Soviet Envoy Ties a Summit in 1987 to Shultz Meetings

A veteran Soviet diplomat on Thursday mentioned the possibility of a meeting between President Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev in Washington late this year but tied it directly to the success of high-level U.S.-Soviet talks scheduled for next week in Moscow.

The talks, due to begin Monday, involve Secretary of State George P. Shultz and Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard A. Shevardnadze. They are expected to dwell heavily on a possible agreement to eliminate the intermediate-range nuclear missiles of both countries based in Europe.

The Soviet diplomat, Ambassador to Britain Leonid M. Zamyatin, told a group of American correspondents here Thursday that the Soviet Union sees no major obstacles to concluding an agreement on medium-range missiles within a matter of months.

‘Depends on Shultz’

“Everything depends on what Mr. Shultz comes to Moscow with,” Zamyatin said. “If Mr. Shultz comes to Moscow with a clear intention (to press ahead with the effort to sign an agreement on missiles), then that is all right. But if he comes with empty hands, then there is no sense to arrange another summit.”

He said the Shultz-Shevardnadze meeting could accelerate the process of reaching agreement.

Zamyatin’s remarks were judged by Western observers here as being significant, in part because he returned recently from Moscow, where he was closely involved with Gorbachev’s meetings with British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

Moreover, his views carry weight because of his status as a member of the Central Committee of the Soviet Communist Party and as the official spokesman for each of the past five Soviet leaders. He was named ambassador to London a year ago.

Embassy ‘a Distraction’

Zamyatin dismissed recent disclosures of security breaches at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow as “a distraction” aimed at impeding progress toward an arms control agreement.

“Sometimes, when you are close to an agreement, there is a hindrance,” he said. “There is a need to go back to the real negotiations, which are very serious at this moment.”

The Reagan Administration’s anger and embarrassment over the extent of the security breakdown at the embassy have placed new strains on U.S.-Soviet relations in recent days. Shultz told a news conference Wednesday in Washington that the disclosure had “cast a heavy shadow” over his meetings with Shevardnadze and that the question of security at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow would come up in his talks.

U.S. Marine guards at the embassy are said to have given Soviet agents access to highly sensitive areas in return for sexual favors from Soviet women employed by the embassy.

Security Compromised

Also, there have been reports that a new U.S. embassy building nearing completion in Moscow may have to be torn down because of concern that the Soviets have compromised its security by placing listening devices in it.

Shultz reportedly plans to discuss with Shevardnadze a number of regional issues as well, including Afghanistan and the Middle East, but the thrust of the talks is expected to be on arms control.

The visit was arranged early last month after Moscow dropped its longstanding insistence that any agreement on intermediate-range missiles be tied to limits on President Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative, the “Star Wars” missile defense program.

Draft Treaty Submitted

Following this breakthrough, Washington submitted a draft treaty for negotiation in Geneva that would completely eliminate intermediate-range nuclear forces in Europe, limit the Soviets to 100 warheads based in Asia and permit a matching number in the continental United States.

Both sides have apparently agreed to this formula, but differences remain on other issues, such as how closely such an accord should be linked to talks on shorter-range nuclear missiles, those with a range of less than 600 miles.