‘Good Progress’ Made at Shultz-Shevardnadze Talks : Spokesman Upbeat After Moscow Discussion of Arms, Afghanistan, Mideast, Rights

In a notably upbeat assessment, State Department spokesman Charles Redman said that the first of two days of talks between the top U.S. and Soviet foreign affairs officials were conducted in an “excellent atmosphere” Sunday, with “good progress across the full range of issues.”

Among the issues discussed by Secretary of State George P. Shultz and Foreign Minister Eduard A. Shevardnadze were strategic arms reduction efforts, attempts to end regional conflicts such those in Afghanistan and the Persian Gulf, and human rights issues such as Soviet emigration practices, Redman said.

Soviet spokesman Gennady I. Gerasimov, sitting beside Redman as reporters were briefed, did not disagree with Redman’s broad assessment, although he and the official Tass news agency were somewhat less positive, rating the talks as businesslike, substantive and held in “good spirit.”

Moreover, Gerasimov cautioned that today’s meeting between Shultz and Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev “will be of utmost importance” in determining the outcome of the talks and prospects for the next U.S.-Soviet summit meeting, which is expected to be held here in late May or early June.

Meeting With Sakharov

Between sessions with Shevardnadze, Shultz met with the best-known Soviet activist, Nobel laureate Andrei D. Sakharov. Over tea and peanuts in Sakharov’s tiny apartment, the latter encouraged Shultz to push for human rights and a new strategic arms treaty. But he also urged “maximum restraint in developing SDI,” according to a U.S. official who was present.

SDI stands for the Strategic Defense Initiative, which is the Reagan Administration’s space-based, anti-missile defense program, popularly called “Star Wars.” The Soviet Union and many Democrats in Congress oppose President Reagan’s intensive research effort to find exotic beam weapons such as lasers to destroy enemy warheads.

Sakharov, whom Gorbachev freed from a long period of internal exile in the industrial center of Gorky, applauded the superpowers’ new medium-range missile treaty as a”qualitatively new element in Soviet-American relations and a quantitatively new element in world politics because it eliminates two entire classes of nuclear missiles” in the range between 300 and 3,400 miles, the U.S. official added.

The Soviet physicist, who was instrumental in development of the Soviet hydrogen bomb, suggested that the United States accept a Soviet proposal for a human rights conference in Moscow if the Soviets withdraw from Afghanistan and release all political prisoners in Soviet jails.

Sakharov avoided appearing with Shultz before waiting reporters and photographers when the American official departed after their 30-minute talk. Some Moscow observers attributed this to his current desire to avoid high visibility while still speaking out on controversial issues.

New Fishing Agreement

Shultz and Shevardnadze interrupted their talks Sunday to sign a new U.S.-Soviet fishing agreement, which gives U.S. fishermen access to the Soviet 200-mile economic zone off the Pacific Coast. The Soviets have long enjoyed such access in U.S. economic waters, but American fishermen have never cared about reciprocity in the past, a U.S. Embassy official said.

The agreement, Shultz said after the ceremony, was “one more example of progress in our trade relationships.”

Gerasimov and Tass repeated previous Soviet charges that the Pentagon is seeking to “circumvent” the medium-range missile accord with plans to “modernize” short-range nuclear weapons in Europe and to sabotage efforts to achieve a global ban on chemical weapons by resuming their production. The United States has rejected both criticisms.

But these complaints seemed almost perfunctory amid the overall optimism. The two spokesmen illustrated the mood when asked if the slight collision of U.S. and Soviet warships in the Black Sea this month had been discussed during the day.

“No,” Redman said, “and I don’t see why it should be.”

Shevardnadze’s Limerick

“Let bygones be bygones,” added Gerasimov. “The meeting here was intended to give new impetus to the questions which diplomats in Geneva have not been capable of solving,” Gerasimov added. He said he referred both to the strategic nuclear arms control talks and Afghan peace negotiations being held in the Swiss city.

Gerasimov later added a poetic touch to stress the upbeat tone of the meetings by reciting some lines he had penned in English:

Whenever Soviet-American relations

Seem to get a little out of steam,

There comes to the scene

Secretary Shultz’s team.

An excellent negotiating tool.

Our ministers go to the heart of the matter

With no time lost

And things begin to look brighter

Even to the host.