WORLD : U.S., Soviets Near Arms Accord
After more than nine hours of hard bargaining today, the United States and the Soviet Union were closing in on an agreement to limit cruise missiles and set the stage for a major arms control declaration at the superpower summit, U.S. officials said.
The details must still be worked out, but the officials said Secretary of State James A. Baker III and Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard A. Shevardnadze had settled most of their differences over limiting the ranges of cruise missiles carried aboard planes and ships.
A settlement on the elusive, nuclear-tipped weapons would clear the biggest obstacle to a treaty cutting the overall arsenals of U.S. and Soviet long-range nuclear weapons by 30% to 35%. President Bush and Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev would announce the agreement in principle at their summit May 31-June 3.
But the officials, who spoke only on the condition of anonymity, cautioned that many details still must be worked out before Baker’s scheduled departure Saturday.
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