East-West Conventional Arms Talks Start

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the Warsaw Pact on Thursday opened talks aimed at reducing conventional weapons in Europe and building trust among the Continent’s nations.

Arms reduction proposals presented by each military bloc at the negotiations underlined the differences between the sides, particularly over air and naval forces and tactical nuclear weapons.

But the top Soviet negotiator, Oleg A. Grinevsky, said the problems are not insurmountable, and he held out hope of an initial agreement by the early 1990s.

Chief U.S. negotiator Steven J. Ledogar said the negotiations are off to a good start but that NATO does not want to set a time frame for possible agreements. “We are not really that far apart,” he said.

2 Sets of Meetings

Two sets of talks are being held in Vienna’s majestic Hofburg palace--one between the 16 NATO and seven Warsaw Pact nations on conventional armed forces in Europe, the other on building trust among the 35 nations that signed the 1975 Helsinki accords.

In Washington, President Bush heralded the start of the talks, saying: “Today marks the beginning of a process of great importance for the people of Europe, the United States and Canada and for all who share the hope of a safer and more secure Europe.”

He said the negotiations on conventional forces “offer a new opportunity to redress the imbalance in military forces which strongly favors the Warsaw Pact.”

On the talks on improving East-West relations, he said: “Our aim is to lift the veil of secrecy from certain military activities and forces and thus contribute to a more stable Europe.

“Although these two negotiations have different participants and aim at different kinds of accords, they share a common purpose. That purpose is to make Europe safer, to reduce the risk of war and strengthen stability on the Continent that has seen more bloodshed in this century than any other part of the world,” Bush said.

Outlining the Warsaw Pact’s stance on conventional arms, Grinevsky proposed deep cuts by 1994 in troop numbers, tanks, artillery and other land weapons and combat aircraft.

He gave no numbers but said both blocs should eliminate any imbalances and then trim to 10% to 15% below their present lowest levels.

In a second phase, from 1994-97, both sides should trim troop numbers by 25%, or about 500,000 military personnel, he said. In a third phase, by the year 2000, the alliances should move to strictly defensive forces.

By contrast, NATO wants specific overall ceilings. Under its proposal, each side should be limited to 20,000 tanks, 16,500 artillery pieces and 23,000 armored personnel carriers.

NATO says the proposal would eliminate the danger of a surprise attack and a 2-to-1 Warsaw Pact edge in those weapons.

As outlined in a paper given to reporters, the Warsaw Pact proposal at the closed-door negotiations made no specific mention of tactical nuclear weapons.