Gorbachev Says He Needs a ‘Reason’ to Come to U.S. : Reagan’s Letter Not Enough

Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev got a new invitation from President Reagan today for a summit in Washington, but he said, “Generally, without reason, I do not go anywhere, particularly America.”

Secretary of State George P. Shultz gave Gorbachev the President’s letter when they met in the Kremlin.

“This cannot be just a stroll,” Gorbachev said of a possible visit to the U.S. capital. “When I will be nearing retirement, then I may travel just for pleasure, but now I need business.”

Gorbachev, 56, has steadfastly resisted Reagan’s invitation, even though the two leaders decided at their 1985 meeting in Geneva to hold summits in both Washington and Moscow.

“You’re welcome to come,” Shultz said. “I have a letter from the President and it says so.”

Lengthy Meeting

He and Gorbachev spent 4 1/2 hours together, and a late-night meeting was arranged between Shultz and Foreign Minister Eduard A. Shevardnadze.

Reagan and Gorbachev held an “interim” meeting last October in Iceland and reached tentative understandings on the reduction of nuclear weapons.

Nuclear arms dominate the Shultz agenda in Moscow. American and Soviet arms experts have held separate meetings in an attempt to narrow differences.

A dispute over 130 short-range Soviet weapons has delayed an agreement to remove medium-range missiles from Europe.

The espionage issue is more volatile. Shultz confronted Shevardnadze at the start of his visit Monday with charges that Soviet spies helped by U.S. Marine guards had access to sensitive files at the U.S. Embassy.

The Big Question

As Gorbachev and Shultz shook hands today under gilded chandeliers from the czarist days in the Kremlin’s Catherine Hall, a reporter asked the Soviet leader if he would go to Washington this year.

“This is precisely what we are going to discuss,” he replied in Russian. “We must continue the discussion and then answer your question.”

Shultz stood impassively as Gorbachev made his comments about the possibility of a visit. Gorbachev said, “Well, I think I have to be hopeful, and it just cannot be that I would avoid America in my travels.”

Gesturing toward Shultz, the Soviet leader said with a small smile, “And the secretary of state keeps silent.”

At that point, Shultz pulled Reagan’s letter from his pocket and handed it to Gorbachev, saying he was welcome to visit.

The two men, with a few advisers, then sat down on opposite sides of a long polished table.

Gorbachev turned Reagan’s letter over to Shevardnadze and the foreign minister apparently passed it to Anatoly F. Dobrynin, who was ambassador to Washington for a quarter of a century and who now is secretary of the Communist Party Central Committee.

Gently needling the Soviet leader, Shultz said, “I don’t want to interfere in your internal affairs but giving him a letter the President wrote to you. . . . “

Gorbachev interjected, “He (Dobrynin) hasn’t yet forgotten being an ambassador, when everything was done through him.”

Journalists then were asked to leave and the two sides got down to business.

Between meetings with Gorbachev and Shevardnadze, Shultz addressed nearly 200 U.S. Embassy staff members and their families at an ice cream party in the mission’s snack bar.

“We have our ups and downs,” he said. “Right now, with our espionage difficulties, we have our downs.”

But he assured the crowd gathered to eat fresh strawberries and sundaes that “the message tonight is that we love you all.”