Geneva Talks to Resume Today; Summit Maneuvering Expected

GENEVA — A new round of nuclear arms talks opens here today with a new chief Soviet negotiator and increasing indications that the Soviets will be maneuvering for a spring meeting of Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev and President Reagan.

First Deputy Foreign Minister Yuli M. Vorontsov, who is replacing Viktor P. Karpov as head of the Soviet delegation, arrived a day late Wednesday at the Geneva airport, which had been snowbound. He declined to make an arrival statement.

To a shouted question about whether he brought any new proposals, he replied, “I will tell that to Mr. Kampelman,” referring to Max M. Kampelman, head of the U.S. delegation.

The arms talks are to begin this morning at the Soviet Mission and are expected to continue into March. There has been no active discussion of another summit, but the possibility is being taken seriously in the U.S. delegation, for the six months ahead are seen as a make-or-break period for reaching an arms control agreement during the Reagan presidency.

If the U.S. delegation is able to return to Washington in March with a set of negotiable Soviet proposals to be thrashed out during the Easter recess in the talks, this would lead logically to a Washington visit by Gorbachev, to conclude an agreement, followed by a Moscow visit by Reagan before the end of the year, to sign the agreement.

There is a feeling among senior members of the American delegation that the replacement of Karpov by Vorontsov is an indication of Kremlin determination to make one more effort at an agreement and another summit meeting.

“Everything of course depends on whether they come up with any new proposals, but we think that they do realize the importance of concluding an agreement with the Reagan Administration, and we think they will be making moves in this direction in this round,” an American source said. “Whether it will come off is another matter.”

After the summit meeting last October in Reykjavik, the capital of Iceland, the Geneva negotiations marked time, with both sides routinely re-submitting and discussing proposals that had been made in Iceland before the summit meeting broke down.

Then, in early December, another abortive meeting took place between Secretary of State George P. Shultz and Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard A. Shevardnadze, in Vienna. This was followed by an intensive week of talks here, with 14 meetings in four days.