Reagan Will See Shevardnadze Tuesday on Arms and Summit

President Reagan has scheduled a meeting Tuesday with Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard A. Shevardnadze, bolstering reports that both an arms reduction agreement and a U.S.-Soviet summit meeting are in the offing.

The two will meet for 30 minutes to an hour to review negotiations in Geneva toward a global ban on medium-range nuclear missiles, White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater said.

“It will be a substantive meeting,” he said, but although a summit will “undoubtedly” be discussed, no announcement is imminent.

Fitzwater, speaking aboard Air Force One as the President flew to Miami to meet Pope John Paul II, said he did not know whether Shevardnadze would be carrying a message for the White House from Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev.

The White House considers the three-year-old missile talks to be in their final stages, and Shevardnadze’s visit has been widely considered to be the last high-level meeting required before a treaty is formally announced.

Expects Gorbachev Meeting

At a state dinner Wednesday for Swedish Prime Minister Ingvar Carlsson, Reagan told the Washington Post that he expects to meet with Gorbachev in Washington as early as October, but probably in November.

Fitzwater on Thursday played down the importance of that remark, saying that the White House long has said it hopes for a summit at about that time period.

Shevardnadze is scheduled to arrive in Washington on Sunday, officially to discuss the Geneva missile negotiations with Secretary of State George P. Shultz. The Shultz talks begin Tuesday and continue through Thursday, and Shevardnadze likely will meet Shultz again at the United Nations the following week, Fitzwater said.

Reagan sought to meet the Soviet foreign minister on Tuesday because “it is the first day of Shevardnadze’s visit and it will give the President the opportunity to discuss the progress of the arms control talks,” Fitzwater said.