Bush Would Press A-Arms Talks, Baker Tells Senators

James A. Baker III, President-elect Bush’s choice for secretary of state, told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Tuesday that the new Administration hopes to resume nuclear arms reduction talks with the Soviet Union this year without waiting for results from negotiations on conventional forces.

“The President-elect has made it very clear that he wants to build upon the progress that has been made to date in the START negotiations,” Baker said, referring to the strategic arms reduction talks, which were suspended last year. “But we do want to review the bidding. We want to take sufficient time to do it right.”

Baker, in a day of hearings on his upcoming nomination as secretary of state, suggested that he favors resumption of the talks as soon as the new Administration reviews its negotiating positions and its plans for new nuclear weapons systems. He dismissed reports that some Bush advisers want to delay negotiations for as long as a year.

“I don’t think that you’ll see President-elect Bush adopting a leisurely approach to this,” Baker told the committee. “We want to build on the progress that’s been made; we think it’s been constructive.

“I don’t think anybody is suggesting a yearlong review,” he added.

Baker’s comments, in response to questions from several senators, appeared to reflect a quiet policy debate among Bush advisers even before the new President’s inauguration on Friday.

Brent Scowcroft, Bush’s choice to be national security adviser, has suggested to the President-elect that he be cautious in resuming arms control negotiations, aides said. Baker, on the other hand, “would like to have a START agreement wrapped up in time for the 1990 (congressional) elections,” a Scowcroft partisan said.

However, Baker told the senators: “It’s difficult for me to give you a date for resumption of START negotiations, since this is a decision that the President will make, after he becomes President, on the advice of myself and others.”

Baker said also that he favors going ahead with nuclear arms talks without waiting to see whether progress is reached in East-West negotiations on non-nuclear armed forces.

“It would be my thought that we should move forward . . . initially, at least, with the START negotiations without necessarily linking them to anything else,” he said.

Talks Set for March

A new set of negotiations on conventional forces in Europe is scheduled to begin in March, and some Bush advisers reportedly suggested delaying nuclear arms talks until some progress was apparent on the non-nuclear front.

In a long opening statement and in his answers to questions, Baker offered no foreign policy surprises. Instead, he stressed continuing the basic principles of the Reagan Administration’s foreign policy, coupled with a more pragmatic approach to individual issues and a more conciliatory attitude toward Congress.

He promised to consult frequently with lawmakers on foreign policy issues and asked for more bipartisan cooperation from Capitol Hill.

“Yes, this is an appeal for a kinder, gentler Congress,” he said, borrowing from Bush’s campaign promise of a “kinder, gentler nation.”

In return, both Republicans and Democrats extravagantly praised him--from archconservative Jesse Helms (R-N.C.), who declared Baker to be “uniquely qualified,” to archliberal Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.), who pronounced his appointment “stellar.”

So clear was the unanimity of Baker’s support that the panel’s chairman, Sen. Claiborne Pell (D-R.I.), scheduled a vote on confirming his nomination for Thursday morning--at least 25 hours before Bush, as the newly inaugurated President, can formally make the nomination.

Baker told the senators that he and Bush both support the “Reagan Doctrine,” the policy under which the United States provided military aid to anti-communist rebels in Nicaragua, Angola, Afghanistan and elsewhere.

He reaffirmed the new Administration’s intention to continue military aid to anti-government rebels in Angola until “national reconciliation” is negotiated there. But he said bluntly that the Reagan Administration’s policy of relying on the Contras in Nicaragua “hasn’t worked, because we haven’t had a unified United States behind it.”

Instead, he suggested a two-track approach in Central America: first, pursuing U.S. goals there “through diplomacy and negotiation,” and second, continuing non-military aid to the Contras--with a possible request for military aid later.

He said that U.S. goals in Nicaragua should continue to include “movement toward democracy and respect for human rights” as well as national security concerns.

On other issues, Baker:

--Acknowledged that the global debt plan he promoted as Treasury secretary is not working and called for a major review of the issue, which could include discussion of “a creative financing mechanism” to reduce Third World debt.

--Suggested that he will seek a new U.S. approach to South Africa, where, he said, American economic sanctions have failed to push the white regime toward dismantling its policy of official racism. “We ought to consider perhaps some creative ways to build black institutions in South Africa,” he said.

--Said that the Bush Administration will maintain economic sanctions against Panama “unless there’s movement” by the country’s strongman, Gen. Manuel A. Noriega, toward relinquishing power. And he suggested that the United States might delay its approval of a Panamanian administrator for the Panama Canal, due in 1990.

--Said that the United States will recognize whatever government takes power in El Salvador after presidential elections in March, as long as the vote is “free and fair and in the best democratic tradition.” At the same time, he suggested that the Bush Administration will quickly warn the Salvadoran government and armed forces that a renewed wave of murders by death squads linked to the military would endanger U.S. aid.

--Praised the government of Mexico for “a good faith effort” to halt drug trafficking and said he is optimistic “that they are going to make greater good faith efforts.”