Final Arms Pact Issues Resolved : U.S. and Soviets to Sign Accord on Mid-Range Missiles at Summit

By ROBERT C. TOTH

Nov. 25, 1987 12 AM PT

Times Staff Writer

GENEVA —

The United States and the Soviet Union announced Tuesday that, after six years of work, they have completed a treaty to ban all ground-launched medium-range nuclear missiles.

Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard A. Shevardnadze, who resolved the outstanding obstacles with Secretary of State George P. Shultz in two days of intensive talks here, called the agreement “historic” and of “tremendous importance for the world.”

The agreement, the first ever that would actually reduce the number of nuclear weapons, is scheduled to be signed by President Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev at a Washington summit meeting just two weeks from now.

Soviets Eliminating More

Under its terms, the Soviets will eliminate four times as many missiles as the United States and roughly six times as many warheads. The weapons will be eliminated within three years, and inspectors for both sides will monitor compliance for 10 years after that.

The announcement of an agreement was made by Shultz and Shevardnadze outside the U.S. Mission to the United Nations here in a cold but gentle rain late Tuesday afternoon.

“We’ve now completed agreement on all the outstanding INF issues,” Shultz said, using the initials for Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces, as the medium-range missiles have been called. “All that remains is treaty language, which others will be able to do.”

Once ratified by the U.S. Senate, the treaty will provide for a system of on-site inspection in both countries that will go “far beyond anything attempted before,” Shultz said.

Ratification is expected despite opposition from more than a dozen Senate conservatives. To opponents who plan to vote against the agreement, Shultz said, “Critics must say why they want more nuclear weapons rather than less.” This argument--that fewer nuclear weapons are better than more--is expected to be the Administration’s mainstay in the ratification debate.

In Denver, where he stopped off to make a speech while on his way to his Santa Barbara ranch for the Thanksgiving holiday, Reagan said he is pleased about the pact.

“It appears that all of the remaining issues on reaching an INF agreement have been resolved, including a reliable and credible verification package,” he said.

Verification issues were the last to be resolved.

Two U.S. Facilities

Under the terms of the treaty, Soviet inspectors will have the right to examine two facilities in the United States. Shultz would not specify which U.S. plants will be subject to inspection, but U.S. officials provided enough detail so that the possibilities could be narrowed to a ballistic missile production plant, probably in Orlando, Fla., and a General Dynamics Corp. plant in San Diego that produces cruise missile launchers.

The last issue to be agreed upon, a senior U.S. official said, was Soviet acceptance of these two U.S. facilities as “comparable” to the two Soviet facilities to be inspected by U.S. personnel.

Besides the United States and the Soviet Union, on-site inspection will take place at U.S. facilities in five North Atlantic Treaty Organization countries where U.S. weapons are based or were planned to be based--West Germany, Britain, Italy, Belgium and the Netherlands--and in two Warsaw Pact nations--East Germany and Czechoslovakia--where Soviet missiles have been stationed.

“This is the first negotiation of a truly international agreement as it involves nine countries,” Shevardnadze said.

“This is also the first renunciation by the two powers of a portion of their sovereignty” by giving the other the right to such inspections, he added. “A political thaw is starting which may lead to a change in the political climate on our planet.”

The treaty will be the first one in the nuclear age to wipe out a whole class of nuclear weapons--ground-launched missiles with a range of between 300 and 3,000 miles.

The agreement is precedent-setting in two other respects: It establishes the principles of on-site inspection and of “asymmetrical” or unequal reductions, in which the side with the most weapons must reduce the most.

Both principles will be of great significance in the continuing negotiations toward reducing by half the much bigger and more threatening arsenals of intercontinental weapons on both sides.

U.S. and Soviet negotiators reported some progress in their talks to cut these strategic weapons. Their aim, a senior U.S. official said, is to prepare Reagan and Gorbachev so that they can agree at their summit meeting on common “instructions to negotiators,” guidelines for the diplomats in Geneva to speed work on a treaty that the Soviets hope will be completed in time for signing at a summit meeting in Moscow next spring.

Shultz said he and Shevardnadze also completed “all of the basic arrangements for the summit meeting.”

Shevardnadze predicted that the Dec. 7-10 summit “will be successful” as a result of the work done here.

Shultz added that Gorbachev’s wish for contact with congressmen--an issue made controversial by conservative Republicans--”will take place, but how this will be done has not been worked out.”

The conservatives, mostly from Reagan’s own party, threatened an embarrassing walkout if Gorbachev were allowed to address a joint session of Congress. As a result, Shultz has said, the Administration has sought to give the Soviet leader an opportunity for “conversational-type contacts” with leaders of Congress and its key committees dealing with treaty ratification, as well as with other congressmen who want to hear him.

Gorbachev will also meet with U.S. academicians, scientists and business leaders, Shultz said.

The technical processing of almost 200 pages of the treaty text, with protocols and annexes, remains to be done, senior U.S. officials said.

“We’ve got to go through the text and identify where the final pieces are put in place and how they affect the language elsewhere in the text. Basically, it’s all done,” a senior official said.

However, Shultz revealed that the Soviets have not yet provided all of the necessary data on the numbers of each type of Soviet weapon to be eliminated and their precise locations. But he added that the Soviets had promised to do so before the weekend.

The Soviets are having difficulty making two sets of numbers come out right, senior U.S. officials later explained. The discrepancy amounts to more than 10% of the totals, one official said.

In their breakdown of different missiles, the total provided by the Soviets in each category adds up to more than the total figure which they first provided.

“They recognize the discrepancy, which appears to err on the side of honesty rather than anything else,” said one official, “and they said they would straighten it out quickly.”

U.S. officials were reluctant to give out the figures that the Soviets have provided, apparently to avoid embarrassing Moscow further. But it appeared that between 1,750 and 2,000 Soviet missiles will be eliminated, while the U.S. total is somewhere over 500.

In any case, U.S. officials emphasize, the Soviet arsenal will be inspected as it now stands, and it will be monitored as the missiles are destroyed, then finally inspected to ensure that all the missiles are gone within the three-year period.

In addition, each side will be allowed a certain number of “challenge” or surprise inspections to investigate places where they suspect missiles might be hidden in violation of the treaty terms.

The treaty covers four types of Soviet missiles: the SS-20 and the SS-4, which are in the 600 to 3,000-mile-range category, and the SS-12/22 and the SS-23, which are in the 300 to 600-mile-range.

U.S. authorities have estimated that the Soviets have deployed 441 SS-20s and about 110 SS-4s, and about 130 of the shorter range missiles.

The shorter-range systems are to be dismantled faster--within 18 months. The longer-range missiles will be eliminated over three years. When the treaty takes effect after ratification, the short-range missiles and their launchers must be moved to separate elimination facilities within 90 days. The two elimination facilities must be at least 1,000 kilometers, or 620 miles, apart.

In addition, the shorter-range missiles that are not deployed--the Soviets have roughly eight times more of these missiles in storage than in the field with launchers, one U.S. official said--must be moved to their elimination facility for destruction within one year.

The United States has about 364 Pershing 2 and cruise missiles deployed in Europe, with about 100 not deployed. In addition, it has about 200 obsolete shorter-range Pershing 1A missiles in storage, with only one launcher vehicle for them all; all must be eliminated under the treaty.

Shevardnadze flew back to Moscow immediately to report to Gorbachev. Shultz returns to Washington late today after reporting to NATO allies in Brussels this morning.

PROPOSED INF TREATY-Deployed missiles slated to be eliminated.

Also in the treaty are 130 shorter-range Soviet SS-12 and SS-23 missiles.

Britain-96 Cruise

Belgium-16 Cruise

Italy 80 Cruise

West Germany-108 Pershing 2 and 64 Cruise

U.S.

Pershing 2:

Deployed: 108

Range: 1,125 miles

GLCM:

Deployed: 256