Reagan Links Better Soviet Relations to Afghan Peace

Nearing his fourth summit meeting with Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev, President Reagan said Thursday that the superpowers’ relationship has “taken a dramatic turn into realistic engagement,” but he warned that the tenuous improvements could be undone by renewed Soviet violence in Afghanistan.

In a speech intended to lay out the regional issues separating the United States and the Soviet Union, the President saluted the agreement under which the Soviets are to begin withdrawing their 115,000 troops from Afghanistan on May 15. The address is one of a series exploring the broad scope of U.S.-Soviet relations planned before Reagan arrives in Moscow on May 29.

Word of Caution

But in a note of caution, Reagan said:

“The next few months will be no time for complacency, no time to sit back and congratulate ourselves. The Soviets have rarely before--and not at all in more than three decades--left a country, once occupied.

“They have often promised to leave, but rarely in their history, and then only under pressure from the West, have they actually done it.”

The recently concluded agreement governs the withdrawal of the Soviet troops but not a cease-fire between the Soviet-supported regime in Kabul, the Afghan capital, and the moujahedeen rebels trying to overthrow it. It is seen by the Reagan Administration as the only bright spot in such regional issues as the Soviet support for governments in Nicaragua, Ethiopia and Angola. All of these regimes are opposed by the United States and face long-running rebellions.

Reagan said that, just as a Soviet Union “that continues to suppress free expression, religious worship and the right to travel” cannot develop normal relations with the United States, “1852139892with us.”

He added, “And that’s what has happened in countries like Angola, Nicaragua and Ethiopia. The Soviet Union has helped install or maintain client regimes against the will of the people.”

Reagan made his remarks in an address to the World Affairs Council of Western Massachusetts.

In the arms control arena, Reagan offered a gloomy assessment of the likelihood that, before the summit, the Senate will ratify the agreement he and Gorbachev signed Dec. 8 banning ground-launched medium-range nuclear missiles.

During a question-and-answer session, the President said the Senate’s schedule for discussion and debate of the pact “is such that I’m very concerned we may have to go without it being ratified,” a development that he said would be “very upsetting” and one that “would put a strain on the summit.”

The most recent obstacle to ratification has been raised by several senators over whether an amendment--requiring new negotiations--is needed to spell out the treaty’s application to undeveloped, futuristic weapons.

In his speech, the President accused the Soviet Union, despite its promise to withdraw the forces it first deployed in Afghanistan in December, 1979, of hoping “to prop up their discredited, doomed puppet regime.”

Famine Relief Appeal

Reagan also made a pointed appeal on behalf of refugees in famine-stricken northern Ethiopia. The United States has said that the Soviet-supported Ethiopian government has prohibited relief workers from providing assistance in the war-torn Eritrean region.

“The Ethiopian regime recently ordered all foreign famine relief workers to leave the afflicted northern region,” he said. “That leads us to the horrible conclusion that starvation and scorched earth are being considered as weapons to defeat the rebellion.”