U.S., Soviet Aides Agree to Speed Up Arms Pact Talks : Upbeat Mood Marks Discussion on Nuclear Missiles; Shevardnadze Says Both Sides Will Draw Draft Treaty

Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard A. Shevardnadze and the chief American nuclear arms negotiator, Ambassador Max M. Kampelman, met for more than three hours here Friday and agreed to speed up work on treaties to reduce short-range, intermediate-range and strategic nuclear missiles.

At a news conference following the meeting, Shevardnadze called the session “substantive, interesting and businesslike--we did not come to Geneva in vain.” Kampelman, at a separate press conference, said, “I rather liked the mood of today’s meeting: a positive and constructive atmosphere, a serious and frank exchange, but a pleasant exchange; we both agreed to accelerate progress.”

Shevardnadze said the two sides had agreed to prepare a mutually acceptable draft treaty on intermediate-range missiles, both those in the 600-3,000-mile range and those in the 300-600-mile range, to be ready when he meets with Secretary of State George P. Shultz in Washington in a month.

Kampelman, however, was less sanguine on this prospect.

“I cannot tell you what our expectations for that meeting are,” he said, “I can only say what our hope is. And our hope is that we will draw closer together and perhaps resolve some issues and arrive at a better understanding of each other’s positions.”

West German Pershings

At both news conferences, the issue of eliminating the 72 West German Pershing 1-A short-range missiles, which were purchased from the United States in 1962 and are equipped with nuclear warheads under U.S. control, continued to dominate at least the public debate.

Kampelman told his news conference that “the Pershings as such are not an issue for us in this negotiation--we have made that clear and this was repeated to the Soviets today.”

When Shevardnadze was asked about the possibility of a compromise formula to deal with the Pershing, he replied: “They have to be eliminated. That is the position of the Soviet leadership.”

During their three-hour meeting, however, the tone was reportedly very different. Kampelman was asked later if the United States would propose a compromise to the Soviets on the basis of the Pershing missiles’ age: they are already 25 years old and would be obsolete by the end of the five-year period in which, under the proposed treaty, the two classes of Soviet and American intermediate-range missiles are to be withdrawn from Europe

Again he replied this was not a matter even being discussed among the Americans at this time. But he did not rule out the possibility that the question might be raised at another level outside these talks.

Sources close to the negotiations have raised the possibility that a promise from the United States not to modernize the Pershings might be the compromise that removes this obstacle. With a such a pledge, the United States could argue that the missiles would be useless antiques by the end of the five years it would take to phase out all other intermediate-range missiles from Europe and that, with all those missiles eliminated, West Germany would have no incentive to keep or update the Pershings.

As for speeding up the talks in the next few weeks, a heavier schedule of working meetings will be organized for the talks on intermediate missiles. Also, the Soviets will send additional diplomatic and technical staff to reinforce their negotiating team on long-range strategic nuclear weapons, a second facet of these nuclear arms control talks. The third topic being discussed is weapons in space.

In particular, say the sources, there will be much intense work on the complex subject of verification and inspection of the withdrawal of the missiles. The American side says that this is now largely a technical rather than a political matter, but the problem is to get the details right, and this will involve a lot of hard work.

Little Confidentiality Now

Asked about the fact that this negotiation, which started 28 months ago on an agreed basis of strict confidentiality and very little publicity or press briefings, is now increasingly being conducted by press conferences, Op-Ed page pieces and television appearances on both sides, Kampelman said:

“We would prefer to stick to serious talks around the negotiating table rather than on public television and before the public media. It is our perception that since Moscow learned about Madison Avenue and has chosen to go public, then we feel we are prepared to do so. . . . We would prefer to minimize the area of public discourse on these issues. But right now the atmosphere is very businesslike and we would like to keep it that way.”