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Soviets Plan to Withdraw 500 Warheads : Gorbachev Also Calls for Mutual Cutbacks of Forces in Europe

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Times Staff Writers

Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev, in the kind of surprise move that has become his trademark, told Secretary of State James A. Baker III on Thursday that he will withdraw 500 nuclear warheads from Europe and will seek cuts of more than 2 million troops from the NATO and Soviet Bloc armies, U.S. officials said.

Gorbachev’s announcement, made during a Kremlin meeting on the second day of Baker’s two-day visit to the Soviet Union, came as part of a concerted effort by the Soviet leader to pressure the United States toward negotiations over short-range nuclear weapons--an issue that has increasingly divided the Atlantic Alliance.

Gorbachev challenged Baker directly to bring the United States into talks on battlefield nuclear weapons, but the secretary of state, repeating the Bush Administration’s position, refused.

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“We aren’t negotiating,” said a senior Baker aide who attended the meeting.

Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard A. Shevardnadze called the U.S. position “very negative” and told reporters, “This is of grave concern to us.”

The continued deadlock over short-range nuclear forces had been expected, but Gorbachev’s promise to withdraw 500 warheads unilaterally was clearly intended to dramatize the issue. Baker aides noted ruefully that the move would almost surely sharpen the already worrisome division within the North Atlantic Treaty Organization between the United States and West Germany, which has called for early negotiations on battlefield nuclear weapons.

Baker sought to play down the significance of Gorbachev’s gesture. “It’s a good step, but a small step--a modest move toward a more equal balance in Europe,” he told reporters on his plane leaving Moscow on Thursday evening. “I’d like to also point out . . . that NATO has unilaterally reduced nuclear weapons in Europe by more than 2,400 weapons since 1979.”

Other U.S. officials noted that the Soviet Union is believed to have as many as 10,000 short-range nuclear warheads in Europe, so that a cut of 500 may represent only 5%. But they acknowledged that the Soviet leader appeared to have scored another coup in the continuing East-West battle for public opinion in Europe.

“Vintage Gorbachev,” said one. “He’s extraordinary,” sighed another.

U.S. officials had half expected such a move, they said, but the specific form came as a surprise.

Despite the continuing disagreement over short-range weapons, both Soviet and American officials said they are pleased with their talks--Baker’s first full-scale meeting with Soviet officials since President Bush was inaugurated.

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“I’m very satisfied,” Baker said after his talks in the Kremlin, which included 3 1/2 hours with Gorbachev. Asked whether the talks had helped end the Cold War, he replied, “We’re certainly moving in that direction.”

“We made a good start on a long road,” Shevardnadze said. But he added that the Soviet government is still impatient with the Bush Administration’s slow start in arms control, which he called “the center of gravity for U.S.-Soviet relations.”

“The secretary of state told us that the United States has not yet prepared specific negotiating positions, but stressed in these new positions we would be able to see a substantial degree of continuity (from the Reagan Administration),” Shevardnadze said.

The two did agree to resume the Strategic Arms Reduction Talks (START) on long-range nuclear weapons, along with negotiations on nuclear testing and other issues, in mid-June, they said.

But they postponed any talk of a first summit meeting between Gorbachev and Bush until the fall, making a summit unlikely before December. Meanwhile, the issue of short-range nuclear weapons will clearly remain a major point of contention, not only between Washington and Moscow but between the Bush Administration and several of its European allies as well.

U.S. officials say NATO’s forces need the weapons--nuclear missiles, artillery shells and bombs carried by tactical aircraft with ranges under 300 miles--to counterbalance the Warsaw Pact’s larger numbers of troops and tanks.

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But both the Soviet Union and West Germany have called for early negotiations to reduce the number of such weapons, most of which would explode on German soil if they were ever used.

Baker is scheduled to meet today with West German Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher to discuss the issue--only hours before Genscher is to welcome Shevardnadze on a well-timed visit to Bonn.

Shevardnadze described Gorbachev’s decision to withdraw the 500 warheads only vaguely as “some unilateral measures covering the reduction of tactical nuclear arsenals in Europe.”

But a U.S. official aboard Baker’s plane described it as “a very small reduction for them.”

He said Gorbachev told the Americans that the weapons would include 284 short-range missiles, 166 nuclear bombs carried aboard short-range airplanes and 50 nuclear artillery shells, for a total of 500.

He noted that the withdrawal would still leave the Soviet Bloc with more tactical nuclear weapons and larger conventional armed forces than the Atlantic Alliance, and thus would not affect the U.S. position of rejecting negotiations on short-range weapons.

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Gorbachev’s announcement that he will propose massive cuts in military manpower on both sides came as part of a new, more detailed Soviet proposal for the current Vienna talks on conventional forces in Europe, U.S. officials said.

Gorbachev told Baker that he will soon propose a troop ceiling of 1,350,000 for each military alliance in Europe, they said. NATO estimates its forces at 2.2 million and Warsaw Pact forces at 3.1 million; Gorbachev’s proposal could mean a cut of 850,000 NATO troops and more than 1.7 million Soviet Bloc troops.

Using NATO estimates, that would be a reduction of about 38% in NATO forces, and about 54% for Soviet Bloc forces. The Soviet Bloc estimates that NATO and its own forces have roughly equal numbers of troops, and with those figures, Gorbachev’s proposed cutback would mean cuts by a similar percentage on both sides.

Gorbachev also said he plans to call for a 55% reduction in NATO strike aircraft and helicopters; scrapping 40,000 Warsaw Pact tanks, to bring both sides down to an equal ceiling of 20,000; and similar cuts in other combat vehicles and artillery, to be implemented by 1997.

Those proposed cuts in conventional armed forces had already been suggested--without the details--by Shevardnadze at the opening of the Vienna conference in March. But Gorbachev’s announcement appeared likely to increase pressure on the West to be more flexible in the talks. NATO has proposed more modest cuts of up to 10% in conventional weapons but has not included aircraft or troops in its proposals.

U.S. officials noted that Moscow could unilaterally carry out the withdrawal of 500 nuclear warheads, but that the proposals for troop reductions and other cuts would have to be negotiated at the Vienna talks. The Soviet proposal is expected to be formally presented in Vienna today.

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Gorbachev unveiled his proposals in the middle of an unusually long meeting with Baker in the Kremlin’s ornate St. Catherine’s Hall, U.S. officials said. First, Baker met alone for an hour with Gorbachev and Shevardnadze, handing them a letter from President Bush expressing U.S. support for Soviet economic and political reforms. Then, after another hour of talks at a long table with half a dozen senior aides on each side, Gorbachev said, “I want to give you an advance look at some proposals I’m going to make,” and outlined his plan animatedly--without notes.

Baker did not respond specifically to either proposal, they said, although he engaged Gorbachev in a lengthy debate over the imbalance of both conventional and tactical nuclear forces.

On other issues, both Baker and Shevardnadze said they made progress on finding points of agreement on Central America, although the Soviets did not accede to a U.S. request to halt aid to the Marxist regime in Nicaragua.

“We agreed to work toward a political and diplomatic solution to the problem of Nicaragua,” Baker said, without providing any details.

And in the Middle East, he said, “We think there may be a fair amount of common ground.” U.S. officials said they are heartened by the Soviets’ willingness to discuss seriously Israel’s current proposal for elections among the Palestinians of the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Both foreign ministers said they had established a new personal rapport, in part during a private dinner which Shevardnadze and his wife held for Baker and his wife, Susan, in their Moscow apartment.

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“I feel good personal relations are being established between the foreign ministers of the two superpowers,” Shevardnadze said.

Times staff writer Robert C. Toth, in Washington, contributed to this article.

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