Gorbachev to Meet Reagan, Bush in N.Y.

Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev will meet with President Reagan and President-elect George Bush in December during a trip to New York to address the U.N. General Assembly, U.S. officials said Monday.

One official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that the meeting, “perhaps a lunch,” will be brief and that no agenda has been set.

However, the meeting will mark the third time within a year that the top U.S. and Soviet leaders have met, and it underscores a continuation of the momentum toward arms control initiatives through the change in U.S. administrations. At the same time, it will occur at a period of renewed strain in the U.S.-Soviet relationship, stemming from the Soviets’ recent suspension of their troop withdrawal from Afghanistan in response to attacks by the U.S.-backed rebel forces.

The disclosure of the meeting, which has not been officially announced, came as Bush told reporters in Florida that he would pursue no “radical policy shifts” in the U.S. foreign policy agenda after he takes office.

U.S. officials took pains to portray the meeting as a low-key event, rather than a summit conference on the scale of the Reagan-Gorbachev meetings in Washington last December and in Moscow in May. It was seen as an opportunity for Reagan and Gorbachev, who first met in Geneva in November, 1985, and then less than a year later in Reykjavik, Iceland, to bid farewell after three years of productive work on controlling nuclear weapons.

No Talks Before Inauguration

Bush conferred with Gorbachev last December during the Washington summit. He has made it clear in the week since he was elected that while he hopes to achieve speedy progress in developing the U.S.-Soviet relationship, he does not intend to undertake any negotiations with the Soviet Union before he takes office on Jan. 20.

At a news conference last Wednesday, Bush said he did not intend to meet with Gorbachev before the inauguration and ruled out a mere get-acquainted session.

“I am acquainted with him,” the President-elect said. “What I want to see is progress. I’ve never supported meetings just for the sake of having meetings.”

Nevertheless, U.S. officials said that representatives of the United States and the Soviet Union have had unofficial contacts recently about a planned visit by the Soviet leader. A specific date for the meeting in New York was not disclosed by the officials, but there were indications that it could occur as early as Dec. 7 during a General Assembly session.

News of the visit, which will apparently be linked to a Gorbachev stop in London where he will meet with Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher on Dec. 12-14, caught Soviet specialists in the United States by surprise.

Wants Advisers in Place

Several Soviet-watchers said they doubted that Bush encouraged such a session because presumably he would prefer to have his team of key advisers in place before meeting with the Soviets.

The President-elect has named a longtime friend and adviser, former Treasury Secretary James A. Baker III, to be his secretary of state. But otherwise, he apparently has concentrated on selecting senior White House staff members and economic advisers before turning his attention to other national security posts in his new Administration.

A formal announcement on the Gorbachev visit is expected later this week.

Times staff writers Robert C. Toth in Los Angeles and Don Shannon in Washington contributed to this story.