Soviets Display New Arms Plan at Geneva

Soviet negotiator Alexei A. Obukhov presented his country’s new arms proposals here Thursday and declared that they “open the way” to an agreement eliminating medium-range nuclear missiles from Europe.

Obukhov’s statement came a day after Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev in Moscow seemed to be trying to break the freeze in the arms negotiations by declaring his willingness to ban all medium-range nuclear missiles.

He made his remarks at the Soviet mission while awaiting the arrival of the U.S. delegation to a full session of the U.S. and Soviet experts who have been negotiating nuclear arms control since March, 1985.

Those talks are conducted by teams dealing with three distinct areas: medium- and shorter-range missiles, known as intermediate nuclear forces (INF); long-range strategic missiles, dealt with under strategic arms reduction talks (START), and space-based defenses.

While the teams ordinarily meet separately, plenary sessions, with everyone present, are held whenever new proposals are put on the table by one side or the other.

The Soviet negotiator formally presented the new Kremlin position, that Moscow is now prepared to scrap all the INF missiles--both those with a longer range of 600 to 3,000 miles, and shorter-range land-based missiles, those with a range of 300 to 600 miles.

Obukhov, who is leader of the Soviet section negotiating over intermediate-range weapons as well as deputy leader of the whole Soviet delegation, said that the new proposals pointed to a “double zero global solution” to the intermediate missile situation.

He declared that Gorbachev’s proposals represent a “new variant” on the existing proposals: that the Soviet Union would agree to eliminate the 100 intermediate-range warheads that both sides were planning to retain in the event of an agreement.

He said that scrapping the last of the warheads would “solve the problem of dealing with middle-range missiles.”

Earlier, the American government had indicated that if the Soviets insisted on keeping 100 intermediate-range warheads in Siberia, far from Europe, the United States should have the right to position an equivalent number of its warheads in Alaska.

According to the nuclear talks experts here, it would be much easier for both sides to verify that all intermediate-range missiles have been dismantled and scrapped than to check and guard against one side or the other cheating by exceeding a limit on the number of missiles allowed.

The meeting Thursday took place in an ornate conference room at the Soviet complex here. The American team was led by Maynard W. Glitman, who declined to comment on the Soviet proposal.

The chief Soviet arms negotiator, Yuli M. Vorontsov, was in Moscow on Thursday, and the American delegation head, Max M. Kampelman, remained in Washington.

Obukhov, asked whether the 72 Pershing 1-A missiles that the United States has supplied to West Germany would pose a problem, said that the United States must eliminate the missiles’ nuclear warheads, which it controls.

“Our position is that if we want to have a zero solution on the global scale, the warheads should go,” he said.

He added: “Now we have a real prospect for working out a draft treaty to eliminate medium-range Soviet and American missiles. We count on the reciprocity of the American side in this endeavor.”