U.S., Soviets Fail to Resolve Issues in Informal Arms Talks

Four days of informal talks between American and Soviet negotiators failed to narrow differences on nuclear arms reductions, U.S. chief delegate Max M. Kampelman said today.

Kampelman said the Soviets continued to hold the elimination of medium-range nuclear missiles “hostage” to their demands in other areas, particularly limitations on President Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative.

Moscow has made cuts in offensive nuclear weapons conditional on strict limitations on SDI, Reagan’s anti-missile space defense known popularly as “Star Wars.”

The talks from Tuesday through today were “intensive” and “covered a great deal of ground,” Kampelman said, and “there was limited but useful progress” in reaffirming points of agreement and disagreement.

But “there were no substantive changes in position narrowing the differences between us,” Kampelman said in a written statement.

“We particularly regretted that the Soviets continued to hold progress in eliminating medium-range nuclear missiles hostage to Soviet demands in other areas, in spite of earlier assurances to the contrary,” he said.

The informal interim session was to review the status of the recessed Geneva talks on nuclear and space arms stand since the October summit between Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev in Iceland.