Warsaw Pact, NATO to Hold Talks

The Warsaw Pact has accepted a NATO invitation to discuss prospects of new talks on conventional arms in Europe, but the two sides are already divided over who should take part in such negotiations.

Western diplomats say the 16-member North Atlantic Treaty Organization wants to negotiate only with the seven members of the Warsaw Pact.

The Warsaw Pact wants to invite all 35 countries that signed the Helsinki Final Act on European security and cooperation. That would include the United States, the Soviet Union, Canada and all European states except Albania.

The 35 signatories now are meeting in Vienna to review the Helsinki act and compliance with its provisions.

Meeting on Prospects for Talks

NATO and Warsaw Pact officials will meet Tuesday for breakfast at the French Embassy in Vienna to discuss the prospects of new talks on conventional weapons.

There are continuing talks on conventional troops and weapons, but they are restricted to the Central European area and to 19 NATO and Warsaw Pact nations.

The talks, also in Vienna, are bogged down in their 14th year and both sides have expressed the need for new negotiations covering all of Europe.

“We will . . . expound our position that there are not only NATO and Warsaw Treaty member states between the Atlantic Ocean and the Ural mountains,” Yuri B. Kashlev, the chief Soviet delegate to the Helsinki review conference, told a Hungarian newspaper.

In pressing for a greater number of participants in talks on conventional weapons, the Warsaw Pact countries point to the successes of the last Helsinki-type conference on a related issue.

Confrontation Risk Reduced

Last September, the 35 Helsinki signatories ended 30 months of negotiations by adopting measures to reduce the risk of military confrontations in Europe.

NATO and the Warsaw Pact nations--Poland, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, East Germany, Hungary, Romania and the Soviet Union--agreed to give each other notice of upcoming significant military exercises. Both sides hailed the accord, the first of its kind since the unratified second strategic arms limitation treaty was signed in 1979.

NATO has remained secretive about its agenda for new talks on conventional weapons, but Western diplomats, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Friday that NATO only wants to negotiate with the Warsaw Pact.

The different approach is symbolized by the choice of officials attending Tuesday’s exploratory meeting. The Western diplomats say the Americans plan to send Stephen Ledogar, a senior official at NATO headquarters in Brussels.

Soviet diplomats, also speaking on condition of anonymity, say the Soviet Union is sending Kashlev, its representative at the Helsinki review conference.

Victory Over France

The NATO decision to press for bloc-to-bloc talks appears to represent a victory for the United States over France, which is not a member of NATO’s military structure.

France reportedly favored broadening participation to include the 35 Helsinki signatories. The differences were ironed out last week in Brussels, but no details were made public.

French diplomats in Vienna have declined comment on the reported dispute with the United States, or its outcome.

The NATO stance is sure to be unpopular with Europe’s neutral and nonaligned countries, which are pressing to be included in any new conventional arms and troop talks.

Austria’s chief delegate to the Helsinki review conference, Rudolf Torovsky, told reporters Friday that all states party to the Helsinki accords should participate, whether or not they belong to a military alliance.

The continuing talks on conventional arms have reached a stalemate, partly because neither side accepts the other’s figures. It is not clear how new negotiations would solve the problem.

Balance of Forces

According to 1986 figures of the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies, NATO has 1,858,000 troops in Europe, compared to the Warsaw Pact’s 2,704,000.

The institute also gave the following figures:

--Main battle tanks: NATO 20,314; Warsaw Pact 46,610.

--Armed helicopters: NATO 714; Warsaw Pact 2,085.

--Naval frigates: NATO 190; Warsaw Pact 54.

--Land-based fighter aircraft (non-nuclear): NATO 452; Warsaw Pact 1,075.

--Reconnaissance aircraft: NATO 349; Warsaw Pact 443.