, and who will fly the airplanes that would be used for aerial inspection of suspected unusual military activity anywhere in Europe from the Atlantic Ocean to the Ural Mountains.

The differences over these issues go to the heart of achieving a genuine breakthrough on confidence-building and a reduction of the risk of surprise attack or a sudden outbreak of conventional war. Although the general mood Thursday night was still optimistic, nobody is ruling out failure.

NATO’s Demand

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization has demanded that planes used to inspect maneuvers be provided by neutral nations, not those taking part in the maneuvers. The Soviet Bloc has insisted that the countries conducting the exercises provide the planes, charging that Western planes might be loaded with espionage equipment.

Word that the United States and the rest of NATO might back down from their demand for neutral planes sent delegates rushing back to working groups for a last-minute push to resolve the issues.

After meeting for 33 months, the conference is scheduled to close today. The United States and most other delegations are adamant that they will not agree to any extension for negotiating purposes, which would require unanimous consent.

However, everybody is prepared to use the time-honored device of “stopping the clock” at midnight tonight and postponing the final speeches until Saturday--if negotiations are completed on a final document.

On Thursday, heads of delegation met to compile the text of what has so far been agreed, including a new mutual pledge of non-use of force to settle disputes in Europe. But all this will fail unless the other disputes can be resolved.

NATO delegation sources believe that a formula can be found to resolve the argument over the size of maneuvers that would require notification between East and West. But the sources are less certain about how the aerial inspection issues can be dealt with.

The original 1975 Helsinki Agreements specified that each side should voluntarily notify its immediate neighbors of any military exercise involving more than 25,000 troops and left it voluntary whether foreign military observers would be invited to attend.

The Stockholm agreement, if it is concluded, would make it mandatory that all the participating states be notified at least 42 days in advance of all military maneuvers. But the Soviets are saying that the new ceiling for notification must be 16,000 troops, while the NATO powers, saying they wanted to know about even smaller exercises, first wanted 6,000 as the threshold for notification and have now edged up to 9,000.

A compromise under discussion would require notification of all maneuvers involving more than 9,000 troops, but would fix a higher ceiling for maneuvers that staff officers from other countries would be automatically allowed to attend.

On the issue of aerial inspections, the negotiations appear to be shifting to drafting a specific set of rules and procedures that will be followed by both sides. The United States, for example, has indicated that it would be willing to accept the Soviet demand that the inspected nation provide the planes as long as there are guarantees that the aircraft are “suitable for the job,” one Western spokesman said.

The United States has not forgotten a 1979 Warsaw Pact maneuver in which Westerners were given binoculars that could not focus, making inspection meaningless.