NATO Leaders Call on Soviets for Cuts in Conventional Forces : 16 Alliance Chiefs Create Strategy to Correct Imbalance

NATO summit leaders, working to present a unified front in response to Moscow’s nuclear arms initiatives, called on the Soviets today to accept deep cuts in their superior conventional forces to eliminate the risk of surprise attack in Europe.

After a day of meetings that opened the two-day summit, President Reagan and the 15 other North Atlantic Treaty Organization leaders formulated a new strategy for correcting the imbalance in tanks, artillery and other non-nuclear, conventional forces, the meeting’s first declaration said.

The new strategy, which will be pressed in conventional forces negotiations with the Soviets in Geneva, is based on the principles of extensive on-site verification and “asymmetry”--a demand that larger cuts must come from the Soviets because of their numerical superiority over NATO in conventional weapons.

Interest in conventional weapons cuts increased after the December signing of the U.S.-Soviet accord eliminating shorter- and medium-range nuclear missiles in Europe. The nuclear missiles were placed in Europe, in part, to deter a conventional attack by the Soviet-led Warsaw Pact.

Hailed by Reagan

“Our aim will be to establish a situation in Europe in which force postures as well as the numbers and deployments of weapons systems no longer make surprise attack and large-scale offensive action a feasible option,” the communique said.

Reagan hailed the new agreement in a brief appearance before reporters at the heavily guarded government guest house where he is staying, calling the meeting “extremely productive.”

He strongly rejected suggestions that there are divisions among NATO leaders on some elements of the NATO strategy and said, “There are no great fundamental differences.”

“I have never seen such harmony,” he said.

Thatcher, Kohl Differ

But the issue of modernizing short-range battlefield nuclear weapons has divided some of NATO’s European members, with British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher pushing for full speed ahead in upgrading the tactical weapons and West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl preferring a “go slow” approach.

The United States favors modernization of the existing short-range battlefield nuclear weapons, which include the Lance missile.

NATO Secretary General Lord Carrington formally opened the summit with unequivocal praise for the new superpower arms treaty. But he warned that a treaty and “one new Soviet leader” do not remove the military capability of the Soviet Union.

Carrington called the new U.S.-Soviet treaty, which has yet to be ratified by the Senate, “one milestone that has been reached” in superpower relations.

‘Only 1st Milestone’

But he said, “One agreement which reduces some weapons, and, indeed, one new Soviet leader who is ready to reduce some tensions, however significant, do not in themselves remove the military capability and potential of the Soviet Union.”

“NATO governments embarked many years ago on the search for better security at a lower level of forces, but it is only a first milestone that has been reached,” Carrington said.

Carrington said the meeting was “to chart the way ahead” for the allies.

Washington and Moscow are negotiating limits on strategic nuclear weapons as a next step in the arms control process after the INF treaty signing.