Gorbachev-Reagan-Bush Meeting to Stress Key Issues

Despite the absence of a formal agenda, senior U.S. and Soviet officials promised Friday that “substantive” issues will be discussed at the mini-summit in New York next week when President Reagan, President-elect George Bush and Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev meet for lunch.

Lt. Gen. Colin L. Powell, Reagan’s national security adviser, predicted at a White House briefing that there will be no surprise proposals presented by Gorbachev at the luncheon. But noting that the Soviets have tried to outmaneuver the U.S. side in the past, he said, “We would be prepared to deal with any surprises.”

Reagan and Bush will feel under no pressure to respond during the 2 1/2-hour lunch to proposals that are not anticipated, he added.

Soviet Deputy Foreign Minister Vladimir V. Petrovsky said in Moscow that while the meeting will not be a classic summit that follows months of preparation, Gorbachev intends to raise “important, significant questions of real political interaction between the two countries on a broad range of issues.”

Petrovsky then listed the standard items that have made up the Reagan-Gorbachev agenda for four full-blown summits and more than 25 foreign ministers’ meetings: arms control, human rights issues, regional conflicts and bilateral concerns.

Powell mentioned the same four general issues as those that will be on the table. “It’s a lunch, but nevertheless we can expect substance to be discussed,” he said.

In his prepared remarks, Powell also welcomed two Soviet moves this week: an end to 35 years of jamming U.S.-financed Radio Liberty and other Western news broadcasts to the Soviet Union, and permission for about 100 long-term refuseniks to emigrate.

But reflecting the line that Reagan is expected to take with Gorbachev, Powell called for continued improvement in the Soviets’ human rights performance as well as for “evidence of institutionalization” of the reforms, such as elimination of the laws that restricted emigration in the first place.

U.S. officials have speculated that Gorbachev, who will address the U.N. General Assembly on Wednesday morning before meeting with Reagan and Bush, might make some pledge in that forum to give legal standing to the human rights reforms.

On arms control, Powell said that Reagan will outline the progress in U.S.-Soviet negotiations toward a new strategic arms reduction treaty and that Bush will be prepared to outline “what step . . . (he) might be ready to take when he takes over in January.”

He said that Reagan will also tell Gorbachev that the Soviets must continue, “without backsliding,” to move toward peace in Afghanistan, Angola and Cambodia.

In Moscow, a Soviet specialist on U.S. affairs said Gorbachev will not be looking “for agreements that can be signed the day after tomorrow. We are looking for an understanding on the agenda before us and perhaps an understanding on the approaches to some of the problems. But that’s still quite a lot.”

Gorbachev wants to ensure that the incoming Bush Administration will continue the same approach toward the Soviet Union as the Reagan Administration, Soviet officials said.

The Soviet leader will discuss events in Afghanistan as well as seek a detailed exchange on the Middle East, where Moscow is backing an international peace conference following the declaration last month of an independent Palestinian state by the Palestine National Council.

Toth reported from Washington and Parks from Moscow.