Thatcher Visits U.S.; Concerned by Arms Moves

British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher arrived here Friday for a 24-hour visit aimed at conveying European concern to President Reagan about U.S. arms control policy and reiterating her belief that no nation should negotiate with terrorists.

Thatcher, who met Friday night with Defense Secretary Caspar W. Weinberger and Secretary of State George P. Shultz at the British Embassy, is scheduled to meet with Reagan today at the presidential retreat at Camp David.

She did not speak to reporters when she arrived at Andrews Air Force Base Friday afternoon, and her embassy said she would not make any public statements after her closed meeting with the two U.S. Cabinet officials.

U.S. leaders are eager to assure the British prime minister that Britain’s independent forces will remain untouched in any arms deal worked out between the United States and the Soviet Union.

“There’s no question of our firm and continuing support for Britain’s independent nuclear deterrent,” said a senior U.S. official Friday, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Own Nuclear Strike Forces

For decades, as a hedge against any failure of the United States to defend them in time of nuclear war, both Britain and France have maintained their own nuclear strike forces, and the U.S. official stressed that Washington makes no claim to negotiating rights to those weapons.

In his talks with Thatcher, “The President is prepared to say that we’re not going to be negotiating on behalf of the British or the French,” the official said.

Those assurances probably will not completely allay Thatcher’s concerns about U.S. arms control policy. Thatcher’s central mission here is said to be to convince Reagan of the necessity to link any superpower agreement calling for the total elimination of nuclear arms to definite reductions of East Bloc conventional forces and weapons in Europe.

Soviet and East Bloc military forces have long held a substantial numerical superiority over the Western Alliance in Europe, but the North Atlantic Treaty Organization countries have viewed their own nuclear deterrent as enough of a threat to counter that superiority.

Many of America’s Western allies were clearly shaken by the results of last month’s Reykjavik summit between Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev. If the two leaders had not clashed over proposed restrictions on the U.S. Strategic Defense Initiative and other strategic defense systems, they would have reached an agreement to eliminate medium-range nuclear missiles from Europe and to set a timetable for the reduction and perhaps the elimination of strategic missiles over a 10-year period.

Fear of Destabilization

British officials have stressed they could support an accord with Moscow that would remove all medium-range nuclear missiles from Europe and cut deeply into the strategic missile arsenals of both countries, perhaps up to 30%.

However, in the British view, any cuts approaching 50%--as the superpowers discussed--could be destabilizing and would run counter to Western interests because of the Soviet superiority in conventional arms.

In the weeks since Reykjavik, Thatcher and her Cabinet ministers have repeatedly stressed the need to consider “the totality” of arms control in any agreement--a reference to conventional, biological and chemical weapons.

In London this week, she expressed concern about eliminating all ballistic missiles, which she said are necessary to defend Western European countries “vulnerable to attack by conventional forces and chemical weapons in a way which the United States is not.”

It is long-standing British government policy that it would not consider cuts in its own modest nuclear arsenal of 64 Polaris missiles until major reductions had been completed by the United States and the Soviet Union. However, Thatcher’s main opposition, the Labor Party, recently adopted a policy of unilateral nuclear disarmament.

Avoiding Discussion on Iran

Both Thatcher and her usually outspoken close aides have flatly refused to be drawn into discussions of the reports of American involvement with Iran, but such action runs completely counter to her own government’s aggressive and punitive policies towards nations involved in backing terrorism.

“Britain does not make deals with terrorists,” Thatcher’s Foreign Secretary, Geoffrey Howe, said in a parliamanetary debate Friday. “Concessions lead to more, not less hostage-taking.”

It was British diplomatic persistence that last Monday finally persuaded all European Communities countries except Greece to impose sanctions against Syria after courtroom evidence linked it to a plot to blow up an Israeli airliner in London last April. The State Department on Friday also announced a package of U.S. sanctions against Syria.

In light of the new U.S. sanctions, it is considered unlikely that Thatcher will press Reagan hard on her view that it is unwise to negotiate with terrorists for the release of hostages.

Times staff writer Tyler Marshall contributed to this story from London.