‘No Basis’ for U.S. Charges of Soviet Cheating, Warnke Says

Former U.S. arms negotiator Paul C. Warnke said Thursday there is “no basis” for new charges by President Reagan that the Soviet Union violated the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty by relocating two radar installations.

Warnke, who negotiated arms control treaties for President Carter, said American inspectors should have accepted a Soviet invitation and gone to the sites before the charges were leveled.

“I see no indication we have that sort of proof at this time,” Warnke told a news conference.

The new charges are clouding--”poisoning,” in Soviet words--the atmosphere four days before the arrival of Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev for a third superpower summit meeting.

Warnke said analyses by the State Department and the CIA indicate that the record of compliance on both sides with existing arms control agreements has been good.

The chief U.S. negotiator of the 1979 strategic arms limitation treaty said he does not fault the White House for submitting the report to Congress since the document was required by law by Dec. 1.

“But I would fault the content,” he said. “It seems to me there is no basis for maintaining that these two mobile radars that were moved constitute a violation of the ABM treaty.”

Apart from the 15-page report, and a more detailed classified version withheld from the public, Reagan in speeches and statements this week has renewed charges of Soviet violations.

The report accuses the Soviets of flouting the 1972 ABM treaty by shifting the two radar installations beyond permitted deployment areas and probably carrying out illegal anti-missile tests.

Reagan also charged Moscow with improving a challenged radar at Krasnoyarsk and possibly preparing an anti-ballistic missile defense in violation of the treaty.

The Soviets promptly denied the latest charges.

“We have invited the American side to send observers to the region so that they can see for themselves that we are not breaking the ABM treaty,” Albert Vlasov, a spokesman for the Soviet Central Committee, told a Washington news conference.