Soviet Envoys Float New Summit Hints; U.S. Is Skeptical
Soviet diplomats said Friday that there could be a Reyjavik-style summit in a neutral location this spring between President Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev, but a White House spokesman denied knowledge of any such plans.
In Moscow, a senior Western diplomat said that the Soviets are spreading rumors about a possible meeting but that there has been no actual planning. The diplomat said Washington, however, is keeping open its offer of a formal summit in the United States.
Soviet envoys in Geneva apparently are using the news media to float suggestions of another superpower summit encounter on the lines of the informal Reagan-Gorbachev talks in Reyjavik, Iceland, last Oct. 11-12.
One Soviet diplomatic source here said “there is talk” about a meeting in March or April, either in Geneva or another neutral location.
An American official here said he had heard that Soviet diplomats “are floating such a rumor.”
In Washington, a White House spokesman said, “I don’t think there’s anything to it at all.”
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