Reagan to Celebrate Unity With NATO Leaders : Summit to Focus on Non-Nuclear Arms in Wake of Missile Pact

President Reagan, facing a North Atlantic Treaty Organization that is shifting its attention to the imbalance of non-nuclear forces after the signing of the U.S.-Soviet medium-range nuclear arms pact, embarks today on a three-day trip to Brussels to celebrate unity with other NATO leaders.

The rare session with his counterparts from all nations in the alliance offers Reagan an opportunity to begin warming up for his anticipated late-spring summit conference with Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev in Moscow by seeking the backing of the Western leaders in a variety of arms control areas.

The session--the first such gathering in nearly six years--occurs “at a useful time in making certain the Soviets have no opportunity to drive wedges” in the alliance, a White House arms control adviser said.

At the same time, Reagan hopes to persuade some allies, concerned that the United States may be backing away from its European military commitment, that the Administration has no intention of removing its defense umbrella as the U.S. and Soviet arsenals of ground-launched intermediate-range nuclear missiles are dismantled under the treaty signed in December.

Imbalance a High Priority

In a speech here Monday to a convention of the American Legion, Reagan said that while the United States is pressing the Soviet Union for a 50% reduction in the superpowers’ long-range weapons, “a serious imbalance of conventional (non-nuclear) forces in Europe must be addressed as an equally high priority.”

“This imbalance represents an unacceptable threat to the West,” Reagan said.

In addition, he said, “we have let there be no doubt in the Soviets’ minds: An attack on free Europe would be the same as an assault on the United States.

“The core of our foreign policy and of our national security is our permanent partnership with our fellow democracies in the Atlantic Alliance,” he declared. “We will never sacrifice the interests of our allies and friends in any agreement with the Soviet Union.”

However, in a warning that the United States expects its allies to shoulder a greater burden of the military and financial responsibility for the shared defense, he said that for the four decades of NATO’s existence, the organization represented “an alliance between a number of partners and one very senior partner.”

Call for Equal Partnership

Europe, he pointed out, has risen from the destruction and poverty that prevailed at the end of World War II, when NATO was created, and “the alliance should become more and more one among equals, an alliance between continents.”

Still, he said, “our alliance has never been stronger or more unified.”

Reagan is flying to Brussels today. The leaders of the 16 nations in the alliance are scheduled to meet Wednesday and Thursday morning, and Reagan is to return to Washington on Thursday evening.

A senior Administration official told reporters that the question of conventional forces will play “a very central place” in Brussels. The United States has 326,000 troops deployed in Western Europe, and Defense Secretary Frank C. Carlucci and Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Sam Nunn (D-Ga.) have indicated that some withdrawal might be necessary.

The Administration official said Europeans are concerned that efforts to redress what the West sees as an imbalance of conventional forces might be overlooked in the drive for a long-range, or strategic, arms agreement before Reagan leaves office next January--if not by the time of the Moscow summit meeting.

Problem of Modernization

Perhaps the most difficult issue facing the alliance these days is the modernization of short-range nuclear weapons. This apparently is being put aside in an effort to keep the spotlight this week on allied unity.

The Administration official maintained that the modernization, involving the replacement of 88 launchers for aging Lance short-range missiles, will proceed. The upgrading, which would provide better accuracy and greater range, is an important issue in West Germany, where such weapons are key to fears involving the issue of imbalance.

In his American Legion speech, meanwhile, Reagan also touched on the issue of U.S. assistance for the anti-Sandinista rebels fighting to overthrow the Nicaraguan government, saying that in the first two months of 1988, Soviet military assistance to the Sandinistas was nearly twice as great as during the same period a year ago.

“Congressional opponents of aid argued that the peace process would flourish and the Sandinistas would democratize if we cut off our assistance to the freedom fighters,” Reagan said. “Well, it’s been three weeks (since Congress turned down his request for $36.25 million in aid) and exactly the opposite has happened.”