Reagan to Submit Two A-Test Pacts to Senate : Seeks Soviet Agreement on Verification

President Reagan, in a move that the White House said is aimed at removing a major roadblock to an arms control agreement, will inform Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev today that he plans to submit two decade-old nuclear test ban treaties to the Senate for ratification.

In making the announcement here on the eve of the two-day summit between Reagan and Gorbachev, the White House emphasized that the Soviets would be required to negotiate improved verification procedures for both treaties before they would become effective.

As outlined by White House spokesman Larry Speakes, Reagan’s proposal would be aimed at eventually ending all nuclear testing as well as reducing and eventually eliminating all nuclear arms.

The proposal, depicted by the White House as more of a concession to Congress than to the Soviet Union, answered congressional demands for action on a test ban treaty and helped persuade House Democrats to compromise on arms control provisions they had earlier insisted on including in the 1987 spending bill. Among other things, the Democrats dropped their demands that Reagan continue to comply with the unratified second strategic arms limitation treaty.

The compromise “untied the President’s hands to deal effectively with the Soviet Union,” Speakes said, and Reagan telephoned House Speaker Thomas P. (Tip) O’Neill Jr. and Majority Leader Jim Wright (D-Tex.) to express his appreciation for the agreement.

A Summit Priority

Gorbachev has made a nuclear test ban one of his top summit priorities and has put pressure on Reagan to agree to such a test ban by extending a moratorium that was imposed on Soviet nuclear testing in August, 1985, until at least the end of this year.

But Reagan has rejected a moratorium on grounds that the United States must test to ensure the readiness and reliability of its weapons. There has been no indication that Reagan’s proposals would be automatically acceptable to Gorbachev, because verification has long been a major stumbling block to reaching a test ban treaty.

The White House also announced Friday that Reagan will address the nation Monday night on his talks with Gorbachev, fueling speculation that the two leaders came here with the outline of some sort of agreement already in hand.

However, in an attempt to dampen such suggestions, Speakes told reporters that the President simply “feels obligated when he meets with the leader of the Soviet Union to report to the American people about those discussions.”

Forum Undecided

Reagan has not yet decided whether to make his televised address from the White House or to seek congressional approval for an address to a joint session of Congress, as he did when he returned from his first summit with Gorbachev last Nov. 20.

The President, who arrived here Thursday, spent most of Friday in briefings with top aides, paid a 35-minute courtesy call on Iceland President Vigdis Finnbogadottir, who greeted him outside her official residence in a white mid-length dress despite a blustery chill.

Reagan told reporters he had meant it when he said earlier he could “do business” with Gorbachev, but when pressed on the point, said, “We’re sure going to find out.”

Next Year’s Business

The President’s proposal on nuclear testing will call for submitting both the 1974 Threshold Test Ban Treaty (TTBT) and the 1976 Peaceful Nuclear Explosions Treaty (PNET) to the Senate for its consideration after the 100th Congress convenes next year.

If the Soviet Union agrees to “essential TTBT-PNET verification procedures” which could be submitted to the Senate for its consideration in the form of a protocol, the President would ask the Senate to make ratification its first order of business.

If the Soviets failed to agree to the required package of verification improvements before Congress convenes, the President still would seek the Senate’s advice and consent on ratification, but with a reservation that the treaties would not take effect “until they are effectively verifiable.”

Elimination of Arms

Speakes said Reagan also will tell Gorbachev that once verification concerns have been satisfied and the treaties have been ratified, he will propose that the two superpowers “immediately engage in negotiations on ways to implement a step-by-step parallel program--in association with a program to reduce and ultimately eliminate all nuclear weapons--of limiting and ultimately ending nuclear testing.”

Congressional leaders expressed support for Reagan’s proposal in a bipartisan spirit, Speakes said, and as a result Reagan can make clear to Gorbachev that the United States is united in its determination to limit nuclear testing and that “the first requirement is for him to act now to resolve the verification problems with the existing treaties. . . . “

The two treaties involved prohibit underground and non-military nuclear explosions having yields in excess of 150 kilotons. Neither side has ratified the treaties, but each has stated that it would voluntarily respect the 150-kiloton limit.

No Push for Ratification

No Administration has ever pushed for ratification of the two treaties, though they were initialed by both sides after they were negotiated.

Former President Jimmy Carter decided to withhold both treaties from Congress, although he endorsed them, because he thought he could negotiate a comprehensive ban on all underground blasts--an effort cut short by the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

Reagan, on the other hand, never previously sought ratification because he believed the United States could not effectively verify Soviet compliance with the 150-kiloton threshold laid out by the treaties. Underground nuclear tests in that range are difficult to distinguish from earthquakes and other seismic events.

New Technology Available

Now, new technology--called the CORTEXX system--is available that allows for more accurate measurements of nuclear tests. But the Soviets so far have balked at accepting that technology.

In 1963, both the United States and the Soviet Union ratified the Limited Test Ban Treaty, which prohibits nuclear explosions in the atmosphere, outer space and under water, and now also includes bans on the release of radioactive debris outside the boundaries of a state conducting a major nuclear explosion.

Despite the announcement about Reagan’s nuclear testing initiative and his plans for a Monday night address, senior Reagan aides here continued to caution against expecting the summit to produce any substantive agreements.

In fact, although Administration officials earlier had suggested that the setting of a date for a full-scale summit to be held in Washington might be one of the most important accomplishments here, aides Friday said the setting of a date would be of only secondary importance.

The most important thing to expect from the summit, two senior aides told reporters, is for the two leaders to provide an “impulse” or impetus to their arms control negotiators in Geneva to reach some sort of an agreement.