All INF Treaty Verification Snags Settled, Senate Told : Pre-Summit Vote Hoped by Shultz

The United States and Soviet Union settled their differences today on a historic treaty to scrap medium-range missiles and sent the agreement to the Senate in an effort to speed ratification of the pact before the Moscow summit.

Secretary of State George P. Shultz, winding up two days of talks with Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard A. Shevardnadze, told reporters: “We have reached a completely satisfactory agreement on all of these issues.”

The Senate postponed debate on the treaty Monday while some members accused Moscow of backsliding and leaving loopholes for cheating. But Shultz said the differences over verifying compliance with the pact were a result of implementing an unprecedented system of on-site inspection.

“Occasionally, they’ll have an argument,” Shultz said of the technicians who will carry out the agreement to destroy 683 Soviet missiles and 364 U.S. missiles with a range of 315 to 3,125 miles. “That’s life.”

He called the settlement he reached with Shevardnadze “absolutely satisfactory.” It was initialed by Maynard Glitman, who negotiated the treaty, and Col. Gen. Nikolai Chervov, the senior arms control adviser to the Soviet military.

Shultz said Glitman and Lt. Gen. Colin Powell, the U.S. national security adviser, will fly to Washington tonight to report to the Senate on Friday.

Summit to Start May 29

“I think it will be well-received,” Shultz said.

The Moscow meeting between President Reagan and Mikhail S. Gorbachev is scheduled to begin May 29.

Chief U.S. negotiator Max Kampelman and Soviet negotiator Viktor P. Karpov signed another document at the Soviet mission that guarantees that any futuristic weapons developed in the intermediate range also would be banned under the treaty.

Two of the principal stumbling blocks to verification of the treaty dealt with U.S. demands to inspect Soviet missile containers big enough to hold only a stage of a rocket and the issue of how much access U.S. inspectors will have to Soviet missile plants and bases.

Other issues dealt with photographing equipment, updating data exchanged between the two sides and the size and weight of vehicles that can be inspected leaving Votkinsk, where Soviet SS-20 missiles are assembled.

The pact on intermediate-range missiles is unprecedented in its provisions for on-site inspection to guard against infractions. It also is the first U.S.-Soviet agreement to eliminate an entire category of nuclear weapons.

‘Solutions . . . Found’

The document on futuristic weapons was aimed at convincing Sen. Sam Nunn (D-Ga.), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and other critics that the ban would apply to intermediate-range weapons that have not been developed yet.

Glitman and Powell were taking the second document to the Senate as well. While Shultz obviously was satisfied with the results, he said “what the Senate does is up to the Senate.”

With evident relief, however, he told reporters: “I hope I’ve heard the last of (Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces) at these ministerials.”

Shevardnadze, at a separate news conference, said the Soviets did not view the differences as technical but as “very serious problems that required political decisions.” He added: “And such solutions were found.”

The Soviet minister said that, “acting in the spirit of good will, both sides took steps to relieve the concerns of each other.”

“I don’t know about the Senate, but as we see it . . . we have been able to remove the misunderstandings” on the basis of the treaty text, Shevardnadze said.