Shultz Leaves for Moscow Talks on New Arms Pact, Afghanistan Accord

Secretary of State George P. Shultz left on Friday for talks in Moscow designed to rescue faltering superpower arms control negotiations and pursue a prospective settlement of the Afghanistan war.

While the main purpose of the trip is making progress on an arms control agreement that could be signed at a superpower summit in Moscow in late spring, regional issues will also be high on the agenda, U.S. officials say.

Shultz and Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard A. Shevardnadze--whose frequent talks last year made possible the intermediate-range nuclear forces treaty signed in December by President Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev--have already agreed on the need to hold monthly meetings in advance of the next summit. The Shultz visit to Moscow is the first in this series.

U.S. officials said they do not expect that a firm date for the fourth Reagan-Gorbachev summit will be set until after the U.S. Senate acts on the INF pact.

Gorbachev’s recent offer to begin withdrawing Soviet troops from Afghanistan by May 15 if Afghanistan and Pakistan can reach a peace accord by March 15 has raised expectations of progress in that thorny regional dispute.

Shultz’s top expert in that area, Undersecretary of State Michael H. Armacost, is accompanying him to Moscow, a sign of U.S. resolve in tackling this matter.

After a stop in Helsinki, Finland, Shultz will be in Moscow on Sunday and Monday when he meets Gorbachev. He then will brief Western allies at North Atlantic Treaty Organization headquarters in Brussels before returning to Washington on Tuesday.