U.S. Arms Talks Envoy Defends Verification Stand

Chief U.S. arms negotiator Richard R. Burt declared Tuesday that the Bush Administration’s proposals to seek ways of verifying any reduction in strategic arms should accelerate steps toward such an agreement in the talks here.

He denied that the Administration, after a long review of the START negotiations, had decided to slow progress toward a treaty in favor of pushing the conventional arms talks in Vienna.

“There is no higher priority” than the Strategic Arms Reduction Talks, Burt said, echoing the statement President Bush made in Washington on Monday as the new round of talks began here.

Insists on No Linkage

Burt, who comes to the arms post after serving as ambassador to West Germany, also insisted that there be no linkage between a START agreement and the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) of then-President Ronald Reagan, popularly known as “Star Wars.”

“We do not think the START agreement should be held hostage to agreements on space or our legal rights to SDI,” Burt said.

This position placed the United States in direct opposition to the view enunciated Monday by the chief Soviet negotiator, Yuri K. Nazarkin, who indicated that agreement on limiting nuclear missiles is contingent on adherence to the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty. Under that agreement, the Soviet negotiators argue, the United States is not allowed to test or deploy weapons in space.

In 10 sessions of bargaining over four years, the United States and the Soviet Union have completed an estimated 80% to 90% of a strategic arms treaty aimed at reducing the number of their intercontinental nuclear missiles by 50%.

Emphasis on Verification

After its review of the negotiations, the Bush Administration announced Monday that it wants to put new emphasis on finding ways to verify long-range nuclear arms cuts, perhaps even before completing a treaty.

Burt said the United States is not presenting this emphasis on verification on a take-it-or-leave it basis. Rather, he said, the United States is seeking realistic verification procedures in order “to win the necessary political support” in Congress.

He said that “verification is not the centerpiece of the talks but a component,” adding: “We see this as expediting our purpose (to reach an accord), not to slow down the process but the opposite. We want to make as much progress as we can.”

Burt declined to estimate the time needed to reach an accord on a START treaty, declaring, “In this business, we don’t talk about time frames.”