Summit Hails U.S.-Soviet Ties, Urges Rise in Trade

President Reagan and the leaders of the world’s six other major industrial democracies Monday hailed the recent improvement in U.S.-Soviet relations and called for increased East-West trade. But they also urged greater respect for human rights in the Soviet Union.

“Recent progress must be enshrined in law and practice, the painful barriers that divide people must come down and the obstacles to emigration must be removed,” the seven said in a political declaration.

Winding up their discussion of non-economic issues at their annual summit conference, the seven agreed at the suggestion of the United States to establish an international task force to improve cooperation in the global fight against narcotics. And they called for greater efforts to curb money laundering by drug dealers.

The three-page political statement, issued at the midpoint of the 14th annual summit, was restricted to three issues--East-West relations, narcotics and terrorism--and avoided controversial topics.

The leaders, for example, agreed on a declaration that condemned hijacking and urged that “hijacked aircraft should not be allowed to take off once they have landed.” But they also endorsed an exception that would allow such departures, if they would save lives.

Assistant Secretary of State Rozanne L. Ridgway acknowledged that the hijacking statement was not directed at the seven summit nations. And she admitted that it might not have any impact on such nations as Iran and Algeria, to which hijackers have often fled.

But, she said, “we can make a start.”

The declaration, signed by the leaders of the United States, Britain, Canada, France, Italy, Japan and West Germany, saluted shifts in East-West relations over the past year. Referring to Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev’s efforts to restructure the Soviet economy, it stated:

“For our part, this evolution has come about because the industrialized democracies have been strong and united. In the Soviet Union, greater freedom and openness will offer opportunities to reduce mistrust and build confidence.

“Each of us will respond positively to any such developments,” the group said.

The statement served to congratulate Reagan for the relaxation in East-West tensions after several years in which he faced skepticism in Europe about his hard-line approach to the Soviet Union.

A Different Tone

Hubert Vedrine, spokesman for President Francois Mitterrand of France, said that in this year’s declaration, compared with previous statements on East-West relations, “you’ll notice that the tone is not the same.”

The national leaders praised the Soviet Union for withdrawing its troops from Afghanistan--a movement they said “must be total and apply to the entire country”--and called on the Soviets to help resolve other regional conflicts.

They also said that “massive” Soviet conventional, or non-nuclear, forces “lie at the core of the security problem in Europe.”

In addition, they called for “deep cuts in U.S. and Soviet strategic offensive arms.” Reagan and Gorbachev have agreed in principle on reducing by half each side’s arsenals of these long-range weapons, but Reagan Administration officials hold out little hope that negotiators will agree on all the details of a treaty before Reagan’s term ends Jan. 20.

Group Photograph

As Reagan posed with his colleagues--Mitterrand, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, Italian Prime Minister Ciriaco De Mita, Japanese Prime Minister Noboru Takeshita and German Chancellor Helmut Kohl--he was asked how he felt about his last opportunity to meet with the group. “I’m going to miss them all,” he said.

On the issue of international narcotics trade, Ridgway said the drug task force will prepare “an action agenda” for the nations to coordinate their anti-drug efforts, particularly in stemming the use of central (reserve) banks to convert drug profits into legitimate funds.

Vedrine, the French spokesman, said that the drug issue prompted a “lively discussion” in which “some people wanted the seven countries to make up the task force.”

But the French, who believe that the seven summit nations should restrict themselves to economic issues, successfully pressed to ensure that the task force have other representation--still undetermined--as well. Vedrine said the French also found the wording in the brief drug segment vague, “but France let it pass by abstaining.”

3 Other Topics

The summit partners handled three other topics--South Africa, Cambodia and the Middle East--in a separate statement issued by Joe Clark, Canada’s minister of external affairs, with the support of the summit participants.

Reagan, asked during a photo session with Takeshita if he was disappointed that key issues were left out of the political declaration, inquired: “What didn’t get in?”

When told there was no discussion of Central America in the statement, he said: “There are some things we didn’t take up that weren’t on the agenda.”

He added that “maybe the foreign ministers” were addressing this topic. However, Clark’s statement contained no reference to it.

In Clark’s statement, the summit nations expressed support for Secretary of State George P. Shultz’s effort to achieve a settlement in the Arab-Israeli conflict and called for “the prompt withdrawal of all Vietnamese troops” from Cambodia.

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