Reagan’s Shift on A-Tests a ‘Trick,’ Soviet Aide Says

A Soviet spokesman charged Saturday that President Reagan’s pre-summit policy shift on nuclear testing is a “trick” and reiterated Moscow’s call for a total test ban.

“This is just a trick to lead political opinion away from the real problem to a false problem,” said Georgy A. Arbatov, a Kremlin adviser and head of the Moscow-based Institute for Study of the United States and Canada.

Arbatov, at a news briefing, apparently meant that Reagan’s surprise announcement Friday that he will submit two decade-old, limited test ban treaties to the Senate was intended to focus attention on the problem of verification of the test bans and away from Soviet calls for moving beyond limited restrictions to a prohibition on all tests.

In his announcement, Reagan emphasized that the Soviets would have to negotiate improved verification procedures before either treaty could take effect.

White House spokesman Larry Speakes, responding to Arbatov’s criticism, pointed out that the Soviet official had not been included in the opening round of talks between Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev on Saturday. The implication was that Arbatov did not know Gorbachev’s genuine reaction to the Reagan move.

However authoritative Arbatov’s words were, his sharply negative reaction indicated that the Soviets were stung by the Administration’s stratagem, announced on the eve of the summit, and were concerned that it could diminish the effectiveness of their propaganda campaign to embarrass the United States on the nuclear test issue.

The United States has refused to join the Soviet Union in a moratorium on nuclear testing, which Gorbachev imposed 14 months ago and has renewed twice. It is currently scheduled to expire on Jan. 1, 1987.

“I don’t consider this to be a really new step,” Soviet foreign relations analyst Yevgeny Primakov said of the Reagan proposal. “You know that this ratification-for-verification idea has been proposed before.

“If we were talking about a ban or at least a limit on tests--even a temporary one during negotiations--that would be something,” he added.

Demand for Ratification

The Soviets have long demanded that successive U.S. Administrations submit the two treaties--initialed in the 1970s--for formal ratification, as Reagan now intends to do. Moscow had promised that, afterward, it would discuss improved measures to guard against violation of the treaties.

One of the proposed pacts, the 1974 Threshold Test Ban Treaty, prohibits underground nuclear tests of weapons with a yield higher than 150 kilotons (equal to 150,000 tons of TNT). The other, the 1976 Peaceful Nuclear Explosions Treaty, applies the same limit to tests of nuclear devices used for peaceful purposes. Atmospheric testing has been banned since 1963.

Arbatov said the Reagan move would have been welcomed a decade ago, soon after the treaties were initialed. “Now the train has left the station,” he said.

Already in Compliance

Both sides are already complying voluntarily with the 150-kiloton limit, he said, notwithstanding U.S. charges that the Soviets have likely violated that ceiling more than half a dozen times. Both sides should now move to a comprehensive ban, Arbatov added.

The United States carried out 18 nuclear tests in the last fiscal year, nearly double the number of eight years ago.

The United States and the Soviet Union also differ on whether low-yield nuclear tests can be detected and accurately measured from large distances.

In announcing the move to submit the two treaties to the Senate, Speakes said Friday that although the Senate would be asked for its advice and consent, Reagan would not necessarily sign the treaties--the formal act of ratification--until the Soviets had agreed to adequate verification provisions.

If such provisions were agreed upon, Reagan would then negotiate ways to reduce testing “step by step” while simultaneously reducing offensive nuclear weapons, Speakes said.

Significant Shift

The President’s move, while presented mainly as a concession to Congress to resolve an impasse over Democratic demands for arms control measures in a spending bill, was regarded as a significant shift because he previously had refused to submit the treaties until the Soviets agreed to verification procedures.

So, the President’s announcement permits Gorbachev to claim that he won a concession from Reagan on the testing issue.

Soviet officials, at a press briefing here, also hinted that Gorbachev might refuse to visit the United States in the near future if the Pentagon goes ahead with plans to breach the ceiling of the second strategic arms limitation treaty, known as SALT II, later this year.

‘Welcome Step’

Asked if a compromise on intermediate-range missile negotiations would be a step that could lead to a Washington summit in December, Andrei Gretchev, a Communist Party Central Committee spokesman, said it would be “an important and welcome step.” But he declined to speculate on a date for the next summit.

Arbatov, however, responded, “Yes, if no counteractions occur,” apparently replying to both parts of the question, including a December date for the next summit. He then added pointedly:

“I hear that the Air Force insists on breaking out of SALT II on Nov. 11.”

Arbatov’s remarks came against the background of Reagan’s announcement last May that sometime this year the United States will end compliance with the ceiling of 1,320 ballistic missiles set down for each side in the 1979 SALT II treaty, which was never ratified.

So far, the United States has not actually breached the limit, but when the 131st B-52 bomber is converted to carry cruise missiles, the key SALT II ceiling will be violated.

Problem in Timing

Arbatov was indicating that Gorbachev would have difficulty traveling to the United States for a summit aimed at arms reductions just as the United States moved to abandon a previous arms restraint agreement.

Various dates have been mentioned for converting the 131st B-52 to carry cruise missiles, including both Nov. 11 and Dec. 22.

Speakes would only confirm that the work is scheduled for completion before the end of this year.

He added, however, that no decision has yet been made on whether to dismantle other similar, but older, weapons as compensation for the 131st bomber, and thus keep the United States within the SALT II ceiling.